Free Web NovelChapter 251: Chapter 251 The Past
Christina’s POV
Akira paced excitedly within me, urging me to respond. "I knew Hudson was special! Being with him always felt different. He’s our second chance! Our mate!"
I felt Akira’s excitement because my own heart was racing too. This overwhelming joy was something I’d never experienced—like finding something precious I’d lost, or realizing that after all my wandering, my destiny had been right in front of me.
I tried to stay cautious, needing verification. I could accept being his fated mate, but how could he claim to have loved me all along? We’d first met outside my apartment after my breakup with Niall.
"I’m not talking about now," I said. "I meant before. Before we got married. Before we knew each other."
"I’m talking about before too!"
"So there was never a dancer?"
"No."
"You didn’t marry me because you couldn’t have the woman you actually wanted, and needed a stand-in—"
"Fuck, no!" He looked like he was about to combust.
He spun in another tight circle.
"Tell me, who told you this? Who made up that bullshit about some dancer? Who is out there writing me a fake love life?"
Okay, we definitely had our wires crossed.
"Was it Gwendolyn?" He fired names off like they were on a hit list. "My father? Geoffrey? Beta Dominic? Ysolde? Emmett? Or was it Cassian?"
"Calm down," I said quickly, Akira urging me to defuse his anger.
"It had to be Cassian." He yanked his phone off the charger. "He’s the only one who knew how long I’ve felt this way about you. Of course he’d twist it. Typical bloody Langford, inventing some ballerina out of nowhere."
"It wasn’t him!" I lunged up, legs still tangled in the sheets, trying to grab his arm. "Don’t call him. Hudson, don’t—"
Too late. The call connected.
Hudson hit the speaker button, breathing hard.
Cassian’s voice drifted through, heavy with sleep. "Hudson. What’s up?"
"Did you tell my wife I had some other crush before I married her?"
"What? What are you talking about? When would I have—" A pause. Cassian sounded more alert now. "Wait. You mean before you two got hitched?"
"Yes!"
"Well, let me think... Christina asked something about your love life once. Months ago. I said you’d been into someone for years. You never told me to keep it secret, so I just mentioned it. Why?"
"Did you tell her the woman I liked was a dancer?"
"What dancer?" Cassian genuinely sounded confused. "Why would I say that? Since when is she a dancer?"
"So that didn’t come from you?"
"What didn’t? Are you high?"
"I’m not. Are you?" frёeωebɳovel.com
"What? No!"
Hudson exhaled sharply. "Tell me exactly what you said to Christina."
"What I just told you. That you’d been carrying a torch for some woman."
"Did you name her?"
"No. Back then, I didn’t know it was Christina." Cassian’s tone turned sly. "If I had, I’d have told her everything. That you were sniffing around even when she was still with Niall. That you faked your grandfather’s critical condition to get her to marry you. That you bought the apartment opposite hers just to stalk—"
"That’s enough." Hudson ended the call with a sharp swipe.
He turned to me. "You heard that?"
I nodded slowly.
My head felt weirdly light, as if my brain had floated slightly out of place. Akira paced anxiously inside me, her emotions a jumble of confusion and excitement.
"So you know there was never a dancer. Now tell me, where did that come from?"
He stepped closer, his gaze pinning me in place.
I looked away. "Daniel told me. He probably made it up."
Hudson muttered a curse. "Of course it was that asshole."
His eyes turned cold and focused somewhere over my shoulder, like he was mentally choosing which wall to slam Daniel through.
Before he could spiral further into vengeance planning, I asked, "So the dying grandfather story? Your family pressuring you to settle down? That was all fake?"
Some part of me already knew. Ever since that hospital visit, after watching the way Hudson treated his grandfather.
He looked me dead in the eye. "Yes. I lied. I lied because I wanted you, and I didn’t care how I got you."
"But why?" I stared at him. "Don’t tell me it was love at first sight. I know I’m not hideous, but I’m also not delusional enough to think I have that kind of impact on Alphas." Especially not on an Alpha like Hudson. "When did we first meet?"
I tried to remember. Any glimpse of him, any flicker of recognition from before all this.
He sat on the edge of the bed and took my hand.
"Seven years ago. You were still in school. You flew to Florence for a design competition."
I nodded. "I remember."
My first competition, also my first win. I’d had to keep it from my parents, scraping together the airfare from years of piggy bank savings.
"I was one of the sponsors. You didn’t even notice me. The first time I saw you, I felt a strange pull. I think that was the Moon Goddess’s sign that you were meant to be my mate."
"That’s hard to believe," I said, eyeing him.
With that face? I could barely imagine I hadn’t carved it into memory.
But back then, my teenage brain was preoccupied with three things: school, design, and... Niall.
Hudson gave a lopsided shrug. "That was the first time. We barely spoke. The second time was in Eindhoven. You were at university. I’d been drugged at some bar. Stumbled into you. You got me to a hospital. But when I woke up, you were already gone."
"That was you?"
