*Maddox*
I stare at the young woman in front of me for a long moment before I return my attention to Alpha Bryant. Rage washes over me as I figure out what is going on here. “Is this your niece?” I ask him.
He shrugs. “Not by blood.”
The young woman is sniffling, and I can’t help but think she has to be… seventeen? Maybe eighteen at most.
“What the fuck?” I ask Bryant, turning on him. “What did you do to her?”
“Hey, King Maddox,” he says, holding his hands up between us again. “I didn’t give her nothin’ she didn’t want. She’s a little tramp. I wasn’t even sure the baby was mine until I did a DNA test on the little bastard. Pretty much every guy in my pack has gotten some of her.”
With that, the little girl starts crying even harder.
I am furious. It looks like I’m about to have a second pack without an Alpha.
But I have to be more careful with this one. I can’t just force Alpha Bryant out the way that I did Alpha Ernest because there are forces here that will fight back. Unlike Ernest, Alpha Bryant is a powerful leader.
“The girl and Alpha Jordan are coming with me,” I tell him. “But that does not mean that your problems are over, Bryant.” I snarl at him, and a smirk forms on his face as if he disagrees with me. “I’m taking her for her own protection, not because I plan on passing this baby off as my own. Trust me, I don’t need your fucking help with that.”
“Well, you might need my help with other stuff,” he says with a shrug, as if he knows something that I don’t know. “You know, there are some pretty strong Alphas out there who think it’s a weakness that you don’t have a kid yet, and you’re almost thirty. How much longer you got before they’re going to be knocking down your door, huh?”
I grab him by the collar and shove him against the wall, my grip on his shirt ripping the material as I change tactics and wrap my hand around his neck. I squeeze until his face starts to turn red, and he is clawing at my hand.
I hear his thugs coming toward me, but I put up a hand, and they stop. A sign to him that he’s not as fucking strong as he thinks he is.
As close to his face as I can get, I say, “If you ever even think about threatening me again, Bryant, I will rip your balls off and shove them down your throat. I am your king, and you will respect me. Do you fucking understand me?” Some of my spit lands on his face, hangs there for a moment, and then drips down to his shoulder.
His eyes are rolling back in his head, and I know there’s no way he can answer me. He can’t even breathe. I don’t need him to say the words to know that he gets it.
Pushing him backward into the wall, I let him go and turn to face Vinny and the others. Their eyes are wide, and they look like they might be about to shit their pants.
“Do any of the rest of you feel like tough guys today?” I ask.
Vinny shakes his head. “N-no, sir,” he says. “Alpha King Maddox.”
I’m about to tell Seth to get Jordan when I see movement out of the corner of my eye and realize Bryant is actually going to go there. He’s lunging at me with something sharp and shiny in his hand.
I throw my elbow into his throat and bring my forearm up and catch him in the face before I whirl around, wrap my arm around his neck and hold him in a half-nelson with one arm as I pluck a blade from his flailing hand with the other.
With very little effort, I drag his body to his desk and then slam his head into the corner of the desk. Blood gushes everywhere. Sydney screams, and that flailing arm goes still
I drop him on the floor, not interested in whether or not the motherfucker is dead.
“Seth,” I say, motioning to my Beta to get Jordan. “Come with me, sweetheart,” I say to the girl who’s crying and trembling now. I take her by the arm, careful not to squeeze too tight, and lead her to the door.
“Alpha King Maddox!” Vinny calls after me, and I see he’s following me out.
“What, Vinny?” I ask.
“If… uh… Bryant’s dead, am I the Alpha?”
I shake my head and whisper a curse word under my breath. “Vinny, if I could trust that you’re loyal to me, I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but I don’t think you are.”
“Yes, I am!” he insists, making the sign of respect.
I shake my head. “Prove it. Do something about this shit he was threatening me with. Find out where the hell Zabrina is and get her back. Then, we’ll talk.”
“Yes, sir, Alpha King Maddox,” the idiot Beta says, saluting again. I want to tell him to go fuck himself, but I have an hysterical teenage pregnant girl with me who needs to get home.
I decide that the girl doesn’t need to ride in the back seat with Jordan, so I put him in the trunk. He’ll live long enough for us to make it back to the castle. Then, Seth opens the door for Sydney, and she gets in. But as we are starting to pull away, she asks, “Can I get my stuff?”
I curse again. “What stuff?” I ask her.
“My clothes… shoes… my phone.” It’s hard to understand her when she’s crying.
“Where is it?” Beta Seth asks her.
“In my room, upstairs.” She gestures back at the Alpha’s mansion.
I look at Seth. “Ten minutes. Don’t get blindsided.”
“Yes, Alpha,” he says with a sarcastic tone, and then he shoots out of the car, back up to the porch, and inside.
I wait for him, not sure what to say to Sydney. Finally, I ask her, “Do you want to go back to your parents’ pack?”
She shakes her head. “No, my dad would kill me.”
“All right. To the castle it is, then.”
Beta Seth comes back a few minutes later with what looks like hastily packed bags. He tosses them into the back seat beside Sydney and then hands her an older model cell phone.
As he gets in behind the steering wheel, he says, “Alpha Bryant is dead.”
I say, “We should stop in Crescent City on the way back.”
He arches an eyebrow. “What? Why?”
“There’s a restaurant there I like. I’m starving.”
* * *
*Isla*
“What do you mean never say that word again?” I don’t understand why my sister is being hostile. “Is that where we’re from or not? Mom wouldn’t tell me the truth. She said we were from Tushti. But that’s not true.”
“Isla, you’re asking questions that are going to get you into trouble,” Brandy says, her voice sounding borderline angry. “Can’t you just leave it be?”
“No!” I shout at her. “Listen, I almost died yesterday, and now that I’m alive, I’d like to know who the hell I am. Where did I come from? Was Dad really an Alpha? A king? Or is it just a coincidence that the king of Ma—that place—happened to be named Daniel and the queen was Constance? Tell me, Brandy. What do you know?”
She sighs loudly, and I hear the sound of a baby crying. “Your nephew is hungry,” she tells me.
“I have a nephew?” I didn’t even know she was pregnant again. “Brandy, you’ve completely cut yourself off from the family. So has Kenna. Why?”
“Why?” she shouts at me. “For exactly this reason! Why are you even calling me, Isla? I don’t want to fucking talk about our past, okay? It was a long time ago, and it doesn’t matter now. Where are you even calling me from?”
“I’m calling you from King Maddox’s office,” I tell her, unable to keep the anger out of my voice anymore either. “I work at the castle now.”
“And you’re calling from the king’s phone? Someone has grown a pair of balls! Won’t he be pissed if he finds you in there?"
I laugh. I can't help it. "I'll make it up to him," I say.
“What?” Brandy is confused.
“Nothing. Just answer my questions, please.”
“No!” she says. “I’m not going to tell you anything, Isla. For whatever reason, Mom and Dad don’t want us to ever talk about the past, and they certainly don’t want you saying that word. No one needs to know where we came from or who they were. So please, just drop it. All right?”
“I can’t just drop it, Brandy!” I think maybe I should call Kenna, but then I realize she will probably say the same thing to me.
“Drop it. That place is cursed. Anyone will tell you that. If this person who told you the king and queen’s names didn’t tell you that, too, they’re no friend. Just let it be,” she says. “And don’t ever call me again.”
She hangs up the phone, and I stare at the wall for a good five minutes before I say, “Well, that didn’t go as planned.”
I push up from Maddox’s desk and start to walk out the door when he walks in. His eyes widen at seeing me, and then I realize he’s not alone.
He’s got a girl with him, and she doesn’t even look like she’s my age. She’s beautiful, with dark hair and large eyes.
And she’s very, very pregnant.
“Isla?” he says, staring at me. “What the hell are you doing in my office?”
I can’t figure out why he’s mad at me. “You said I could call my parents,” I remind him.
“We have phones in other offices,” he says, though his tone isn’t quite as angry right now.
“I’m sorry,” I say. I look at the girl again. She is just staring at me, confused.
“Who is she?” she whispers to Maddox, her voice barely a whisper.
“Isla is… uh…” Maddox stammers. “She’s… a friend.”
I stare into his eyes for a moment, wondering why he would describe me that way.
Who is this woman?
Is that his baby?
Maybe he doesn’t need me to be his breeder anymore, so I can be just a friend.
“Yep, I’m just a friend,” I say, trying to contain my tears until I’m out of the room. “And I was just leaving.”
I push past both of them and head to my room, swiping away at tears as they fall down my cheeks.
“Isla!” I hear him call, but I don’t stop.
It turns out my position at the castle has been filled by someone else, and I’m no longer needed by Alpha King Maddox.
Or anyone.
Maybe everyone is right, and people from Maatua are cursed….
If that’s the case, then I’m definitely from there.
I may as well be the fucking queen.