Chapter 68\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
Felicity left this morning to go to Pine Ridge-to Kieran\u2019s pack lands-and as much as I understood her reasoning for doing so, and supported the theory behind it, I couldn\u2019t stop the uneasy feeling roiling in my chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, I had work to do. The duties of an Alpha never rest, which is why I was sitting in my office with Lance across from me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d grown more accustomed to his presence. He was around the pack house a lot more, around Ellie a lot more, but that was a matter I didn\u2019t have the energy to deal with right now. I needed to focus on the task at hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want an answer,\u201d I said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I want to meet her,\u201d Lance responded. \u201cI\u2019m not agreeing to marry someone I\u2019ve never even met before. That\u2019s asinine, and you know it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does meeting her have to do with anything?\u201d I asked coldly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lance stared at me, a dumbfounded look on his face. \u201cIs that a joke?\u201d he demanded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t a match made for love. Your preference doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d I replied.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He scoffed, suddenly sitting forward in his seat, his eyes blazing with anger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow dare you say something like that to me after everything you\u2019ve done? All the damage you\u2019ve caused in order to have your marriage of preference.\u201d His voice dripped with disdain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t about-\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t it?\u201d he cut me off. \u201cIsn\u2019t everything about Felicity? The way you treat Ellie like she\u2019s just an incubator for the heir you want. You treat her like absolute trash, and she\u2019s given everything to you-but she\u2019s not Felicity, so she\u2019s not important to you. She\u2019s not real to you. It\u2019s exactly the same way you were back then.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lance stood up, and I stood to meet him, the two of us glaring at one another over the desk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has nothing to do with what happened back then,\u201d I said, trying to keep my voice even.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has everything to do with it!\u201d Lance shouted. \u201cIf it weren\u2019t for your insistence on marrying Felicity, our parents would be alive!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tension between us was practically crackling in the air as we glared at one another. This had always been the source of tension between Lance and me, the reason he hated me, and I didn\u2019t begrudge him for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I understood. My mistakes had cost our parents their lives. He had every right to blame me for that. But it wasn\u2019t Felicity\u2019s fault.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t you dare put that on her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s just as bad as you are. You realize that, right? Maybe if she wasn\u2019t such a vindictive bitch, things wouldn\u2019t have gotten so bad that she needed to run away now,\u201d Lanc spat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A growl rose from my chest, only to be met by an equally enraged sound from Lance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In all the arguments we\u2019d had, he\u2019d never growled at me before, and the reaction both angered me further and gave me pause.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI should tear you apart for that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGo ahead,\u201d Lance responded coldly. \u201cKill your entire family for her sake. Your parents, your wife, your brother,\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
who won\u2019t you sacrifice for Felicity?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShut the hell up, Lance!\u201d I shouted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWas it her idea or yours?\u201d he asked aggressively, stomping toward me. \u201cBack then, was it her idea to run away together or yours? Which one of you is really responsible for killing Mom and Dad?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I glared at him, but it was a forced expression. He was always so blunt in the way he threw that in my face. People thought I was cold, but Lance could be far worse when he wanted to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWell?\u201d he demanded. \u201cWhose idea was it?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d I answered, the anger draining from my voice. \u201cI\u2019m the one who\u2019s responsible in the end.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, at least we can agree on that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lance turned and stormed out. The door slammed behind him. I collapsed back into my chair and pressed my hands to my temples, as if I could stop the stream of memories that the argument had brought back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Cold Marriage That Turned Warm 68 Chapter 68\u00a0 Nolan POV\u00a0 Felicity left this morning to go to Pine Ridge-to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-unremembered-mate-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}