Second chance.When the two walked out of the greenhouse to celebrate their newfound relationship, Anne’s hand went to her stomach as the two words reverberated in her being. Michael had messed up but still found his happiness in the end. What if she could have her second chance, too, without messing it up? What if she could build a new life with Nico and this growing being inside her?
Her heart skipped a beat. Her feet led her out of the greenhouse and into the forest, where she searched endlessly until she found the man she was looking for in one of the guard posts. Nico was conversing with Charlie, who was gesturing defensively and turning beet red. There was mention of a girl before Nico chuckled, the sound buzzing straight to her nerves.
“Nico.”
He looked up, gaze meeting hers. The way he lit up turned her into a puddle, incoherent and unable to move, but she wrestled it as she inhaled deeply. Then she let it out and smiled, feeling lighter than she had in days.
“Hey,” he greeted, already turning to move towards her.
“Hello,” she managed, the sight of his handsome form doing things to her.
Charlie jerked, whirling towards the barrier. Seconds later, she spotted it: a figure rising from the shadows and approaching them, then stopping when it reached a spot illuminated by the moon. The face, the hair, the figure…she recognized everything and could only stand there, thunderstruck. She knew this face. She knew this willowy woman.
“You,” Nico bit out.
The light feeling vanished in the blink of an eye as tension glided over her shoulders. It also coated the others, who stood as rigid as she did.
“How did you get here?” Anne asked, her voice cold and laced with tightness. Then, “You tracked me down, didn’t you? You are a reptile and a good tracker.”
A warning growl rumbled from Charlie’s throat when another step forward was taken. The woman stopped but gave her a pleading look.
“My name is Hannah.”
What?
“I was in your city for days,” Hannah continued as if afraid she would be cut off. “I kept waiting in that mall because my description of you matched a frequent customer in the plant shop. I almost lost hope until I saw you earlier.”
Apprehension flickered.
“Your clan—”
“They don’t know I’m here. They don’t know you were there. No one knows you two were there except me.”
At that, Nico and Charlie were on the move, fanning out to ensure this wasn’t a trap. Anne stood her ground, legs braced apart and ready to shift, but the woman kept talking.
“They destroyed the hut and found your underground spot, but think those traps had been set up beforehand. Years ago. It got destroyed when they tried to get in, and there’s a huge crater in the center of that territory. It’s unlivable now.”
“So, what is this? Are you trying to blackmail me?”
“You could have killed me but you didn’t,” the woman blurted out.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Nico saunter close and give a slight shake of his head out of Hannah’s view.No intruders.Stupefaction made her dizzy, but she focused on the woman. Hannah was alone?
“You could have alerted them, but you didn’t,” she said slowly. “What do you want?”
“I wanted to tell you what I think you don’t know, even after all these years. The trap and the sabotage. The infiltration and the burning of your clan.”
Anne’s spine stiffened. “Yes. Because I was foolish enough to trust Sam.”
But the woman’s words were yet another shock to the system.
“No. They already knew before you got there. Someone else tipped them off—someone else in your clan who knew what kind of man your clan leader was. You were the backup plan.”
“Who? What kind of man?”
“Nelly. She was—”
“My cousin.” Her brain processed the information, and anger seeped in. “She would never have betrayed us. She would never have…”