Chapter Seventy

A knock stopped the kiss from escalating and Nikolai pulled away with a groan. He rested his forehead against mine. “I love you.”

“Of course, you do, Alpha. It's never been up for discussion.” I said, nudged him, and escaped from his arms.

Williams, the Beta of Emerald pack was on the other side of the door. He stepped aside and revealed the woman I’d seen my first night in the holding cell.

In daylight, I saw her properly and the striking resemblance between her and Eleanor was even more notable, it was captivating.

“Alpha,” she said and made to bow to me.

I stopped her immediately. “Please don't.”

She lifted her head and her tearful eyes met me. “Thank you.”

“He had her locked up in the attic, she's been locked up in her room for the last two years but after she’d escaped the previous night to come to your cell, he had her privileges as Luna revoked and locked her up in the attic,” Williams informed me.

It was obvious that the more I would come to learn about the previous Alpha of Emerald pack, the more I would grow to despise the man.

The woman looked away seemingly embarrassed. “It's okay, I'm fine now.”

“Are you sure?” Nikolai asked with gentleness to his tone as he came to stand behind me.

Her head snapped up and I saw her step back slowly, shock on her face. “Nik… Nikolai?”

He stepped forward. “I'm sorry that was happening to you. I had no idea.”

“You should have come earlier,” she said. “Why didn't you? Why didn’t you ever visit?”

Nikolai glanced at me and I saw the hurt in his expression before he swallowed. “I couldn't, he banned me.”

She nodded. “If he allowed you, you would find out.”

I saw the need to intervene and I did. “Please, come in. I have a few questions for you if you don't mind.”

She looked up at me gratefully. “You saved my life and freed my people. I do not mind, Alpha, whatever you need.”

“Thank you,” I said and opened the door wider to allow her in.

Williams cleared her throat. “May I stand outside? I don't…” He glanced at Ada’s mother. “Just to make sure she is safe.”

“Come in,” I said and headed back inside.

When we were all settled with Nikolai by my side, I rested my hand against his trembling thigh. I was certain he didn't realize he was doing it and when I touched him, he turned to me and I saw the fear in his eyes.

“It's okay,” I said to him through the bond. “I'm here for you.”

He nodded and I proceeded with information I hadn't divulged to him yet.

“The night you visited me, you were quite agitated and you asked me to save the boy. Were you talking about your grandson?”

Nikolai shot up.

“Sit down, Nikolai,” I said to him through the bond.

“Natalie…”

“Please, sit down,” I said out loud, my voice controlled.

Wordlessly, he slumped back into his seat and I reached out for his fingers, intertwining them in mine.

“Please, whatever you know about the whereabouts of Ada and Nikolai’s son, it would really be valuable if you told us. Your mate is dead, you have nothing to fear anymore,” I assured her.

She looked up at Nikolai. “She wanted you to know how sorry she was.”

My heart rate increased. What was she talking about? Who was she talking about? But I knew and that was where my fear lay.

She shook her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. “We didn't find her dead, no. Ada was still very much alive when we found her. My darling girl, she was so strong, so fierce, and with everything she had, she fought and protected her son from those blackhearted brutes.

But she couldn't fight for Lyle and herself at the same time. They hurt her so badly that she was barely alive when she reached here and we knew she was going to die, there was nothing the Salutary could do for her, she was too badly injured to self-heal and she had lost so much blood but it didn't matter to her, all she wanted was for Nikolai to know how sorry she was.”

Her hand went up to cover her mouth and Nikolai’s fingers around mine tightened with every word uttered, his pain filtered into me through the bond.

“She was sorry, Nikolai. It was important to her that you knew that she realized in her last moment how much of a horrible mate she was to you all the years you spent together and that she thought she didn't deserve a fraction of the love you’d shown to her.”

“No, no, no…” Nikolai continued to repeat under his breath.

“My daughter was a kindhearted woman, she had troubles, she wasn't perfect but she tried her best. Her mistake was getting mated again after Colton, he was her mate and she loved him too much, the bond they shared, maybe you might not have understood then.” Her eyes settled on our intertwined hands. “But now maybe you would understand how much Colton meant to her. It is not an excuse for what happened between you but it is an explanation.

She was going through the kind of pain no one should ever go through. For mates who’d shared a love like Ada and Colton, his death took a toll on her but her father didn't understand it. In all of his faults, my mate genuinely cared about our daughter; he cared about her maybe a little too much because he never stopped blaming you for her death. It is why he never allowed anyone outside our family to know how she had really died. He’d killed the Salutary who tried to treat her that night. He thought if people knew she made it here before she died, they wouldn't hate you as much but if they, yourself included thought she was found dead right outside our pack, you would beat yourself over it, and you would wonder if she had made it into our pack perhaps she could have survived and everyone would think the same.”

She stood up and walked towards the window, turning her back to us. “My husband was vengeful, hate-filled, and blamed you for her death. There was no one he loved more than Ada and she found his love suffocating so much that all she wanted was to escape from it but even with the men she got involved with, he managed to insert himself into their relationship and knew very well how to manipulate them. He forced Colton to return to the Night Blood pack to fight for you and when he died, he convinced you to mate with her, he continued to manipulate you using our daughter as leverage. Ada hated it.”

“I didn't know…” Nikolai whispered.

She turned to him. “Unfortunately, his love for Ada never made it past her, and his hatred for you won. He passed the hate to your son instead, he didn't have the power to hurt you as he would have liked so he focused on your son, which is why he held on to Lyle and kept him a secret, he wanted you to suffer.”

“He was a monster,” I said, managing to find my voice.

“That's a mild way to put it, Natalie.” She gave me a sad smile. “He hurt his grandson, he thrashed Lyle so much and took out his anger on him, and when one day he caught me writing a letter directed to you to inform you, it was when he began locking me up eventually declaring me mad.“

She broke down. “I'm sorry, Nikolai. I wish I could have done something earlier.”

Nikolai opened his mouth and closed it, the words refusing to come out. He was too scared, terrified out of his mind to ask what he wanted to know.

“Where is Lyle now?” I asked.

Williams answered. “In his room, we brought him from the Alpha’s chambers where he’d locked him up for the past years.”

“Get him, Williams,” Ada’s mother said and when he left to get Lyle, she returned her attention to us.

“I think I'm done here.”

“Wait,” Nikolai said, standing up. “In all of these, why didn't Eleanor…”

She chuckled bitterly. “Eleanor strived to be seen by her father, with her sister’s death, all she lived for was her father’s affection and she did things he asked. He sent her back to your pack and got information about you from her. It was how I got to know your new Luna’s name and everything else Eleanor had to tell her father about your relationship.

I wasn't entirely surprised, I’d always known Eleanor was hiding something. I could tell she wasn't the sweet angel Nikolai thought she was but I also hadn't thought she was returning information to her father with the knowledge of the vile things he was doing to her mother and nephew.

She was even more pathetic than I’d had her pegged.

Nikolai gently took Ada’s mother’s hands in his. “Thank you so much… For what you told me, for taking care of my son… Thank you.”

“I was scared I would never get the opportunity. The real appreciation goes to your mate, she made it all possible.”

With that, she left the room leaving us alone. I noticed Nikolai bow his head and turn away from me before his broad shoulders began to shake.

“My son,” he cried in my arms when I hugged him. “He hurt my son, Natalie. He’d had him all these years and he’d hurt him and I hadn't been able to do anything.”

“You didn't know.”

“I should have.”

“It's okay now, the bastard is dead and your son will be here soon. Brace yourself.”

He straightened and I wiped the tears from his face. “You can do this, okay?”

He nodded slowly and I felt my chest tighten. I’d never seen him look this broken, this frightened and I wished I could do something, anything to take his pain away.

“I'll leave you two.”

“No,” he said, grabbing my wrist. “Please, stay…”

I wanted to, with every fiber of my being I wanted to stay here with him and watch him reunite with his son but I knew I shouldn’t.

“I can't, Nikolai. Your son needs you now and just you, this is your first bonding in years, and I don't want to intrude on that.”

He nodded in understanding, I cupped his face and pressed a kiss on his mouth before making my way out Just outside the door, I stumbled on Williams leading a boy toward the study.

The boy looked up at me, his gaze causing me to halt. He was the epitome of his father, everything I would imagine Nikokai to look like as a boy and it caused me to smile.

“Hello, Lyle,” I greeted.