My jaw clenched. I knew Gabriel was telling the truth. For five years, I had kept a careful distance from E because I couldn’t trust her, and now I had even more concrete proof that her parents had used her to get closer to me. For all I knew, she really was a spy and was getting exactly what they all wanted.

    And yet… The way she’d looked at mest night…

    bIf /bshe was pretending, then she was a hell of a good actress.

    And I was the fool who would buy right into it until the very end.

    “The investigation,” I blurted out. “Where do we stand?”

    “Still waiting on concrete evidence. Promise me you won’t let what happenedst night happen again

    until we know the truth.”

    Promise him I won’t touch my own mate. The very idea made me feel sick.

    But Gabriel was right about one thing–I couldn’t afford to be reckless. Not anymore.

    “Fine,” I said. “I’ll be logical. But you should also watch yourself around her. If ites out that she’s innocent and you’ve been disrespecting your rightful Luna all this time-”

    “We’ll cross that bridge if wee to it,i” /iGabriel cut me off.

    My Alpha authority bristled at his tone, but I forced myself to remain calm and simply nodded. “Very well. Now get out of my office so I can get some actual work done.”

    After he left, I tried to return to the paperwork. But I made it through exactly two more pages before my mind was once again wandering.

    The truth was, I couldn’t actually, truthfully promise Gabriel what he’d asked for. Because no matter what the investigation turned up, no matter what evidence they found, my heart was bingpletely entangled with E’s.

    Last night hadn’t been just sex for me. It had been a iming, a surrendering, a recognition of something I’d been fighting for five fucking years. And despite Gabriel’s warnings, despite the logical voice in my head that said I should be careful, I didn’t regret it.

    If anything, I wanted more.

    I needed air.

    A few minutester, I found myself wandering in the gardens. My feet carried me toward a familiar spot of their own ord, pulled toward a tantalizing scent by my wolf, and I didn’t resist.

    Soon, I found her sitting beneath thergest cherry tree, perched on the edge of the stone bench she

    always sat on. She was wearing a soft yellow sundress that showed off her growing belly, and she was reading aloud from what looked like a children’s book.

    I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but judging from her soft voice and the way she kept ncing down

    with a furtive smile, I knew she was reading to our unborn child.

    I stayed back, watching her from the shadows. There was something so peaceful about the scene, so domestic and perfect, that it made me want to just observe for fear of shattering it.

    This woman who Gabriel thought might be a spy was sitting under a tree reading fairy tales to our baby. The same woman who’d thrown a pillow at my Beta this morning for interrupting our private moment. The same woman who’d fallen asleep in my armsst night like she’d been waiting her whole life to feel

    safe.

    Lovesick fool. That was what I was. Completely head over heels for a woman I still wasn’t sure I could

    trust.

    But watching her like this, seeing the gentle way she cradled her belly and the soft smile on her face as she read, I felt happier than I could remember being in years. Maybe ever.

    And that baby was mine. Ours. Growing strong and healthy inside the woman I was supposed to hate but couldn’t seem to stop falling for instead.

    As if she could sense me watching, E looked up from her book. When she spotted me standing there, her face lit up with a smile that was so bright and radiant that it made my heart swell to three times its

    size.