Free Web NovelChapter 168: Chapter 168
Nicholas’s POV
"I need to see my son!" ƒrēewebnovel.com
The word slammed into my chest like a physical blow. My entire body violently stiffened. My boots practically glued themselves to the cold hardwood floor.
*Son.*
I knew she was pregnant. I had known since the exact moment she vanished into thin air over a year ago. For twelve agonizing, blood-soaked months, the thought of her carrying my child was the only thing keeping me alive. It was the only thing that kept me from burning this entire territory to the ground. I knew she held my bloodline. I knew my heir was growing inside her fragile belly.
But knowing it in theory, and hearing it right now? Hearing that the wait was over?
A son. My son. My boy was actually out there in the world, breathing, crying, living.
My heart completely stopped in my chest. The roaring blood in my ears went dead silent. The suffocating tension in the massive bedroom completely evaporated, replaced by a sudden, overwhelming wave of pure, primal instinct. My wolf howled wildly in the dark corners of my mind. He wanted his pup. He demanded to see our flesh and blood.
But then I saw her.
Irina was thrashing wildly against my armed guards. The heavy, dark wool blanket was slipping dangerously off her bruised, delicate shoulders. Her beautiful, tear-filled blue eyes were locked directly onto mine. They were wild. They were entirely unhinged with absolute, raw desperation.
She wasn’t a broken captive anymore. She was a feral mother, backed into a corner, ready to tear out throats to protect her cub. My cub.
"Keep moving!" one of the massive guards barked.
He yanked her thin arm roughly, trying to drag her toward the door. He was completely ignorant of the fact that he was manhandling the mother of my child.
A dark, lethal rage instantly coated my vision in red. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"Let her go."
My voice was a terrifying, low growl. It was quiet, but it carried the absolute, crushing weight of an Alpha command.
The two heavily armed guards instantly froze. The sheer lethal intent radiating from my massive frame hit them like a brick wall. They dropped her arms as if her pale skin had caught fire. They scrambled backward immediately, bowing their heads, absolutely terrified of the sudden, suffocating murder in my eyes. Nobody touched the mother of my son. Nobody.
Irina collapsed entirely onto the floor.
She curled up into a tight ball, frantically pulling the dark blanket up to her chin. She was trembling violently. Her chest rose and fell in harsh, ragged, desperate gasps.
I didn’t say a word. I walked slowly across the room.
My heavy boots thudded loudly against the hardwood floor. Each step felt incredibly heavy. I stopped right in front of her, towering over her shaking, fragile frame. I stared down at the woman who had given birth to my heir all alone in the dark. The guilt and the overwhelming possessiveness tangled viciously in my throat.
I slowly reached down. I didn’t grab her roughly. I wrapped my large, blistering hot hand firmly around her freezing, tiny wrist.
The mate bond instantly sparked. It sent a sharp, electric jolt straight up my arm, burning deeply through my veins. I wanted to pull her into my chest. I wanted to bury my face in her neck and breathe in her sweet vanilla scent. I wanted to tell her she was safe now.
But she violently flinched.
She looked up at me. Her face was ghostly pale. Her soft lips were trembling. But the look in her blue eyes had completely changed. The hollow, dead emptiness from earlier was entirely gone. Instead, there was an unbreakable, reckless fire burning in the center of her irises.
"If you don’t let me see my son," she choked out, her voice raw and jagged, "I will die. I swear to the Moon Goddess, Nicholas. I will die before I go back with you."
The air in my lungs completely vanished.
It wasn’t a bluff. It wasn’t an empty threat born out of panic. It was an absolute, iron-clad promise.
She meant every single word. I could smell the truth rolling off her skin. She would bite her own tongue. She would throw herself out of a moving vehicle. She would literally end her own life before she let me drag her away from our child.
The terrifying reality of her words crashed heavily over me.
My jaw clenched so tight my teeth ground together. The muscles in my arm corded tightly under my skin. She hated me. She was terrified of me. But her love for our son was stronger than her fear of the Mad King.
I couldn’t risk pushing her. If she died, I would completely lose my mind. I would follow her straight into the grave.
I remained completely silent.
I didn’t argue. I didn’t command her. I kept my firm, warm grip on her fragile wrist and gently pulled her up from the cold floor. I didn’t drag her. I simply led her out of the massive bedroom, down the sweeping grand staircase, and straight through the freezing foyer of the manor.
She stumbled quickly behind me. Her bare feet slapped quietly against the cold stone. She clutched the dark blanket tightly to her chest with her free hand. She didn’t fight my grip. She just followed, driven purely by the desperate, clawing need to reach our pup.
We stepped outside into the biting autumn wind.
A massive, black armored SUV was already idling perfectly in the circular driveway. The heavy engine purred like a dark beast. My driver stood by the open back door. His head was bowed in absolute submission.
I let go of her wrist. I gestured silently to the open door.
Irina scrambled frantically into the spacious back seat. She pressed her spine tightly against the far window, putting as much physical distance between us as humanly possible. She pulled her knees up to her chest, curling into a small, defensive ball of wool and terror.
I climbed in right after her. The heavy, bulletproof door slammed shut behind me, sealing us in.
The absolute silence inside the armored vehicle was suffocating. The air was thick. It was completely saturated with the heavy scent of my rain and her sweet vanilla. But her scent was souring rapidly with pure, unadulterated anxiety.
My driver glanced nervously at me through the rearview mirror.
"Alpha?" he asked respectfully. "Where to?"
I didn’t look at him. I kept my pitch-black eyes locked entirely on Irina. She was staring at me. Her chest was heaving. She was waiting for my judgment. She was waiting for me to deny her the only thing she cared about.
"Listen to her," I commanded, my deep voice slicing right through the heavy silence. "We go wherever she says."
Irina blinked in shock. A single, hot tear escaped her wide eye and slid down her pale cheek.
She didn’t waste a fraction of a second. Her voice was trembling uncontrollably, but she quickly rattled off an address to the driver. It was a neighborhood on the far east side of the city. A cheap, run-down, heavily populated human area.
"Drive," I barked.
The heavy SUV instantly lurched forward.
The drive felt like an absolute eternity. The early morning light slowly crept through the heavily tinted windows. The city was just waking up. I sat perfectly still on the luxurious leather seat. My hands were balled into tight fists resting heavily on my thighs. My knuckles were completely white.
I couldn’t stop my racing thoughts.
I was a father.
I looked across the wide seat at Irina. She was staring blankly out the window. Her fragile hands were shaking violently as she gripped the edges of the dark wool blanket. She looked completely broken, yet terrifyingly strong.
She had carried my son. She had gone into labor alone, probably in some cheap, dirty hospital, hiding from my trackers. She had brought my heir into this world without me there to hold her hand, without me there to protect her. The heavy, suffocating weight of that realization crushed my lungs. My chest physically ached with the loss of those moments.
I wanted to close the distance. I wanted to pin her against the leather seat and bury my face in her hair. I wanted to ask her what color his eyes were. I wanted to know if he had my hair or her smile.
But I kept my mouth shut. The jagged blade of her threat was still pressing dangerously against my throat. I couldn’t push her right now. I just had to get to my son.
The armored SUV finally slowed down.
We pulled onto a narrow, heavily cracked street lined with small, cheap duplexes. The area smelled heavily of smog, stale garbage, and cheap coffee. It was absolutely no place for a werewolf queen. It was a pathetic, dirty human slum. The fact that my mate and my heir were living in this garbage dump made my blood boil violently.
The driver pulled over to the curb and put the massive car in park.
"We’re here," the driver announced quietly.
Before the vehicle had even fully stopped, Irina was already scrambling frantically for the door handle. She practically threw herself out of the SUV. Her bare feet hit the dirty, freezing concrete pavement. The dark blanket trailed dangerously low behind her.
I moved instantly. I stepped out of the car right behind her. My dark suit jacket caught the cold morning wind. I stood on the sidewalk. My imposing, massive frame cast a long, dark shadow over the small, unkempt patch of dead grass.
Irina didn’t even look back at me. She sprinted desperately toward the front door of the tiny, run-down house.
Before she could even reach the rotting porch steps, the front door violently flew open.
A young human woman practically threw herself out of the house. She had dark, incredibly messy hair and deep, dark purple circles under her frantic eyes. She was wearing cheap sweatpants and an oversized, stained t-shirt. She looked like she had just been through a war.
The woman stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Irina running up the walkway.
Her exhausted face twisted into a deep, furious scowl. She was completely oblivious to the danger standing just a few feet away. She didn’t even notice me standing there like a lethal apex predator on her sidewalk. She only saw her friend.
The woman threw her hands up in the air in pure exasperation.
"Where were you? The baby cried all night!"
