Chapter 190 Unconditional Trust
_Rowena’s POV_
I arrived back at the Ebonmoon pack residence late at night instead of going back to Ashthorne. The house was quiet and dark as I walked through the front doors, the l doors clicking shut behind me as I made my way in fully.
I didn’t expect to see anyone up at this hour except the guards.
Alaric was supposed to be resting in bed like the doctors told him to, recovering from everything that had happened over the past few days.
I stopped one of the night guards walking down the hallway.
"Is the King in his bedroom?" I asked softly, crossing my arms against the night chill.
"No, Marchioness Rowena," the guard answered politely, stopping and pointing down the long hall. "He is in the main common room."
"He’s not sleeping?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.
"No, ma’am. He has been in there for a while," the guard said with a brief nod before resuming his patrol. I thanked him and walked toward the room.
When I reached the wide doorway of the common room, I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight. Alaric was sitting on the large leather couch, he wasn’t sleeping, and he wasn’t reading any pack reports or paperwork. Only one small table lamp was turned on in the corner, reflecting a small lighting across the room since it was dark.
His phone was lying face down on the coffee table beside him, he looked like he had been sitting there for hours, maybe thinking about things.
He heard my shoes against the floor and looked up at me immediately. His face showed how tired he was, but his eyes were soft as they met mine.
"You’re home," he said quietly, shifting slightly and patted the empty space on the soft couch beside him. "Come sit down, Rowena."
I walked over slowly and took a seat next to him, keeping a small distance between us as Ibraced myself for what was coming. All night at the club, while Pierre and Ezekiel were distracted, a small part of my mind had been worrying about this exact moment.
I expected him to be angry, distant, or cold. I thought the pictures of me and Kaelen had been sitting in his head all evening, slowly turning into suspicion even though Kasper had clearly said he hasn’t seen it.
But knowing the type of person Brielle was, she must’ve found a way to show him. Or he would eventually read the news to see it.
And now, instead of keeping his distance as I’d expected, Alaric turned his body on the couch to face me directly. He rested one arm along the back of the sofa and looked straight into my eyes.
"Tell me what happened with the photographs," he said plainly, I knew it had been in his mind ever since.
But there was no anger in his voice. There was no suspicion, no hidden accusation, and no harsh edge. He just asked me directly, giving me the full space to tell my side of the story.
I took a deep breath, letting the air fill my lungs although briefly. Alaric had never needed me to walk on eggshells around him, and I wasn’t going to start managing his feelings now.
"Kaelen came to the hospital," I started, keeping my voice steady and clear. "He approached me in the hallway near the elevator to the parking area. He said a lot of things, thanking me for his brother, Thomas, who I asked Celeste to transfer to a better hospital since he was sick. He also talked about the past, buying me dinner, clearly trying to get a reaction out of me and make me lose my temper, I didn’t take the bait. I told him to leave me alone and walk away."
Alaric listened silently, nodding his head once for me to keep going.
"When he was leaving, he stepped in close without warning and pulled me into a hug," I said, looking right into Alaric’s eyes so he could see the truth in them. "I didn’t invite it, I didn’t want it, I pushed him away immediately and walked off. But someone was standing nearby taking pictures from a bad angle. They took it at the exact moment he grabbed me to make it look like I was hugging him back. And Brielle is the one who let those photos leak to the press to make me look like a liar." There was no need covering Brielle’s name here.
I waited for him to respond, the room going completely quiet again.
I watched Alaric’s face carefully, trying to read his thoughts, but his expression remained calm and closed off.
After a long moment, he shifted on the couch. "Rowena," he said, his voice deep and smooth. "I have never once questioned who you are, I have never doubted what you would do or where your heart lies. I am not going to start doubting you now just because of a picture taken by someone who wants to hurt us."
I blinked, surprised by his calm words. "You’re really not angry at me?"
"No," Alaric said firmly, reaching out and lightly touching my hand where it rested on the cushion. "Trusting you isn’t something I have to work hard at, Rowena. It isn’t a struggle for me and It’s not something I have to figure out, It just is."
I sat with his words for a long minute, feeling a massive weight lift off my chest. A part of me had prepared to apologize for letting my guard down and letting Kaelen near me like that. Rationally, this wasn’t supposed to be a thing because Alaric and I weren’t a thing.
He merely confessed love to me, not ask me yet to be his.
But I found myself willing to explain the entire thing to him.
Although he never commented on Brielle’s part, I wondered why.
"Are you angry at all about what happened?" I asked softly, searching his face.
Alaric’s eyes narrowed slightly, a dark dangerous flash of heat passing through them for a quick second before disappearing. "The only thing I am angry about is that someone thought they could use those pictires to manipulate me," Alaric said, his voice dropping an octave. "They thought they could use you to get under my skin and play games with our pack. And I intend to deal with whoever was behind it very soon."
I stared at him for a long moment without saying anything, but soon, it slipped out. I hadn’t planned to say it out loud, but the words came tumbling past my lips before I could stop myself. "I was really scared you would believe the pictures," I admitted in a honest voice, looking down at our touching hands. "I was scared I was going to lose you over a lie."
Alaric’s hard expression softened instantly, all the lingering darkness leaving his face as he looked at me. He leaned back against the cushions, opened his arm wide toward me, and said calmly, "Come here, Rowena.”