Chapter 3 Back To Where It All Ended

Nyx's POV

Five years.

It feels like a blink and a lifetime all at once.

I'm no longer the scared girl who ran in the middle of the night with nothing but a duffel bag and a threat on her back.

That version of me died somewhere between sleepless nights, whispered prayers, and the soft heartbeat of a baby boy growing inside me.

Now, I go by Kalyndra Nyx-founder of Kalyndra Designs, a rising name in luxury handmade jewelry. People see me in magazines now.

Interviews. Articles. Glossy covers with headlines like "Mystery Designer Shakes Up the Fashion World." They think they know me. But none of them know the truth.

No one knows I built this life out of heartbreak.

No one knows the boy they call Adrian-my son, my joy, my miracle-is also something else. Something more.

And no one knows who his father is.

Especially not him.

Zane Blackwood.

I haven't heard his name in years. Haven't let it pass through my lips. It stayed buried in my past, locked away in the same place where I hid all the pain.

Until today.

"Mom, look!"

Adrian's voice pulls me out of my thoughts. I turn from the display window of our new studio space in downtown Crestfall to see him crouched by a flower bed outside.

The petals of the rose in his hand are shimmering... glowing faintly.

I freeze.

"Adrian," I say carefully, stepping closer. "What did we say about-"

"Sorry," he mumbles, dropping the rose like it burned him. "I didn't mean to."

My heart aches. "I know, baby. It's okay. Just remember-we have to be careful, alright?"

He nods and kicks at a pebble. He's only four, but sometimes he looks at me with eyes far older than his years.

The powers started showing up a few months ago. Little things at first-glowing plants, dreams that came true, bursts of energy when he got upset.

I haven't told anyone. Not even my closest assistant. Not yet.

Because if word got out that my son had abilities... that he was part Alpha, part human...

It wouldn't just be curious reporters sniffing around.

It would be him.

And I wasn't ready to face Zane again.

******

The studio is quiet later that afternoon when Talia, my assistant, rushes in holding her tablet like it's on fire. "You're not going to believe this," she says breathlessly.

I raise an eyebrow from behind my sketchpad. "Try me."

"We just got an email from Blackwood Industries. From Mollie Anderson-Zane Blackwood's fiancée."

The pencil in my hand snaps in half.

Talia doesn't notice.

"She's asking if we'd be open to a collaboration," she goes on, scrolling through the email. "She's obsessed with our Lunar Eclipse collection. She wants us to design the jewelry line for her wedding launch."

My stomach flips.

Zane is getting married?

To her?

I remember her vaguely-always standing beside him at galas with her picture-perfect smile and polished hair. She came from old money and power. The kind of woman Zane's world made space for.

I was never that.

"Nyx?" Talia asks, noticing my silence. "Should I respond?"

I don't know what to say.

My heart pounds louder than my thoughts. Everything I ran from-everything I escaped-is crashing back into my carefully built world.

Working with Mollie means putting my name in the same room as his. Being close to Blackwood again. Close to him.

The bond I tried to bury still stirs in my chest like it's been waiting.

I look at the email. In the image of the signature below her name.

Mollie Anderson, Future Mrs. Blackwood.

It hits harder than it should.

I draw in a sharp breath. "Tell her yes," I say quietly.

Talia's eyes widened. "Really?"

"We'll take the meeting. But only under the name Kalyndra Designs. No personal details."

Talia nods and walks out, already calling someone on her way.

I sink into my chair and stare at the broken pencil in my hand.

What am I doing?

I left to protect myself. To protect Adrian. To get away from the pain Zane caused when he looked me in the eye and rejected every part of me.

When he made me feel like I didn't belong. Like I was nothing. And now I'm willingly stepping back into his orbit?

No.

I'm stepping in because I have something to protect now. Not run from.

Adrian is my reason. My strength.

I built my life from the ashes he left me in.

This time, I'm not the girl who begged to be wanted.

I'm not the one who stood beneath the moonlight, aching for a touch that meant something, praying that his silence didn't mean goodbye.

That girl... he shattered the moment he turned his back, the second his cold gaze said she wasn't enough. I buried her long ago.

Now, I'm walking in with my head high, not because I've forgotten-but because I remember everything.

I remember the way he looked at me after that night like it hadn't meant a damn thing. Like I hadn't meant a damn thing.

I remember how easily he tossed me aside-like I was just another human foolish enough to want something impossible.

But I'm not broken anymore. I'm not afraid.

I've built something from that pain. From that night.

A name. A brand. A life.

And a secret he was never brave enough to wait for.

Because the one thing Zane Blackwood never saw coming... was our son. A boy with his jawline. His stubbornness. His fire.

A boy who's starting to hear the pull of the wild in his blood. A boy who's too special, too powerful, to stay hidden much longer.

Zane doesn't know. He doesn't know that what he cast aside became the greatest part of me. He doesn't know that the child he never met is already dreaming of wolves.

And when he sees me again, he'll see it-

In my eyes. In my spine. I won't flinch when his presence fills the room.

He'll see the truth written all over me. And he'll feel it in the quiet space between us.

The shift.

The storm.

The spark that never really died.

Because this time, I'm not just the woman he left behind. I'm the woman he never deserved. And I'm carrying the one thing he never knew he needed...

The child who has his eyes.