Chapter 469 Nicholas' Worry
Sophie's recovery took longer after she gave birth to her daughter. It was really different from when she gave birth to her wolf pups. This experience gave her a different perspective on how much harder it was for a female human to give birth and care for their little ones.
She had not named her daughter because Sophie couldn't think of a good name in her current state. She wanted to name the youngest one something related to her family, but she already named her children from Leland with her parents' names.
Now, Leland didn't have a good relationship with both his father and mother and so giving a name based on his parents' names was not an option for Sophie. Also, even though the baby looked a lot like Sophie, she didn't want to call her Sophie Jr, or Little Sophie.
She immediately shot down Nicholas' suggestion when he brought it up.
"No, my daughter will not be called Sophie..." she chuckled and shook her head. "I will have to think about the name harder. Gosh... why am I not good with names?"
She rubbed her temple and then looked down at her daughter. The baby was looking at her with her big puppy eyes and making cooing sounds. She was the cutest thing Sophie had ever laid her eyes on. She didn't understand how she was blessed with such wonderful children, one after another.
"Well... I will think about her name and decide later," Sophie said. She got up from her chair and brought the baby to the terrace and stood there to bask under the morning son. It was summer and everything was bright and beautiful.
Ahh..? maybe she could call her baby 'Summer'? That would be a good name too.
Nicholas watched Sophie take her daughter to some sunlight. He was mesmerized by the sight. This woman just looked more and more beautiful as she grew more mature. He felt blessed to get the opportunity to see this.
He had realized that he would never love another woman as he loved her. And until the day he took his last breath, probably the only woman he ever hoped to be with... was her.
Would the opportunity come again?
If so... how long would she wait until she could finally open the door for him?
He was so in love with her and it was torture to be around the woman his heart desired but could not do anything about it. He was a normal man with his sexual needs and he had taken so many cold showers over the years after they were reunited and he knew he fucked up royally and lost her to another man.
Other than with Sophie when they were young, Nicholas had not been intimate with any woman... unless the experience with Karenina counted, which he believe didn't count. He was not conscious when that happened... IF that really happened.
He didn't feel anything, mentally or physically, and even when Karenina told him she was pregnant with his child, Nicholas still didn't feel his heart moved. He truly believed Karenina didn't carry his child, and even if she did become pregnant, it might not even be his.
And come to think of it, Karenina didn't pressure him to take responsibility when he told her he would support the child financially but he would not acknowledge it. And all of a sudden, she was no longer pregnant, claiming that she had gotten rid of it.
And several months ago, Nicholas found out the news of Viscount Verhoeven's mysterious death. Karenina didn't bother telling him about it and she also often disappeared.
Nicholas didn't care about her since he was never in love with her, however, there was something about this situation that bothered him.? He just didn't know what.
All he knew was the letter sent by the mysterious person told him never to let Karenina or Catherine, the children's former teacher come around Sophie and the kids. So... there must be something wrong with them.
However... what was it? Nicholas couldn't wrap his head around it. He wished that person would be more specific and tell her what was actually going on.
And who was the person leaving the note anyway? Was it Leland? Did he hide something? Was everything he did to Sophie, intentionally breaking her heart, done to cover up something?
If so... what was his real plan? Where did he go? Would he return?
And if he would return.... when? Would he take Sophie and the children again?
Nicholas looked around him and felt his heart become so heavy. Luciel and Jan were reading books, an assignment that was given to them by the royal teachers.
Anne was playing with Jack in their basket. She looked healthier today, maybe because the weather was great and put her in a really good mood. Jack had grown almost twice the size of his frail sister now. He ate a lot and he kept running around with his older siblings.
Nicholas could imagine that Jack would grow up into a really big man when he became an adult, perhaps even bigger than his own father. This actually reminded Nicholas of all history books from the time of his grandfather when they were still in a very heated war with the lycans.
The lycan king was called King Malachi, and he was an imposing man over two meters tall. He was big, burly, and scary. Just seeing him come to the battlefield before he transformed into his wolf form was already an intimidating sight. When he shifted, he was an even scarier monster.
Since King Malachi was Sophie's grandfather, Nicholas imagined Jack might take after Leland and King Malachi in appearance.
Gosh... this little wolf which was only 15 months old, already looked like an almost three-year-old wolf. Queen Marianne could no longer carry him because he had gotten so big and heavy. Nicholas would sometimes carry the pup on his back and Jack loved it.
After almost one year of getting to know each other and spending months being around the king, Jack finally softened up to Nicholas. At this point, he had known Nicholas longer than he had known his biological father.
They were all Nicholas' treasures now. Sophie, Luciel, Jan, Jack, Anne, and the little one who didn't have a name yet.. they were all the most important things in his life.
Thinking about the possibility that someday Leland would come back and take them all away from him, made Nicholas feel heartbroken.
What should he do when that happened?
Or... was there anything he could do to prevent that from happening?
People said all is fair in love and war, but how far would Nicholas go to get Sophie back?
"I need to go now," Nicholas said suddenly. He came to the terrace and found Sophie. "I have a meeting with the royal ministers. We have something important to discuss. I'll see you all later."
Sophie smiled at him and nodded. She raised her baby's hand to wave at Nicholas and said with a cute voice, "See you later!"
Nicholas' heart felt heavier when he saw that. He lied about the meeting. There was no meeting planned for the day. He just couldn't see this little family that he loved dearly and then thought about Leland.
He needed to be alone and vented his frustration. He couldn't do it in front of Sophie.
Yes, he had always been a supportive man to her, he did whatever to get her what she wanted, and he did it so carefully, so as not to make her feel suffocated or indebted to him and then feel pressured to take him back.
However, deep inside, he was suffering. It was so hard to love someone who didn't love you back and still love them unconditionally while having thoughts and desires about them.
***
Nicholas was pacing in his studies. He was waiting for Noel to come because he wanted to talk to the captain about something. He had been busy with Sophie and helping her set up her new life in the capital that he didn't have time to pursue information about Karenina, Catherine, and Leland's whereabouts.
He wanted to ask Noel to do surveillance on the two women and then send more spies to Armeria and infiltrate their area to find information about Leland and Eloise. He believed he would get answers if he followed the three people.
"If I am not mistaken, that woman, Eloise, is a witch," Nicholas muttered to himself. "Maybe I can find information about witches and their coven from books in my library. If she did give birth to Leland's child, that child would be so dangerous because he would be a lycan who could wield magic."
He tapped his fingers on the table. "If one day he would become the Alpha of his pack, and the king of Armeria, he would surely pose a huge risk for us when they decided to have an open war. I need to investigate this."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺