: The First Family Photo of Four
: The First Family Photo of Four
(Matthew’s POV)
The reporters and my team were stopped by Tristan at the end of the corridor, but there were always disobedient reporters taking pictures of the other end of the corridor. Trapped in my embrace, Olivia desperately tried to hide from the flashing cameras, burying her face in my chest.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice muffled against my shirt.
“What about you?” I countered softly, my hand gently stroking her messy hair.
She explained she was accompanying Leo to visit his father and then had to go to the security center to work on her system. I simply held her, my presence a silent, unyielding claim.
I leaned in as if to kiss her, and she panicked. “You can’t! Matthew, you can’t. Pay attention to your image!”
Her flustered reaction only made me smile. The way she worried about my reputation while completely ignoring her own safety was so typically her.
At that moment, Tristan approached. “Friends from the press would like to ask the Alpha King and his Luna for a photo together.”
I stepped back slightly, my gaze shifting to Theodore, who stood nearby, clutching his
shoulder with a defeated expression. The bandages around his torso were visible beneath
his shirt.
“Aurora is my daughter, and Olivia will soon return to my side,” Theodore taunted, his voice laced with a bitter challenge. “We, a family of four, will be reunited. Matthew Kane, thank you for raising my mate, my daughter, and my son for me?”
Unfazed, my gaze moved past him. I had always been taught to be tolerant and forgiving, and Theodore was no different from anyone else in my eyes–unworthy of my time.
But now, a rare hint of a smile touched my lips as I extended a hand towards the boy behind Theodore. “Leo, how about taking a picture with Alpha Kane and your mother?”
The provocation bounced back, stunning Theodore. His own son looked past him, his eyes
ea with the same hope as mine, and asked, “Would Mom be willing?”
(Olivia’s POV)
Tristan gently persuaded me, reminding me how long it had been since I’d had a photo with Leo. My heart ached at his words.
My phone, filled with our memories, was destroyed, and my new one only had pictures of Aurora. I saw Leo’s hopeful face and felt the weight of my promise to Victoria Kane to leave Matthew in fourteen days.
But when Leo called out, “Mom?“, my resolve crumbled. I walked over, pried Theodore’s hand from my son’s arm, and said coldly, “Let go. Stop pestering him.”
I agreed to the photo, a keepsake before my departure. Matthew immediately pulled me into his arms.
“Smile,” he whispered against my ear. “You look beautiful when you smile.”
As we posed, a family unit with Leo holding Aurora, Theodore was left behind, blocked by Tristan. The cameras flashed, capturing what felt like a perfect moment.
Leo beamed as he carefully cradled his baby sister. Aurora gurgled softly, her tiny hand
reaching toward the bright lights.
Matthew’s arm around my waist felt protective, possessive. For a moment, I allowed myself to imagine this was real, that we truly were a family.
(Theodore’s POV)
“Alpha Redgrave, if I were you, I wouldn’t keep pestering her,” Tristan said calmly. “Luna Olivia is very happy now.”
He then revealed a long–buried secret that shattered my world. “Matthew attended her mating ceremony nine years ago, leaving a bouquet of pink tulips at the pack grounds, a silent blessing for the woman he loved but couldn’t have.”
My blood ran cold. Pink tulips. Olivia’s favorite flowers.
“He put himself after her. If you truly love Luna Olivia, you should let her go, not entangle her.”
Added to the library
rora, completely shattered my The words, combined with the sigh world. Nine years. He had loved her for nine years, even when she was mine.
After the photos, Matthew invited Leo to visit his office at the Council Hall. Leo, excited, went
to inform me.
Inside the hospital room, fury consumed me as I grabbed my son’s arm. “You are my son! You carry the Redgrave bloodline!”
For the first time, Leo stood up to me, tears streaming down his face. “Dad, I’m begging you, don’t hurt Mom anymore. Do you know how sad she is?”
He revealed the devastating truth that made my world collapse. “Mom cried for two hours with Dr. Aris… she doesn’t want to go back to you. Mom asked Dr. Aris to seal her memories of you. Mom wants to forget you.”
The words struck me with terror. “Your mother wants to forget me?” I choked out, my Alpha authority crumbling as I faced my son’s defiance.
“Yes!” Leo sobbed. “She said remembering you only brings her pain. She wants to forget everything about you, Dad. Everything!”
My grip on his arm loosened as the full weight of his words hit me. Olivia wanted to erase me completely from her mind.
(Olivia’s POV)
Outside, I watched my son’s retreating back, marveling at how completely Matthew had won him over. He wasn’t just fulfilling a duty; he was genuinely trying to be a father figure.
I felt the warmth of his hand on my waist, holding me tight. The reporters had dispersed, but his touch remained constant.
Putting together the pieces–Cynthia Mooncrest’s claims, his presence at my mating ceremony, and now this–a question began to form. The pink tulips at my ceremony. he looked at me even then.
The way
I turned to him, my hands resting on his chest. “Back then, after my mother met you, she changed her mind,” I said softly.
His eyes darkened, but he remained silent, waiting for me to continue.
“My mother’s original plan was for me to mate with Theodore at eighteen, not just get engaged. After seeing you, my mother didn’t want me to mate with Theodore anymore.”
The fragments of the past were slowly forming a picture I hadn’t dared to imagine. Could it be that Matthew had feelings for me, too? And had for a very long time?
I looked up at him, searching his face for answers. “Do you know why?”
