Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins

Chapter 104

**Blake POV

I was completely unable to relax the entire time Nora was gone. I knew that Maisi e would do everything possible to keep her safe, but that didn’t ease my mind nearly as much as it should have.

There was no danger to her from Margot, of course, but there was no telling who might have followed her to the meeting place.

It didn’t do me any good to dwell on what could go wrong. I tried to keep bus y by meeting with my generals and arranging for further training of the recruits. There was only so much I could do on that front, though.

So,I was left to pa ce in front of the window of my office and watch for their return. It was difficult to see in the pitch blackness, but that didn’t stop me from looking. I wasn’t sure why, but having Nora out of my

sight was driving me mad. Caleb was pacing restlessly and eagerly sniffing for any sign of her.

I felt ridiculous. There was no reason I should feel so overprotective of her. She had spent plenty of time away from me in the past, and it had always made me antsy, but that was nothing compared to this. It didn’t make any sense.

It was well past midnight when Caleb alerted to Nora’s scent.

I wanted to rush downstairs and greet her, but I forced myself to wait for them to reach the office.

The moment Nora walked in the door, I pulled her into my arms. She smiled and leaned into me. I felt like I was finally able to take a full breath now that I knew she was safe.

“What took so long?”I grumbled.

“I missed you too,”she said with alaugh.“We ended up having a

much longer conversation with Margot than we had expected. It took time.”

She pulled out of my embrace and I reluctantly released her.

“How did it go?”I asked.

“Fine,”Maisi e answered. I hadcompletely forgotten that she was there, and judging by the amusement on her face, she knew it.

“Do you think she’s trustworthy?”Iasked.

I still had my reservations about Margot, but I didn’t believe that she was trying to deceive us. I feared that she was being manipulated by Graham without realizing it. I had a hard time believing that he was so careless as to let her overhear conversations like the one she had reported between him and my uncle.

I thought it was much more likely that Graham was feeding her

information in order to misdirect us. I couldn’t risk being wrong about that, though. It would be too risky not to take her information into consideration.

Maisi e shook her head.“It’s not for me to say.”

Her tone told me all I needed to know. She didn’t think Margot could be trusted.

“I trust her,”Nora said firmly. Therewas no hesitation in her answer. She was confident.

Maisi e and Nora exchanged a tense look. I raised my eyebrow at them curiously. Had they been arguing about this on the way home? I had never seen them so annoyed with one another before.

I just nodded. I didn’t need to reiterate that I trusted Margot. I had already made that clear.

“What information did she share?”Iasked.

Nora walked to the armchair at the other end of the room and sat down. She looked exhausted. If the issue wasn’t so pressing, then I might suggest we wait until morning to discuss this. It had been a very long day and we were all tired.

“She told us about alpha Phill*p’sreign,” Nora continued sadly.“He was a monster.”

“He isolated and starved out thepack until they were unable to resist him.” Maisi e said as she sat beside Nora and shook her head. “The pack believed that Grahamwas going to make things better, and he did for a while. Then things started to get suspicious and his behavior changed. There’s a rumor that Graham killed his father, but no one is willing to talk about it. Apparently, those who have brought it up have vanished, never to be heard from again.”

Anger bubbled up within me. I was young when Phil*p first took over, I

couldn’t have stopped the horrors he unleashed on his pack, but when I became king, I should have checked on Lanecreek. I should have demanded entry and inspected the town. I could have spared the people some of their pain and I may have stopped Graham from coming to power in the first place.

“That little bastard,”I growled.Graham was killing his own people, and he dared to question my leadership?“He’s no better than our uncle. To think that I actually considered trusting him.”

“That’s my fault,”Nora said bitterly.Maisi e and I both looked at her in surprise.“I told you to give him a chance.”

I could see the guilt on her face and I hated it.

I knelt in front of her and took her hands in mine until she looked at me. When she lifted her gaze,I looked her in the eyes.“Your

kindness isn’t anything you need to apologize for,”I said firmly.

“Thank you,”she said softly. I couldsee that she was still conflicted, but I wasn’t going to push it.

“What else did Margot tell you?”Iasked as I released her hands and stood.

“She thinks that Graham’sinaugural ball is going to be the trigger for whatever it is they’re planning,”Maisi e explained.

“An invasion,”I thought out loud. Itwas the only thing they could do, if the goal really was for Graham to seize the throne.

“You sound certain about that,”Nora said in concern.

“I am.”

There was no doubt in my mind, even if there was no solid evidence to prove it.

“I’ll meet with the generals in themorning and make sure the

recruits are on track,” Maisie offered.“If there’s an invasion coming, we need to step up our training so that we don’t get caught off guard. The men will need to be ready to jump into action in an instant.”

“You’re right,”I agreed.“Though ifwe push them much harder, we run the risk of burnout. Having a bigger protective force is useless if they’re too weak from training to fight.”

Maisi e nodded her agreement, but didn’t say anything.

We were reaching the point where we were running out of options. What else could we do to prepare for Graham?

I was too tired to think clearly. I rubbed my temples in an attempt to bring myself back to full focus, but it was useless.

“What do we do now?”Nora askednervously.

The very thought of an invading

force made my hackles rise. I knew that I couldn’t repeat my frantic behavior from my last meeting with Margot. It would only frighten people and that would get us nowhere.

Every one of us was exhausted. We weren’t going to be able to think clearly tonight, anyway. There was no point in trying to force ourselves to come up with a solution tonight.

“Get some sleep,”I said with a sigh.“There’s nothing more we canaccomplish tonight. We’ll talk about strategy in the morning.”

“Fair enough,”Maisi e answered.

She was playing it cool, but I knew her well enough to see that she was glad we weren’t going to continue this tonight.

“Go home,”I replied to her.

Maisi e scoffed, but got to her feet and headed for the door.

“Goodnight,”she said before going

out the door.

I turned to Nora and offered her my hand. She took it without hesitation and I pulled her to her feet.

“You need rest too,”I noted.

“Only if you come to bed with me,”she responded cheekily.

“As though I would let a beautifulwoman like you go to bed alone,”I teased.

Nora grinned and shook her head at me. She took my hand fi rmly in hers and led me down the hall toward our bedroom.

The few nights she had spent in her old room were borderline painful for me. My own childish behavior had pushed her away and my pride had kept me from apologizing when I should have.

But I wouldn’t make that mistake again. I wasn’t going to let anything come between us.