Somehow even worse than all the other horrible things he just told me.

    “Out with it,” I said. “I would hear everything you have to report.”

    “Yes, Alpha. Sorry, Alpha,” he said and continued, “Our research has turned up a slew of rtionships in Olivia’s past, both distant past and… otherwise. Including after her pregnancy, and… before.”

    “Before?”

    “Yes, Alpha. The timeline of some of these rtionships would indicate that…” He cleared his throat.” There are three other men she was seeing around the time she became pregnant.”

    I froze. At once my stomach dropped and twisted and then simultaneously, perhaps to protect myself, bI /bsuddenly felt no feelings at all.

    I knew what this meant. My Beta was being very clear even if he was delicately refusing to say the bottom line out loud.

    The odds were good that I was not the father of the baby Olivia had lost.

    And I had no idea how to feel about that.]

    In a way, I was relieved, as some of the guilt lifted up and off of me. But on the other hand, a child was still lost, and whether they were of my blood or not, I still cared for them.

    To discover now that they might not have been mine…

    I ran a hand over my forehead, already feeling a migraineing on.

    Olivia must have known the chances of me being the father were slim, if she was seeing three other men consistently on the side. Had she targeted me because I was the Alpha? Had she been attempting to trap me with a child?

    Was that why she still continued to linger around me, pushing for us to have a baby, even while she had Chase and others on the side to entertain her?

    I would continue to mourn for the lost child, but the relief was palpable now as I realized I owed nothing to Olivia any longer.

    “Keep looking into it,” I told my Beta. “But good work on this. Make sure to send my appreciation to the

    rest of the team.”

    “Yes, Alpha. Thank you.”

    “Thank you,” I told him and hung up.

    For a long moment, I just sat there, staring down at the phone on top of my desk.

    This was a lot of information to take in.

    Yetb, /bsuddenly, I felt an overwhelming need to check in on Alice.

    Standing, I left the office and walked through the living room toward the back of the ne. Amber watched me curiously, leaning over in her seat to follow me with her gaze down the hallway.

    I clicked open the door to the bedroom, just a crack, to see inside. Alice was gently sleeping in the bed, with the covers pulled up to her chin. Closing the door again, I returned to Amber.

    “She doing alright?” Amber asked me.

    “Totally out,” I replied.

    Taking a chance, I sat down beside Amber on the sofa, despite the plenty of other seating around the room. She didn’t seem bothered by it, not even making ament or giving me a look.

    Instead, he nced out one of the nearby windows, lost in thought.

    “You alright?” I asked her.

    She startled slightly, then turned to me and gave me a tight smile. She probably thought it was supposed to be reassuring, but I could see the worry in it.

    “Sorry,” she said, after a moment. “I just… I get nervous on nes.”

    Immediately, I felt like the world’s biggest asshole for even pushing for the jet. Of course she would be ufortable, having survived a ne crash. She’d been on nes since then but it must have been hell for her each time.

    “Is there anything I can do?” I asked her.

    Her eyes turned a little hopeful. “Distract me?”

    Immediately, my gaze dropped to her mouth and I thought of kissing her.