The Alpha Captain's Secret Baby novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Wrong Bite

Willa's POV

Rhys knocked at eight in the morning, and he looked like he hadn't slept at all.

Emil was on the floor in front of the television with a bowl of cereal, and Hattie sat beside him with her feet up.

"Outside," Rhys said to me quietly. "Please."

We stood on the little balcony with the lake spread out below us, gray and flat under the clouds.

He didn't touch me.

He had a leather folder under his arm, and he held it with both hands.

"I need to ask you something about the night of the rite," he said, "and I need you to answer before you decide what you think of it."

"Ask."

"Where were you standing?"

"In the gallery."

"Before that."

I stared at him.

"I was supposed to be behind veil three," I said slowly. "The elder gave me the number the week before, and I told only Pia, because I was going to tell you everything after the rite. The baby, and the number, and that I was happy."

He closed his eyes.

"Pia told me to wait in the gallery," I said. "She said I should surprise you after."

"Veil three," said Rhys.

"What about it?"

"I bit the woman behind three," Rhys said. "I thought it was you. I said your name."

For a moment I couldn't make the words mean anything.

The wind pulled at my hair.

Somewhere below us a ferry horn sounded, long and low.

"No," I said.

"I never smelled a difference, Willa. I would have staked my life it was you."

"No, Rhys."

"Pia stood behind veil three. She knew the number, and she knew you'd be somewhere else."

I shook my head.

I shook it again, because it was the only thing I could do.

I had spent six years building a house on one fact: that he had looked at my best friend in the dark and chosen her.

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