Chapter 68

Chapter 68
Nolan POV
Felicity left this morning to go to Pine Ridge-to Kieran’s pack lands-and as much as I understood her reasoning for doing so, and supported the theory behind it, I couldn’t stop the uneasy feeling roiling in my chest.
Still, I had work to do. The duties of an Alpha never rest, which is why I was sitting in my office with Lance across from me.
I’d grown more accustomed to his presence. He was around the pack house a lot more, around Ellie a lot more, but that was a matter I didn’t have the energy to deal with right now. I needed to focus on the task at hand.
“They want an answer,” I said.
“And I want to meet her,” Lance responded. “I’m not agreeing to marry someone I’ve never even met before. That’s asinine, and you know it.”
“What does meeting her have to do with anything?” I asked coldly.
Lance stared at me, a dumbfounded look on his face. “Is that a joke?” he demanded.
“This isn’t a match made for love. Your preference doesn’t matter,” I replied. He scoffed, suddenly sitting forward in his seat, his eyes blazing with anger.
“How dare you say something like that to me after everything you’ve done? All the damage you’ve caused in order to have your marriage of preference.” His voice dripped with disdain.
“This isn’t about-”
“Isn’t it?” he cut me off. “Isn’t everything about Felicity? The way you treat Ellie like she’s just an incubator for the heir you want. You treat her like absolute trash, and she’s given everything to you-but she’s not Felicity, so she’s not important to you. She’s not real to you. It’s exactly the same way you were back then.”
Lance stood up, and I stood to meet him, the two of us glaring at one another over the desk.
“This has nothing to do with what happened back then,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.
“It has everything to do with it!” Lance shouted. “If it weren’t for your insistence on marrying Felicity, our parents would be alive!”
The tension between us was practically crackling in the air as we glared at one another. This had always been the source of tension between Lance and me, the reason he hated me, and I didn’t begrudge him for it.
I understood. My mistakes had cost our parents their lives. He had every right to blame me for that. But it wasn’t Felicity’s fault.
“Don’t you dare put that on her.”
“She’s just as bad as you are. You realize that, right? Maybe if she wasn’t such a vindictive bitch, things wouldn’t have gotten so bad that she needed to run away now,” Lanc spat.
A growl rose from my chest, only to be met by an equally enraged sound from Lance.
In all the arguments we’d had, he’d never growled at me before, and the reaction both angered me further and gave me pause.
“I should tear you apart for that.”
“Go ahead,” Lance responded coldly. “Kill your entire family for her sake. Your parents, your wife, your brother,
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who won’t you sacrifice for Felicity?”
“Shut the hell up, Lance!” I shouted.
“Was it her idea or yours?” he asked aggressively, stomping toward me. “Back then, was it her idea to run away together or yours? Which one of you is really responsible for killing Mom and Dad?”
I glared at him, but it was a forced expression. He was always so blunt in the way he threw that in my face. People thought I was cold, but Lance could be far worse when he wanted to be.
“Well?” he demanded. “Whose idea was it?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I answered, the anger draining from my voice. “I’m the one who’s responsible in the end.”
“Well, at least we can agree on that.”
Lance turned and stormed out. The door slammed behind him. I collapsed back into my chair and pressed my hands to my temples, as if I could stop the stream of memories that the argument had brought back.
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Chapter 69
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