Recognition

Kieran POV

I couldn't breathe. The woman before me was the same hazel-eyed, long wavy haired woman, but different. She was a stranger displaying the face of Evelyn. I wondered how I would be playing tricks in my mind.

Kieran, she said--and that voice, this low voice of which I had heard so little in five years--aroused my wolf. It had fallen asleep, as though it had slept all the time, waiting till she was there. "Hello."

She did not even say that she was glad to see me. She didn't sound sad either. She was talking to a person whom she was indifferent about. It was more painful to my chest than it would have been to my anger.

I got nearer and her body tightened. Her motion was to retreat only a short distance, sufficient to compare with me that she did not desire my company. Denial was as sharp as a knife. "Evelyn. You're here. Know you would--I interrupted. I didn't know what to say. Every word felt wrong.

"Yes. I was invited." She turned her back on me, and turned away into the hallway in which Serena had made her escape. Her jaw was tight. Something was wrong. She wasn't just here at a party. She was here for a reason.

Five years. I had not seen her in five years, as I had put her away at the cabin when she made an attempt on her part to run away. I had thought that she killed my father. I had been so mad, so injured, so foolish. Since this day I wondered whether it was the wrong thing I did. My wolf was howling after her every day.

She now stood directly in front of me, and she did not seem, as though, to remember she had ever loved me.

"You look..." I attempted to come up with the appropriate words. "You look good."

She wheeled and turned back towards me, with cold eyes. So cold. When she looked at me, they would be warm even where I did not deserve it. Even when I was cruel to her. "Thank you," she said. That was all. Just two words.

The music at the ballroom increased in volume, and individuals began to pass by us. Now we were in one of those silent retreats in a corner out of the crowd. It was just as though we were the two individuals in the world despite everyone being around us.

"Adrian," I said suddenly. I had been planning this weeks before and it is since I discovered that she had a son. "Is that his name? Adrian?"

Her whole body went stiff. Her fingers were clenched into fists and I watched her knuckles turn pale. "How do you know that name?" She was now dangerous in the voice, sharp like broken glass. "Did you follow me?"

"No. I merely--" I ran my hand across my hair, in frustration. I listened to it in a business meeting. I heard the name of your son cited by someone.

"You stay away from Adrian." She made a step towards me, and I could now see the fire in her eyes. She wasn't cold anymore. She was burning. "He has nothing to do with you. Nothing. Do you understand me?"

My wolf had a desire to fight, to explain to her that Adrian was my blood and my son. But I didn't say that. Since I now recalled the truth. I recalled I had left one of my other sons, Damien, and abandoned Evelyn, in the dark. When Serena claimed that the second baby was dead I had believed her. I had let her suffer.

What kind of man does that?

oh!--is he my-, I was not able to complete the sentence.

"No." She very fast, very hard, said, as though it were a lie she had said a thousand times. "He's not your anything."

But I knew about the lie on her face. I noticed this in how her eyes moved to the side. I would notice it in the manner she was taking care of him just as a mother would to her baby in case of danger. And I was the danger. I was a threat to her all the time.

"Evelyn, I need to talk to you. Really talk to you. Not like this." I saw what the other guests were doing. "Can we go somewhere private?"

"No." She shook her head. There is nothing to say to each other, Kieran. That was a long time ago. I've moved on."

"Have you?" I shifted nearer once more, however on this occasion she did not withdraw. I now could smell her, that sweet smell that would make me mad. It still made me crazy. My wolf knows when one is lying. And I know that you are lying. At that point I can smell it.

Her face flushed red. Her hands shook. "My father is here. Continue to persist, and, if I bother you, I will then ask him to expel you out of this partying.

I didn't know she had a father. I was not acquainted with her present life. She used to be a CEO of some large corporation known as Luna Holdings and she was wealthy, powerful, and totally close to me. The woman that I rejected had developed herself into something that I could not manage. Someone I couldn't touch.

I do not mean to bother you, I said in a low voice. "I just want to understand--"

Nothing to get. No, there is nothing to know. She swiveled her back to face me, again her gaze turned back to the corridor. "We made our choices. You also made mine when you turned me away. I made mine when I left."

"I made a mistake," I said. These were coarse, disjointed words. "I know that now. I made a terrible mistake."

She didn't respond. And she simply stood there staring out of the window as though I was not there. Like I was nothing. And maybe I deserved that. It was perhaps my right to feel like I was nothing to her.

Then, from the hallway where Serena had gone, I heard a sound. It was a scream. A high, frightened scream that made everyone in the ballroom stop and look around.

Evelyn's head snapped toward the sound. Her eyes went wide. She didn't hesitate--she just moved toward the hallway, pushing through the crowd of confused people.

"Evelyn, wait--" I called after her, but she was already gone.

I followed her, my wolf alert and ready for trouble. As we got closer to the hallway, I could hear Serena's voice, shaking and scared. And I could hear a man's voice, deep and mean, saying something I couldn't quite make out.

When we turned the corner, we saw them. Serena was on the ground, her fancy dress torn, and the scarred man from earlier was standing over her with his hand around her throat. But it wasn't just any man.

It was Victor Kane.

A rogue Alpha. Someone I hadn't seen in years. Someone who was supposed to be dead.

His eyes moved from Serena to me, then to Evelyn. And when he saw Evelyn, he smiled. That terrible smile got even bigger.

"Well, well," Victor said, his voice low and dangerous. "Look who showed up. This night just got a lot more interesting."