Chapter 103

Everly POV

All night I couldn’t sleep. Valen wouldn’t answer any of my texts and shoved me out whenever I tried to mind-link him. His silence was driving me insane, and I worried about Valarian. He sounded upset on the phone and wanted to come home, but I managed to calm him down enough and told him I would pick him up from school. Valen didn’t object, so I figured he was okay with that, or at least I hoped he was.

Throughout the night, I obsessed over the horrible sh*t that was portrayed on the news, saying Valen and I were fighting because he was cheating on me, that he finally realized Valarian wasn’t his son. It was all bullsh*t. I knew it, they knew it, but they would do whatever they could do to sell a story.

The bed felt too big without Valen in it, cold and empty, the house too quiet without him snoring beside me and making me want to smother him while he slept.

Many times I got up and checked the locks and windows and checked Valarian’s bed. A habit I thought I outgrew. That was something Zoe, I both did, almost like we took it in turns during the night when it was just us. We always feared it being only us in the house, knowing that rogue-w****s weren’t much of a fight if someone broke in, especially with my tiny wolf and hers.

Yet alone, I found myself reverting back to old habits and nearly had a panic a****k when I realized Valarian wasn’t in his bed when I checked. I kept reminding myself he was safe with his father, yet knowing that and seeing it for myself were two different things. Maybe if he wasn’t angry with me, I would be fine. Because I never had this issue when Valarian would sleep at Kalen’s, I knew it was because I was entirely alone and without having anything to distract me reminded me of being on my own in my car, only this time I was in a huge empty penthouse, yet the feeling was still the same…

Having just closed my eyes, I heard the front doors lock twist and click, which had me sitting upright. Panic coursed through me and my hand instantly searched for Valen in the bed before remembering he wasn’t here. My heart thumped in my chest as I crept toward the hall when Valen’s voice flitted through my head.