Chapter 301

The sun wasn’t even fully up yet when I woke up to the sound of soft cooing coming from the baby monitor on my nightstand.

Shaking off the haze of sleep, I stretched my arms and slid out of bed. The room was bathed in the soft light of morning, casting warm hues across the wooden floor.

I padded down the hallway to the nursery, pushing open the door to find Aurora and Elliot awake in their cribs. Aurora was busy gnawing on her little fist, her eyes bright with curiosity, while Elliot was making happy gurgling noises as he kicked his chubby legs in the air.

“Good morning, my little loves,” I cooed, reaching down to pick up Aurora first. I cradled her in my arms, feeling the warmth of her tiny body as I took a seat on the rocking chair to feed her.

As I was bottle-feeding Aurora, I looked over to see Elliot happily playing with his stuffed animal. But then, suddenly, I noticed Elliot do something extraordinary.

He rolled over onto his belly all by himself!

A surge of excitement flowed through me.

“Oh my goodness, Elliot, you did it!” I exclaimed, setting down the bottle and clapping my hands together. This was a huge milestone, and I felt a pang of sadness that Nathan wasn’t here to share in this joyous moment.

Without thinking, I picked up my phone from the nearby table and dialed Nathan’s number. My heart pounded as it rang. Finally, he picked up.

“Hello?” His voice was laced with a mix of surprise and curiosity.

“Nathan, you won’t believe what just happened. Elliot rolled over onto his belly for the first time!”

There was a pause on the other end, and then, “Really? All by himself?”

I could hear the excitement in his voice, but it was tinged with something else—regret, maybe?

“Yes. All by himself. I wish you were here to see it,” I said softly, my voice catching in my throat.

“I…. Me too,” he replied, his voice mirroring my own wistful tone. “I would have liked to have seen it. My little man.”

I smiled softly, wondering if this was a good chance to tug at his heartstrings and make him realize that it was time to come home. “You know, if you want to keep witnessing these milestones, then maybe you should think about coming home,” I said, the words slipping out before I could stop them.

Another pause, longer this time. “Olivia, I…”

Just as he began to speak, I heard voices in the background, muffled but urgent. “Alpha Nathan, we need you,” someone called.

“I have to go, Olivia. Alpha matters,” he said, the official tone slipping back into his voice.

“Oh. Alright,” I replied, my heart sinking. I paused, biting my lip. “Nathan?”

“Hm?” he asked.

“I love you.”

There was a noticeable pause on the other end, long enough to make me wonder if he would even respond. Finally, he broke the silence.

“I love you too, Olivia.”

With that, Nathan hung up. I paused for a moment, chewing my lower lip as I slowly hung up my phone.

Hopefully, when he heard Layla’s confession later that day, he would still feel the same way.

…

The morning air was crisp as Layla and I walked side by side to the Council building where Nathan was working. My stomach was a knot of nerves, the weight of what we were about to do settling heavily on my shoulders.

Layla looked equally anxious, her fingers fidgeting with the straps of her purse. “You sure about this, Olivia? Last chance to back out,” she said, casting me a sidelong glance.

“I’m sure,” I replied, my voice more confident than I felt. “If it were me, I’d want to know the truth, too.”

We entered the building, the heavy doors creaking open to reveal a grand hallway. The walls were adorned with ornate tapestries that told tales of our pack’s history. I glanced at Layla and could see her taking in the details, her eyes wide with a mixture of awe and trepidation.

The receptionist nodded at us, pointing toward the corridor that led to Nathan’s office. Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I grasped the doorknob and pushed the door open.

Nathan looked up from his desk, his eyes widening in surprise as he took in the sight before him. “Olivia… Layla… What brings you both here?” he asked, rising to his feet.

“Nathan, we need to talk,” I began, my eyes meeting his. “And it’s really important.”

He looked puzzled but gestured for us to sit. We took the chairs across from him, the tension in the room palpable. I looked at Layla, giving her a slight nod. It was her story to tell, after all.

“Nathan,” Layla started, her voice tinged with apprehension, “I know this is going to come as a shock, but there’s something you need to know about my child.”

Nathan laughed lightly, his eyes sparkling with what seemed like amusement. “What, is he a prodigy? Already reading at, what, six months?”

Layla shook her head, her eyes meeting his with an intensity that made him stop short. “No, Nathan. I think he’s yours.”

For a moment, there was complete silence in the room. Nathan looked at us, first at Layla and then at me, his eyes searching as if trying to decipher some hidden joke.

“That’s very funny,” he finally said, his voice laced with disbelief. “But I’m not buying it, Layla. We tried having a child. It didn’t work.”

“That may be true,” Layla replied, her eyes never leaving his face. “But something’s changed. When my son was born, he didn’t look anything like Cade. So we had a paternity test, and Cade isn’t the father.”

Nathan leaned back in his chair, his eyes narrowing. “So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that there’s no one else, Nathan,” Layla continued, her voice laced with an emotion I couldn’t quite place—hope, maybe, or desperation. “It has to be you. And if a paternity test proves otherwise, then we’ll assume the first test was wrong.”

I watched Nathan’s face closely, trying to gauge his reaction. He seemed to be struggling with a whirlwind of emotions, his gaze shifting between Layla and me as if trying to absorb the enormity of what he’d just been told.

Suddenly, he stood up, his chair scraping loudly against the floor. His eyes briefly met mine, and for a moment, I saw a flash of something indescribable, something that sent a chill down my spine.

Without a word, he grabbed his jacket off the hook on the back of his door and started toward the exit.

“Nathan, where are you going?” I asked, my voice tinged with both confusion and concern.

“I need to think,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. And just like that, he was gone, leaving Layla and me sitting there in the echoing silence of his office.

The weight of what had just happened hung heavy in the room, the absence of Nathan’s presence making the space feel suddenly too big, too cold. I turned to look at Layla, her eyes filled with a mixture of hope and fear.

“I don’t know what to say,” I finally murmured, feeling the inadequacy of my words. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect him to react like that.”

Layla sighed, a wistful expression clouding her features. “I don’t know what I expected either, but it had to be done. We had to tell him.”

I nodded, my mind racing with questions I couldn’t answer. What was Nathan thinking? What would this mean for all of us?