The mate of his nanny

Chapter 157: To Trust Or Not To Trust

Moana

"He has it." My wolf's voice was steady and even-toned, but also agitated. "Check his pockets."

I immediately trusted Mina's instincts. She was too sure of it for me to even begin to question it, and she had never been wrong about these sorts of things before. And besides, by now I had spent so long frantically searching the apartment for my tooth that I was desperate. It was the only physical thing I had that was linking me to my past and my lineage. If I didn't have that tooth, I felt lost, and I felt as though I might never find my parents or at least find out who they were.

"Show me what's in your pocket," I growled, holding my hand out flat as I glared up at Edrick with narrowed eyes.

Edrick looked taken aback.

"Why?" he asked, sounding a bit confused. He seemed innocent, but my wolf was insistent that he had my tooth. And I could sense it, too. The way that Edrick's eyes widened for just a split second as I stormed up to him told me everything that I needed to know.

"You know why," I replied. "I have a feeling that you took something of mine without permission."
Edrick stared at me for a while, but I only stared back with my hand still outstretched. He had the tooth; I could sense it.

And I was right. Finally, with a sigh, Edrick reached into his pocket and retrieved the tooth. He placed it in my hand, and my fingers instantly curled around it as my eyes widened with a combination of anger and confusion.

"W-Why did you take it?" I asked, still gripping it tightly in my hand. "You should have asked first."

Edrick looked a little embarrassed, and for a few moments he stared at the floor, chewing the inside of his cheek before he finally looked back up at me and let out another sigh. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I just kept getting a feeling about it. I wanted to see if it was a real Alpha tooth, so I took it to a friend of mine to run some tests on it."

I was still shocked by this. Why would Edrick need to know whether the tooth belonged to an Alpha or not? It wasn't his tooth, and therefore it wasn't really any of his business whether it was an Alpha tooth or not. Not only that, but he should have asked me. If he really was that interested in my lineage, he could have included me in these tests. I would have been curious to know, too.

But then, as I stared up at Edrick with surprise, my eyes widened even further as I remembered something. During my conversation with Olivia earlier that day, she had said that Edrick's only goal was to produce the ultimate Alpha heir to take over someday as the next CEO of WereCorp. He wasn't interested in having a loving relationship with a woman or with his child; he was only interested in continuing his legacy. If he was really that concerned as to whether my wolf tooth belonged to an Alpha or not, then that only solidified what she told me.
If my baby wasn't one hundred percent Alpha, did that mean that Edrick would potentially leave us both out on the street?

"Daddy!" Ella suddenly called from behind. I quickly pocketed the tooth and turned to see Ella running toward Edrick with a grin on her face and her arms outstretched. "I shifted all on my own at training today! I didn't need any help at all!"

"Hey there, Princess," Edrick said, crouching down to her level with a warm and loving smile on his face, causing his gray eyes to shine in the sunlight that was streaming in through the living room window. "Did you really, now? All by yourself?"

"Mhm! The teacher told me to try it, and I did it! I did what the teacher taught me before, about taking a deep breath and letting my wolf borrow my energy... Like this!" Ella suddenly took a big, deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, and as she did, her ears began to grow more pointed and her fingernails began to extend; the first signs of her shifting. Edrick and I both gasped as she started to shift, and I took a few steps backwards and clamped my hand over my heart.

Even a little werewolf that was only Ella's size could wreak havoc indoors, and children were notorious for not controlling their wolves very well when they shifted. If she shifted indoors, it could be a bit of a disaster.

"No shifting in the house, Ella!" Edrick suddenly said, scooping her up off of the ground and tossing her in the air playfully, causing her to open her eyes and giggle before she shifted. Her ears returned to their normal state and her claws retracted, and I watched as Edrick kept tossing her in the air with a grin on his face, causing her little laughs to float through the room like the sound of angels.

As I watched this, I found myself almost forgetting all about the incident with the tooth. Seeing Edrick like this only made me think that there was no way that Olivia was right; Edrick clearly loved Ella more than anything, and the way that he laughed and played with her only proved it. He was now zooming around the room with her on his back, both of their arms outstretched as he made airplane noises, and I couldn't help but laugh along with Ella.

Seeing Edrick's kind hearted nature toward Ella made me realize that maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to trust Olivia. I still didn't know for sure if she was Ella's biological mother. For all I knew, she was just an actress sent by Michael or Kelly to throw me off and make me paranoid around Edrick. Both of them clearly wanted me to stay away from Edrick so badly that I wouldn't have put it past them at this point to work together to do something like that, and it would have been too easy for them to get inside my head and make me hate Edrick.

After that, I realized that maybe I overreacted a bit with Edrick. When he finally set Ella down and sent her off to help Selina and the maids set the table for dinner, he slowly turned back to face me with an apologetic and almost sheepish look in his eyes that told me that maybe his intentions were more curious than sinister.

"I really am sorry," he said quietly, sticking his hands in his pockets. The sunlight shined in through the open window as the sun slowly sank below the horizon, causing a halo of light to beam around him. He looked so handsome in this light that, even after how upset I had been earlier, I wished that I could kiss him.
I quickly averted my gaze as I felt my face flush from looking at him, and shrugged.

"Just... Ask me before you do things like that," I replied softly. "You've said so yourself that you deserve to know the truth as the father of my baby, and I think that I deserve the same respect as the mother of your baby, too."

Edrick nodded, and when I met his gaze his eyes were soft and full of regret.

"I won't do something like that again," he said. "I promise."