Chapter 261: Her growing insecurities

The medical wing grew quiet as night settled over the capital, the heavy hum of the building’s ventilation system the only sound filling the sterile room. Eloise lay in her elevated hospital bed, her pale face turned toward the dark window pane while her mother’s gentle, worried voice chimed softly from the bedside chair.

"How could you do something so reckless, Eloise?" Yvonne reprimanded her daughter softly, smoothing the crease of her expensive silk skirt. "You could have seriously hurt yourself. Drawing steel in Killian’s office... what were you thinking?"

Eloise didn’t answer. Her gaze remained glued to the reflection of the moon on the glass, her mind wandering miles away. After a moment she turned her head slightly, her raspy voice breaking the quiet.

"Mum... were there any urgent security issues reported in the pack today?"

Yvonne paused, her manicured hand freezing over her designer purse as she looked at her daughter in genuine puzzle. "Security issues? Why on earth are you asking about that right now?"

Eloise’s eyes drifted back toward the dark glass. The lingering knot of fear in her chest had nothing to do with her health. Kaden’s complete absence throughout her ordeal bothered her far more. Among the three brothers, Kaden had always been the one closest to her—the golden retriever who would drop everything to sprint to her side whenever she shed a single tear.

"Killian said Kaden couldn’t come because of an urgent military assignment," she murmured, her chest rising and falling a fraction too quickly.

Yvonne froze, an equally stunned expression washing over her refined features. "Kaden?" she repeated softly. "That boy practically lives at your beck and call. For him to skip coming to the hospital... it must have been something exceptionally critical." She shook her head, muttering under her breath, "Hold on, let me text your father."

Yvonne pulled her diamond-encrusted smartphone from her bag, her fingers tapping rapidly against the screen. Eloise released a long, shaky breath and closed her eyes. Killian hadn’t come back into her room after the initial triage either.

He had merely stood in the doorway, staring at her with those cold, unreadable blue eyes before turning on his heel and leaving the facility entirely. Kieran had claimed it was due to an emergency, but she couldn’t shake the chilling feeling that he was thoroughly disgusted with her.

Yvonne’s dark eyebrows pulled together as she read her husband’s incoming message. "Ah, here it is. Your father says a high-level rogue situation erupted in the central district—something involving an experimental biological weapon designed to suppress werewolf regeneration. Kaden was leading the tactical sweep team, and Killian had to personally bring in the Royal Guard as heavy backup."

A slow wave of relief washed over Eloise’s tense shoulders. They weren’t lying to me.

A second later, Yvonne’s fingers stilled on her phone screen, her face going slightly rigid. "Wait... it says here Kaden wasn’t originally assigned to any mission today." she muttered

Eloise’s head whipped around, her eyes wide as she sat up slightly in bed. "What do you mean?"

Yvonne adjusted the heavy gold bracelet on her wrist, her tone turning hesitant. "Your father says Kaden was off duty today. The inner-city sweep team was completely short a commander, so Kaden volunteered to lead the operation out of nowhere."

An ugly, sickening knot twisted deep inside Eloise’s stomach. He wasn’t called away on a mandatory deployment. He had actively chosen a blood-soaked combat sweep over coming to see her.

Noticing the sudden shift in her daughter’s expression, Yvonne immediately attempted to smooth over the detail. "I’m sure it was just military duty, sweetheart. Kaden is a General—he’s expected to lead from the front and take charge whenever dangerous rogues enter the city."

Eloise didn’t respond. The cold, creeping intuition in her gut told her something was fundamentally wrong. She pulled her hand away from her mother’s grasp and curled sideways under the heavy white duvet, drawing the blanket up to her chin. The room felt suddenly freezing.

Yvonne, clad in her immaculate designer suit and layered platinum jewelry, sat back, looking slightly lost as she observed her daughter’s withdrawn posture. She reached out, gently smoothing Eloise’s dark hair back from her forehead.

"You don’t have to push yourself so hard, Eloise," Yvonne whispered, her voice laced with maternal comfort. "Those three boys literally placed their entire future and succession rights on the line just to reject that girl for you."

A bitter, humorless laugh escaped Eloise’s dry lips beneath the covers. She pulled the blanket down just enough to meet her mother’s eyes, letting the hurt sit visibly on her face.

"Was it really for me, Mum? Or could they just not stand the fact that their fated mate was the sister of the woman who destroyed their own family’s peace?" Her bloodshot eyes lifted toward the ceiling.

"What if she had been just a regular she-wolf with no baggage? Mum... she’s far too pretty. And she’s annoyingly smart, too. I heard she was a top-ranking student at the medical school. The only area where she falls short is her lack of formal training."

Her voice cracked with raw insecurity. Her words carefully measured, but not entirely false. "She has no idea what it takes to run a high court as a Luna, and she has zero combat ability."

Yvonne took her daughter’s hand, squeezing it firmly as her tone turned fiercely defensive. "And you have all of those qualities, my darling. You are an exceptional noble born to the Beta line! Even if you hadn’t formed a bond with the Ravencourt heirs, you would have ended up matched with nothing less than a high-tier Alpha. You have zero reason to feel insecure over a motherless orphan."

Eloise let out a shaky breath, her eyes brimming with fresh tears. She did not wipe them away. "Estelle was capable too, Mum... yet she still lost Alexander’s heart to a pretty face. Estelle was even his fated mate, and look how that ended. I’m not even fated to any of the triplets, Mum..."