The mate of his nanny

Chapter 121: Unwanted Attention

Moana

I was still completely and utterly shocked that Edrick announced that we were in a relationship on live television. Even long after Selina shut off the TV and ordered the maids to return to their work, and even after I woke Ella up and got her ready for the day, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

In some ways, I was elated that Edrick announced that I was his "secret fiancee", since it meant that he may have been slowly coming around to the idea that we could be together. However, I still didn't know exactly what all of this meant.

Would we only be in a fake relationship?
If this really did only ever turn out to be a fake publicity stunt, I couldn't help but wonder if it would only cause more confusion and pain. Our relationship was already rocky enough as it currently stood; even though Edrick knew that I was a werewolf now, I could still tell that he had hangups about real marriage. Not only that, but I didn't even know if we were mates.

If Mina never fully emerged, then becoming true mates wouldn't even be possible. That was why so many wolfless adults wound up being shunned by the majority of the werewolf world; obviously, there were countless other reasons for it as well, but one of the major reasons was that wolfless adults couldn't create a mate bond. Therefore, werewolves who did have their wolves wouldn't want to waste their time trying to bond with someone who could never feel the same way.

Aside from that, the thought of only ever being a fake wife made me uneasy. I wanted to be with someone who loved me and devoted themselves to me and our child, not someone who only pretended to be in love with me to keep the media from creating negative news articles about us. The whole thing felt somewhat fishy, and I couldn't decide by that point if I should have just been happy that this potentially meant that Edrick wouldn't marry someone else and make our home life confusing for our baby and Ella, or if I should try to find out what his true intentions were.

Either way, I was completely confused. ...
Later that evening, after putting Ella to bed, Edrick still wasn't home. I couldn't sleep after everything that happened that day, so I sat on the couch and looked at my phone to pass the time until Edrick got home.

However, I quickly realized that I made a mistake when I started looking at social media.
My eyes widened as I began to read all of the posts made about Edrick and I.

Somehow, within mere hours of Edrick announcing our fake relationship, there were already hundreds — if not thousands — of posts about us. And the more I read, the more I began to realize that the majority of those posts were distinctly not positive.
In fact, the majority of those posts were extremely negative.

I always knew that Edrick had a sizable fanbase of women who adored him. After all, he was an incredibly handsome Alpha billionaire, and up until today, he was always known as being single and available to the public. It seemed that a lot of those women believed that they had a chance at becoming the Alpha CEO's next wife, and my presence seemed to royally piss them off.

Even though I knew that it was never a good idea to read comments on these sorts of things, and that I should have turned off my phone, I couldn't stop myself from scrolling a little. My heart sank as I began to read some of the nasty comments that were made about me.

"I can't believe Edrick Morgan is actually planning on marrying a human," one comment read. "And he really had kids with her! Gross!"

"It'll be okay," another comment replied. "She's clearly just a human plaything. Plenty of the werewolf elites like to dabble with humans when they're bored and waiting for their true mate to appear. When he finds his real mate, he'll throw her in the trash where she belongs."

As I read even more nasty comments, many of them seemed to fall into this similar vein. It seemed that most people agreed that I was nothing more than a "human plaything" for Edrick, as they didn't yet know that I wasn't even a human; not that it made it any better, of course. My entire life, I had been raised thinking I was a human, so seeing people speak about humans like that made my blood boil.
Eventually, I came to my senses and realized that it was best to shut off my phone for the night. I tossed my phone down on the couch and let out a deep sigh, shutting my eyes as I leaned my head back on the pillow.

This was too much attention, too fast. I never asked for this. Even though Edrick's announcement of our fake relationship made me excited in the moment, I realized now that it might not have been a good thing. In fact, I couldn't help but worry if the stress of it all would impact my baby. I wished that he had at least talked to me about it first before jumping to that decision, and now it was too late — the news was out.

I couldn't help but feel incredibly sad after that. Would my baby only ever be viewed as an impediment to other women's chances to be with the Alpha billionaire? Even more so, would my baby be in danger with so many women being furious about my "relationship" with Edrick, regardless of whether it was real or fake?

Suddenly, I wished that I had simply stepped away from all of this as soon as I found out that I was pregnant. Maybe I should have taken Michael's offer and used the money to move to another city; but at the same time, I couldn't deny the fact that I enjoyed being near Edrick and Ella, and even Selina and the maids. In a way, this place had become my home, and these people had become my family. Even after just a couple of months of living here, I already couldn't imagine living somewhere else. But the stress of the public finding out about our "relationship" still made me rethink whether or not this was a safe situation, not only for myself, but also for my baby.

I tried to read a little to pass the time after I shut my phone off, but I found myself unable to focus with my mind racing, so I finally gave in and closed my eyes as I laid on the couch.
Finally, a little while later, I heard the elevator doors open. I quickly jerked my head up and peered over the back of the couch to see Edrick stepping into the foyer.

He didn't see me at first. During those moments, as I watched him take off his jacket and his shoes, I swore I saw a slight smile faintly flickering across his lips. I couldn't help but wonder if he was smiling about his announcement earlier.

And even the thought of his announcement making him happy enough to smile made my heart flutter.