Chapter 52: 52

Kaelan's POV

Hearing the news she gave me, it was like a bomb had just exploded in my head—a mini bomb. However, somehow I found that I was a little prepared for it, despite not knowing how on earth that was even possible. I thought about everything and wondered why I was surprised at all. I couldn't pretend that I didn't know the time that she spent with Dylan, my son. I knew after a little bit of research. I should have done better.

However, I had had sex with her a couple of times, and I honestly thought that it should be simply the two of us that had the child together, nothing to do with my son. However, it had already happened, so there was no way for us to undo it. At the moment, we just had to find a way to harness the situation and bend it so that it would work for us.

As much as it didn't seem to be working at the moment, she looked at me, her eyes pleading. What the hell was she thinking—that I would throw her out because of this, or reject her or something like that? I shook my head, blinking and clearing up my thoughts. We had long gone past that stage, and there was no way I would do anything to harm her at all. No matter what happened, I would simply find a way to live with it because I was attached to this lady. Despite her quirks and the way she acted sometimes that made me feel like she was the most stupid woman on earth, she was still the person that made my heart beat faster.

There was no way I was loving her any less because of this occurrence. At the very most, we would get a child with each other in the end, sometime after now, and everything would go smoothly just like it had been going. There was no need at all for us to pull away from each other because of a situation that was pretty much out of her control.

"We will raise him as mine," I told her, my eyes filled with resolution. We considered the possible drawbacks, but honestly, there was nothing major. No matter how we saw it, he remained a child one way or another, so there was actually no real consequence for doing this. We could get away with it as long as we played our cards right. The man wouldn't have any way of knowing unless he already knew that he had a child with her.

But even then, it would be almost impossible to prove. With a paternity test, I often can't blame my rights if I had a very good argument. Like with a very good notion, he wouldn't be able to challenge me much. Honestly, I thought to myself, from years that boy might tell me what's up. From the way things were going, everything was pointing at me bringing him back so that he could rule my path when I left and have his own also.

"I'll be going back to sleep," she said all of a sudden. I blinked. What was with her acting as if something major hadn't just happened? But clearly, we had dealt with the issue at hand, and she thought she could have a good night's rest. I shook my head at her, but I really couldn't find it in me to tell her no, especially after all she had been through.

"Go on," I said, and she smiled at me.

"Take care of yourself and don't think too much. It's not good for your health."

I shook my head. When did she ever turn into a therapist? "I'll be fine," I said, but I knew that I wouldn't stop thinking. I had to make sure that everything was right. Thinking was literally part of my job as the alpha.

She kissed my cheek sadly before leaving the room like she hadn't come here at all. I smiled a little and continued thinking about the various repercussions to this particular plan that I was forming in my mind. At least the elders were already convinced that I had a child. As long as enough people believed it, that would make it real enough.

I got up, walking over to the large meeting room. The elders were there, most of them behind the door. I needed to know exactly how this would play out. I questioned them about our situation, particularly about the rogue attacks that were getting more and more terrible in terms of seriousness. The only reason we were able to manage was because we were at the borders.

"We shouldn't stay here for too long, and we've already been here for at least a week," one elder said. "We might as well take the capital to be at the side of the centre because soon enough we're going to have to back up because of that. The king and the alpha must be at the capital," he pointed out again. I knew that he had a lot of reservations about this idea, and he had had reservations about it from the very beginning.

But he knew it was necessary. I also knew that his advice was sound. Honestly, I wasn't supposed to keep this position, so we were going to have to be a bit upfront for quite a while. At the moment, in reality, since I was here, I should have gotten better results, but somehow I would still get help, I thought to myself. Deciding that it's pretty much the best option we can manage at the moment—if we could get help, they can send us back or something.

Yeah, this was really true. We were looking at the bigger picture in the end. I had been contacted and asked to finish this. I didn't have anything else to do but help them back. That was passed lately, and I just gave them a little bit of this offer.

His staff was also being attacked by the overly greedy villain and the rogues he somehow commanded. I had planned—I didn't know that they wouldn't anticipate the both of us joining forces. Take his shoulder the way we were going to at the moment; his goodness would be his downfall in the end. I saw him smile. He already knew of my pastoral hand and pattern.

"You know how important it is and how it's going to positively affect our friends, so you were already in support?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "I'm pretty sure they can't—I need just one day, and then I'm pretty sure we'll be able to take on the rogues head-on."

"Meanwhile, I have some matters to attend to, if you will excuse me," I added as an afterthought, thinking about the issue of the promise I had made and whether a solution had cropped up for it yet.

I made my way over to the library to meet up with the librarian. I hadn't talked to him again about this ever since the last time, and hopefully, the amount of time I gave him to solve the problem was enough and he already had some good news for me.

I found him sitting on his seat, poring over about eight books at the same time. He looked a little drained. I found myself feeling a little sorry for him—it was my problem he was after, after all, which made him look like this. But if he solved this, it would all be worth it.

"How is it going?" I questioned, sitting down opposite him. "Have you found a solution yet?"

He looked up at me. "Is there even a solution?" I saw the tiredness in his eyes, the weakness written in his bones. Obviously, he had done his possible best for the last couple of days and still hadn't gotten a solution at all.

"There's a solution," I reassured him. "You just have to look carefully enough."

He looked at me uncertainly. "How can you be so sure?" he questioned, frowning at me.

I hesitated for a moment, wondering why I was sure in the first place, when I remembered the issue with how she was so desperate and using all means possible in order to get this particular end. I shook my head, making up my mind. "A sure solution," I said. "The person who made me promise this in the first place wasn't so certain it was going to work out, and that's enough reason for me to be sure that it's not a problem impossible to solve."

He pondered this, aware but not entirely convinced, eventually agreeing with me. "Well then, I will just have to look for it a little bit more, because I haven't found anything yet."

I nodded at him. "Yes, you just keep looking. You'll get it in the end."

He returned to his books without looking at me again, and I smiled. What was better than having help with my wife? I was so impressed with how he took on my problem as if it was his own personal issue. With someone like him on the job, I was pretty sure that soon enough the solution would come one way or the other, and then Valeria would have nothing on me at all. The moment that happened, that would be one major problem solved.