"You were right."
Erald stared at him, her arms folded tightly across her chest. Her voice dropped. "Right about what?"
Rick’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, then dropped his gaze for half a second before eting her eyes again. "Everything."
Her heart thudded once, hard, but she didn’t let it show. "I need specifics, Rick," she said coldly. "What exactly was I right about?"
He took a shaky breath. "About Alia. You were right. She lied. About... everything."
There it was.
She didn’t flinch; she didn’t blink; she just nodded once. "I know."
Rick’s brows twitched. "You... wait, what?"
"I always knew. I told you back then. But you didn’t want to hear it."
"I know," he muttered. "I didn’t want to believe it. I thought..."
"That I was jealous? Vindictive?"
He didn’t answer.
She waited a beat. "So how did you finally figure it out?"
Rick dragged a hand through his hair and walked a few steps across the room before turning back to face her. "I found a bottle in her drawer. So dication or sothing, used to mimic the symptoms of a failed pregnancy."
Erald’s jaw tightened. "She faked the pregnancy loss."
He nodded.
"She frad ," Erald said, each word like a blade on her tongue.
"I know."
"And now you believe ."
"I didn’t have a choice." He paused. "The mont I saw that bottle, I just... knew."
Erald exhaled, the sound almost like a bitter laugh. "Of course. You needed proof. Because Goddess forbid you ever just believe when I told you she wasn’t who she claid to be."
Rick flinched slightly, but she didn’t care.
He deserved it.
"You needed a bottle," she said, "but not the girl you claid to know. Not the one you spent years with. Not who you called your mate"
He opened his mouth, but she cut him off.
"Why co to with this now?"
He shrugged, glancing toward the floor. "Because you were right. I thought... you should know."
She noticed it right away. The way he stood was tense, with his head tilted slightly and his lips pressed together tightly.
He couldn’t even say sorry.
Still too proud.
Still too Rick.
Viola’s voice was a hiss in her head. "Would it kill him to just say the words?"
Erald didn’t respond out loud or internally. Her gaze was still on Rick, watching the way he fidgeted with the hem of his sleeve.
"So that’s it?" she asked. "You show up screaming at my gates to tell what? That you finally believe ?"
"I should’ve been smarter," he muttered. "Should’ve paid more attention. Things weren’t adding up, and I ignored it. The tilines, the manipulative words, the whole incident that led up to it. The way she never let near her after the supposed miscarriage... I was blind."
"No," Erald said. "You weren’t blind. You just didn’t want to see."
Rick rubbed the back of his neck. "She played ... played us both."
"Forgive if I don’t exactly feel like kindred victims right now."
"I know you don’t owe anything," Rick said in a quiet voice now. "But I thought maybe if I explained—"
"Explained what?" Erald cut in. "That you were a fool? That she lied, and you believed her over ? That you were so eager to think the worst of , you handed her the matches while she burned everything down?"
He had no answer for that.
She didn’t need one.
Viola stirred again, her voice silkier now. "He’s squirming. Let him. He deserves it."
Erald didn’t argue.
She could already feel that darker part of herself rising, the one that Ares had told her about, the one he loved, how it removes weakness, and she savoured it. The one that didn’t forgive easily.
She took a step forward.
"So what is it you want from , Rick?" she asked, tilting her head. "You think telling all this earns you sothing?"
"No," he said quickly. "I just... If things escalate with her, and I know they will, I don’t want my pack dragged into it. She lied to both of us. Whatever war cos, it shouldn’t fall on my people."
Erald let out a cold laugh. "Of course. There it is. The catch."
"It’s not like that."
"Isn’t it?"
Rick ran a hand through his hair again. "I just... don’t want to lose everything over sothing I didn’t know."
"No," Erald said softly. "But you’ll lose sothing."
He looked up sharply.
Because in all the ti she’d spent tracking Alia’s alliances, one thing had beco painfully, disturbingly clear. The baby, if there ever was one, had been Rick’s.
That had always been the reason he took everything so personally, why her supposed loss wrecked him, why he could never quite hate Alia even when he should have.
And even if she’d carried the child to term, Erald had no doubt Rick would’ve found a way to stay loyal. Maybe not forever, but long enough to forget Erald in the process.
What she still didn’t understand was why Alia did it in the first place. Why set it all on fire when she already had what she wanted?
Control.
Power.
Rick.
"Your mistake," Erald said, "was assuming she ever needed to keep you."
He flinched again.
She could see the layers cracking now. Alia had already wounded his pride, dismantled it with just one truth he discovered amidst her nurous lies. And Erald could easily finish the job.
She should’ve walked away.
But she didn’t.
Because she could feel it in her bones, crawling under her skin, that familiar coldness. The part of her Ares loved. The part that didn’t need gentleness to feel strong.
"Let ask you sothing," she said quietly. "When you ca here... did you think I’d thank you?"
Rick didn’t answer.
"Did you want forgiveness? Redemption? rcy?"
Still, no answer.
"Or did you just want to clear your own conscience and leave the rest of the damage behind?"
He shifted, uncomfortable. "I just didn’t know where else to go."
Erald took another step closer.
"You should’ve thought of that before you burned my na in front of your entire pack. Before you looked in the eye and believed her over . Before you made the villain in a story you never bothered to understand. Before you beat, rejected and banished !"
Rick didn’t et her eyes.
"You’re not going to walk in here and find absolution, Rick," she said. "You want my help? You want my protection when this all turns to shit? Then you’re going to earn it."
She turned to leave.
But he called out behind her.
"Wait... what do you want?"
Erald paused in the doorway.
A smile tugged at her lips. She turned just enough to glance back at him over her shoulder and uttered a single word. "Beg."
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