<h4>Chapter 345: The y of Darkness</h4>


    <strong>Evaline:</strong>


    The silence that stretched inside the ward felt suffocating. It wrapped around me like a heavy nket I couldn’t shake off. My pulse was thudding so loudly in my ears that I was sure Kieran could hear it, but still neither of us spoke.


    Finally, River let out a small breath, the kind that sounded like he had been holding the world on his shoulders and had decided, just for a second, to set it down. He stood up, his tall frame casting a shadow across my bed.


    "You two should talk and clear this," he said gently. "I’ll step out."


    Panic surged through me instantly. My fingers tightened around his hand as though letting go meant losing myst thread of bnce. I wanted to talk to Kieran, needed to, but the fear that had been gnawing at me since River first brought up the possibility wed its way deeper into my heart.


    What if this made them all ufortable? What if this unravelled the fragile peace I had with my mates? What if I lost their trust? What if...


    Before the storm in my head could drown me, River bent down and cupped my face between his palms. His touch was warm, grounding. He tilted my chin up until my eyes locked with his, refusing to let me retreat into myself.


    "I love you," he said, his voice steady and unshakable. "And I always will."


    And then his lips pressed against mine.


    It wasn’t a long kiss, nor desperate. It was short, but it carried weight... so much weight. A kiss that told me everything he wanted to say but didn’t put into words. A kiss that told me I wasn’t alone in this.


    When he pulled back, I was already blinking back tears.


    "This news is shocking," he admitted softly. "But it’s not unwee. Not to me, not to Oscar, not to Draven. For us, it’s actually good news that our pup carries our bloodline and not... that ckwood’s."


    He gave me a quick peck on the lips, like sealing a promise, then straightened and gave Kieran’s shoulder a firm pat.


    And then he walked out, leaving me alone with the brother I had tried so hard not to think about inappropriately for months... and had failed miserably at.


    Kieran lowered himself into the chair River had just emptied. He didn’t lean back, didn’t rx. He just sat there, stiff, his eyes fixed on me like he was afraid I would disappear if he dared to look away.


    <fn7905> Read full story at Find[?]ovel</fn7905>


    One thing I had learned from River’s words was that he and the others already believed Kieran was my child’s real father.


    That alone made my heart race. Not because I didn’t want him as my child’s father, but because this meant the past nine months of my life were built on a misunderstanding.


    The room filled with silence again, and it took every bit of courage I had to look up at him. My lips parted, my voice trembling as I asked, "Where... where did you meet your mate that day?"


    His gaze didn’t waver as he answered, "A small town called Windmere," he answered without hesitation. "It sits at the outskirts of where Shadowfang Pack used to be. I stayed that night at a ce called Hollow Creek Inn."


    The words mmed into me like a physical blow. My breath caught in my throat, and I stared at him in stunned disbelief.


    Windmere. Hollow Creek Inn.


    The same town. The same inn.


    If it had just been the date, I might have forced augh, brushed it off as some strange coincidence. But it wasn’t just the date. It was the town. The inn. The details were too exact to be anything else.


    A ray of hope, fragile and trembling, began to push through the confusion clouding my mind.


    I swallowed hard and found my voice again. "You... you once told me you didn’t see your mate’s face. What happened that night that even your Alpha eyesight failed you?"


    His jaw clenched, and his throat worked as if the memory itself was something bitter. His voice was raw when he finally answered.


    "I was drugged," he said quietly. "At a party I attended that afternoon, someone slipped a powerful aphrodisiac into my drink. I barely made it out before losing control. My beta, Mark, he realized what was happening and helped me get to a small inn in the nearest town while he tried to reach my brothers and healers. He left me in a room, but..."


    His fists curled on his knees. "The drug was too strong. The room was pitch dark. I couldn’t see her face. Or if I did, I can’t recall it. No matter how hard I have tried, I never could."


    My chest tightened.


    Before I could form a response, his next words came like a strike straight to my heart.


    "Evaline," he said, his voice deep and steady, "are you sure it was Ethan you slept with that night?"


    The air froze around me. My lips parted to say <i>yes</i>, to confirm the truth I had believed for months, but the word caught in my throat.


    Images flooded back to me. The dark room. The overwhelming pull of the bond. The way everything felt both wrong and right at once.


    And then Ethan’s smug face next evening, his confidence, his certainty.


    But had I actually seen him that night in that room?


    With a tremor in my voice, I confessed, "Since it was dark, I never really saw his face. I just believed it was Ethan because... I felt the mate bond with him. And Ethan had been telling me for months, ever since he turned eighteen, that he felt the bond with me. So when I felt it too, I thought it could... only be him."


    I lowered my gaze, shame and confusion burning in equal measure. My voice dropped to a whisper.


    "Even when I found him different that night."