Page 3 of Nick (The Moonstone Pack #4)

NICK MOVED THROUGH HIS shift with mechanical precision, pouring coffee and delivering plates laden with food, scanning the room yet seeing nothing but Sarah.

“Everything all right, Nick?” asked his coworker Cora as she moved out of the kitchen, a hint of concern lacing her words as she caught the edge in his usually smooth demeanor.

“Fine,” he replied curtly, the word more of a growl than he intended. The lie tasted bitter on his tongue.

As soon as his shift ended, Nick shed his apron with a sense of urgency and headed down the main street toward his alpha’s newly remodeled Victorian house.

The door opened before he could knock, as if Steele sensed his arrival—an alpha’s intuition, Nick assumed.

“You look like you’re wrestling with the devil himself.” Steele nodded a greeting and opened the door wide, gesturing for Nick to enter.

“Feels like it.” Nick stepped into the foyer, the rich scent of polished wood greeting him. It was a stark contrast to the sterile bitterness that lingered in his memories of the Sunburst Pack. He clenched and unclenched his fists at his sides.

“Let’s talk.” Steele led the way into the living room, where his human mate, Mila, waited.

“Nick! Come in, come in,” she urged with a welcoming gesture, her eyes reflecting genuine affection that Nick found both comforting and unsettling. Comforting because here, in the Moonstone Pack, he was among friends; unsettling because it reminded him of how much he’d lost.

“Thanks, Mila,” Nick muttered.

“Something’s on your mind,” Steele stated rather than asked.

Nick hesitated, the words catching like thorns in his throat. He could feel the familiar tug of old anger knotted with anxiety at the thought of Sarah.

“Sarah showed up,” he finally said, his voice strained. “She’s asking for help with trouble back at Sunburst.”

Steele’s gray eyes narrowed, a flicker of surprise within them. Mila leaned forward, her expression a blend of worry and curiosity. “Can you tell us more about what’s happening?”

Nick shifted uneasily on the sofa Mila had waved him to.

“Sarah played a part in my being run out of the Sunburst Pack. I was…we were close.” His words were clipped as if he was physically cutting each one from his heart. “But when push came to shove, she sided with those who wanted me gone.”

“Close how?” Mila prodded gently, her tone suggesting she already knew the answer but needed to hear it spoken aloud.

“Sarah was…is my fated mate,” Nick said, the words like ashes on his tongue. “I trusted her with everything, believed we had something real. But she chose the pack over me, over us.”

Steele remained silent, his role as alpha dictating a measured response, while Mila reached out her hand, hovering it over Nick’s arm as if unsure whether to rest it there. “God, Nick, I’m sorry,” Mila whispered.

Nick nodded, appreciation for her empathy warring with the old anger that never quite left him. He glanced away, fixing his gaze on a framed wedding picture—anything to avoid the sympathetic looks that threatened to unravel him.

“Betrayal is a hard thing to forgive,” Steele finally said. “Especially from someone so intertwined with your fate.”

“Forgiveness doesn’t come into it.” Nick shifted in his seat, the leather creaking under his weight as he leaned forward.

“What was Sarah’s motivation?” Mila’s gaze never left his face.

“I wish I knew,” he said with a heavy sigh. “All this time, and it’s still a mystery. She gave me no explanation, no reason…just betrayal.”

Mila’s brow furrowed, her lips pressing into a thin line. The room seemed to close in around them, the ticking of an antique clock punctuating the silence. Her fingers drummed on the armrest in a rhythmic beat.

“Have you thought about asking her directly?” she suggested. “Maybe it’s time to confront the past head-on.”

Nick recoiled, the suggestion igniting a spark of anger in him. The very idea of facing Sarah, of giving voice to the questions that had haunted his nights, set his nerves on edge.

“Ask her?” he repeated, his tone laced with bitterness. “After what she did? I’m not sure I want to hear anything she has to say.”

But even as he spoke, Mila’s words found a crack in his defenses, planting a seed of doubt. Perhaps there was more to the story, a piece of the puzzle he had yet to uncover.

The possibility warred with his desire to protect his heart from further damage.

“Sometimes,” Mila said, “understanding the why behind the pain can be the first step toward healing—or at least moving forward.”

Nick found himself considering Mila’s words, weighing them against the fortress he’d built around his heart.

Moving forward. The concept felt foreign.

And yet wasn’t that what he ultimately sought?

To move beyond the hurt, beyond the past?

Or was it merely inviting more turmoil into his already tumultuous life?

“Nick?” Steele’s voice was firm yet patient, a reminder of his alpha’s presence.

“I can’t just…,” Nick began, his voice a low growl born of frustration and an old, deep-seated anger that refused to be tamed. “I can’t face her. Not after what she did.”

“Sarah has clearly reached out to you for a reason.” Mila’s gaze was soft but insistent.

“Helping the Sunburst Pack would mean dealing with Sarah directly,” Nick added, the thought sending a fresh wave of bitterness coursing through him.

“I know this is hard for you,” Steele said, “but perhaps you need to consider the bigger picture here. You’ve been through hell because of her, we all know that. But it sounds like she might really need you.”

“What should I do?” Nick asked. “She’s asking for my help, but stepping back into that world, facing her…” He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

Nick turned away from them, staring out into the night, where the wild calls of distant wolves whispered through the trees.

He could still feel the sting of Sarah’s betrayal, a wound time had failed to heal.

“Whatever your decision, you won’t be alone.” Mila’s statement hung in the air, an offering of support. “We’re here for you, no matter what path you take. You’re part of this pack, and we stick together.”

“Part of me wants to help. It’s my nature, I think. I can’t just turn my back on someone in trouble,” he said.

“Your instincts have always been one of your greatest strengths, Nick.” Steele stood.

“Trust them. This is your choice to make.” The alpha clasped his hands behind his back, pacing the length of the ornately woven rug.

Nick watched the alpha’s deliberate movements, each step radiating certainty and control.

Finally, Steele halted and turned to face him, his gray eyes steady. “Listen, if you decide to go back to Sunburst and help them out,” he began, “I’ll send some of our guys with you. You truly won’t be alone in this.”

Nick’s throat tightened. He nodded stiffly, acknowledging the offer. It was more than he’d expected, and it reminded him of the bond he now shared with the Moonstone Pack—a bond that had taken him years to accept after the betrayal that cut so deep.

“Thank you,” he managed to say, the words scraping past the raw edges of his emotions. “Sunburst was always a small pack—only fifty or so members, even at its peak, and Sarah says it’s shrinking. But…”

Steele nodded. “But you’ll still be outnumbered if you go up against the alpha.”

“Unless more pack members turn against him.”

Steele’s lips tightened. “You can at least scope out the situation. And I’ll send Ryker and Bronx—they know better than anyone how to deal with a rogue alpha, should it truly be necessary.”

His shoulders slumped as relief rushed through Nick. “I appreciate that.”

Mila rose from her seat, her movements fluid as she crossed the room to join them. With a gentle touch on Nick’s arm, she guided him toward the door.

“Sarah wouldn’t have come to you unless she was truly desperate,” Mila said softly as they reached the doorway. “You know that, right?”

He shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah,” he responded curtly.

“Desperation can change a lot for a person. It might mean there’s still something between you two, some unfinished business,” she added.

Nick’s hand paused on the doorknob. There was a truth in her words he didn’t want to confront. But it clawed at him, insistent and undeniable.

“Thanks,” he finally said, turning the knob and stepping out into the evening air.

Doubts swarmed through him as he replayed Mila’s words in his mind with each step away from the house. “Thanks again,” he called over his shoulder, not trusting himself to look back at her without his emotions betraying the turbulent storm within.

“Take care, Nick,” Mila’s voice floated out to him.

He nodded, more to himself than to her, and shoved his hands into the pockets of his worn leather jacket.

Nick’s wolf bristled beneath his skin, pacing restlessly, sharing in his human counterpart’s turmoil. A low growl rumbled in his chest unbidden, the sound barely audible over the whispering leaves. He had been wronged, cast out, and now the same pack that had turned its back on him needed him.

“Damn it,” he muttered, the words slicing through the night. Could he really consider aiding those who had once seen him as expendable? And what about Sarah—was there a shred of their bond that remained after such a deep cut?

Mila’s suggestion that desperation might have changed Sarah, that it hinted at lingering ties, ate at him. It was a dangerous seed of a thought, threatening to sprout roots in the dusty ruins of his trust. He clenched his fists, nails digging crescents into his palms.

Nick paused, realizing his feet had taken him unerringly to the edge of the forest.

Maybe a run was exactly what he needed.

With a steady exhale, he pulled off his clothes and let his inner wolf overtake him, fur and fangs replacing all his human worries.

With one last look up at the stars, he raced forward into the deep night of the forest, hoping the run would clear his mind.

Even if he knew it could never fully clear his heart.