All Chapters of Cheating on a Frenzied Alpha, Pregnant with his Child: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

I didn't remember the drive to the council archive. One moment, I was standing in the study with Kael's kiss still warm on my palm, the next I was pushing through the heavy oak doors, my heart slamming against my ribs hard enough to hurt.Nadia was waiting inside, three folders fanned across the long table like a woman bracing for battle. She looked up, and whatever composed, businesslike mask she usually wore had cracked at the edges."You look terrible," she said."Thank you. I've had a night.""I meant emotionally, Serena, not the dress. The dress is fine. The dress is doing better than you are.""That's marginally more comforting, and also somehow not comforting at all."She almost smiled — gone as fast as it appeared — before she actually looked at my face and the humor drained out of her entirely. "What happened?"I set my phone on the table without a word. The photograph glowed up at both of us — the little girl's scarred face, an accusation with no one to answer for it yet.Na

Kael was already waiting outside the administration building when we arrived, pacing a short line back and forth across the cracked pavement. His expression softened the instant he saw me — and then hardened again the moment his eyes shifted to Nadia."What did you find?" he asked, all business now, like the phone call minutes ago hadn't happened.Nadia handed him the photograph without a word.He looked down at it. His face drained of color in real time, and I watched every second of it, cataloguing his reaction like evidence."You recognize the pendant," I said. It wasn't a question. He lifted his eyes to mine, jaw tight. "I've seen it before.""Where?""My father's office."My stomach dropped straight through the ground. "You've been in his office? When?""When I was younger. I used to sneak in sometimes.""And you never once thought to mention that?""I didn't know what it meant back then."I laughed, short and bitter, no humor in it at all. "Of course you didn't. Nobody in your f

His fingers brushed mine, tentative at first, and then he pulled me gently against him. I rested my forehead against his chest, breathing in the familiar warmth of him, and his heartbeat was steady now beneath my ear, no longer racing with the Frenzy that had nearly claimed him minutes before."I hate that you're making me fall in love with you all over again," I whispered against his shirt.His arms tightened around me. "Then I must be doing something right.""Don't get smug about it.""Too late."I laughed softly despite everything, the sound surprising even me. "You ruined the moment.""I was trying to improve it.""You failed spectacularly.""Can I try again?" His voice dropped, low and warm, threading through my resistance like it had never really been there at all.I looked up at him. "Maybe. If you're lucky.""I've survived a Frenzy tonight. I think my luck's holding.""Don't push it."His smile faded slowly into something softer, more focused, and he brushed his thumb over my

Inside was a single folded sheet, and the handwriting was unmistakably my mother's. My eyes moved across the first line before I could brace myself for it.Rena, if you're reading this, then they finally found you.My vision blurred instantly.I am sorry.I couldn't make myself read past that line at first. My hands shook so hard the paper rattled.Kael reached for me. "Serena—""Don't," I said, stepping back, needing to do this alone even with him standing right there.He stopped immediately, hands raised, and I forced myself to keep reading.I brought you to the Blackwood territory because I had no other way to keep you alive.My breath caught somewhere in my throat. No. That couldn't be right. My whole life, my mother had told me we came here for opportunity. For family connections. For the stability Kael's family could offer us.She had never once told me this.I kept going, feeling something inside my chest slowly tearing loose.Kael's father promised me he would protect you.My

My hand shook so badly I nearly dropped the phone. Kael was beside me in a heartbeat, reading the screen over my shoulder, and I felt the exact moment his body went rigid."Give me the phone," he said."Why? Are you going to make it disappear the way everything else in my life keeps disappearing?""Serena—""No." I yanked it back, chest heaving. "You don't get to be calm right now. Not when a stranger just texted me the price tag on my own marriage.""I'm not calm. I'm furious. There's a difference.""You could've fooled me.""That's because I'm trying very hard not to put my fist through that wall, and it's taking most of my concentration."Nadia stepped between us before either of us could say something sharper. "Fighting each other isn't going to tell us who sent that message.""No," I snapped, "but it might tell me whether I can trust the man I married."Kael flinched like I'd struck him. "You can trust me.""Can I? Because right now there's a note with my name on it, a bank accou