Chapter 115

ASHER

Several days passed, and with a little maneuvering, my brothers and I managed to push back the vote. We needed time—time for Isabella, time for our baby, time to gather ourselves before the storm. To our surprise, the majority of the alphas were surprisingly understanding. Even those who had been more aggressive in their ambitions seemed willing to wait, as if they respected the gravity of the life growing inside Isabella.

But today was about none of that. Today was about her. About us. About the little boy we would soon bring into the world.

The baby’s room had gone through several revisions. Isabella had changed her mind a dozen times, and I’d happily kept up, re-painting, moving furniture, picking out new patterns and colors. But this time, it felt different. She seemed more certain, more settled as she selected things with a smile that melted me from the inside out. And I was content just watching her, letting her excitement fill the space around us.

She sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, holding a small stuffed bear, its soft brown fur almost as bright as her eyes. "Do you think he’ll like it?" she asked, glancing up at me, a question filled with innocent hope.

I crouched down beside her, brushing a loose strand of hair from her face. "If he’s anything like his mother, he’ll love it." I smiled, watching the way her cheeks flushed slightly at my words.

Isabella chuckled softly, her fingers tracing the bear’s little face. “I don’t know, Asher. I keep second-guessing everything. What if he hates the room? What if—"

“He’s going to love it,” I interrupted, resting my hand on her knee. “Because it’s made with love. Everything you do is filled with love, Isa.”

She smiled, her eyes glistening just a bit, and I could feel the overwhelming gratitude and love radiating from her. “You always know what to say.”

“Only with you,” I said, leaning in to kiss her forehead. The scent of her filled my senses—comforting, familiar, home.

We spent the next few hours hanging the final touches on the walls, placing tiny clothes in drawers, and imagining the future with our son. There was so much laughter, so many quiet moments where our eyes would meet and the weight of everything around us seemed to disappear. Here, in this room, it was just us—no alphas, no throne, no ancient family legacies. Just a mother, a father, and the baby they couldn’t wait to meet.

But then, as I was adjusting the crib’s mobile—a set of tiny stars and moons twirling above where our son would sleep—my phone vibrated in my pocket. I glanced down at the screen, Connor's name flashing up at me. For a second, I hesitated. It wasn’t a good time. I didn’t want to be pulled away from this moment.

Still, curiosity got the better of me. I opened the email, scanning its contents quickly. My heart sank as the words began to register. Connor had found something—something about Isabella’s mother. Something big. My pulse quickened, and for a moment, everything else around me seemed to blur.

But then I looked up. There was Isabella, humming softly to herself as she carefully folded a tiny onesie, completely unaware of the storm lurking in my inbox. I couldn’t bring myself to ruin this for her—not now. Not when she was so happy, so peaceful.

I put the phone back in my pocket, pushing the information to the back of my mind. Not today, I told myself. Today was about her, about us, about our baby. The rest could wait.

“Asher?” she called, looking up at me with a curious smile. “You okay over there?”

I walked over to her, pulling her into my arms as I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m perfect,” I whispered, feeling her relax against me. And in that moment, with her soft against my chest, I knew that no matter what we faced, no matter what the future held, as long as we had moments like this, we’d be okay.

“I can’t wait to meet him,” she murmured against my chest, her voice full of love and hope.

“Neither can I,” I whispered back, holding her a little tighter, my heart full. For now, that was all that mattered. Everything else could wait.

Once Isabella had settled into bed for her nap, I made my way to my study. Jax and Knox were already there, sipping coffee and chatting about some business deal. I felt a knot tighten in my stomach, knowing what I was about to share would change the course of everything.

They both looked up as I entered, noticing the tension on my face. "What’s up?" Knox asked, raising an eyebrow.

I didn’t waste any time. “I contacted Connor,” I said, sitting down on the couch across from them. “I asked him to look into Isabella’s mother, see if there was any truth to what Mark said.”

Jax’s eyes widened in surprise, and Knox shifted in his seat. Neither of them knew I had gone behind their backs to do this, but this wasn’t a time for apologies. They both understood the gravity of the situation.

"And?" Jax asked, his voice low, cautious.

I pulled out my phone and opened the email, scrolling through as I explained. “Connor found out something... strange. Isabella’s mother—she’s not just some random woman with ties to werewolf hunters. She comes from an old bloodline, one that has been tracking wolves for centuries. But that’s not the twist.”

Knox leaned forward. “What is it, then?”

I took a deep breath before continuing. “Her mother didn’t die in that car accident.”

Silence fell over the room. Jax stared at me, his brows furrowed in disbelief, and Knox let out a low breath. I could see them trying to process it, just as I had when I first read the email.

“What?” Jax finally said, his voice hoarse. “How is that even possible? We’ve all heard the story—Isabella’s been living with that truth for years.”

“I don’t know how,” I admitted. “But Connor’s sure. He traced a woman matching her mother’s description traveling under an alias. And there’s more…” I hesitated, trying to frame the next part of the revelation. “Her mother didn’t just disappear to escape werewolf hunters. She is one of them. A high-ranking one.”

Knox’s expression hardened. “Are you saying Isabella’s mother is one of the people who hunts our kind?”

“Exactly. She wasn’t just running from hunters. She was leading them.”

Jax stood abruptly, running a hand through his hair. “This changes everything. If Isabella’s mother is alive, and she’s still a part of this... that means Isabella’s family might not just be on the sidelines. They could be in the middle of it.”

I nodded. “Connor found traces of her involvement with a secretive group. A splinter faction of hunters that operates outside the typical hunter networks. They’re still active. And apparently, her mother holds a prominent position.”

Knox’s face was set in a hard line. “Does Isabella know any of this?”

“No,” I said, my voice tense. “I didn’t want to tell her, not yet. I don’t think she’s ready for this, especially not after the shock of finding that letter. And with the pregnancy…"

Jax exhaled deeply. “So what do we do? We can’t let her walk into something this dangerous without knowing.”

Knox crossed his arms, his mind already working. “We keep an eye on her, but we also need to figure out where her mother is now. If she’s leading a faction of hunters, we can’t assume she’ll be indifferent toward us. There’s no telling what her agenda might be. Maybe she knows more than we think.”

I nodded. “That’s why we need to move carefully. If we reveal this to Isabella too soon, she might feel betrayed that we didn’t tell her earlier. But if we wait too long, her mother could show up, and we’d be unprepared.”

The three of us sat in silence for a moment, the weight of the revelation sinking in.

Jax was the first to speak again. “Do you think her mother knows about us? About her daughter’s connection to us?”

Knox narrowed his eyes. “If she’s as high-ranking as Connor says, then there’s a good chance she’s been keeping tabs on Isabella. And if that’s the case, she could see us as a threat.”

The implications were clear. If Isabella’s mother was alive and still a hunter, she might view her daughter’s connection to us—three powerful werewolves—as a direct danger, not just to her family, but to the entire hunter organization. There was no telling how she’d react once she found out.

But one thing was for sure: things were about to get a lot more complicated.