Divorcing My Alpha Husband For His Uncle

Vespera's Visit (I)

~Alaric

I found her on the balcony.

Same one as that night, when she came to my room. Her arms were braced on the railing, staring out at the grounds below. The evening sun cast an angelic glow over her as the cool wind blew her hair around her face, and her scent hit me again, making my wolf purr in satisfaction.

“Mate,” he growled, prancing around, and urging me to go to her quickly.

But I held on, no, she'd find it strange. I stayed put where I stood, admiring her serenity when she exhaled a soft sigh, shutting her eyes. A small smile tugged at her lips, and my lips involuntarily mirrored hers instantly.

I'd been looking for her since the meeting ended, not obviously though, because I hadn't gone room to room or asked anyone, I just checked here first, and it happened to be right.

I guess she liked it here.

Finally ready to make myself known, I cleared my throat, startling her a little, which she hid almost perfectly. I walked to where she was standing, her wide eyes following me till I stopped beside her, not saying anything immediately.

My mind goes back to the piece of paper Sera gave me at the meeting. She needed to know, too, so I broke the silence.

"Nolan's petitioned the wider council," I told her, and she turned to me fully. "He's contesting the marriage and requesting a formal hearing."

I watched her from the corner of my eye, waiting. She'd been through enough that I'd started reading her reactions without deciding to, the small tells, where her breath caught, and her jaw ticks. I was waiting for something, but nothing came. She just stared at the side of my face, saying nothing, and after a moment, she quietly asked, "When is it?"

"Two weeks," I replied, and she nodded, turning to face the yard again. I looked at her properly then. She was present, standing here, answering me, but there was something closed off about her tonight that hadn't been there before, and I couldn't figure out what.

And if I say it wasn't bothering me, then I'd be lying. It was bothering my wolf and me. Which was its own problem. She doesn't owe me anything, I reminded myself. Focus.

"The case isn't complicated," I continued, turning back to the grounds. "We established that you came here on your own, that your consent was clear, that nobody forced your hand. That's all we need."

She was quiet for a moment before shrugging a little. "That's not a lie," she said, her tone flat and simple, making my brow curve in a small frown. "Which is more than I could ever say for anything that happened with Nolan."

We stayed in a weird silence, and I mulled over what she just said. She meant it the way she said it, matter of fact, but it landed differently than she probably intended, because under her words was a specific kind of exhaustion of someone who'd been lied to for so long that telling the truth felt almost unremarkable to her now.

I stored that and left it alone. We stayed quiet for a while after that, with her not saying anything else, and I didn't push, so it worked somehow, the two of us standing here while the grounds below went about their evening like nothing was happening up here.

And despite the little worry from her quietness, I was enjoying this. Enjoying being in her company, and I guess my wolf did too, because he hasn't stopped whining and purring.

I stole a glance at her from the corner of my eyes again. She still hadn't warmed up, and it was so obvious. A part of me wanted to ask her what the issue was, or if it was what that elder said about her in the meeting, but I bit my tongue instead.

This is hard and unlike me. I hated seeing her this way. I'd actually prefer her cussing me out and yelling.

I was starting to genuinely irritate myself about that. I didn't do this. I didn't stand around monitoring the mood of another person and feeling it when something was off.

That wasn't something I did. But apparently it was now. I broke the silence before I'd fully talk myself out of it.

"Do you regret it?" I muttered, staring straight at the darkening sky. "Any of it."

She thought about it for a moment, which I respected. "The only thing I regret," she said quietly, "is not running sooner."

I glanced at her. She was still facing the grounds, her expression settled and quiet, and she meant every word of it. I could hear that clearly. But the part that stayed with me, the part I couldn't immediately set down, was what it implied.

Not running sooner… it meant she'd stayed longer than she should have. Endured more than she should have. And she'd been the one who finally got herself out. My fingers tightened on the rail when I thought of what she would have been through in Darkmoon, the images of the bruises coming up again, and I gripped the metal tighter before releasing it and breathing out slowly.

Then my hand shifted on the railing. I don't know when it moved; it wasn't a decision, it just ended up there, close to hers, close enough that there was barely any space between them, and they touched in a feather-like graze, but just that simple touch lit a fire in me.

She noticed, a little startled, and I almost thought she felt something too. I felt the slight change in her breathing, that small barely there hitch, and she immediately moved her hand away.

My wolf, who had been ecstatic all evening, stopped when she pulled away and looked somewhere that wasn't us. While I was standing here trying to hold a coherent thought together while the fire burned harder within me, the pull between us tugged stronger, which was exactly what it did whenever we were together, constantly and completely unbothered by my attempts to reason my way around it.

She's still healing, I told myself. Don't do anything you'll regret or make her push you away more than she's already doing, but I was losing the argument. Just when I was about to speak, a voice called up from the grounds below.

"Alpha."

I leaned forward on the railing, genuinely grateful for the interruption even if I wasn't going to admit that.

"There's a woman at the gate," the guard said louder. "Requesting an audience with the Luna. Says it's personal."

I glanced back at her as she gave me a confused look. "Name," I called down back to him. He paused for a minute, like he was trying to remember the name, before he spoke again with certainty.

"Vespera Darkmoon, sir."

My hands stilled on the railing, and I felt Althea tense beside me. We just stood there with that name sitting in the night air between us like a dead weight.

Vespera Darkmoon at my border? What the hell was she doing here?