Chapter 185

Alaric’s POV

After hanging up the phone, I kept my hand on it, almost like I wanted to pick it up again. But who would I call? Cara? She wouldn’t want to talk to me, not about anything other than the kids, anyway. And the kids themselves were at one of their after school activities.

Now that Mia felt better, she wanted to do everything. Try every sport, even gymnastics. There was nothing that could hold her back anymore.

I was so proud of her. She was like her mom, not afraid of anything.

I missed all of them. I’d spent some time with the kids fairly recently, though not as recently as I liked. As for Cara? Two months ago, I thought we were going to start a sort of routine and I would see her every weekend.

With her sending me away, that obviously didn’t amount to anything.

Every once in a while though, I still had a wild idea of going to see her, just for a little while. I could surprise her maybe, and perhaps she’d even be happy to see me.

I wanted more than anything to put the past behind us and move forward together. I could do better, be more supportive, be the kind of man she wanted me to be. But I didn’t know how to begin if she wasn’t even talking to me right now.

My guilt still weighed heavily on me. I still felt responsible for everything that was happening in Cara’s life. But couldn’t I also add some measure of joy to it?

My Beta John was still in the room. From my face, he must have been able to derive my mood. “You miss her.”

“I do,” I said. On my desk, I had place an old picture of us that I had printed and framed. We’d been much younger then. At the time, I had been treating her like a pompous ass. I wasn’t even smiling in the photo. But she was so beautiful, smiling and gorgeous. It was worth seeing my own graceless mug to also see her in her full glory.

And she was only more beautiful now, all these years later.

I needed a new picture, of us, of our family.

But I couldn’t get a picture from the DuskWood capital, so many hundreds of miles away from my love and my kids.

“Why not go and see her?” John asked.

“You know why,” I said. “She doesn’t want to see me.”

“Has she said as much in the past two months?” John asked. “Maybe things have changed for her.”

“If they have, she would have been the one to say so,” I replied.

“But she doesn’t know the way you’ve been changing,” John countered. “She wanted you to treat her normally, right? So how can you prove to her that you can if you aren’t speaking?”

It was a good point but… “I doubt I would be welcomed.” I had felt like an outsider the last few times I’d gone to BloodyMoon pack, in part due to Cara’s absence around me.

But, maybe John was right…

If I could talk to her and prove to her that I could treat her normally, maybe that would change things.

What was the worst that could happen? She saw me and told me to go home again? She already did that once. I didn’t think it would hurt as much a second time.

What was I waiting for?

“Can you get me a plane ticket?” I asked John.

“For what time?”

“As soon as possible.” I stood up from my desk. “I’m going home to pack. Send the ticket to my phone.”

John smiled. “At once, Alpha.”

Cara’s POV

“Global Princess Competition Winner Cara Auburn,” Noel said, grinning at me. We were in the car, with him driving me home. At the red light, he seemingly couldn’t resist flashing me all of those pearly white teeth.

“I haven’t won anything yet,” I said, though I had just submitted my entry form to the event, which felt like a victory in and of itself. I never thought Eamon would go along with it. I had been sure he would have fought me tooth and nail. Instead, other than a few arguments, he had been a relatively soft sell on the whole idea.

“It’s only a matter of time,” Noel said. “A girl like you doesn’t give up so easily.”

This was why I liked hanging out with Noel. While everyone else was treating me as someone so fragile I might shatter at any moment, Noel treated me like the person I’ve always been.

Certainly, at the beginning, there had been a few moments where he’d fallen into the same overprotective habits as my brothers, but with a few conversations he veered on his present course. Now, he was the only one who didn’t make me feel like there was something wrong with me.

“We should celebrate,” Noel said then. “Let me take you out to dinner.”

“What about the kids?”

“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind hanging out with their uncles tonight.”

They did like spending time with their uncles, and vice versa, but I still wasn’t sure.

“You deserve a night out for fun,” he said.

“Typically the celebration comes after I actually do something worth celebrating,” I said.

“You’ve entered into the Global Princess Competition,” he said. “You’ll be competing with other women from across the entire continent. I think the act of simply signing up for this is worth celebrating.”

In the end, Noel convinced me. Although perhaps I wasn’t that difficult to convince.

We went shopping for a bit, and then to see a movie. Finally, we ended up at one of the nice restaurants downtown. Noel somehow secured us a table right near the front window so we could look out at the cars passing by on the street.

So far, I’d been immensely enjoying myself. I was tired, but as most of our activities involved sitting down, it wasn’t unmanageable. I felt like there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do right now. I felt invincible, like it was only a matter of time before my illness was cured and everything was better.

Noel was right. This was exactly what I needed. And I was so happy to have done it.

The appetizers came, and then the entrees. Noel and I split a bottle of wine. I was two glasses in, enjoying myself, when I looked up through the window and froze.

There on the sidewalk, impossibly, I could have sworn I saw Alaric looking right back at me.

My heart picked up speed and my stomach flipped.

What could he be doing here? How could he be here?

Was he just an illusion?

Had my mind somehow told me that I wanted to see him so here he was, right in front of my eyes, conjured by my own wishful imagination?

Before I could answer any of those questions, not that I had any answers to give, the Alaric before me turned away and disappeared down the sidewalk, leaving as quickly as I had seen him.

He couldn’t have been real, right? If he was real, he would have come inside. He would have said something?

I wasn’t sure, but my heart ached at his leaving.