AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How do I open this?” I asked myself, trying to find a hidden nob of some kind.
Push.
The voices whispered. I followed their direction, pushing directly against the hidden door. A soft click told me it had worked, releasing the door for it to pop open. My cards sat in a small plastic bag, a colorful array of cords from the TV surrounding them. I let out a squeal of joy, grabbing the cards and ripping them from the plastic bag before pressing them to my chest.
“How did you get in there?” I gasped, turning to the bed and sitting on the edge as I looked over each card, ensuring they were all there. “Why didn’t I hear you call out before.”
Read us.
Let us tell you everything. It’s time for you to know.
I felt my face pinch into a frown. “Time for me to know what?”
Everything.
I began to shuffle the cards, curious as to what everything meant. What secrets could my cards have been keeping from me? Was it about the missing wolf packs? About my future mate and perhaps a way to escape my fate? I cut the cards into to deck before reshuffling them once more. The hierophant came up first. It made sense, the cards guiding me to a truth I have yet to know. I tilted my head at the card, shuffling again before drawing a second.
The two of cups stared back at me, my brow creasing more. A deep love and strong connection. The kind that was meant to be between mates, but I only felt this way with Nyte. My eyes widened, quickly drawing my third card. The Empress faced up, her swollen belly grabbing my attention over all the other details of the cards. My mind raced as I looked at the beautiful hand-painted picture, my hand touching my belly. My emotions began to make sense. My nausea and increased appetite had confused me for the last two weeks, ever since I had lost my cards.
“No…” I gasped, drawing the fourth card to confirm my new suspicion, though praying I would be proven wrong.
The high priestess smiled back at me, tears flooding my eyes as she revealed the truth. Images of Nyte caressing my belly, the gentle smile on his lips as he did so. He knew. He had known everything. I stared down at the cards—a mixture of emotions overpowering me. I had been wrong. My cards had told me before that Nyte was the answer to my desires…that he would help me. I had been foolish before, not understanding what they had met.
While I believed they were leading me to a path that would protect me from my mate, they really led me directly into his arms. Tears flooded my eyes. And he knew the truth: he let me beg for his help. He allowed me to tell him my plans to dissolve the mate bond, and he never once said that he was my mate. That I had nothing to fear of the stalker who claimed his title.
My vision began to tunnel, the room around me replaced with a vision of me. Round bellied and smiling at myself in the mirror as my mother cooed over me. I was in my bedroom at home—with no sign of Nyte. The vision faded, the room returning through my tear-filled eyes. And the sound of the door opening alerted me that I was no longer alone.
Chapter seventeen
Nyte
IpassedKatyaandDasha on my way to the stairs. The two sisters had earned quite the gathering around them as they yelled back and forth, including the Alpha Markus.
“What’s going on?” I asked Chase, who leaned against the wall, watching with minimal interest.
“Your mate and Madilyn had a standoff with the sisters today. From what I gathered, Paige had made a good point against Katya’s claims of you two being meant to be and she disrupted your plans as if you're announcing her as your fate-chosen mate wasn’t point enough. Now Dasha is questioning her, and poor Katya doesn’t like being questioned when she has no answer.”
I let out a low growl, turning away from the crowd and rushing up the stairs to check on my mate. I had relented on keeping her cooped up in the room under the condition that she be with me or Madilyn. That was due to my impression that the pack would see Madilyn as my ears and eyes, just as she would have been if we had become the Alpha and Beta. Apparently, Katya didn’t see it that way.
The door was locked when I reached my room, relief in knowing that Paige had locked the door after Madilyn left her in the room. I quickly pulled out my keys, unlocked the door, and walked inside to greet my mate. My steps froze in place as I saw her. Tears streamed down her cheeks; cards spread out in front of her. It didn’t take a seer to know what the cards had told her. As she stared back at me, the look in her eyes told me everything.
“You knew,” she accused, sweeping a hand over the cards to collect them back into a deck. “Don’t try to deny it or act dumb. You knew.”
I didn’t have it in me to deny it. I had been keeping enough from her as it was. And if she found her cards, it meant that fate had decided for me, just as they had when she came to me to mark her.
“You weren’t ready to know the truth,” I said, pulling the sweaty shirt over my head and tossing it to the laundry basket.
“I wasn’t ready. Really? That’s what you’re going with here? Who the hell are you to decide what I can and cannot handle?” She stormed up to me, bumping her chest against mine. “And when exactly were you planning to tell me that I’m pregnant? When was I suddenly gaining weight for no apparent reason?”
“I honestly figured you would want to find that out for yourself. You’re still early. I assumed you would notice other changes to your body before I ever had to tell you anything.”
“Oh, you mean like a missed period? I have PCOS. I don’t always get a period. I can go without one for months at a time. So, would you have told me if I had gone over a month without noticing anything? Or would you just assume I was hiding it from you like you’ve been hiding it from me?”
I was taken aback by her accusation. I had no idea about her condition. I hadn’t smelled anything on her before.
“I wouldn’t have let you go too long without seeing a midwife,” I argued back, certain that I wouldn’t have allowed that. I would have wanted her to get prenatal care sooner rather than later.
“Oh, so I’m supposed to believe you now, even though you have kept this a secret from me for this long.” She held up her cards, her eyes narrowing at me in a challenge. “And how exactly did my cards end up in that cubby behind the wall? You told me you didn’t know where they were.”
