Chapter 85

Chapter 85: Chapter 85

The guard bowed and hurried out.

Kael remained behind his desk, staring at the closed door.

He hated this. He hated that he had to go to Evelyn. Most of all, he hated that he had no other choice.

But Lily was his daughter. Whatever had happened between him and Evelyn, he couldn’t stand by and watch Lily die when there was still someone who might be able to save her.

He rose from his chair and headed for the door. He had barely stepped into the corridor when Sophia came hurrying toward him, eyes wide like something had just happened.

"Evelyn? Really, Kael? Evelyn?"

Kael knew how Sophia felt about Evelyn, especially after what just happened, but it wasn’t the time to dwell on that—not when their daughter was this sick.

"I refuse it." She declared.

Kael’s eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"

"You cannot be serious." She caught his arm. "Kael, after everything she’s done to us, you’re going to go to her and beg for help?"

"I’m going to ask her to save our daughter." He said.

"She won’t help you!" Sophia nearly screamed. She hated how fast this was turning on her. It was supposed to be a little potion, but how was she to know the child couldn’t comprehend such a potion? Now, Sophia had no way to bring her back.

She stepped forward, gripping Kael’s wrist. "You know this better than anyone. Evelyn—that bitch won’t help you. She won’t help us."

"Then I’ll find that out myself." Kael replied instead. He was quite sure Evelyn wouldn’t turn him away like that. After all, she did share a bond with Lily.

Sophia shook her head frantically. "You’re forgetting what she did at the summit. She humiliated us in front of every Alpha there. She made a fool of you, Kael! And now you want to go to her house and give her another opportunity to laugh at you?"

Kael pulled his arm free. "I don’t care what she thinks of me."

It was a lie, and they both knew it.

Sophia had seen how Evelyn’s departure had affected him. She knew how much it angered him that Evelyn had managed to walk away and rebuild her life while Silver Creek struggled to recover.

But this was different.

Lily was lying unconscious in the healing ward. Her breathing was growing weaker by the day, and none of their healers could explain why.

Kael wasn’t going to let his pride stand in the way of saving her.

"Please, listen to me." Sophia stepped in front of him. "There must be another way. We can send for more healers. We can contact the neighboring packs again. We can—"

"We’ve already done that."

"Then we’ll keep looking!" She said desperately. She couldn’t let Kael go to Evelyn, not after he’d just seen her mess up things with the five million.

"And what happens while we’re looking, Sophia?" His voice rose. "What happens if Lily dies while we’re waiting for another healer to arrive?"

Sophia fell silent, and for a moment, Kael thought she might finally understand. Instead, she shook her head again.

"Evelyn doesn’t care about us anymore. She told everyone at the summit that Silver Creek was nothing to her. Do you honestly believe she’ll help Lily after everything that happened?"

"No," Kael answered bluntly. "But I’m going to ask."

Sophia stared at him, her expression changing as she realized he wasn’t going to be persuaded.

She couldn’t let him go alone. Not to Evelyn.

If Kael went there alone, Evelyn would have the opportunity to twist the conversation, to remind him of their past, to make him feel guilty for everything that had happened. She worried more than Kael would fall again—that Evelyn would take it all again. Kael was a weak man, and with Lily’s ailment, he could try things with Evelyn, and she couldn’t let that happen.

Evelyn’s words from the summit rang in her ears. "Careful there, Sophia. I might be tempted to go back to the man I left just so I don’t feel... humiliated on nights like this again."

No, she needed to be there. "I’m coming with you." She blurted out.

Kael looked at her impatiently. "You can stay here."

"No. She’s my daughter, too. I have every right to be there when you speak to her."

He looked as though he wanted to argue, but he was already running out of patience.

"Fine. But I’m not going there to discuss the past. We’re going to ask her for help, and that’s all."

Sophia nodded quickly. "Of course." She followed him before he could change his mind.

Neither of them noticed the junior healer standing at the far end of the corridor, watching them leave with a troubled expression.

---

The ride to Evelyn’s estate stretched out in heavy silence. Kael stared out the window, his jaw working through words that refused to arrange themselves into anything that sounded less like begging.

Sophia sat across from him, her hands folded tightly in her lap, her mind racing through every possible way this could go wrong. If Evelyn agreed. If Kael looked at her the way he used to. If he thought Evelyn was still much more useful than she was to him, then what?

Kael blinked the more the carriage moved, his brows creased. "Where are you taking us? This isn’t the road to Evelyn’s home." He called angrily.

The coachman lowered his head. "Sorry, Alpha. I thought you knew, but Lady Evelyn has changed homes. She no longer resides at the Valemont estate."

"What? When did she leave Valemont? Where does she stay now?" The questions left his lips in a rush.

Seeing Sophia glaring at him, he cleared his throat and looked out the window. It didn’t matter where she moved to. What mattered was healing Lily.

A few minutes later, the carriage rolled into a smaller estate in the eastern part of the realm. Kael’s brows furrowed together as he watched the estate from the carriage.

The carriage came to a stop, and he got down, followed by Sophia. The two of them looked around the estate.

"Is this Evelyn’s?" Sophia asked quietly.

They hadn’t even gotten the chance to look well when footsteps approached them. Looking up, Kael’s face deepened into a frown.

"You again." He spat out with disdain. His former Beta stood before him, hands clasped behind himself. It irked Kael greatly. Once upon a time, Tristan didn’t dare to stand before him this way—not when he was Beta.

But now... how disrespectful.

Tristan didn’t so much as blink at the venom in Kael’s voice. "Alpha Kael." He inclined his head, barely. "What brings you here?"

"That’s none of your concern." Kael’s eyes swept past him toward the house. "Where’s Evelyn?"

"It’s very much my concern when you arrive uninvited at her home." Tristan’s tone stayed level, though something in his posture had shifted, planting himself more firmly in the doorway.

Her home.

Kael’s jaw tightened around the words. It wasn’t somewhere she was staying temporarily while matters settled. Her home—and Tristan was standing in front of it like he had every right to, like this was simply where he lived too.

The thought arrived before Kael could stop it, ugly and immediate.

Are they together? Is that what this is?

He didn’t have time to chase the thought further before the door opened wider and Damon stepped out behind Tristan, his usual lazy smile entirely absent.

If there was one person Kael hated more than his father, it was Damon.

"Kael." Damon’s voice was flat, cold in a way Kael hadn’t heard from him before. "This was expected of you, quite frankly."

Sophia, who stood beside Kael, had suddenly stiffened at the sight of Damon. Perhaps she shouldn’t have insisted on coming. Seeing her ex-husband here like this...

"Running between a woman’s legs like the coward that you are, Damon. Quite expected of you, quite frankly."

Damon’s jaw tightened at his words, as though the other had struck a nerve. Damon stepped forward, veins visible now.

"What did you just say?" He growled lowly.

Kael stepped forward too, chest puffed out. "That you’re a—"

"That’s enough, you two."

Evelyn’s voice cut through the yard like a blade, cold and absolute.

Both men turned. She stood in the doorway now, having stepped past Tristan without either of them noticing, her arms crossed, her expression firm.

"This is my home," she said, "not a fighting pit. If you want to posture, do it somewhere that isn’t mine."

Damon’s jaw unclenched slowly, though his eyes stayed fixed on Kael a moment longer before he stepped back.

Kael’s gaze landed on Evelyn fully for the first time, and whatever venom he’d been building for Damon seemed to drain out of him all at once, replaced by something rawer.

Sophia watched him with great difficulty, seeing him stare at Evelyn, his eyes dilated and soft.

"Evelyn." Her name came out cracked. He stepped forward. "Lily. She’s—"

"I heard." Evelyn’s voice didn’t soften.

Kael blinked. "You knew?"

"I know a great many things, Kael. It’s rarely difficult when people are as careless as yours tend to be." She held his gaze. "What I don’t know is why you believe that showing up at my doorstep, uninvited, entitles you to anything from me."

"She’s my daughter." His voice shook now, the composure he’d carried into the yard nearly crumbling. "She’s dying, Evelyn. The healers say your blood is the only thing that’s ever helped her. I’m asking you. Please."

Sophia, standing a step behind him, said nothing, though her eyes darted between Evelyn and Damon, hating the way they seemed close. She’d heard they were some sort of partners but didn’t care. After all, she knew Damon. She was certain there was no way in hell he would ever be attracted to a self-righteous, stuck-up bitch like Evelyn.

Yet, standing before her wasn’t the Evelyn she used to know. No, this Evelyn was so beautiful it made Sophia insecure, wishing she’d put more effort into her appearance, especially today.

Evelyn, on the other hand, stared at Kael, her jaw tight as she listened to him. And once he was done, she smirked.

"You’re asking me to what? Come cut my hand again and bleed endlessly. Is that it?"

Kael swallowed. His eyes moved briefly toward Tristan and Damon. He hated having an audience for this. He hated that Tristan, the man who had once answered to him, was standing here watching him struggle to ask his former Luna for help. He hated that Damon looked at him as though he were something unpleasant he’d found on the bottom of his shoe.

Most of all, he hated that Evelyn seemed completely unmoved by his desperation.

"Lily hasn’t done anything to deserve this," he said, forcing himself to remain calm. "Whatever happened between us, whatever you think of me, she is innocent."

The child was innocent. She’d been poisoned by both Kael and Sophia. Evelyn knew that much. But she couldn’t do it again.

She couldn’t cut herself again and bleed to save another Silver Creek member, even if it were Lily.

And so she shook her head. "No."

Kael stared at her as though he couldn’t comprehend what she had said. "What? Lily—she’s dying! You have the ability to save her!" His voice rose. "You know what your blood can do. You know what you’ve done for her before. How can you stand there and turn your back on a dying child?"

Evelyn scoffed. "Me? Turn my back on a dying child? Have you forgotten, Kael?" She paused while Kael looked confused.

"I am not the only one who can heal." Her gaze shifted to the one behind him, and she smirked.

"Your precious mate can heal—even better than I can. Wasn’t that what she said?" She watched as Sophia’s face grew pale.

"Let the mother of the pup save the pup. Sophia will heal Lily."