His Nanny Mate (Moana and Edrick Morgan)

Chapter 222

#Chapter 222: Over the Balcony

Moana

I decided that I couldn’t let Edrick go on for any longer without telling Ella the truth about her biological

mother.

“I know that you didn’t tell her everything,” I said as I stood in front of him with my hands on my hips.

He was standing in front of the bathroom sink in his bedroom and was brushing his teeth. With a sigh,

he slowly spit out his toothpaste and then looked over at me.

“What do you mean?” he asked. I could tell that he was trying to play it off like he didn’t know what I

was thinking about.

A frown came across my face. “Don’t play dumb. I know that you didn’t tell Ella about her mother even

though we talked about it. Are you going to tell her the truth, or do I need to? Because the longer she

goes without knowing everything, the more she’ll resent you when she eventually does find out.”

For a few long moments, the handsome Alpha billionaire stared at me unblinkingly with a somewhat

shocked and embarrassed expression on his face. But then that look was quickly hidden, and he shook

his head and scowled slightly. I could tell that I had struck a chord by bringing it up to him, which was

understandable but was nonetheless something that we would need to work through. “I’ll handle it

when I’m ready,” he said, brushing past me and heading into his bedroom. “Don’t worry about it. I just

didn’t want to bombard her with too much information all at once. That’s all.”

I sighed and followed him. His excuse made sense, but it was just that: an excuse. And it didn’t matter

at this point whether he bombarded Ella or not, because it was better than letting her go on for any

longer. But as I sat on my side of the bed and watched him as he took his watch off and set it neatly in

the spot that he always kept it on top of his dresser, and saw the way that he ran his hand through his

dark hair and the way that his muscles gleamed in the lamplight, I felt myself soften a bit.

“Edrick, she’s having trouble at school,” I finally said quietly.

Edrick spun around and looked at me with concern across his face. “She’s what?” he asked. “Is she

alright? What’s happening? Is she being bullied? I swear, if I find out that any of those kids are bullying

her, I’ll—”

“Calm down,” I said. “It’s not that bad, and I’m sure they’ll get over it eventually since they’re just kids.

It’s just…” I paused, sighing again, and stared down at my hands in my lap to hide the tears that were

threatening to pool up in my eyes. “She’s being alienated because of me. Because I’m a… a freak. And

now they think that she is, too, because everyone thinks that she’s my biological daughter. So it’s my

fault, really. And I guess in a way, I thought that if you told her about her real mom—”

Suddenly, I felt a rush of wind as Edrick walked up to me, and I felt his hands firmly grasp my shoulders

before I could finish.

“Look at me,” he demanded. I slowly looked up, blinking away my tears to see a stern expression on

his handsome face. “Moana, you’re not a freak. The children and the other teachers will get over your

sudden change; it’s just new to them. That’s all.”

I shook my head. “But what if I am a freak?” I asked. “What if I have another episode in the middle of

the classroom and I scare everyone? What if I have an episode and I never come out of it, and you

really do need to put me in a mental institu—”

“Stop it.” Edrick’s voice was harsh, and his hands gripped my shoulders even more tightly. Almost too

tightly. His eyes screamed with hatred, not for me, but for the horrible things that I just said about

myself. I instantly felt like a small ant beneath his glare, and I immediately regretted it. “I won’t hear any

more of that. You’re not a freak, and everything will be okay. You’ve just been through a lot and your

brain is reacting in a perfectly reasonable way for someone who’s been through that sort of trauma. As

long as you keep seeing your therapist, everything will be okay.”

“What if I shift, then?” I asked. “What if I shift, and everyone finds out that I’m the Golden Wolf, and

then I’m not only a freak but I’m also a hunted freak by people who hated me before I was even born?”

Edrick stared at me for a moment with wide eyes. “You don’t need to worry about that,” he said. “I

wasn’t going to say anything just yet, but I might as well now; the Mother Witch’s apprentices are

working on a perfume to mask your scent if you shift. It’ll keep you safe.”

My eyes went wide at Edrick’s words. That was comforting, but… I still felt uneasy. My dreams were

too vivid, and something told me that no matter what, I would see that knife in my future.

I let Edrick pull me in for a warm hug, but even as I felt the comforting sensation of his lips kissing my

forehead, I still didn’t know how much I really believed him. How reasonable was it, really, for someone

to black out and draw dozens of violent pictures depicting blood and gore and a strange knife with a

wolf head handle? How normal was it for someone to go into a coma for three days and have a dream

about being stabbed repeatedly by that very knife? What if part of the symptoms of being the Golden

Wolf entailed losing one’s mind, assuming that bounty hunters didn’t kill me first?

When Edrick pulled away, however, he was smiling. I forced a weak smile too, if only to make him

worry a little less. “How about this,” he said, brushing a strand of hair out of my eyes. “I’ll take you and

Ella somewhere special this weekend. Just the three of us. We’ll have a nice day out doing whatever

the two of you want, and then I’ll talk to her about Olivia. You and I can sit her down and do it together.

Okay?”

Edrick’s words were a slight comfort. I nodded and smiled against his soft lips as he kissed me, but as

we went to bed that night, I still felt the uncomfortable feeling of uneasiness boring a hole through my

stomach. No matter how warm and safe Edrick’s arms felt, I still felt sick to my stomach as I slowly

drifted off into a fitful sleep.

… Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

I had more dreams about Michael that night. I dreamed about that knife again, too. It was always in his

hand, and he was always chasing me with it. He always won in the end…

“You can’t run, Moana,” Michael’s dark voice said. “You might as well give up.”

I was standing on that same cliff with the rain beating down on me. Only this time, I was standing facing

away from Michael, looking out over the cliff into the dark abyss below. My stomach dropped as I

looked down, down into the darkness. I stood so close to the edge that my toes curled over the slick

rock that I stood on, and I didn’t even bother to turn around because I already knew how this would all

end. When I felt the knife plunge into my back, I wasn’t even remotely surprised. I heard the sound of

Michael’s laugh, and then he pushed me over into the darkness…

“Wake up! Moana, wake up!”