Chapter 114: EYES OF A SISTER
DANE’S POV
Rumors spread faster than any other thing in the pack.
I’d learned that years ago.
You could spend an entire afternoon trying to strengthen border security, assigning extra guards, checking routes that hadn’t been touched in months, and before you finished, the cooks in the mansion kitchen somehow already knew someone had sneaked into the estate.
People talked.
They always would. Most of the time I ignored it. Today, I couldn’t.
"...they said she collapsed again."
"It happened in the office."
"I heard the doctor announced it in front of everyone."
"The whole estate knows now."
I slowed without meaning to, a frown pulling at my lips.
What were they talking about?
The two guards standing near the southern watchtower hadn’t noticed me yet. They were changing shifts, helmets tucked beneath their arms as they spoke in lowered voices, but lowered voices didn’t mean much to wolves who had great hearing.
"...poor thing."
"I just want to know who the father is."
"I heard she’s been hiding it for weeks."
One of them laughed quietly. "I wouldn’t be surprised if the Alpha finds out before dinner. Keisha being pregnant was not something I thought would happen anytime soon. I’m kind of jealous of the man."
My feet stopped moving.
For a second, everything around me seemed strangely distant.
Someone called another guard’s name farther down the wall. But all of it became background noise.
Pregnant?
The word rang in my head and I felt my stomach churn.
Ares stirred in my head. "Go check up on her."
Without another thought, I turned around.
"Beta?" One of the guards noticed me just as I stepped away.
"Continue your patrol."
"Yes, Beta."
I didn’t explain where I was going because I didn’t need to.
My feet already knew the path.
The estate was unusually busy despite the hour. Servants crossed between buildings carrying baskets. Guards changed positions at the intersections. A pair of young wolves stopped talking the moment they saw me pass, their conversation dying so abruptly that I knew exactly what they’d been discussing.
The rumor had spread farther than I thought.
Every person I passed looked as though they wanted to ask me something seeing as I was close to get but nobody did. The expression on my face must have discouraged it.
Keisha.
I hadn’t seen her since this morning.
After Nadia’s rescue, everything had blurred into reports, questioning Eliora, checking the borders and making sure the estate settled down after everything that had happened.
I’d planned to see her tonight. Just not like this.
The walk to her cabin usually felt short, but today it seemed longer.
Ares remained quiet inside me, though I could feel him pacing restlessly beneath the surface. He didn’t need to tell me what he wanted because I already knew.
If the rumors were true... Everything had changed.
I reached the front porch and stopped. The lights inside were still on.
Good. She was awake.
For a brief second, I simply stood there looking at the closed door.
What exactly was I supposed to say?
Congratulations? Are you alright? Why didn’t you tell me? None of them sounded right.
I raised my hand anyway and knocked. The knock echoed softly through the cabin.
There was no answer.
I waited, then knocked again and this time I heard footsteps.
The door opened finally and my heart skipped despite myself.
Keisha stood there wearing a loose sweater and soft house trousers, her hair slightly messy as though she’d only recently woken from sleep.
She looked tired. Far more tired than she had the last time I’d seen her this morning.
The color hadn’t fully returned to her face either.
For one moment, neither of us spoke. Then the words escaped before I could stop them.
"Are you alright?"
She blinked. "I..."
"The rumors." I searched her face. "They’re true?"
For a heartbeat she simply looked at me. Then, very slowly, she nodded. "They’re true."
Something inside my chest tightened. It wasn’t like I hadn’t believed the rumors, it was simply different hearing it from her.
My eyes dropped briefly toward her stomach before returning to her face.
She noticed and her hand moved almost instinctively across the front of her sweater before quickly falling back to her side. "I was going to tell you."
"I know."
"You don’t."
"I know you would’ve."
She stared at me and I could almost see the questions building behind her eyes.
How? Why are you so calm? Why aren’t you angry? Those questions swirled in her eyes.
The truth was simple.
I’d imagined this conversation more than once. Just never imagined it happening like this.
"Can we talk?"
She hesitated. Only then did I notice her glance over her shoulder into the cabin.
It wasn’t a casual glance. She was checking whether someone could hear us.
"Keisha?"
"My sister’s here."
Right. Lyra. I’d almost forgotten.
Ares let out a low growl inside me. It was complicated. That was one word for it.
"I don’t want her hearing this."
Neither did I and not through a half-open door.
Without thinking too much about it, I reached forward and gently wrapped my fingers around her hand. "Come with me."
She looked down at our joined hands, then back at me only for a minute.
"We’ll talk somewhere quiet." I assured her.
She hadn’t even taken a step when another voice reached us from inside. "Keisha?"
Everything froze as the voice came closer.
"What are you doing at the—" Lyra rounded the corner wrapped in a thick blanket, clearly having just climbed out of bed after hearing voices near the entrance.
The moment she saw me, she stopped walking.
Her expression changed so quickly it was almost impossible to follow. Confusion. Recognition. Then irritation.
Finally... something clicked in her expression.
Her eyes lowered straight to where I was still holding Keisha’s hand and her brows narrowed.
Neither of us had let go.
Well.
This was about to become far more difficult than I’d hoped.
Fuck.