*Isla*
When I awake again, after Maddox left to go do whatever he was going to do to check to see if my dream was real, it’s to the sound of someone moving in my room. It seems like whoever it is is trying to be quiet, but when something makes a loud clatter, and I hear Beta Seth swear under his breath, it’s obvious who it is.
“What’s going on?” I ask, groggily. I roll over, pulling the blanket up around me, and look at him.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Isla. I am just… King Maddox wanted me to put a phone in your room so that you can call your parents and they can call you whenever you want. But the phone jack is behind the bed, and getting to it is being a pain in the a–butt.” He stops himself short of swearing in front of me, like I am some sort of a delicate flower.
“Thanks, Beta Seth,” I say to him, smiling at his kindness. “Is there anything that I can do to help?”
“No, no, I’ve got it.” He grunts a little as he strains and stretches behind the bed for a second and then sighs with a successful smile. “There we go.” He lifts the receiver on the phone and holds it to his ear. “Yep. It works. The phone number is written right here.”
I look at the phone and see the number is right above the number pad. “Great. Thank you,” I say.
He nods and gets up off of the floor. “You should go back to sleep,” he recommends.
“I might,” I say. “Did you not go with Maddox?”
He shakes his head and folds his hand in front of him, looking down at the ground. “He wanted me to stay here this time, so I can make sure you’re safe.”
I puzzle over that for a few moments before I realize what Beta Seth isn’t saying. He didn’t get to go today because of what I did the day before. Since I had to try to run away yesterday, Maddox doesn’t trust me anymore, and he apparently doesn’t trust anyone else to watch me, other than his Beta.
“I’m sorry,” I say, dropping my eyes. “I didn’t mean for you to be put on babysitting duty.”
“Oh, it’s not your fault!” he insists. “No, King Maddox has plenty of tasks for me to take care of here today. So don’t even worry about it.” He is smiling at me, and it looks more sincere than before, but I’m not sure if I trust that he hasn’t had his day ruined because of me.
“Have you heard from Maddox?” I ask him, holding the blanket against my chest as I sit up a little. My shoulder still stings a bit, but at least the back of my head feels better.
His answer is succinct. “He’s almost to Duster pack.”
“And… he’s okay?” I suppose he would’ve told me that if Maddox wasn’t all right, but I still have to ask.
“Yes, he’s fine. It’s just taking him a little longer than usual because we spent a few hours planning this morning and gathering together the right forces. He wants to make sure that Alpha Hayes doesn’t try to come against him when he arrives.”
An uneasy feeling takes over my gut, but I just nod again. I see no reason to try to get more information from Beta Seth. He’s not there with Maddox, so he doesn’t really know what’s happening, even if he is getting mind-link info from the team that’s there.
I just hope that Maddox is all right. I also hope the information that I gave Maddox that morning proved to be helpful. If it turned out that Maddox got all the way over to Duster pack only to discover that Zabrina really wasn’t there at all, I could be putting him and a lot of other people in danger for no reason.
What in the world possessed me to think that I suddenly had some sort of magical powers? It wasn’t anything Mystica had said when she was telling me about where she thought my family was from.
Although, she had said we were descendants of the Moon Goddess. Mansina… our real last name….
“Anyway,” Beta Seth says, jarring me back to the present. “I’ll get out of your hair.”
He’s not bothering me at all, but I’m sure he wants to leave. “Thank you, Beta Seth,” I say, and he nods before he turns and leaves.
I lay there for a moment and stare at the ceiling. I’m worried about Maddox, but I have to trust that he’ll be okay. He’s the king, after all. Alpha Hayes would have to be an idiot to do anything to harm him.
How do I know that Alpha Hayes isn’t an idiot?
I don’t….
I haul myself out of bed and go to take a shower. I take my time, letting the warm water flow over me. It dampens the bandage on my shoulder, which I remove. I can still see the teeth marks, but my shoulder looks a lot better than it used to.
When I finally get out of the shower, I go into my room and pick out an outfit from the closet, taking it back into my bathroom to get dressed, brush out my hair, and dry it. I wonder where Poppy is. She’s usually around when I wake up, but then, I am up a little earlier than I’d planned to be.
When I walk out of the bathroom, I sense someone is on the other side of the door in my antechamber. I assume it’s Poppy, but when nothing happens, the door doesn’t open, and there’s no knock, my pulse starts to race. What if someone has come to hurt me again?
“Wh-who is there?” I say in what I hope is an authoritative voice, but it’s really not at all.
“C-can I come in?” I hear a soft voice say.
Whoever it is, I don’t recognize the voice, but I’m also not scared. “Sure,” I say.
The door squeaks open, and I gasp in awe at who is standing there.
What in the world does she want, and why is she here??
* * *
*Maddox*
I had taken my time that morning making sure we were ready before we headed out for Duster pack lands. I told everyone in my inner group of warriors that I’d received a tip that Zabrina was in Duster pack territory, but I did not tell them what that tip was.
Not that I didn’t fully believe Isla. I did. I just… didn’t want to have to explain that the woman I was sleeping with, the woman I loved but had no official connection to, had dreamed that Zabrina had come out of the water here, so I believed that she must be here.
At the end of the day, I’m the Alpha King, and if I want to go to Duster pack to investigate a tip, then so be it.
I ride over in the front passenger side seat of the utility vehicle with dozens of warriors sitting on long benches in the back. I have three other such vehicles with me, but I hope that I don’t need any of the soldiers I’ve brought with me, but with someone like Alpha Hayes, a person never knows.
There’s a good chance that we could start a war today. After all, this bastard has been itching for an excuse to fight me for years. He’s using the excuse that I don’t have an heir yet, trying to rally other Alphas around him, saying he’d make a better Alpha King because he already has a Luna and children, and my fated mate passed away without leaving me a child, but I have to hope there are more Alphas loyal to me than to him.
I have no way of knowing that until we cross the line and war is at hand.
If only Seth were here with me. I wanted to bring him. I included him in all of the planning and discussions we had this morning with the other commanders, but I decided, in the end, it was better if he stayed behind with Isla, especially after what happened yesterday.
Granted, Seth was there when she was kidnapped, but he knows better now, I hope.
I know the rogues that chased her won’t come into the castle. But I have no way of knowing who all might want to harm her. That’s why I had to leave her with Seth. Besides Poppy, he’s the only one I can one hundred percent trust not to do her any harm and to look after her so that others don’t.
It’s never been my intention to pull up to Alpha Hayes’s front door with all of these soldiers, so I leave some of them at the border, but they must be close enough to come to our aid if the rest of us get ourselves into trouble.
The commanders in the other vehicles have their orders, and I move on toward the main village where Alpha Hayes’s large home is situated.
We pull up outside, and I get out immediately, not letting any feelings of doubt linger in my mind as I stare at his two-story modern home from the cul-de-sac where it is situated. This is not the ancestral home of past Alphas; this is a new home he and his wife built only a few years ago as a testimony to the grandiose lifestyle everyone in Duster pack allegedly lives thanks to the resources they have.
Personally, I know that it’s a shame. I see the books, and I’m aware of how much money each pack has to its name. Where the money came from to build this, I don’t know, and I’ve never had the time to deal with it either. If things go well today, perhaps I’ll continue to turn a blind eye.
With conviction, I walk to the door and knock. My men fan out behind me, ready to shift at a moment’s notice. I intend to tell Alpha Hayes that it has come to my attention that he has Zabrina, Alpha Jordan’s daughter, in his custody, and I want her.
No one answers….
Finding this odd, I knock again and ring the doorbell several times. It makes little sense that a staff member at least wouldn’t be inside. It’s almost noon. Someone has to be up and about.
I am unable to reach Alpha Hayes by mind-link when I try.
Something isn’t right….
I try again but get nothing. I also try his wife…. She doesn’t answer either.
Cupping my hands around my face to cut back on the glare, I step over to one of the windows by the door, one where the blinds are a bit open. I gaze inside and my eyes widen in horror.
I can’t tell exactly what I’m looking at because the view is obstructed, but even with such a narrow glimpse, I’m quite certain of what that dark substance all over the tile by the front door is.
Blood.