#Chapter 2: Once Lovers

Damon POV

The moment Lena had come around the corner of that hallway, I had felt the air change.

She didn’t need to say a word as she approached Noah and I. I could already sense her thoughts racing, her eyes darting between me and our son. That was the problem with her, she was always overanalyzing too much. Every glance, every silence, every omission.

I didn’t want her here. Not with Noah around and certainly not while Celeste was visiting.

Celeste had always been a bright flame in my youth—radiant, ambitious, perfect in the eyes of the Royalcrest Pack as their princess. Once, I’d thought I loved her. Now, she was just a piece on the board. An alliance, a bridge I had to build to secure my Pack’s survival.

Whatever we once were, that was gone.

But Lena didn’t know that, nor did I ever want her to. Things were already too complicated between us as it was. What was the sense in adding her onto my already full plate?

My gaze flicked away from the door to her.

She looked fragile standing there with her hands twisting together in front of her. My chest tightened against my will as feelings I had no right to admit to tugged at me, sharp and unrelenting.

I pushed them down just as I always did.

Duty first. Pack first.

Always.

Celeste tilted her head toward Lena, her smile as sweet as venom. “I forgot to say earlier but, you’ve done a wonderful job taking care of Noah. However, perhaps it’s time he had more… suitable influences. He will be Alpha one day. Being around someone like you… well, you can’t teach him the things he’ll need to know.”

Lena flinched.

I stiffened. Before she could twist the knife deeper, I cut in.

“That’s enough.” My tone gave no room for argument.

Celeste blinked, genuinely startled. Then she pouted, lips forming a small, disappointed curve. “Why are you so protective of a nanny, Damon? I only meant what’s best for Noah.”

I ignored the obvious jab behind her words while also ignoring how pale Lena’s face had grown. Humiliation radiating off her.

“We have more to discuss, Celeste,” I said firmly. “Lena… take Noah back to the main house. I’ll speak to you later. Do not loiter after you drop him off.”

I didn’t miss the way Lena’s shoulders drooped, as if my words carried the weight of exile. She nodded without meeting my eyes, coaxing Noah to follow her. My son went reluctantly, looking back at Celeste with wide, pleading eyes.

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and dragged a hand over my face.

I couldn’t let Lena stay in this room, in this world of politics and appearances. She didn’t belong here. She was my weakness, the one soft spot I couldn’t afford. Every time she looked at me, every time her eyes begged for more than I could give, I had to remind myself that an Omega orphan could never be the Luna of this Pack.

No matter how much my heart betrayed me with wanting it.

Lena POV

I kept my eyes lowered as I walked Noah down to the main house. The subtle curve of Celeste’s lips when Damon turned his back to me was burning into my memory just as much as the flick of her lashes when she spoke and that mocking tilt of her chin after telling me she wanted to take over Noah’s care.

Where did she get off wanting to torture me like that? She wanted me to know exactly where I stood: at the bottom.

Outside, the Pack house bustled with life. Wolves moved about their duties, pausing as we passed. Noah’s little hand was tucked into mine, but he hardly noticed me. His eyes darted to every smiling face, every admiring look that was sent his way.

“Such a handsome boy,” one woman cooed.

“Spitting image of his father,” another added.

“He’ll make a fine Alpha one day,” someone else said warmly.

Their smiles, their words, it should have filled me with pride. But instead, they hollowed me out. Not one of them looked at me. Not one acknowledged me as his mother. To them, I was invisible, a shadow trailing the future Alpha.

I could see the way they looked toward the Pack house, toward the place where Celeste remained with Damon alone. Damon and Celeste, a perfect pair. The Alpha and the Royal daughter of our most trusted ally.

Of course it would be her. Of course she would come back and haunt me.

By the time we returned to the Alpha’s residence, my energy was brittle. I ushered Noah inside, setting his things on the table. After tugging his coat off of him and hanging it, I moved over to one of the cabinets and opened it.

“Come, Noah. Time to take your medicine.”

He wrinkled his nose and huffed, retreating a few steps back. “No.”

“You’ve been having fevers again. You need to take it to prevent them from happening.”

“No!” His voice was sharp, defiant. He crossed his arms and stomped his foot. “I don’t want you taking care of me. I want Celeste. She’s nicer. She knows things. You don’t know anything!”

The words dragged over me like claws to my heart.

I froze, my hand half wrapped around the medicine bottle sitting on the top shelf inside the cabinet and turned to look at him. My son, my flesh and blood, looked at me with such disdain. His little face was twisted up in frustration.

He didn’t know the truth. He couldn’t. Damon had seen to that.

To Noah, I wasn’t his mother, I was only the nanny. The woman who forced bitter medicine down his throat every day and who scolded him when he stayed up too late reading.  I was the evil woman who hovered at the edges of his life while Celeste glowed like sunlight.

I lowered my arm, stepping away from the cabinet, trying to keep my voice calm. “Noah… please. It will help you feel better.”

He shook his head violently and shoved me, his small hands surprisingly strong. “I don’t want you! I want her!She’s the daughter of a healer, so she knows what she’s talking about, unlike you!”

My throat closed, hot tears burning behind my eyes.

“Leave me alone!” Noah stomped to his room upstairs, slamming the door behind him.

The silence that followed was unbearable.

I pressed a hand to my mouth, stifling the sob that threatened to escape. My chest ached with the weight of it all—the lies, the secrecy, the humiliation of raising my child without him ever knowing the truth.

The cracks that had been forming in my heart all day finally began to split open. And in the back of my mind, that traitorous little voice began to ask again…

Would leaving be better for Noah after all?