Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins

Chapter 114

*Blake POV

After the argument Nora and I had yesterday, I was feeling particularly rotten. I couldn’t stand the thought that my past behavior had contributed to the internal turmoil Nora was experiencing.

Things were so different when we met. If I had known then how much I would grow to love her, I would have handled things so much differently.

Caleb was practically whimpering with the weight of the guilt. I just wanted to be near her right now and assure myself that she was safe.

She had left early this morning for the library and I had the feeling that she was still there. Hopefully, I wouldn’t be interrupting her.

When I entered, I found Nora sitting at one of the long tables in the center of the room. There were

multiple boxes on the table around her and a large, tattered book opened in front of her. She was staring at the book with such focus that she didn’t seem to hear me enter.

I pulled out the chair beside her and sat down. She glanced at me and smiled weakly.

“What are you looking at?”I asked.

She pushed the tattered book toward me.“Information about the Reed Alpha’s child.”

“Helen?”I asked in surprise. Whywould Nora be concerning herself with that woman again?

“No,”she said emphatically.“I…thisis going to sound crazy. I don’t think that Helen is their real daughter.”

It did sound crazy. I stared at her in confusion.“I don’t understand what you mean.”

She point ed to the book. I looked

down and started to read the section she indicated. It was a description of Helen. Or, it should have been a description of Helen. It didn’t really fit. That wasn’t unusual, though. Many babies looked far different as they aged.

“I spoke to Rita and her sisterChelsea yesterday,” Nora continued. “Chelsea lived in Reed when theLuna had her baby.”

Nora sat back in the chair and clasped her hands in her lap nervously.

“Yes,”I said.“I’m aware that shetraveled quite a bit back in the day. She was training with other seer’s around the kingdom.”

When it became clear that Chelsea had a gift, she requested permission from my father to apprentice with the Reed pack seer. He was well respected, so her request was granted.

“What did they tell you?”I asked.

“Chelsea is convinced thatsomething strange happened after the Luna had her baby. She thinks that Helen isn’t the child that the Luna gave birth to.” Nora pointed to the book again.“I know that it sees like a real stretch, but this description is nothing like Helen, and with Chelsea’s theory… well, I think she’s right.”

“I don’t see why an Alpha wouldreplace his own child with another,”I stated skeptically.

“I don’t know why, either,”Noraadmitted.“But that’s not all that Chelsea told me.” She was nervously twisting her fingers in her lap. “I’ve been having strange dreams ever since the night we spent in Lanecreek,” she said softly.

“What kind of dreams?”I asked.

I was shocked that she would keep something like that from me, but it did explain the tension that had been mounting between us ever since then. Something had been

eating at her, and she had kept it from me.

“I’ve been dreaming of a large,crimson wolf,”she answered. “Every night, it’s lurking nearbyand just watching me. Every night, it gets a little closer.”

I stared at her in shock. I had never had a dream or a vision of the red wolf, and I was the direct descendant of a long line of Alphas. For such a thing to happen to Nora night after night was incredible. It could only be a message from the goddess.

“I know that this sounds crazy,”Nora began again.“And I’ve tried to ignore the dreams. I thought that it must be my imagination or something because I’m not the child of an Alpha, so I couldn’t possibly be seeing the real red wolf.”She sighed and shook her head.“But then I heard about Chelsea’s visions about me.”

“What exactly did she say?”I asked.

“It didn’t make sense,”shemuttered.“She said that I am the child of an Alpha and that my wolf will arrive to guide me when I need it most.”

I frowned. It really didn’t make any sense. I had never known Chelsea to be wrong before, but I didn’t see how this could be correct. Even if Nora was the lost child of an Alpha, she had no wolf. Did it mean that the ritual would be successful?

I shook my head.“There must be something else,” I mused.“Either she misinterpreted her vision or there’s something she didn’t tell you.”

“That’s possible,”Nora agreed.“Butshe seemed very confident.”

“Hmm. So, what does any of thishave to do with the Reed pack?”I asked.

Nora pointed to the book again. “Look at the description of thebirthmark,” she instructed.

I looked back down at the book. It described a birthmark shaped like a butterfly on the right hip of the child. My eyes widened in recognition. Nora has the same birthmark in the same location. It was an incredible coincidence.

“Is it possible that I’m the true childof the Reed Alpha?”she asked uncertainly.“Maybe that’s the reason that Helen really hates me? Maybe that’s why she thought that she should have whatever good things came to me and why she wanted me dead so badly.”

“I don’t know,”I answered slowly. Itseemed far fetched at best.

Nora’s face went carefully blank and she pulled the book back toward her.“Nevermind,”she stated.“It was a silly idea.” She closed the book and put it on top of a pile of folders beside her.“How was your meeting with Maisie, do you have a plan for the ball?”

“We do,”I said.“Christian is going

to come with us as Maisie’s date for the evening. The four of us are going to try to gather intel during the ball. We’ll have warriors stationed at strategi c locations along the border and in the forest to stop any invading force that they might send out while we’re distracted with the inauguration.”

She nodded thoughtfully and started to pack up the papers she was going over.“That sounds like a solid plan, given how little we have to work with,”she noted.

Nora wasn’t looking at me. She stood and grabbed one of the boxes, then carried it to the shelf. Her jaw was set fi rmly and she was keeping her eyes down. She was upset, but she didn’t want me to know.

“What’s wrong?”I asked when shecame back to the table.

She shook her head.“Not a thing.”She grabbed another box and walked away to place it on the shelf.

“If you don’t have another meetingsoon, we should decide on our outfits for the ball. We can’t show up looking sloppy, it will be suspicious.”

I stood and followed her to the shelf. Her eyes were still downcast when she turned to walk back to the table, so she didn’t see me at first. She almost walked directly into me.

“Nora,”I said gently. I gripped herarms and waited for her to look at me.

She lifted her head and I could see that her eyes had gone watery. She was barely holding back tears.

I had been too dismissive of her theory and it upset her. It was callous of me. Nora wanted to know where she came from. She was confident enough in this theory about Reed that she had shared it with me and my reaction was to doubt her.

“I’m sorry,”I started.“I didn’t mean

to imply that you couldn’t be the child of the Reed Alpha.” She bit her lower li p and shrugged helplessly.“It’s just such a bizarre situation to wrap my head around.”

“I know,”she said.“It’s not worthtalking about. It can’t be true.”

“It could be true,”I argued.“And Ishouldn’t have dismissed you like that. Whatever the truth turns out to be, I will be with you. When this mess with Lanecreek is finished, I will put all of my resources towards finding your parents, if that’s what you want.”

She wrapped her arms around me. “Thank you.”

I held her close and sighed. There was so much threatening us and our life together. I couldn’t let my own carelessness be the thing that forced us apart. I wouldn’t let anything take Nora from me.