The Alpha's Unwanted Bride novel Chapter 684

Chapter 684: REVELATIONS II

The world didn’t end.

That was the strangest part.

After the words left his mouth.

"Scarlett was your mother"

Nothing shattered.

No thunder cracked. No light exploded. The sky didn’t fall.

I was still standing on the balcony.

Still breathing.

Still alive.

But something inside me went very, very quiet.

I took a step back.

Then another.

My heels brushed cold stone and I didn’t remember walking that far. My chest felt hollow, like someone had scooped everything out and forgotten to put it back.

"No," I said again, softer this time. Not to him. To myself. "That doesn’t make sense."

Aiden didn’t move. He didn’t reach for me. He didn’t try to convince me.

He just watched.

And somehow, that made it worse.

"If Scarlett was my mother," I continued, my voice strange in my own ears, "then why did my life look like that?"

I laughed once, sharp and broken.

"Why was I unwanted? Why was I whispered about? Why did Bale look at me like I was a burden? Why do he treat me that way?!"

"What way?" Aiden asked his eyes flashing sharply.

I scoffed. "Your brother hated me. I was raised as his daughter. He let her die in a cell and he raised me in hell! Hell is an understatement for what I went through!"

I shook my head.

"Why did the packs let me rot on the edges of everything?"

My throat burned.

"If I was a princess," I said bitterly, "then why did no one come for me?"

Silence stretched between us.

The land below continued to live.

The children running, water flowing, dragons circling far above, but I felt completely detached from it.

Aiden exhaled.

Slow. Heavy.

"You’re right," he said quietly.

That made me look at him.

Not I’m sorry.

Not you don’t understand.

Not it was complicated.

Just...

You’re right.

"I failed you," he continued, his voice steady but weighted. "I told myself I was building a world where you wouldn’t suffer. I told myself I needed knowledge, power, answers. And while I was searching... I tried everything to find you."

He looked away, toward the horizon.

"You were living the cost of my absence."

The words landed deeper than anger ever could.

My hands curled into fists.

"So you just.... what.... left me?" I demanded. "You left my mother? You left me?"

"I didn’t know how cruel it could be," he said honestly. "I believed blood would protect you. I believed Bale would love you as his own."

A humorless smile touched his lips.

"I was wrong."

Something in my chest cracked open.

Not rage.

Grief.

"I spent my whole life thinking I wasn’t enough," I whispered. "That there was something wrong with me."

Aiden turned back to me, eyes shining not with pity, but with something like regret sharpened into resolve.

"There was never anything wrong with you."

My stomach tightened suddenly.

Not emotionally.

Physically.

A sharp pressure bloomed low in my abdomen, stealing my breath.

I hissed and bent forward slightly, instinctively bracing myself against the balcony rail.

Aiden was at my side instantly.

"Jasmine?"

"I’m fine," I said automatically, though I wasn’t sure it was true.

The pressure eased, replaced by a slow, heavy pull.

The baby moved.

Not a flutter.

A roll.

Aiden’s eyes dropped to my stomach.

His expression changed.

"What is it?" I asked, suddenly afraid.

"The child," he murmured. "It’s reacting."

"To what?"

"To this place."

That fear I’d been holding at bay crept in fully now.

"What does that mean?"

"It means," he said carefully, "that your child may be more bound to this world than you are."

My breath caught.

"And if I give birth here?"

Aiden didn’t answer immediately.

And that was answer enough.

My hand pressed protectively over my stomach.

"And if I don’t?"

His jaw tightened.

"That choice," he said quietly, "may decide more than just your fate."

My head spun.

Too many revelations. Too many consequences.

And then

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify