CHAPTER 5: Nathan's Discovery

Joshua's POV

"My babies..."

But the words came out as a whisper.

The mate bond flickered, then died. I jerked upright in my chair.

Gasping, I found my office was dark. How long have I been sitting here?

The bond pulsed back to life. Weak, fading. Something was very wrong with Alisha.

I grabbed my phone, no missed calls or messages. But the bond was screaming.

I started to dial Val.

Nathan burst into my office without knocking. Laptop opened, his face flushed.

I looked up from my desk. I'd been staring at nothing for eighteen hours. I hadn't slept or eaten.

"The photos are fake. I can prove it. And you need to see who paid for them."

Could barely think beyond the loop playing in my head: Alisha's face as I rejected her. Her screams as the mate tore. She was crawling through blood while I stood and watched.

The mate bond was still there. Muted, damaged but not broken. And through it, I'd felt everything.

Her terror as she drove too fast. Her agony when the car crashed. Her desperate relief when someone found her.

Then nothing. For fourteen hours, nothing but vast silence. She was either unconscious or dead.

I'd spent those fourteen hours in hell. Wondering if I'd killed her. If my children had died with her.

Then, an hour ago, the bond flickered back to life. Faint but there.

She was alive. I hadn't dared to feel relief. Didn't deserve it.

"What?" The word came out hoarse.

I'd been screaming earlier at my mother, Nathan, and at myself until my voice gave out.

"The photos." Nathan set the laptop on my desk. Hard enough to rattle the pens.

"They're fabricated, digital manipulation. High-quality work, but I found the seams."

The screen showed one of the photos blown up. Sections highlighted in red.

My hand trembled as I pulled the laptop closer.

"See this?" Nathan pointed to a barely visible line. "That's where they spliced him into the original image."

He clicked another photo.

"The lighting on his face doesn't match. The shadows fall wrong."

"That could be anything," I said.

"Look at the timestamps." Nathan's voice was sharp. "This one says March 15th at 2:47 PM."

"So?"

"So Alisha was at the pack physician's office getting her prenatal checkup. I have the medical records. Security footage. She was there the entire time."

My chest tightened.

"March 22nd," Nathan continued. "Pack council meeting with you. Fifteen witnesses."

"April 3rd?"

"Her sister's baby shower. Two hours away. Dozens of witnesses."

Each timestamp was a knife twisting in my gut.

"Every single photo was taken when Alisha can be definitively placed somewhere else," Nathan said.

I'd destroyed my mate over lies.

"The man," I forced out. "Who is he?"

"You can't kill him because he doesn't exist." Nathan pulled up a website.

The same face from the photos smiled professionally. Catalog after catalog uses him.

"His name is Jordan Bana. Los Angeles-based model. Sells his images online for twenty to fifty dollars each."

"Someone bought stock photos?"

"And digitally inserted him into pictures of Alisha. Professional editing software. The kind used by forensic experts."

The words hit like physical blows.

"Who?" The word came out as a growl. "Who would do this?"

Nathan's expression went very cold.

"I traced the financial trail. Took me fourteen hours to crack the shell account."

He paused. I knew what he was going to say.

"The account is linked to Irene Williams," Nathan said quietly.

"Your mother paid for this. She hired an expert. Purchased the model's images. Fabricated the entire affair."

The office went still. I couldn't breathe.

"Show me," I demanded.

Nathan pulled up bank statements. Transaction histories. Emails recovered from deleted files.

"Read this one," Nathan said. "March 10th."

I read aloud. "'I need photos that look authentic. My son is suspicious, by nature.'"

Nathan clicked to the next.

"March 28th," he said.

"The restaurant photos are perfect. Now I need hotel images." My voice broke.

"April 20th." Nathan's voice was ice.

I read the final email. "'It's almost time. Another few weeks and she'll be too pregnant to flee easily.'"

She'd planned this for months.

Had waited until Alisha was eight months pregnant and vulnerable.

"There's more," Nathan said.

Something in his voice made my blood run cold.

"I found communications between your mother and someone named Jude Saul."

"Jude Saul was mated to Lisa Davis," I said slowly. "Alisha's aunt."

"The woman your father supposedly had an affair with?"

"I saw my mother going through his phone once. When I was twelve. She said she was gathering evidence."

I stopped.

"What if she was planting it?"

"Jesus Christ," Nathan breathed.

"Show me the communications."

Nathan pulled up files that made my stomach turn.

Years of correspondence between my mother and Jude.

"Read this one," Nathan said. "From three days ago."

I read aloud. "'The twins will carry Lisa's bloodline. I can give you access. Tell you when the children are vulnerable.'"

My mother hadn't just destroyed my mate. She'd put a target on my children's backs.

My wolf rose with a howl that shattered every window in the office.

Glass exploded outward; the sound was inhuman.

Seventy miles away, I felt the mate bond pulse. Alisha gasped; she knew.

I collapsed into my chair. Head in my hands.

"What have I done?"

"You chose your mother's lies over your mate's truth," Nathan said. No gentleness.

"And now Alisha is gone. The twins are born without their father. And we have a feral Alpha aimed at them."

"Where are they?" I said desperately. "Alisha, the babies?"

"Blue Moon territory. Alpha Val's pack took them in."

"Are they okay?"

"Both twins were born alive. One's healthy. One has a critical heart condition and needs surgery."

One of my children was fighting for life.

"Their names?" I whispered.

"Alexander and Ella. Alexander is healthy. Ella has a heart defect. She needs surgery within days."

"Val Phils is covering the costs?"

"And put them under his personal protection."

Another Alpha was protecting my family.

"I need to see her," I said. "I need to apologize..."

"She won't see you."

"I have to try."

"First, we deal with your mother." Nathan grabbed my wrist.

"If you confront her now, while you're like this, you'll do something you regret. Or worse...she'll manipulate you again."

"You could let your mother escape," Nathan continued. "You could fail to warn Val Phils about Jude Saul's threat. You could give up."

His voice was firm.

"It can always get worse, Joshua."

He was right.

"Call the council," I said. "I want my mother arrested. Conspiracy, fraud, endangerment of pack heirs."

"And what about you?"

I looked at my office windows, shattered. Desk scarred.

"I'm going to trust Alisha. Believe her. Spend the rest of my life proving I can be the mate she deserves."

"She won't forgive you," Nathan said quietly. "Not after what you did."

"I know." My voice cracked. "But I have to try."

My phone buzzed, a text from an unknown number.

I opened it, and the words made my blood turn to ice.

*Your children are beautiful. Such a shame they carry tainted blood. They look so peaceful sleeping. For now. - J*

A photo was attached.

Grainy taken through a window.

Alexander and Ella are in their bassinets. Tiny and vulnerable.

"He's seen them." My voice was barely human. "Jude's at Blue Moon pack."

Nathan went pale, reaching for his phone.

"I'll alert Val Phils..."

"No." I was already moving. I grabbed my jacket. "I'm going. Now."

"Val won't let you near them."

"Then I'll make him listen." My Alpha voice resonated. "He needs to know what's coming."

I was halfway to the door when Nathan stopped me.

"Joshua, even if you protect them, even if you prove you've changed...Alisha may never forgive you."

"I know," I whispered. "But those are my children. She's my mate. I failed them once."

I pulled away from Nathan's grip.

"I won't fail them again."

We left the office at a run. Nathan's phone rang.

He answered and listened. His face went white.

"What?" I demanded.

"That was Val Phils' head of security." Nathan's voice shook.

"Someone breached the medical facility perimeter ten minutes ago."

"Did they catch him?"

"No." Nathan looked at me. "But they found a window jimmied open."

"Which window?"

"The nursery."

My phone buzzed again.

Same window but another photo. And this time the curtain was pushed aside.

And both bassinets were empty.