Divorcing My Alpha Husband For His Uncle

Vespera's Visit (II)

~Althea

Vespera?

I blinked, staring at Alaric and having no clue why she'd be looking for me, like it would make more sense the more I stared at him.

Why was she here? Alone, at Darkmoor's border, asking to see me specifically? I turned it over in my head and couldn't land on a single reason that made me feel good about it.

But I also couldn't just… not go.

Maybe she genuinely came to make peace after everything she's done. Or maybe things had changed in Darkmoon, and she was just here to say something real for once… I don't know.

And not knowing was going to eat me alive if I just stood up here doing nothing about it, and squinting at the darkness to know if I could see her, which obviously I couldn't.

I pushed off the railing. "I'm going to see her."

"Althea," Alaric said immediately, pushing off the railing too with a stern face.

"I've got this," I told him, already moving toward the corridor door when he stepped in front of me, carefully filling the doorway but not like a wall the way Nolan used to, and I gasped, pulling back because I almost ran into him.

His eyes were serious, looking at me with that quiet expression that somehow still managed to stop me without doing anything dramatic.

"You don't know what she wants," he said, and I almost rolled my eyes at him.

Of course I do. Well, not entirely. But I have an idea of what she was looking for, even when a part of me wanted it not to be true.

But we can't really wipe off the spots on a leopard, can we?

"Exactly," I said, looking up at him. "So I'm going to go find out."

He looked at me for a moment, and I could see him thinking about it, his temple ticked with that internal back and forth between wanting to say no and knowing it wasn't his call to make.

"Then I'm coming with you," he concluded, stepping forward, and I shook my head, taking a step back.

"No." I needed to do this alone; if not, Vespera wouldn't speak.

"Althea—"

"She won't talk if you're there," I cut in, keeping my voice leveled even though I was getting a little frustrated and somewhat grateful for why he was acting this way.

"Whatever she came here to say, she came to say it to me. Alone. You standing there would shut her up before she even started."

From the look on his face, he didn't like the idea of me going alone. His jaw was tight, and his brows furrowed in a deep frown. Then he let out a heavy sigh before stepping aside.

But just before I moved, his voice came again, "Don't get within arm's reach of her."

I looked back at him, arching a brow at him. What?

"My men will be outside the whole time," he added, quieter now, like he didn't want any other person to hear him. "You won't see them, but they're there. If anything feels off, anything at all, you step back. Just step back, and they'll handle the rest." He paused, taking a deep breath like this was physically hard for him to say. "Please."

My lips parted, but I didn't say anything. Something about that last word, the way he said it quietly, and not in a commanding tone, just quiet and genuine, did something small and unexpected to me that I wasn't going to stand here and think about.

"Okay," I mumbled out, and walked away.

Just by the pack's gate, I saw her before she saw me. She was standing just outside the gate, and my first thought was that she looked different outside of Darkmoon. Like smaller somehow, and if I was correct, less of that sharp, polished thing she always carried around her like armour.

As I got closer to the pack's entrance, I watched her as she looked around innocently, and I almost thought, maybe she actually came in good faith. But then she looked up, and her eyes found me, a slow smile curved her lips, and I instantly remembered exactly who I was looking at.

I crossed my arms and stopped a few feet in front of her. Just like Alsric told me, and said nothing, waiting for her to break the silence first, and she did.

"Althea." Her voice was warm and silky, "I came to apologize about the way everything happened, the way you found out, I never wanted that for you. I need you to know I still care about you. I always have."

She went on, and I let her finish. I stood there, arms folded, face blank, and let her say all of it without giving her a single thing to read on my face. She kept going on about how much I was missed back there, how much the people missed me, and wanted me back. As she spoke, her eyes searched my face, and her voice stayed soft.

When she finally stopped, an uncomfortable silence fell between us. I watched her eyes move across my face, looking for a reaction, but I gave her nothing. Then her hands shifted at her sides slightly, a little frown on her face, she thought I couldn't see.

I sighed, uncrossing my arms, "Say the real reason you're here, Vespera. I have pending things to take care of.” I said, knowing fully well it was a lie, but I just loved the look of frustration in her eyes.

Then her mask dropped, just that half-degree slip that told me the first version of this conversation was over.

"Nolan is unraveling," she began, her tone shifting into something more direct now. "His obsession with getting you back is consuming him, and it's dragging the pack down with it. People are scared, Althea. The same people you spent years looking after." She let that sit deliberately, watching me. "If you don't come back willingly, he's going to burn this place to the ground trying to take you. And every person that gets hurt in that fire, that's on you for leaving."

My fingers fisted beside me, and that familiar weight settled back on my shoulders, with the old trained reflex trying to kick in, telling me this was my fault, that I should fix it, and that people would suffer because of a choice I made for myself.

I felt it move through me, but I couldn't say a word, trying to push it out, and luckily it did. So I tilted my head at her, throwing her a glare. "Is that a warning or a threat?"

She stepped closer, an evil smirk on her lips, and this was the first time she was open about the kind of person she was. Even back in Darkmoon, she was always pretending to have my back, even after everything. So I didn't move back, I squared my shoulders, jutted my chin, and met her snakelike gaze with a cold glare of my own.

We stood there face to face, close enough that I could see the exact moment her wolf pushed through and her eyes turned deep onyx.

That sharp, calculating look she'd always been so good at hiding behind warm eyes and a gentle voice was evident on her face now, and her smirk grew into something deadly that almost sent a shiver down my back.

Her lips curved slowly. "Whichever one you need it to be."

She held my gaze a moment, satisfied, then turned and walked away, so easy and unbothered, like she'd accomplished exactly what she came here to do.

But then she stopped, without turning around, she said over her shoulder, "The council hearing won't matter. Nolan's already decided he's not waiting for it."

Then she walked away, those last words sitting in my chest like a huge immovable stone, leaving me in deeper thoughts about what she meant by that. By Nolan not waiting for the hearing he requested himself.