NICOLE
~Two Years Ago~
“You’ll never be more than a contract between our packs, Nicole. Don’t expect any affection in this marriage.”
“Never speak to me unless we are in public and it is of utmost necessity.”
“And lastly, this is not a fairytale story with a happy ending. We may wear rings, but that’s the only connection that will ever exist between us.”
Those three sentences marked the beginning of my arranged marriage to Nathan Cross—Alpha of the most powerful pack in the Kardor faction.
The man I had just married out of obligation because his wealth and resources could save my pack. A pack that was dying, just like my father.
He said them with such cold detachment that I could only stand there, staring at the man I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with.
A man who stared back at me as if I were the embodiment of everything he hated.
But fate was twisted.
Because I fell in love with him.
Somewhere over the next three years, through the silences and the unspoken moments, his walls began to crack. He laughed. He cared. He loved. And for a while, I believed we’d beaten the odds. Perhaps my story was truly a fairytale and
I was getting my happy ending.
Until she showed up.
Nadia Cross.
The woman he called family. The woman who had grown up by his side, taken in by his father after her own pack was destroyed. The woman who, over the last two months, had become the center of his world while I faded into the background.
I could pretend to be blind, but the signs were there—her lingering touches, his distant gaze. And then, the final blow. I overheard her say the words I had feared all along.
“He’s going to reject her. It’s only a matter of time.”
So here I was, standing in front of them both, the ring in my trembling hand.
“You don’t have to pretend anymore,” I said, my voice steady despite the storm raging inside me. I turned to Nadia first, then to Nathan. “This is what you both wanted, isn’t it?”
“Nikki, what are you talking about?” Nadia started with that sickly sweet tone she always used that made everyone worship at her feet, but I cut her off with a sharp glare.
“I’ve told you not to call me that,” I snapped.
Nathan’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t say a word. He just stood there, silent and cold, like the man I met three years ago. The man I had spent so long trying to thaw.
I took a step closer, holding out the ring. “Take it. You can finally let go of the facade of you just being like his sister and you can have him. After all, you already bear his surname.”
For the first time, Nathan’s eyes met mine, and in that moment, I saw everything I needed to know. There was no fight, no regret, no love.
I had been the fool who truly believed we would have our happy ending.
Walking towards Nadia, I placed the ring in her hand, closed her fingers around it, and caught the subtle gleam of satisfaction in her eyes before I turned on my heel.
That was when Nathan finally spoke, his voice as cold as ice, “If you walk through that door, don’t ever come back, and all ties between our packs will be severed.”
The final shard of my heart broke in two.
But I didn’t look back, and the last thing I heard was Nadia’s light laughter, moments before the door slammed shut behind me. Even though I was leaving him, my years with him had provided my pack with enough resources to stabilize, so I could just return home and rebuild.
Everything was going to workout.
Yet again, I was wrong.
Two hours after I left Nathan’s mansion, I got a call—the one I had been dreading. My mother’s voice broke through the line, her words a heavy weight, "He’s gone. Nikki, he’s gone."
I thought I was prepared for it but when I heard those words, the world tilted beneath me, the pain hitting me with such force that I collapsed.
And then, everything went black.
The next thing I knew, I was waking up in a hospital room, and moments later, the Doctor’s words sent another wave of shock coursing through me. I blinked staring at her with widened eyes, “What?”
She smiled like the next words, if she confirmed them, wouldn’t completely throw my already shattering world into pieces. “I said congratulations. You are two months pregnant.”
