Chapter 161
Chapter 161
Ivan’s POV
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After what happened with Lena, I hadn’t wanted to ever speak to George ever again. It had been bad enough that my step- brother had married the girl that I loved, but when she had died I blamed him.
An Alpha should have been able to protect his Luna.
I would have been able to protect her, had she been mine.
Yet George had gained sympathy instead of criticism. Any time had tried to bring it up, I was told to be quiet and not hurt my brother.
No one cared about my pain and I grew bitter. The bonds between George and I shattered. I’d been thinking about moving away anyway, to start my own pack without George’s influence, but this had been the final push to drive me to do so.
I’d avoided George entirely, minding my own business, keeping to myself.
Until Claire stumbled into my life.
It was difficult not to like Claire’s brightness and determination, her resilience and her strength.
At first, it had only been her appearance that drove me to save her. But in time, she had proved herself to be her own person. She loved her children, and was driven by the need to protect them and love them.
Without them, she was broken.
Watching the shift of someone who had once been so full of life dissolve into the husk she was, sitting in that chair, facing the window, her gaze a thousand miles away…
It had affected me more than I thought possible.
It had pushed me to return here, to the Alpha King’s palace, with my pride firmly left at the door.
George stood there in the foyer, looking at me like I had grown two heads.
I showed up unannounced, driving myself straight through the night to get here by morning.
“Ivan…” he said.
“I need your help,” I replied.
“With Claire?”
“Her ex is going to steal her children away.”
George frowned, then stepped to the side. “Come into the sitting room and we’ll discuss it.”
There, I told him everything that was happening, with Gideon fighting for custody and the lawyer telling us that Claire didn’t have much chance to win, even with my help. I then explained about the change in Claire. I kept some of her more vulnerable moments to myself, but George was able to tell things were bad, if the grimace on his face was anything to go by.
“If there is anything you can do to help…” I said. “If you can’t, I’m willing to lead my own pack to a war to get those kids back. I’ll do what’s necessary.”
George seemed to study me closely in that moment, his eyes widening slightly with surprise.
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Chapter 161
“You do genuinely care for this girl,” George said,
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“Yes. My feelings were complicated and I hated thinking about them overmuch. But I knew I at least liked Claire,
“Then let me ask you, how do you think she would feel about such an assault on Gideon’s pack?”
I knew immediately. “She wouldn’t like it.”
Something like that would potentially traumatize the children, and it would ruin any and all possible means of fixing things. between the two packs. I knew Claire still wanted Gideon to be a part of the children’s lives. But not like this.
A pain swelled inside of my own chest. Claire was devastated by what was happening, and I had no idea how to help her. I just wanted her to get well. To be bright again.
Watching her dim….
I couldn’t lose anyone else, like I had lost Lena.
“She’s going to be your wife,” George said. “So you should learn a few things about being married.”
“What does this have to do with getting the kids back –?”
“A husband’s job isn’t always to fix everything,” George continued, as if I hadn’t interrupted. “Sometimes you just have to be there with them to help weather the storm instead.”
I couldn’t accept this was all I could do. “There must be some way you can interfere. You are the Alpha King. Your rule is law.”
“How would it look if I pulled children away from their Alpha father?” George said. “I’m sorry, Ivan. I know you don’t ask for much, and I wish I could help you and that sweet girl. But if she cannot win the case legally, I cannot interfere.”
Gideon’s POV
a spoon off the dining room table, one of the television remotes, a Nova had taken to stealing things. Small things at first piece of mail. But it escalated quickly, and as she was brought into my office to stand before my desk for punishment, she had tried to drag an antique vase as big as she was up to her room.
She glared at me like she was a prisoner of war and I her unjust captor. I could see now how much she looked like her mother, defiant and strong. Confident. Unyielding. Like her own little storm.
“You shouldn’t steal,” I told her.
“I want to go home,” she said.
“You are home.”
“I want my mother.”
“You don’t need her,” I said.
In a flash, her face crumpled with fury. She reached for the picture frame I kept on my desk, the one of my deceased parents. Then she smashed it straight down on the ground, shattering the glass.
“Don’t,” I said, standing at once. I moved to her, grabbed her by the arm, and pushed her back. Truly, I didn’t want her to hurt herself on the glass, but she winced like I was going to hurt her. “I’m not going to strike you.”
“… hate…”
“What was that?” I asked, unable to decipher her mumbling.
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Chapter 161
She looked up at me, venom in her eyes and on her tongue. “I hate you! I want my Mom!”
I grit my teeth, not because I was angry, but because I was hurt.
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“Go to your room and stay there until I say you can come out,” I told her. “If you steal or purposefully break anything else, your punishment will get worse.”
“Whatever,” she said, shaking herself loose from my hold. “I do care.”
With Nova seen back to her room by one of the guards, and after the mess had been cleared up, I sat down at the desk once
The guilt was now settling deep into my bones
more.
Of course Nova would act out. I was taking her away from her mother and the life that she knew.
But I had to keep going. This was the right thing to do. Nova would understand someday.
“Daddy?” said a small voice at the door. This time, Leo walked inside. His eyes were as big as saucers, and sad. “Are you really going to keep Nova away from Mom? And me too?”
“I’m sorry, Leo,” I said. “Claire just isn’t trustworthy.”
This seemed to puzzle Leo. “But she protected me. And she saved me. She saved Nova too. Uncle Ivan’s pack house is really nice… I liked it there. Mom loves us and –”
“I’m sorry,” I said again, a bit more firmly. “Honestly, it’s for the best if you just forget about your mother entirely.”
Leo frowned. “But I don’t want to…”
Leo hadn’t been making up stories. Claire had done all the things he said. She had protected Leo fiercely when it had been her job.
But her judgment seemed off right now, with how she was handling Ivan. I just couldn’t trust her
anymore.
“My word is final,” I said.
Leo hung his head in defeat.
