*Maddox*
“You can’t do this to me! Don’t you know who I am?”
The sound of Zabrina’s wailing echoes down the corridor as I exit the dungeon, tired of listening to her scream at me that I can’t execute her.
I’m the fucking Alpha King. I’ll do whatever the hell I want….
As I approach the stairs, Beta Seth comes from another hallway and joins me. “Did she tell you anything?” he asks me as we take the stairs quickly. I am tired of being down below the castle where everything smells like urine.
With a sigh, I say, “Not anything that’s honest. At least, I don’t think a damn word she said was true.” The fact that she is blaming Alpha Grant for all of this makes me want to scoff.
But then again, stranger things have happened.
“What did she say?” Seth asks me. We reach the top of the first flight of stairs and then walk through the main dungeon, the one where the regular prisoners who haven’t killed anyone or tried to assassinate the King’s breeder are kept. “Did you get anything useful from her?”
“No, I don’t think so. She blamed Alpha Grant,” I explain to him.
“What?” Beta Seth makes a noise in the back of his throat that makes me think he is just as skeptical as I am.
“Yeah, she made up an elaborate story about how Alpha Grant and her father were working together to get me to marry her so she could drug me on our wedding night, and then her dad would kill me so that Alpha Grant could be the new king, and her father would be his second.” I see the final staircase appear in front of us, and I want to speed up. As much as I need to evaluate this situation with Seth, I also want to see Isla–madly.
“That’s ridiculous,” he says. “Alpha Grant is completely loyal to you.”
“That’s what I thought, too,” I reply. With another sigh, I start up the stairs. “I think it’s probably worth doing some investigating, considering I thought that Alpha Jordan was on our side as well.”
I glance over at Beta Seth and see that he is nodding. “It wouldn’t hurt, I suppose, sir.”
“All right. Let’s get one of our best investigators on that. Did you get anything from Vinny’s men?”
He shakes his head. “No, not yet. I’ve just got them in the dungeon now, making them uncomfortable and squirming for a bit.”
“That’s probably for the best. In a while, go back down there and pick the strongest one and let the others listen to him scream for a while. One of the others may break and give us any information we can potentially use to justify their executions.”
I can tell by Seth’s wide-eyed expression he doesn’t think I should kill all of them, but I’ve already made up my mind. “They will die for what they did in Duster pack. It doesn’t matter to me that Alpha Hayes wasn’t an ally of mine. What happened there was barbaric, and it will not happen in my kingdom ever again. If I have to make examples out of these assholes, I don’t mind doing so.”
“Yes, Alpha,” he says, tipping his head, and I can tell he won’t fight me on this even though he’s still unsure.
“I’ll take care of it, Alpha,” Beta Seth says. “I assume you’re going to check on Isla?”
I nod. “I assume she’s in her room?” I hope that she’s been able to get some rest while I’ve been away. She has to be exhausted after everything that’s gone on recently. I’m not sure why I assume that Seth knows where she is when he has been busy since I arrived back at the castle, but the face he is making tells me not only does he know where Isla is, something is wrong.
My brow furrows as I step closer to him. “What is it, Seth?” I hear a waiver in my own voice as my thoughts run wild. I told Isla not to leave the castle again without speaking to me first, but who knows what she might’ve done.
I was getting weary of having to find her….
“It’s not Isla,” he says, which makes my pulse slow a bit, but whatever is wrong has something to do with Isla. I can tell by the way he reacted to me saying her name. “Then what the hell is it, Seth?”
He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, his bottom lip trembling slightly. “She, uh… she’s with Sydney’s baby.”
Confusion sweeps over me as I consider each of his words carefully. “Sydney had her baby?”
His head rocks back and forth as his hands slide into the pockets of his slacks. “About an hour ago.”
“How is she?” I ask, meaning Sydney.
When Beta Seth shakes his head back and forth, I understand his meaning without a single word leaving his lips.
That doesn’t prevent him from telling me.
“There was some sort of complication with the baby. One of Mystica’s nurses filled me in via mind-link around the time that you arrived back at the castle. I guess the baby was too big for Sydney or something, and by the time Mystica realized that, it was too late. That and the… what’s it called? Placebo?”
“Placenta?” I say, realizing Beta Seth knows very little about birthing babies.
“Yeah… that was… in the wrong position or something? Anyway, it made Sydney lose a lot of blood, and Mystica just couldn’t save her.”
I’m not sure what to say about that. I had only known Sydney for a couple of days, but she seemed like a sweet, if extremely misguided, young woman. It was clear her parents cared about her, even if they had sent her to live with the man who had ultimately taken advantage of her and put her in this situation where she ended up pregnant and lost her life.
“I suppose I should call her father,” I say.
Beta Seth nods. “He will probably appreciate hearing it from you. But… there is the matter of… the baby.”
I stare at Seth for a moment, trying to figure out what he’s getting at. It seems to me that the baby will just go to Sydney’s parents. Both of the child’s parents are deceased. I would assume they'd be the next of kin.
I don’t speak before Seth says, “Her parents clearly weren’t equipped to raise her, so I doubt they will want to raise the child. Mystica said that there are people here who will raise the girl. But… apparently, the child wasn’t breathing for quite some time after she was born, and the nurses couldn’t get the girl back. It wasn’t until Isla came to help and her tears landed on the baby’s face that she began to breathe. So… Mystica has it in her head that Isla brought her back to life. She believes it is a sign from the Moon Goddess.”
My mouth drops open as Seth is speaking, and when he finishes, I don’t know what to say. Part of me almost wants to laugh because it sounds so preposterous, and I remember some of the other things I have learned Mystica has been telling Isla.
I would’ve preferred Isla stay away from the strange woman from Maatua, especially since Isla has it in her head that she is from the island herself, which I don’t think is possible.
Clearing my throat, I ask, “Where is she?”
“The east wing, third door on the right,” he says.
With a nod, I thank him and head in that direction.
I head in that direction, walking quickly, barely acknowledging the servants who pass me and nod in respect as I go. Normally, I would greet all of them, but my mind is preoccupied.
As I enter the east wing, I see Mystica coming down the hallway, and I instantly want to shake her and ask her what the hell she is thinking, filling Isla’s mind with all of these ridiculous stories that can’t be true.
But I have a great deal of respect for the healer, even if she has been making my life more difficult lately.
I see that she has blood on her dress, and her hands look freshly scrubbed but tinged red. “Oh, Your Majesty,” she says with a little head bob. “Have you heard about what happened?”
“Yes,” I say, my tone grave. “I’m sorry to hear about Sydney.”
“I am sorry I couldn’t save her. It was not a typical labor, and the baby was just too big for her tiny pelvis. But then… the baby wasn’t breathing and–”
I interrupt her. I don’t need to hear the nonsense again. “Where is Isla?” I ask her.
She makes a face at me, clearly not appreciating my interrupting her statement. “She’s in there with the child.” Lifting a hand, she gestures at the third door on the right, just as Seth had told me. “In there. With the baby.”
I am not too surprised to hear she is with the baby, but I’d be lying if I didn’t think it was odd. My only hope is that Isla doesn’t actually think she has magical tears that can bring the dead back to life.
“Thank you, Mystica. I’m sure you did everything you could for the girl. I’ll call her parents later.” I make a move toward the door, but she reaches out and grabs my arm.
“You can ignore it, but that won’t make it false,” she says, her tone eerie.
My eyes go from her hand on my arm to her face, and she is unwavering as she stares at me, the look on her face reminding me of the pack elders that used to consult my father–all-knowing.
I manage a smile. “I need to see Isla right away,” I say as if that’s the only reason for my interruption.
The pack healer clears her throat and releases my arm, and I can tell she doesn’t believe me, and she shouldn't. Even though it’s true I want to see Isla, that’s not why I cut her off.
Once I’m free, I move toward the door again, hoping Mystica will just go on her way. After a moment, she does, but I feel her eyes on me long enough to leave my hair standing on end and an uncomfortable feeling settling in my bones.
My hand fastens around the knob, and I slowly twist it, pushing it open as silently as I can, in case the baby is sleeping.
I walk in to see Isla sitting in a rocking chair by the window, slowly moving back and forth, a tiny bundle wrapped in a pink blanket in her arms.
Our eyes meet, and she draws me across the room, the door clicking closed behind me.
She is as beautiful as ever, and she is holding the baby like a natural.
Like a mother.
But this isn’t her baby–it isn’t my baby.
I just have to hope she isn’t thinking of trying to keep this child because, if she does, it might make her reluctant to have our own, and even though my feelings for Isla have moved beyond mere breeder, I still need her to do her job.
“HI,” she whispers. I give her a small smile, not sure what to say. The baby is clearly sleeping. As I come closer, she tips the girl’s face toward me. She is a beautiful child.
She is not our child.
“Alpha King Maddox… meet Sydney’s daughter…. Her name is… Maddy. After you.”