Chapter 85
Faith’s Pov
+25 Points
I sat by the window waiting for my fate, Marco was asleep upstairs, finally peaceful after a day filled with the confusing weight that he couldn’t possibly understand.
Astor had been gone for hours. After the funeral, while everyone else was finding solace or sorrow, he had slipped away. He’d said he needed to make sure the pack grounds were safe.
Everybody was scared and paranoid because this is the second attack on our pack and even though the bodies that were found yesterday weren’t from our pack but it’s still an attack on
- us.
I’d tried to keep busy. Dinner was a simple just, mac and cheese, something Marco ate
without fuss.
We both freshened up when we got here. Now, I was reading him a story, a book about a brave little and I’ve read this book so many times that I’m already tired of that but then his small voice had cut through the quiet.
“Mommy,” he whispered, his eyes wide and innocent, “are we ever going home?”
My heart twisted. Home. What was home now? The house we’d just left, the one Kyle constantly terrorised but also the one that has brought us nothing but happiness? Or this new place, filled with the ghosts of a past I thought I’d escaped but the only place where I can be with the man that I love? I’d swallowed hard. “Sweetheart,” I’d said, pulling him closer, “this is home now. This is where we’ll be safe.” He’d just nodded, his mind too young to truly grasp the meaning behind my words.
I kissed his forehead, pulling the blanket up to his chin. “Mommy has something very important to tell you,” I’d continued, my voice soft. “But tonight has been a very long night. Mommy has to rest. Tomorrow, we’re going to have a very important talk, okay?” He’d just nodded again, already drifting off to sleep. Five years old. Too young for any of this.
Just then I heard a soft click echoing from downstairs. The front door. My breath hitched. Even before I heard the slow, heavy footsteps, I knew. His scent, strong and familiar, filled the air a mix of pine, earth, and something uniquely Astor. Relief washed over me. He was here. He was safe.
I pushed myself up from the chair and made my way downstairs, my heart thrumming in my chest. He was standing in the entryway, shrugging off his jacket, his broad shoulders tense. When he looked up, his eyes met mine, and the hard, weary look on his face told me everything. This wouldn’t be an easy conversation. We had too many unspoken things
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< Chapter 85
between us and I had secrets.
“You look tired,” I said, my voice barely a whisper, trying to fill the heavy silence.
+25 Points
He didn’t answer my comment. Instead, he just looked at the couch. “Sit down, Faith,” he said, his voice deep, rough with tiredness. “We need to talk.‘
”
My stomach dropped. I walked over to the sofa, my legs feeling like lead, and sat on the couch. The moment I was seated, I knew I had to be strong and to be honest about everything. I couldn’t hide anymore.
“I didn’t have an affair with Alpha Kyle,” I started, my voice clear despite the tremble in my hands. “Not now, not back then.” I took a deep breath. “He’s been after me, Astor. For years.”
He frowned, his gaze intense. “How?” he asked, his voice low.
I swallowed, the words suddenly feeling heavy on my tongue. “When I left the pack… back then, I took his help. He promised me a way out. I didn’t know what he wanted, not really. I just knew I had to get away. So I took it but only until I was out of the pack lands and after
that I ran.
I took a solo plane to New York, as far as I could get.”
I paused, remembering those first few lonely and emotionally taxing weeks. “A few weeks later, I found out I was pregnant.” My eyes met his, pleading for understanding. “I was happy. So happy. Finally, I had somebody. Someone to love, someone who was mine.” The apology was heavy on my lips. “I’m so sorry, Astor, but I never had any intention of telling you the truth about our son. He was all I had. My whole world.”
His face was a mask, unreadable. He just listened, his eyes fixed on me.
“A year after Marco was born, I started noticing it,” I continued, the memories making my skin crawl. “Somebody was following me. Everywhere. It was terrifying. I was working in customer care service, a baker in a small shop. In that kind of place, you meet a lot of people. Some were kind, some were very rude and mean.” I shuddered. “And whenever someone said something cruel to me, something awful, they ended up dead. Murdered.”
He stiffened, his eyes widening slightly.
“It got overwhelming, Astor. Too much. I didn’t understand what was going on, but it clearly had everything to do with me. I started to get so paranoid. I stopped serving people, decided to just bake, away from where customers could see me. But the killings didn’t stop. It got to a point where I noticed a pattern. A few people I’d actually made friends with, people I trusted they started claiming someone was following them. It made me sick to my stomach and I had to isolate myself.”
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+25 Points
My voice cracked. “And then he finally decided to pop up.” My eyes were filled with tears now, blurring his face. “Kyle. He showed up, walked right into my life.”
Astor’s jaw was clenched.
“He told me… he told me he had been protecting me. That he wanted me to be with him. He said he loved me.” I shook my head, tears finally spilling down my cheeks. “I told him no, Astor that I was so in love with you. I would never give another man a chance.”
My voice dropped to a whisper. “He tried to be nice at first, coming around, begging me for a chance, for my attention. But when I kept refusing, he started to get aggressive. He started threatening Marco’s life, Astor. He said if I didn’t go out with him, if I didn’t let him into our lives, he would hurt our son.” The memory was a fresh wound, bleeding fear into the room. He forced me to go out with him multiple times but talking to him or just even looking at him made me sick.”
Astor was breathing heavily, his eyes burning.
“Did he—–.” I immediately shook my head no. I wouldn’t have survived something like that and I’m glad he didn’t.
“Then, about two years after he just… disappeared. Out of nowhere. One day he was there, the next he was gone. I thought he was finally out of my life. I thought we were safe and that it was over.” My voice was barely audible now. “Until he called me yesterday. He called me and he told me everything that happened… that the m******e, their deaths, everything… it was all because of me.”
The words hung in the air, heavy and dark. I watched Astor’s face, waiting for judgment, for anger, for anything. But instead, his expression softened, a deep shock washing over him, followed by something else, pain, and then a fierce, unwavering protectiveness.
“Faith,” he said, his voice surprisingly gentle, “why didn’t you ask for help? Why didn’t you tell me?”
My tears were still flowing freely. “I wanted to be independent, Astor. I thought… I thought I was doing the right thing for both of us by staying away, by not burdening you, by keeping Marco safe on my own. I thought I could handle it.” I looked at him with my heart laid bare as I acknowledged my mistakes. “I was so wrong.”
He stood up then, walked over to me, and knelt in front of me taking my hands in his. His grip was firm, reassuring. He looked into my eyes, and I saw a promise there that made my own breath catch.
“Faith,” he said, his voice raw with emotion and determination, “I am going to protect you. Against anything, and against anybody. You are not alone anymore. We are in this together.”
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And in that moment, for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, I believed him.
