Chapter 50: NADIA’S ANGER AND LYRA’S VOICE
KEISHA’S POV
Nadia was already talking before we were fully through my front door.
"That woman." She huffed as she dropped onto my sofa and pointed at the ceiling. "That woman walked in here in that exact dress, Keisha. The exact one from that fucking store. Like she wanted us to see it."
"Maybe she didn’t know we’d be there." I said.
"She knew." Nadia said flatly. "Osric told her everything about this pack before she arrived, I guarantee it. She knew exactly who was going to be in that room." She pulled a cushion onto her lap and gripped it. "And then she sat there and called you an assistant in front of my father and in front of the elders." She shook her head. "I should have spilled the whole bottle."
"You spilled enough." I smiled.
"Not enough." She muttered, then she looked at me. "Are you okay? And don’t say fine. I watched your face in there."
I sat down across from her. "I’m not fine." I said honestly. "But I’m not mad either. I just—" I stopped. "I didn’t expect her to be that person from the store. Her out of everyone they could have chosen, it’s wild."
"The universe has a cruel sense of humour." Nadia said darkly.
"Apparently."
"And my father just sat there." She muttered, the anger back in her voice. "When she said that to you. He just sat there."
"Nadia—"
"No." She cut me off. "He’s the Alpha. He could have said something to defend my best friend. He could have shut it down before it got to the point where I had to pour wine on someone." She looked at me. "Why didn’t he say anything?"
If only she knew he didn’t say anything because I wasn’t just his daughter’s best friend.
Because the bond was making it hard for him to think straight with me standing two feet away and he was trying not to make it obvious. "It’s complicated." I sighed.
"It’s not that complicated." She said. "Someone was rude to you. He should have said something."
I didn’t have an answer for that that I could actually give her so I stood up instead. "Come and help me make lunch." I said.
She looked at me. "What?"
"Proper lunch." I said. "Not whatever that was in the hall. Come and help me cook something real."
She stared at me for a moment. "Fine." She said. "But I’m choosing what we make."
"Fine." I smiled.
"And I’m not making anything Vanessa would eat." She added. "On principle."
"That still leaves a lot of options." I laughed.
She followed me into the kitchen, still muttering while I handed her an apron and she put it on still muttering and we started cooking.
We ate, talked before I washed the dishes after and when I came back to the living room Nadia was asleep on my bed with her shoes still on and her arm thrown over her face.
I stood in the doorway and looked at her for a moment.
With a sigh, I pulled the door almost closed and went back to the sofa.
The house was quiet and I sat there and thought about the hall.
About the thing I still hadn’t confirmed. About the thing I was going to have to tell him and Dane regardless.
My phone buzzed and I looked at it.
Lyra.
My brows furrowed and my mind flashed across different scenarios. What had happened that warranted her to call?
I picked up immediately. "Hey."
"Hey." Her voice was groggy. "Bad time?"
"No." I adjusted. "Good time actually."
"You sound tired." She pointed out.
"I’m fine." I said, then cleared my throat. "It’s been a hectic week."
"Tell me." She said.
So I told her most of it. The delegation, the meeting, Riven showing up in the conference room. I left out approximately sixty percent of the relevant information the way I always did with Lyra but I told her enough.
She went quiet when I mentioned Riven’s name. "He’s there?" She said flatly.
"For pack business." I said. "Proposals. He’ll be gone by the end of the week."
"Keisha." Her voice had changed. "Are you okay?"
Why did everyone like asking me that? My reply was always that I was fine. Because what would they do if I wasn’t? There was nothing anyone could do to stop me from spiralling.
"Actually okay." I said. "I promise. I’ve seen him several times and I’m just—tired of it."
"Good." She said firmly. "You should feel tired of it. You should feel nothing at all actually." A pause. "Has he tried to speak to you?"
"Once or twice." I said carefully.
"Of course he has." She made a sound. "Men are genuinely—" She stopped, then started again. "All of them, Keisha. Every single one. Absolute scum."
I almost laughed. "Not all of them."
"Name one." She dared.
I thought about Callum’s hand finding mine under the sheets in the dark and I thought about Dane’s lips on my forehead.
Yeah no.
"I can’t think of any right now." I said.
Which was a big lie because I could think of two people and it was simply that I couldn’t tell her about them.
They weren’t scum, were they? They meant a lot to me. But if I told her that, my life would be screwed.
This was beginning to eat at me from the inside and I ached to tell someone else about it. Just to get this off my chest.
"Exactly." She said, interrupting my thoughts. "Scum. All of them. Avoid Riven. Don’t let him in your head. Don’t let him make you feel like any of what happened was your fault." She was firm. You hear me?"
"I hear you." I affirmed.
"Good." She exhaled. "I love you."
"I love you too." I said.
"Call me when he leaves." She said. "I want to know the moment that man is off Ashveil territory."
"I’ll call you." I said.
She hung up and I stared at the ceiling.
After everything today, when would I tell Dane and Callum that I was possibly pregnant?
