Chapter 0043
SIX YEARS LATER.
***
Alaric’s POV
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“Where are those reports I asked for?”
I speak to my Beta, my former butler.
‘After that disaster of a wedding and Cara’s accident, I had a hard time than usual trusting anyone. I promoted my butler, reasoning that he at least had been with me long enough to be trustworthy. But he isn’t as good as Cara.
No one is. It’s an unfortunate lesson that I’m reminded of every single day. At least my former butler is better at the Beta job than that wretched excuse for a Gamma, George.
“Right here, sir!” My butler replies, placing a stack of papers.
in my hand.
I glance down at the reports, already knowing what I’m going to see.
Our pack is growing, both in size and in influence, just as I had always hoped.
I’ve been working day and night for the last six years to ensure this outcome.
It’s not like I had anything better to do.
I have to work. If I stop, I can’t help but think of her–the one I promised never to see again.
But whenever I work, it’s really hard not to think of her. She’s the best beta in the world.
And she’s the one who weighs on my heart.
…Cara.
I shake my head roughly, physically trying to drop the thought of her from my mind.
Well, let’s just say that I’ve sworn off having a personal life. I have more pressing matters to attend to. Like making DarkWood the most respected pack in the world.
And it’s mostly working, except we’re low on resources. I do as much negotiating as I can, but I’m only one person, and I can’t be in two places at once.
I make all my own deals, and I don’t delegate. I can handle this myself.
At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself for the last six years.
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Chapter 0043
But DarkWood has grown strong enough; our next step is must to collaborate with Pack BloodyMoon…
I look at the diplomatic request I have drafting.
“Deliver this to Eamon Arbun as soon as possible.”
I command to my butler.
Ruby’s POV
The two frenetic six–year–olds rush out the door with energy I only wish I could muster for myself. They’re scampering off to the BloodyMoon’s playground again, not bothering to wait for me.
“Wait! Kids! Wait for me!” I yell to Mia and Ethan.
I watch Mia’s fiery red hair bounce in the wind, the spitting image of her mother, Cara, from behind. Only her bright piercing blue eyes show signs of Alaric.
Ethan has hair black as coal, but his eyes match his mother’s soothing green.
One twin has her mother’s hair and her father’s eyes, the other has his father’s hair and his mother’s eyes. They’re a perfect matching pair
“Hurry, Auntie Ruby!” I hear Mia’s little voice call to me.
Auntie Ruby.
That’s been my role since those two were born six years ago.
After the accident, Cara woke from her coma and delivered the babies miraculously with no issues, but her body was still too weak to keep up with them.
She was bedridden for almost five years.
I’ve got to admit, it was really hard to watch sometimes. My confident, dependable, and capable best friend was confined to a bed in the BloodyMoon Alpha villa, unable to care for her own children the way I know she wanted to
So, I stepped in as Auntie Ruby. And I’ve been helping to raise them ever since.
It’s not like we could just call their father…
Cara’s brothers try to help, too, but despite their good intentions, Cara isn’t always receptive to their care. She spent nearly her whole life being self–sufficient and taking care of herself, an orphaned outsider in Pack DarkWood.
I love those twins. How could I not? They’re half of my favorite person in the whole world.
Chapter 0013
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The other half though…
“You have to promise me, Ruby. On their lives. On Grandmother.” Cara had said to me the night they were born..
She was in active labor at the time. I remember her face was bright red, almost a perfect match to her fiery red hair. Sweat poured from her skin, drenching het.
It was probably the most serious I’ve ever seen her. Her green eyes were fixed on mine, filled to the brim with the urgency of the promise she was asking from me.
“Promise me, Honey, that you will never, EVER speak of Alaric to these children. They can never know.” Cara looked at me meaningfully, waiting for my response.
She grabbed onto my arm, another contraction ripping through her painfully. But she kept her gaze fixed on me.
…All I have left are these children. If Alaric discovers them, I dread he might snatch them
away.
——
Η
“I promise, Sweetheart.” I had told her before wrapping my arms around her in an enormous hug. “I promise,” I whispered again into her hair.
But it wasn’t long after the twins were born that we found out about Mia’s unusual condition. Even as a trained doctor, I’d never seen an illness like this.
Mia has an incredibly long list of food allergies. She gets colds and flus with such frequency and severity that she’s a fixture at the Pack BloodyMoon hospital. Her immune system decides to rebel against her seemingly at random, causing her all sorts of pain and discomfort.
And those are only a few of her symptoms.
Poor girl, it’s terrible luck.
As an obstetrician, I’m not very useful when it comes to Mia’s condition since I’m used to treating babies before they’re born.
What can I do for them?
“Hurry hurry, Auntie Ruby!”
Mia calls out to me joyfully. Ethan tenderly holds his sister.
…I’m coming!”
Cara says to me all the time that that part of her life is over now, that she hardly thinks about him or Pack DarkWood at all. I do believe her, but some days, on those cold, dark
nights… I know she wants someone to hold her.
Chapter 1043
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Someone to care for her.
Someone to help her raise her children.
Someone to love.
And so, I’ve been Auntie Ruby. And I’ll keep being Auntie Ruby for as long as they need me. Goodness knows I need them, too.
But there’s one thing I disagree with Cara. Even though Alaric hurt Cara, there’s no denying he’s an exceptional alpha king.
He’s unaware of the twins‘ existence, but the children will eventually need a father.
But BloodyMoon and DarkWood have been estranged for six long years…Is it even possible for Cara to see Alaric again?
