Free Web NovelChapter 279: Chapter 279
Aria’s POV
Amelia clicked her tongue. "I am already doing exactly that, Aria."
I hung up and exhaled, finally easing my shoulders. I leaned down and scooped Lana from her stroller. Her tiny wolf scent softened something jagged in me.
We walked the yard, Lana stretching her little arms toward birds dancing between branches. She babbled, her tiny wolf aura flickering like a candle, learning the world. My heart cracked open for her every time.
We stepped outside the gate and froze.
It wasn’t a hallucination. Someone had been watching me.
A tall silhouette stood by the trees. His scent hit me like a memory I wished I could forget.
It was Nathan. Shadows clung to him like second skin, exhaustion bruising the skin beneath his eyes.
My heartbeat stuttered, just once. Then I crushed it.
I looked away, adjusting Lana in my arms. Nathan stepped into my path, blocking me. Even now, he acted like he had that right.
My wolf bristled. Move or bleed. freёwebnovel.com
“What do you want, Nathan?” I asked, my voice clipped, cold as frost forming on steel.
He didn’t speak. His throat worked, like words were stuck behind his teeth. Irritation flared within me; I shifted to walk around him.
Then he spoke.
“Give me one more chance, Aria.”
It was barely a whisper, but my wolf heard it as loud as a howl.
I stopped.
Mockery tugged at my lips before I even turned. When I finally looked back, his eyes were full of raw emotions and something I didn’t dare name.
“Let me take care of you. Of her.” His voice trembled.
“Let me make up for everything. She shouldn’t grow up without a father.”
Father.
I smiled, it was sharp and humorless.
“A father?” I echoed softly, bouncing Lana when she fussed. “Lana has never had a father. Not once.”
My wolf growled in agreement. Every memory of prison flashed behind my eyes. If not for Lana’s heartbeat beneath my hand, I would’ve died.
She saved me, he did not.
My heart was armored in scars now. Once, I had begged for his belief. Now? I pitied the version of me who did.
“Nathan,” I said, my voice calm as a sky after a hurricane, “do you remember when Sophia injured her ankle a few months ago?”
He looked confused, hopeful and pathetic.
I held his gaze, my own steady and cold.
Like a wolf staring down prey that used to be family.
Nathan’s POV
I opened my mouth, ready to defend myself, to explain, to beg, but the words jammed in my throat like a shard of bone. My wolf snarled, restless and ashamed, the sound echoing inside me rather than out. It hurt. Spirits, it hurt. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
My shoulders sagged and I bowed my head, feeling every ounce of defeat like weights dragging me down.
“Aria... I didn’t know,” I forced out, my voice raw. “If I had known, I would never have let you or Lana suffer so much.”
Her gaze sliced into me, clear, unyielding, cold as a blade forged in winter moonlight.
“Nathan,” she said, “most of the hardships Lana and I faced were because of you.”
The words hit like claws to the throat. My wolf whimpered. I didn’t even try to deny it, because she was right. Spirits help me, she was right.
“When Lana was gravely ill,” she continued, her voice hard enough to crack stone, “it was because of you that we faced such danger. If Lana had truly been lost then... Nathan, I would have wanted nothing more than to kill you.”
That sentence chilled the air. Frost crept up my spine. I swallowed hard, but the lump in my throat refused to move.
My hands trembled at my sides, my wolf pressing forward, desperate and remorseful.
“I deserve that,” I whispered, barely breathing the words. “I... I know I do.”
Silence stretched like a rope pulled tight between us. I forced myself to look up, unable to let go completely.
“Then...” My voice cracked. I cleared it and tried again. “Can I see her? Just once more? Please.”
For a heartbeat, her eyes flickered. Hope flared in my chest, wild, reckless and stupid hope.
She’d always had a soft heart. She wouldn’t deny me entirely. She couldn’t or so I thought.
But then she shifted Lana higher in her arms, raising a protective hand, blocking my view. A growl of warning vibrated faintly from her.
“Nathan,” she said, her voice low and lethal, “aside from blood, you and Lana have no ties. None.”
It was like being struck across the face. My wolf reeled. I felt something in my chest fracture.
“There’s no need to look,” she finished, not sparing me a glance as she turned away.
The breath I’d been holding scattered, leaving me hollow and numb.
Lana whimpered at the tension hanging between us, a tiny shiver running through her. Aria soothed her instantly in a tender touch, causing her scent to soften.
“Alpha Nathan,” she said, addressing me formally, as though we were nothing but strangers, “please leave.”
She walked away, her skirt brushing through the grass, her wolf aura a shield of steel and ice.
I stood frozen, my boots rooted to the ground, like the earth itself had decided I’d gone far enough.
At that moment, Shevron Estates felt suffocating, heavy with everything I deserved.
