Stepbrother Mine A Son For Alpha Zoren (Ciara) novel Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Zoren

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“Is she really gonna be fine?” He asked quietly, in a whisper. He was standing by the bed, gently holding Ciara’s hand. He looked so worried and almost on the verge of tears, showing how fiercely he cared about his mother.

“She is, I’ll make sure of that, okay?” I assured him while stroking his hair. It made my heart ache that he was burdened with something like this at such a young age,

“You’ll watch over her?” He asked me and I nodded instantly.

“Of course,” I told him and it broke my heart again when he sniffled a little.

“Promise?” He whispered.

“I promise.” I echoed and that thankfully managed to calm him down. It pleased me so much that he trusted me enough to take my promise for it. And I meant that word, I wasn’t gonna let anything happen to Ciara.

“She smelt weird… sick. But she kept assuring me she was fine.” He spoke quietly as he watched his mom again and my eyebrows rose in surprise. It was really surprising and impressive that his senses were this sharp at such a young age, even mine weren’t that sharp when I was just five years old.

After spending a few more minutes in the room with Ciara, it was getting late and I figured I’d have to find a place for Kai to spend the night since he clearly wouldn’t be spending it with his mommy. I’m the one who’d be spending the night with Ciara, just to help her.

After the door closed after us, one of the guards informed me that Erica has sent for me and is waiting for me. That instantly filled me with an idea and I crouched before Kai as I took his hand in mine.

“Would you like to spend the night with Erica, Kai?” I asked him. That seemed like the best option. Erica was just trying to get to know him after all, so this might be the best start.

Kai blanched and instantly disagreed, shocking me. “No, I don’t want to!”

My brows burrowed in surprise at the aggression in his voice,

“Why don’t you want that? Don’t you like Erica?”

He nodded, shocking me further.

“She smells weird and I don’t like her.”

1 frowned in utter surprise. “Why?”

“She’s… she’s rude and she hurt my mommy.”

My eyes widened and shock rocked through me. “What?!”

He shrugged. “She hurt my mommy’s hand.” He revealed and as my mind reeled, shock gripped me so hard that I almost forgot to breathe.

My mind instantly pictured Ciara’s bandaged hand. So many times I planned to ask what happened with it but I always end up forgetting to do that. Could it be that Kai was right? That Erica really hurt her? But that felt impossible. Like, my mind couldn’t even picture that. Erica couldn’t hurt a fly, right?

I let out a sigh, then I rose to my full height. “You know what? What about spending the night with Sarah? She is sweet and you’ll have a lot of fun with her. By morning, you’ll be able to see your mommy and I again,”

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Chapter 31

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That seemed to brighten him up and he agreed without arguing. After sending for Sarah to come get him, my mind continued to reel hard from what I just heard from Kai.

I bid Kai goodnight, then I was all alone again. I let out a long breath and decided to go over to Erica instead. It’s better to get whatever she wanna say to me over with as fast as possible.

In her bedroom, she was pacing before I stepped in, then she abruptly stopped before her face brightened, then she was rushing towards me.

“You’re here, baby! Finally!” She gushed as she took my hands in hers, seeming to be trying to lead me towards the bed at

once.

“I’ve been waiting for you since forever. Finally you’re here and now we can…” I didn’t move an inch as I cut her off.

“I’m not here to spend the night with you, Erica.”

Her brows furrowed in confusion.

“You’re not?” She echoed and I hummed.

“I’ll be taking care of Ciara instead.”

“What?” She cried out, seeming to be starkly shocked.

“The whole night?” She asked and I nodded again. This time, her face darkened and a scowl settled on her face.

Slowly, she let go of my hands, then she resumed pacing again.

“How can you do that? How? Why would you choose to do that? That’s insensitive and unfair to me!” She cried out, her voice shrill and loud, already making my head start to pound again.

For a moment, I wonder how she’d react should she find out that the doctor just said that Ciara and I were fated mates.

“Dint make this about you, Erica. She is sick, you’re not.” I breathed it and she seemed to crumble even more.

“I might as well be sick then! Since her and her son arrived, you’ve barely spent any time with me! And now, after all my plans today, you’ll just go spend the night taking care of her? Why? Just because she’s the mother of your son?”

I pursed my lips In frustration; wanting to be done with this conversation as fast possible cause my headache only seemed to be worsened and of course, now that I was far away from Ciara, the pain in my chest has returned at a full force, so frankly, I couldn’t wait to return back to Ciara.

“Stop being childish, Erica. You should understand that she’s sick and needs my help,” I informed her, my voice growing sharper.

“Let someone else help her.”

I shook

my

head. “I’m the only one who can do it.”

“Then let her die! I don’t care. Her son is already poisoning her mind towards me and in no time, I’m certain she’ll start poisoning her mind towards you. So, let her fucking di-” she was still speaking when I sharply cut her off.

“Erica!”

She was breathing hard, her chest heaving, but anger was hot and heavy in my chest right now as I regarded her, feeling utter shock and a slow realization that it seems I didn’t know her like I once used to.

“I never knew you were this heartless.” I breathed out and her eyes widened.

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Chapter 31

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“Wait, I- I can explain…” She hurriedly attempted to close the distance between us but I held up a hand fast, stopping her with a sharp look.

“Erica.” I began in a low, angry voice that made her flinch. Slowly, I closed the distance between her. Her eyes widened and she took a step back before I grabbed her wrist and jerked her closer to me, pulling her hand high between us. My gaze zeroed in on her sharp looking, long artificial nails while my mind did some quick calculations. Her nails are so long and sharp looking while Ciara’s were so short and filled.

If this is the case, how was Ciara able to scratch Erica’s face that night?

Erica looked frozen in fear when my eyes met with hers just as I spoke, my voice still filled with a level of anger I’ve never used in addressing her before.

“Are you certain Ciara attacked you that night?” I demanded and she blanched, her eyes widening while her mouth opened and closed a few times.

“W- what? Why are you suddenly asking about that?” She cried out, attempting to pull her hand free but it was pointless because my hold was much stronger.

“Cause it seems so many things have slipped underneath my nose without me noticing. Now; answer my question.”

She exhaled slowly as she nodded. “Of course I’m certain, I still have flashbacks from how she suddenly attacked me—

“If that was true, how was she able to attack you with her short nails while your nails are this long? And how is she a human able to lay a finger on you, an alpha wolf?”

Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she let out a shrill chuckle. “A- are you implying that I purposely injured myself?”

When I remained silent, her eyes filled with hurt and tears. “I can’t believe I’d ever be accused of something like this, much less by someone I love! I didn’t do a single thing to her, I swear it. She’s the one who scratched my face like a fuvking vitch,”

My hold on her wrist tightened without me realizing it until she suddenly winced then I completely let go of her wrist, my hand moving over my face as I exhaled harshly.

“If you’re really telling the truth, how did she manage to hurt her hand?” I demanded.

“Maybe that’s just to get your attention and clearly it’s working! Can’t you see this is all a ploy? And why do you care about her so much anyway? Why? I don’t remember you ever caring about me half as much.” She breathed out before quickly averting her gaze when I growled at her.

“Since when do you start questioning me, Erica?”

She ducked her head and apologized meekly but I didn’t feel satisfied one bit. The more I stared at her right now, the more I was starting to piece together a lot more things, things I never used to notice before.

“If you’re lying to me and I end up finding out, you know you’ll be punished, right?” I warned her and nodded.

“I’m not lying, I swear,”

I wordlessly turned away from her, fully intended on leaving right now, until she stopped me with her next words.

“Are you in love with her? Is that why you care so much?”

My mind reeked hard as i suddenly stopped walking,

In love with her? That’s just ridiculous. Of course I wasn’t in love with her.

“She’s my kid’s mother, Erica.” I breathed out without bothering to glance at her.

Chapter 31

A second later, she spoke again and I felt her come closer to me.

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“So, what about our wedding? When are we gonna start planning it? I assumed… you’ve already severed the bite between. yourself and that woman.” She breathed out and I felt myself instantly stiffen.

“I expected us to talk about that today, but instead you spent the whole day with Ciara.” She continued and I rolled my eyes before facing her again. She was pouting, looking like a wounded animal.

“I spent the whole day with my son, not her.” I corrected her. “And I can do whatever I want. If I want to spend the whole day. with her, I can and you have no rights to dare to question me.”

She ducked her head, but that move only irritated me further. “I’m sorry, I’m just jealous.” She admitted quietly before closing the distance to try to kiss me, but I didn’t let her.

I didn’t let myself linger after that before slipping past the door in the next moment.

As I walked down the empty hallway, my mind returned back to what the doctor said to me. I’ll have to mark Ciara to save her, which will bond us together: but if I do that, I definitely wouldn’t be able to wed Erica anymore, nor would I be able to give the pack what they want this whole time. Despite feeling so conflicted, I was in so much pain and feel drawn to Ciara, like something was strongly pulling me towards her. I didn’t need to dwell on it much to realize that I’ve never felt this way towards anyone before, and that made me realize that she might really be my fated mate.