Chapter 59 DANE

In the end, I couldn’t refuse the Luna of the High Alpine Pack.

Holden and the Fall Line Pack were summoned. I went back into the room with the children. My daughter was waiting for me, watching me.

Then, without warning, she stepped forward and hugged my leg.

“You’re sad,” she said.

I was speechless. I lifted her up, then settled us both by the puzzle table, where her brother still sat. He watched me suspiciously.

Trajan followed me into the room. I glared at him. He leaned against the wall next to the door and folded his arms across his chest.

I ignored him and turned to the children. “I have something to tell you. Something…”

Goddess, their eyes were so huge. How did people do this?

I took a breath. “You two have been through a lot of scary things lately. But I’ve noticed you’re very brave.”

Tristan nodded firmly, his dark eyes never leaving my face. “We are.”

Seraphina said nothing, just clung to me. Her grip was so fierce, I wondered if she could sense what was coming.

“I have to tell you something. It’s going to be another scary thing. Something we all need to be brave about, together. Last night, your Uncle Trajan and me and my beta, Archer, went to a place your Mommy used to live. She went with us.”

I took a breath. “While we were there, we were attacked by some shadows. They tried to get me, but your Mommy…” My throat felt thick, and I had to clear it. “She saved my life.”

Tristan snorted. “Of course, she did. Mommy is the bravest one of all.”

“Yes,” I said. “And I need you to know, she’s okay. But when she saved me, she got hurt.”

Their eyes went huge with alarm. Tristan jumped to his feet so fast, puzzle pieces went flying everywhere. “Where is she? We need to go help her right now!”

I put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off. “Why are you still sitting there? Come on!”

“Tristan,” I said, “Your mother is with my pack healers. Like I said, she’s okay…but she’s sleeping, and we’re having a hard time helping her wake up.”

“I’ll help her!” Tristan said. “I know exactly what to do! Mommy always wakes up when me or Sera go into her room no matter what happens!”

He was shouting. Sera trembled in my arms, then laid her soft head against my shoulder. When I looked down at her, she had tears in her lilac eyes. I’d never seen a child so small cry so quietly. “Alpha Dane, is Mommy going to be okay?”

Alpha Dane. I wondered if that was how they thought of me, even though they knew I was their father.

“I hope so,” I said. “We’re trying.”

“I know where the healers are!” Tristan said. He charged toward the door. Trajan caught him and lifted him into the air.

“Let me go!” Tristan demanded, kicking his short legs.

To my surprise, Trajan looked to me. “Are you going to let them see her, Alpha?”

I hesitated, then nodded.

If anything in the world would wake Aurora, it would be her children.

EVELYN

I paced outside the infirmary with one hand over my rounding stomach. Any time now, I should feel my baby start to move.

I rubbed it worriedly.

Would Dane even care, now that he had two living, healthy children?

I gritted my teeth. I was a practical woman. I couldn’t be upset at children for existing.

But I could be livid at Aurora. That bitch. She had known Dane didn’t want her pups. Then she’d gone and had them anyway.

I shouldn’t be surprised, after everything Broken Forest had gone through to kill Dane’s family and get her married to him.

She was nothing if not conniving and manipulative.

Part of me wondered if this had been her plan all along, but it couldn’t be. If she’d known she was the heir of the High Alpine Pack, she wouldn’t have let Dane humiliate her all through the three years of their marriage.

But if she was so willing to play tricks on Dane…maybe she was doing it to them, too.

I stopped my pacing short.

What if Aurora had tricked High Alpine?

It could be that the DeVeres were as much a victim of her wiles as Dane was becoming.

I paused and rubbed my hand over my stomach again. I didn’t know much about the DeVeres, but I wasn’t some nobody. I had many contacts.

In fact…I thought I’d met a DeVere several years ago at a film launch party in London.

I pulled out my phone and scrolled. My list of contacts was long, and it took me a while to even get to people listed under the letter D.

I smiled when I found it. I knew I’d been right.

My thumb hovered over the name: DeVere, Lilliana. High Alpine Pack.

I tapped her name and raised my phone to my ear.

“Hello?” came a sultry, female voice.

“Lilliana DeVere?” I said, smiling. “It’s Evelyn Barclay. I have a few questions for you…”