Chapter 175 175
Aurélie POV
“Do you remember a while ago,” I begin softly, “when you asked me about your father?”
“Daddy?” Delphine cuts in at once, turning to Fabrice. He gives her a warm, reassuring smile.
“Well,” I say gently, “Fabrice is your uncle, isn’t he? But it’s alright if you still want to call him Daddy. What matters is how you feel. Do you remember me telling you that one day you would meet your father that he had things he needed to do, that he was important?”
“Yes,” Dominique answers cautiously. His eyes don’t leave my face, following my lips as if afraid he might miss even a single word.
I pause.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
“Well… Alpha Damien is actually your father.”
The words finally leave me the greatest secret I have carried for their entire lives.
Delphine doesn’t really seem to understand. She simply looks at Damien and smiles, as though nothing about this upsets her. Perhaps, in her heart, she’s just pleased to discover she has two daddies.
Dominique is different.
He doesn’t react at all.
He doesn’t blink.
“Dominique?” I prompt after the silence stretches too long, my gaze flicking to Damien with quiet concern.
“May I go outside, please?” he asks, his voice rigid, controlled like he’s holding something back.
“Um… yes,” I say carefully. “Just don’t go too far.”
We all watch as he slowly stands and walks out of the room, never once looking at any of us. He heads through the kitchen toward the back garden.
“So will you marry Florence?” Delphine asks Fabrice suddenly, her eyes lighting up with excitement.
She’s already imagining a fairytale big dresses, magic, princesses. I can’t help but chuckle softly to myself.
“I’ll mark her in a ceremony at her pack,” Fabrice explains. “She’ll be leaving her family to join us, so it only feels right that her pack hosts it. We’ve been there before the Saint Wolf pack, with Élodie and Simon.”
“Oh yes,” Delphine beams. “I love Élo.”
“Would you like me to talk to him?” Fabrice offers, as Delphine happily turns her attention to her toys, seemingly unfazed by the life-altering news she’s just received.
“No,” I say, already standing. “I’ll go. He should hear it from me.”
I find Dominique sitting alone on a bench in the garden, staring up at the clouds as they shift and form shapes. I sit beside him, but he doesn’t acknowledge me at all.
“Talk to me, Dominique,” I sigh softly. I hate the silent treatment. Delphine has perfected it but Dominique has always been so steady, so balanced.
“You lied to me,” he says quietly. “To Delphine.”
There’s resentment in his voice something unfamiliar, something that makes my chest ache.
“You’re four,” I say gently. “And sometimes I forget just how mature you are. There are things you shouldn’t have to know yet not until you’re older. Please believe me when I say I kept this from you because I was trying to protect you both.”
I slide my arm behind him and rub his upper arm slowly, hoping the familiar gesture brings comfort.
“I think I’ve known for a while,” he murmurs. “I could feel… something. Like a link with him.”
“And does that make you happy,” I ask, “or sad?”
“Are you mates?”
I blink. He’s understood far more than I expected.
“It’s complicated,” I admit. “But yes. We are mates.”
“Will he live here?” he asks. “With us?”
“Would you like him to?” I ask carefully, aware he never answered my earlier question.
“Yes,” he says after a moment. “I think I would like that. Is it possible… with the two alliances?”
“We can look into our options,” I tell him. “But no matter what happens, Damien will always be part of your lives now. He wants a relationship with you and Delphine.”
“Why now?” he asks, his eyes still fixed on the sky. One cloud has taken the shape of a boat.
“I had to leave back then,” I say quietly. “His pack wasn’t safe while I was pregnant. Then something happened something I can’t talk about. Not until you’re older. Maybe not even then. I blamed him for it, even though it wasn’t his fault. It was made to look that way. So I kept you and Delphine from him.”
I swallow.
“I’m not proud of it, Dominique. But I did what I thought was right with the information I had. If it meant keeping you both safe… I would do it again. Please understand that.”
I know I’m speaking in riddles far too much for a four-year-old. He doesn’t need to know the rest. Not about what I blamed Damien for. Not about the tragedy that took his grandparents from him.
My father would have loved to raise Dominique into an alpha.
Some wounds never heal.
“Everything okay?”
We both turn toward the sound of the back door opening. Damien stands there, a football tucked under his arm.
“Do you want to have a kick-about?” he asks, spinning the ball casually in his hands.
Dominique nods once and stands.
Before running off to join him, he leans in and presses a kiss to my cheek.
A single tear slips free and trails down my face born of relief, love, and the quiet acceptance in my son’s heart.
One day, when he has children of his own, he’ll understand why I did what I did.
The need to keep them safe.
Just like I did then.
Just like I still do now.