“Did I say something wrong?” Olivia asked once she was sure Silke was out of earshot.
Isabelle adjusted Evan on her hip. “It’s … complicated.”
“If I did something wrong, please tell me.”
The Lupa exhaled. “Silke can’t have children.”
Olivia clutched at her chest. “What?”
“She’s never told me the full details. Ransom did, because I asked, but it’s not my story to tell.” Isabelle’s face was carefully impassive. “She doesn’t talk about it, and we don’t bring it up.”
“Oh God.” Olivia massaged her temple with the fingers. “I’m such an idiot. I should go after her. I need to apologize.”
“You didn’t know. And she won’t hold it against you. That’s not who she is.” Isabelle reached over and squeezed Olivia’s arm. “Give her a little space and then talk to her later. She’ll be fine. Silke’s got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. She just carries some things on her own.”
Still, the expression on Silke’s face was something Olivia could relate to. It was the look of someone who wanted something they couldn’t have.
Her wolf lay its head down, letting out a long, sad sigh and a pain plucked at her chest at the reminder.
Eli.
Yes, he was the reason she had stayed in Kentucky. Because some stupid, stubborn part of her still believed Eli would walk back through that door. That despite what she’d said, despite the ultimatum she’d meant with every fiber of her being, he would come back to her.
In the three months since he left, she had thought about him every single day, wondering where he was, what he was doing. And with much dread, if Garret had found him, or he’d found Garret. Whether he was hurt somewhere with no one to help him. Whether he was still alive. But she didn’t regret what she’d said to him that night. She’d meant all of it, and she’d been right. If it hadn’t blown up over the coven, it would have been something else. It was a ticking time bomb, an explosion just waiting to happen. At least this way, she’d told him the truth about who he was before he walked out.
Not that it made it hurt less.
“Hey, Momma.” Isabelle’s voice pulled her back. The Lupa nodded at her midsection with a grin. “You’ve popped.”
Olivia glanced down. Her hand went to the rounded swell of her belly. It had happened almost overnight—one morning her stomach was still mostly flat, and the next she woke up and there it was. “Yeah. I guess I have.”
Isabelle shifted Evan to her other hip. “You need some new clothes. I’ve got a bunch of maternity stuff you can have, though fair warning, anything of mine is going to be about six inches too short on you.”
Olivia laughed. “I appreciate that.” She paused. There had been a thought lingering in her mind the past couple of days, something she wasn’t sure how to bring it up. This was probably the best opening she was going to get. “Actually, I was thinking maybe I could go shopping somewhere with a bigger selection. Like … Bloomingdale’s.”
“Oh.” Isabelle’s smile faded. “You’re going back to New York.”
“Yeah.” She placed both hands on her belly. “It’s time.”
Her family had come over to visit a couple of times over the past few months. Her parents, Sloane and Jacob, even Arch and Renée Rose, whose arrival at Seven Peaks had sent the MC into a frenzy that Olivia would have found hilarious under different circumstances. Axle had actually asked for a selfie, which Snake gave him grief about for a solid week.
They knew what happened, at least the part about Eli leaving to hunt Garret down. Her mother had broached the subject about her coming home, but when Olivia replied with a simple “no,” she didn’t press it. No one brought up Eli, either, though his name and presence was always the elephant in the room. They gave her space, and she loved them for it.
But she couldn’t stay here anymore. In the beginning, the memories had been a comfort. The cabin, the trails they’d hiked, the dock at the lake. Running in her wolf form through the mountains had helped too, the physical release burning off the worst of the grief. But at some point, those same things that gave her solace, all those memories of him, turned sour. Every morning, she woke up in that bed and reached for his side, and every morning it was cold.
He wasn’t coming back. She’d fought that realization for weeks, argued with it, let her wolf howl at the injustice of it. But the truth was plain. He’d made his choice, and it wasn’t her.
“Are you sure?” Isabelle asked gently.
“Yeah.” Her resolve held firmly in place. “I think staying here any longer is just me waiting for something that isn’t going to happen.”
Isabelle didn’t argue with that. “I’m going to miss you. And you can come back anytime.” She pulled Olivia into a one-armed hug, Evan squished between them.
A few days later, Olivia was back in New York.
The city felt louder than she remembered, even more crowded. The buildings seemed taller too, looming overhead and blocking the sun. The honking cabs and the crush of pedestrians rushing here and there threatened to overwhelm here. All she could think about was the fresh mountain air and the birdsongs of Kentucky.
Yet, this was exactly what she needed.
