Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins

Chapter 109

**Nora POV

I sighed and stared up at the fluffy, white clouds that were lazily floating overhead. I’d been sitting in the garden and enjoying my lunch, but I wasn’t sure what to do next. I had a few meetings this morning regarding planning for a food drive that the high school robotics team wanted to host. I was proud of the girls for using their off season time to give back to the community.

There was nothing else planned for me today, though, so I was trying to think of something productive to do with this time.

Christian insisted on covering the store today. He said he missed it and since Maisi e was busy helping Blake plan for our attendance at Graham’s inauguration, he had the day off from training.

I took my dishes into the kitchen.

“Hi, Vera,”I greeted.

She looked up from the do ugh she was kneading and smiled at me, her green eyes were bright with excitement.“Good afternoon, Luna.”

“You’re in a good mood,”Icommented.

A giddy smile lit up her face and she nodded.“My daughter just told me she’s pregnant,”she said happily.“I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited.”

“That’s great!”Vera’s daughter hadfound her mate less than a year ago. Vera talked about her all the time. It was obvious how proud she was.“Congratulations!”

“Thank you, Luna,”she beamed.

I walked out of the kitchen with a smile on my face. It was heartwarming to see how excited and proud Vera was. I loved to see that kind of fa milial pride.

I stopped in the hallway and sighed. Would I ever feel like that? If Blake and I had kids, then maybe I would some day.

The happiness on Vera’s face wasn’t something that could be faked or replicated. It was so pure. How could some mother’s feel that kind of adoration for their child, while others abandoned them? I would never understand it.

I knew what I needed to do for the rest of the afternoon. I turned around and headed toward the library.

It wouldn’t hurt to search on my own for a while. It wasn’t very likely that I would make much progress, but every little bit would be helpful. I could at least get through a few more boxes.

I picked up where I left off and started fl*pping through documents about the Reed pack.

The cultural papers were unhelpful. I did find one mention of an old

lullaby about a princess running from a great red wolf, but it didn’t give me much direction. The lyrics weren’t included and I couldn’t find anything else about it.

It was probably an indication that the song didn’t originate from Reed, and was just something they picked up from another pack. I would have to look elsewhere.

It took me hours to get through the cultural files and it was for nothing. I yawned as I placed the box I had just finished back on the shelf. I could call it a day, but it was still pretty early.

I didn’t know how far Maisi e and Christian had gotten in their research, so I couldn’t just pick up where they left off. It was a long shot, but it was possible that if I looked through some of the other documents on Reed pack I would find something. It was at least worth trying.

I looked at the next box on the shelf

and read the label.“Reed Pack Progeny”.

I rolled my eyes. What a pretentious way to say family records.

I grabbed the box and took it to the table. I might as well get this out of the way, even though the very last thing I wanted to do was read about the family tree of the woman that had stolen my wolf and tried to murder me.

I reached into the box blindly and grabbed the first folder my fingers touched. I sat it on the table and glowered at it.

Reed, Helen.

I wanted to chuck it on the ground, but I was curious too. I opened the folder and started skimming the page.

Her parents were Alpha Frederick and Luna Clarice of Reed pack. She was born during a Harvest Moon and was considered a good omen

for the pack. I sneered at the page and moved to toss it aside, but then something caught my eye.

The physical description of Helen was off. Helen had wavy blonde hair and green eyes. The page listed dark hair and blue eyes. Obviously, those things could change from birth but it still seemed strange.

Now that I thought about it, her father had dark hair too. I’d only seen him once, and it wasn’t in a great situation. I didn’t remember much else about him. I’d never met the Reed pack Luna either.

It did seem odd that they would send their own daughter off to stay with the Moonery pack to ensure peace. Hostage diplomacy was almost never used anymore within the kingdom, and for good reason. It was archaic and cruel, especially when the hostage being sent was so young.

Would an Alpha really do that to his daughter? Was it possible that

Helen wasn’t really the child of the Reed Alpha?

No. That was crazy. I was making too much of this small discrepancy.

Still…

I put the file back in the box and hurried back to the shelves. After a few minutes of searching, I found what I was hoping for. A large, dusty old book that listed the royal line age of Reed pack.

I fl*pped to the most recent pages. The book was far more detailed than the files were. The files contained only medical documents—the book was more self indulgent than that. It was filled with flowery descriptions and exaggerations meant to venerate the lineage of the Alpha.

All packs had a book like this. Back in Moonery, Gavin, Jeremy, and I read through his family’s version and giggled wildly at the description of Jeremy.

I found the page about the daughter of the current Alpha and Luna, but it was even stranger than I thought. The name listed wasn’t Helen. There was no name listed. It just said ‘baby girl’.

Black hair, gray eyes, light skin, and a birthmark. A birthmark on the right hip, shaped like a butterfly. There was even a small illustration.

I felt cold as I stared at the page. That couldn’t be right. I stood up so fast that my chair toppled over, clattering loudly in the silent room.

I yanked my pants down to expose my own birthmark and stared at it. I placed the book next to my hip.

It was a perfect match. Too perfect to be a coincidence. I dropped the book.

This was crazy. What could it possibly mean?

I leaned heavily against the table and tried to calm myself. I had to be getting this wrong, somehow. It

was just a birthmark. It didn’t mean that much.

Sometimes birthmarks faded with age, right? Helen probably had one that went away as she aged. It was weird, but it could happen. Right?

I gently sat the book on the table and picked up my chair. I pushed it in, then returned the book to the shelf I had taken it from. Once I had checked that everything was back in its place, I shut the lights off and left.

There was no reason to even consider this further. It made absolutely no sense to think that I could be the child of the Reed Alpha.

Why on earth would I have been abandoned in the forest if that was the case? And to add to that… where the hell had Helen come from?

No. It just couldn’t be true. If I was seriously considering the possibility, then I must be overworked and overtired. I would

just head upstairs and take a nap. Once my head was clear, I would be able to try again. There were answers in this library somewhere, but they wouldn’t come from the Reed pack.

I headed toward my bedroom. It was still early, but I didn’t want to try to talk to anyone with this crazy idea lodged in my head. I would just sleep for a little while.

Everything would make sense when I woke up. It had to.