Chapter 3 Chapter 2

Erin’s POV

Julia.

His first love.

Why was Carlos talking to her?

Julia wasn’t just some ex he had dated for a few months. She had grown up with him. Her father had been Beta to Carlos’s father, and everyone in Silver Moon had once believed they would end up mated, ruling the pack together.

They had been high school sweethearts.

Until college.

When Julia left.

So why was she calling my husband now?

My mind began to spiral. 

Had they been talking this whole time?

Blue surged forward with rage as she fought to try take control of my body. I forced her down, tightening my grip on the window.

‘Let me out.’

‘No.’

‘He’s talking to her, Erin.’

‘I know.’

Blue wanted answers, and she didn’t care how she got them. 

I wanted answers too.

Goddess, I wanted to storm outside and demand them right now.

But my family was in the other room.

My other hand moved to my stomach. Tonight was meant to be all about us and our baby.

I couldn’t let them watch my marriage fall apart before I even knew what was happening. pushing myself away from the window and grabbed the cloth from the sink.

Pull it together. 

I turned around and walked back to the dining room. Forcing a smile on my face as I walked into the room. “Found one,”  I said, holding it out. 

Dad took it from me, muttering something about Mum never letting him live this down.

But I barely heard him.

I sat back down, my eyes glued to the door Carlos would be walking back through any minute now. Everyone around me kept talking, but I heard none of it. 

Why would he need to tell her that?

My hands shook on my stomach.

Maybe she had called him out of nowhere.

this was nothing.

But if it was nothing, why had he hidden his phone from me and gone outside?

‘You know why.’ Blue growled low in my head.

‘Stop.’ I snapped at her.

I couldn’t think like that.

Carlos was happy about our pup. 

He loved us.

This was all nothing.

It was just a random call at a random time that just so happened to be his first love. 

“Erin,” my mum said loudly. 

Someone touched my arm, making me jump.

I looked up; everyone was looking at me. 

Carlos was standing next to me, his hand resting on my arm, his worried eyes scanning my face. 

“What, sorry?” I asked, shaking my head. 

“Are you alright?” 

“I'm fine.” I forced a smile on my face, looking up at Carlos, my heart aching. 

Carlos smile his thumb drawing small circles on my arm. 

“you probably tired,” Mum said, already standing. “We'd better get going; let you get your rest.”

Everyone else started getting up with her. panic rushing in with them. 

“No, I’m fine. You don’t have to leave.”

I wasn’t ready to be alone with Carlos.

Not yet.

I needed another ten minutes. Even five. Anything that gave me time to work out what I was going to say to him. if I was going to say anything.

I stood up. 

“You need your rest, love.” Mum kissed my cheek and wrapped her arms around me. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Everyone started moving towards the door, my legs moving on their own, following them as panic ripped through me. 

I stopped a few feet from the door. 

Dad said something to Carlos, but I couldn’t focus on the words. All I could think about was how quickly they were leaving.

Mum turned back and smiled at me. “Get some sleep, love.”

I nodded, forcing myself to smile.

Then they were gone.

Carlos closed the door behind them, and the second it clicked shut, all the air left my lungs.

‘Ask him,’ Blue said, slamming into my chest. I grabbed the handrail to the stairs, my knuckles turning white.

I looked at Carlos’s back.

Not yet.

I needed to know what he would say before he knew I had heard anything.

Carlos turned around. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.”

‘Ask him,’ Blue screamed.

My mouth went dry.

“Carlos?”

“Yeah?”

I rubbed one hand against my dress, the words sitting on the tip of my tongue.

“Do you know if Frank and Rosie are thinking about leaving the pack?”

Blue growled in disgust. 

Carlos frowned. “Frank hasn’t mentioned anything to me. Why?”

My stomach twisted, but I kept my face still.

“I don’t know. I was just wondering.”

“Did Rosie say something to you?”

“No.” I shook my head, looking away, trying to calm my racing heart.

Maybe if I said her name and watched his face, I'd get the answer that I needed. 

“Julia hasn’t been back in years. Maybe she found a mate wherever she moved to. Frank and Rosie might want to be closer to her. She’s their only daughter.”

I held my breath. 

Her name was out.

I looked back at him, watching his face, searching for anything that would tell me I was wrong.

His jaw moved.

Only slightly, but I saw it.

“Erin, that’s just a guess.” His lips pressed into a thin line. “Why are you gossiping about other people’s relationships?”

That wasn’t the reaction I wanted.

“I’m not gossiping.”

“You’re worrying about something that has nothing to do with us.”

Nothing to do with us.

Blue growled inside me.

I wanted to throw it straight at him.

Then why were you talking to her?

My nails dug into the rail I'd forgotten I was holding. My other hand moved to my stomach.

Our baby.

Everything had happened too fast tonight. A few hours ago, I had thought our marriage was finally going to be okay.

I wasn’t ready to tear it apart over something I still didn’t understand.

Carlos let out a tired breath and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’m going upstairs. I need a shower.”

‘You heard him, Erin,’ Blue said.

‘I know.’

‘Then why are you letting him walk away from this? Stop him’

Because I didn’t know what came after the question.

What happened to us if the answer was something I couldn’t forgive?

I wanted to stop him.

The words were right there.

But I opened my mouth, and nothing came out.

Carlos turned and headed upstairs without looking back.

I stayed beside the railing, listening to his footsteps disappear above me.

Blue growled.

‘You should have asked him.’

‘I know’

I let go of the railing, heading up the stairs after him. 

By the time I reached the bedroom, the bathroom door was already closed and the shower was running.

I walked over to the bed sitting down.

He hadn’t even waited for me.

The water rushed behind it, filling the silence.

I rubbed my hands over my face.

What if I was wrong?

What if Julia really had called him out of the blue and Carlos had only been trying to shut it down?

That was possible.

I wanted it to be possible.

But his face when I said her name kept replaying in my head.

That small jaw clench and the way he had immediately become defensive.

‘You felt that,’ Blue said.

The shower turned off, and my heart stopped with it, my eyes glued to the door, waiting for him to step out and to tell me…

The door opened. 

Carlos stepped out in nothing but his boxers, rubbing a towel through his wet hair.

My eyes moved over him before I could stop them.

Goddess.

Even now, with all the worry eating away inside me, I still wanted him. He was still my mate. And still the man I had fallen in love with.

“Thought you were tired?” he said.

I looked up at him, a smirk pulling at his lips, his eyes filled with desire. He hadn’t looked at me like that in weeks, maybe even longer.

I stood, my legs unsteady beneath me.

Blue went completely still inside me.

Carlos tossed the towel onto a chair and walked towards me.

I held my breath.

He reached for my waist.

I stepped back.

His hand fell to his side, his eyebrows pulling together. “Erin?”

My heart raced.

“Carlos, I need to talk to you.” The words rushed out of me.

“About what?”

This was it.

I couldn’t spend another second trying to find another reason, another explanation, anything that would make what I heard mean nothing.

I needed the truth, and I needed it now. 

“I heard you.”

Carlos frowned. “Heard me?”

“Outside.” My voice shook. “I heard you talking to Julia.”

He froze.

I felt sick; I didn’t have to say it for me to already know, but I made myself keep going. 

“Did you betray me?”

“What?” Carlos stepped towards me. “No. Erin, it was just a phone call.”

“Just a phone call?”

“You misunderstood.”

He reached for me, but I stepped away before he could touch me.

“I have nothing to do with Julia anymore,” he said quickly. “I haven’t for a long time.”

My eyes burned.

“Then why were you telling her that your wife is pregnant?”

Carlos opened his mouth, but I didn’t let him speak.

“I’m not stupid, Carlos.” Tears blurred my vision. “That wasn’t the first time you’ve spoken to her, was it?”

He said nothing, and that was enough.

Tonight was supposed to be one of the happiest nights of my life.

We were having a baby.

I had thought I had my husband back.

And now I was standing here crying over his ex.

“Answer me.” I demanded, trying to keep my voice steady.

Carlos ran a hand through his wet hair. “Julia contacted me first.”

Bile rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down. 

“So you have been talking to her?”

“We’ve sent some messages. A few phone calls.” He came closer again. “That’s all, Erin. I swear.”

The room felt like it was closing in around me. 

Messages.

Phone calls.

How many?

My mind went raced back to all those nights he had been too busy to come home. The dinners he missed. The times I had gone to bed alone because he had paperwork or pack business.

Had he really been working?

Or had he been talking to her?

“How long?”

Carlos sighed. “Erin—”

“How long have you been talking to her?”

“It hasn’t been like that.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

He looked away, and something inside me cracked.

Blue paced beneath my skin, her anger mixing with my own until I could barely breathe.

There was one question I needed answered more than anything else. But I was terrified to ask it.

I had to.

“Did you sleep with her?”

Carlos’s head snapped towards me.

“No.”

I searched his face.

“No,” he repeated, stepping closer again. “Erin, I swear to you, I have not slept with Julia.”

“why should I believe you?”

“Because I’m telling you the truth.”

A bitter laugh left me. the pain becoming to much and turning my heart cold and numb.

“You were talking to your ex behind my back, Carlos. You hid your phone from me tonight and walked outside so I wouldn’t hear you.”

“Matt wouldn’t let me lie about something like that.”

Blue stirred at the mention of his wolf.

Carlos pressed a hand against his chest. “You know Matt. You know how he feels about Blue. If I slept with another woman, he would hate me for it. He would abandon me before he let me destroy our mate bond like that.”

Blue went quiet.

I knew Matt loved her.

I had never doubted that.

But Matt wasn’t the one standing in front of me.

Carlos was.

And no matter how good Matt was, he couldn’t control every choice Carlos made.

“I didn’t sleep with her,” Carlos said again. “I promise.”

Tears slipped down my cheeks.

“Then why keep talking to her?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “It started with a few messages. Then she called. It should never have gone that far.”

He reached for me again, but this time I didn’t move. I just stood there as his hands settled on my arms.

“I’ll stop,” he said. “No more messages or calls. Nothing.”

I looked up at him.

“You expect me to believe that?”

“You heard me outside.” His eyes held mine. “I told her not to contact me anymore. I refused her, Erin.”

I had heard that.

That was the one thing I had been clinging to all night and had stopped me from falling apart completely

“We’re having a baby.” He put his hand over mine that was resting on my stomach.“We are a family. You and our pup are what matter to me.”

I looked down at our hands.

This morning, those words would have been everything I wanted.

Tonight, they hurt.

I slowly pulled my hand away from his, stepping back.

Our baby was still here.

Our family was still here.

But something between Carlos and me had changed, and I didn’t know if a promise could put it back the way it was.

I looked up at him through my tears.

“Carlos, I don’t know if my heart can accept you anymore.”