Julian’s POV

    Alice’s question filled me with the kind of joy and pride that made me puff out my chest a little. Of course Alice’s friends would think that her mother and I were a couple, we were still married after all. We also

    were Alice’s legitimate parents.

    As for when we were going to get married… Well, we already were.

    Alice clearly didn’t know that, and right here in this park did not seem like the time ito /itell her.

    Amber had kept Alice in the dark on so many things, it seemed. That Amber and I were married, that I

    was Alice’s real father, that she could so easily be next in line to rule the Thorn pack.

    I wasn’t pleased Amber had kept these secrets, but I could understand why she would. Out of fear of abandonment, I suspected. Why lift up Alice’s hopes just to watch them fall?

    But I made an inward vow to both Amber and to Alice. Neither would be left behind again. Alice would be my daughter in every way. I wouldn’t keep her in the shadows as I had my marriage to Amber.

    Perhaps Amber just needed proof that I was being genuine. But that made her reaction to my future ns

    all the more confusing.

    I had thought she would be pleased that I intended to take Alice under my wing. Why did she look like I had given her the worst news imaginable?

    Surely she should be joyous? After all, Thorn pack was so much more advanced than this rural wilderness. Yes, the trees and nature called to my wolf, but technologically, it was so far behind.

    Alice deserved to be raised as the daughter of a prosperous pack Alpha should, with all the benefits that title would provide her. And here I was, offering that.

    So why did she seem so distressed?

    “No, honey,” Amber said softly. “Julian and I are just friends…”

    The words cut into me more than I would have expected. Inside of me, my wolf whined anxiously.

    Just friends? We were married!

    Still, I held my tongue. For now, I would follow Amber’s lead on Alice. Soon though, we would tell her the truth and I would start to take a more proactive role in her care.

    “Aww,” Alice said, pouting. She bwas /bimmediately distracted though, when her friends called her name, beckoning her back to the yground.

    When she was gone, Amber lowered her head. There was a delectable blush to her cheeks that enthralled

    me somewhat. How many times in the past had I prided myself on making her blush like that? It felt like

    a different lifetime now.

    “I’m sorry about that,” she said.

    Again, I was confused. Amber and I did not seem to be on the same page about anything anymore.

    Maybe we never had been.

    Even when we had been together initially, it was like we were talking but having two very different conversations at once. In all this time, that didn’t seem to have changed.

    Yet, in the past, when I would have just given up and walked away. Now, I found myself wanting to understand her side of things.

    In walking away before, I had only ever made things worse between us, creating a rift that had led to her keeping the existence of my child from me. I didn’t want to make those same mistakes again.

    I didn’t want to push either Amber or Alice away.

    What I wanted was to have my family back with me.

    There wereplications of course. Olivia being one of the big ones. And Roman, though he admitted publically his engagement to Amber was a misunderstanding.

    But even with theseplications, Amber should be able to see that the best way for us to be was all together. It made the most logical sense.

    “Why should you ibe /isorry?” I asked.

    “Alice gets these big ideas in her head.”

    “But… this one just happens to be true,” I said. “We are still married.”

    She looked at me sharply, as her voice itoo /itook on an edge. “Only because you haven’t signed the divorce

    papers.”

    “Why should we get divorced?” I asked. “Now that we have Alice –”

    “Why would we teach Alice that marriage without love is eptable?” she asked, her brow scrunched, her voice filled with disbelief. “I wouldn’t want her to end up in a marriage like ours.”

    i2/2 /i