Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins

Chapter 69

**Blake POV

The words on the page in front of me were starting to blur together. I had read them so many times that it was hard to focus on them anymore. I pushed the paper away and rubbed my eyes.

The fact that I was even drafting this damned letter made my blood boil. Letting my uncle step foot in my home was the very last thing I wanted to do, but Maisi e and Nora had convinced me that it was the right strategic action.

When I closed my eyes, I could still see the hateful glee in his eyes when I realized that he had cursed me. It was such a sadistic curse. If I didn’t take a wolfless wife, my life would be forfeit.

The likelihood of finding such a woman before my birthday was slim to none. It was a death sentence. My impending death due to the curse had allowed him to make a move against me and gain power in the castle.

He’d won over many allies who were afraid that if they didn’t show loyalty to him, they would lose their position and power when he took the throne. Charles was one of the few staff members that stuck with me. His loyalty had been the only thing that kept me going on those early days in the Rogue Zone.

My uncle had expected me to give up and run away. He thought that I would be so desperate to find a woman to break the curse that I would abandon my responsibilities as king. When I had fought back, he had been furious. It ruined all of his plans.He had staged a successful coup and forced me and a small number of my lo yal men to flee for our lives. He sent men to kill me more than once in the Rogue Zone, but as the deadline for my marriage loomed, he hadn’t bothered to send more assassins. He thought that he could just wait for the curse to take effect.

If I hadn’t met Nora when I did, my life and the wellbeing of the kingdom would have been forfeit. She had no idea how many lives she had saved by agreeing to my deal. I owed it to her to complete the terms of our agreement and help her get her wolf back.

The fact that my bas tard uncle and I shared blood disgusted me. How could a man take such underhanded actions against his own family?

I leaned back and looked at the ceiling. Then there was Graham. Whatever his motivation was for reaching out to me, I didn’t trust him. I saw the way he looked at Nora. Caleb growled in rage as the thought crossed my mind. He had grown protective of Nora too, and he didn’t trust Graham either.

The way he’d watched her leave the sitting room and scurried off after her like a lost puppy was so transparent I couldn’t believe he thought I wouldn’t notice. I trusted Nora, or I would have followed him immediately.

Something had happened between them that made Nora uneasy, but she hadn’t talked to me about it. I wasn’t sure if he’d made a pass at her or if something else had happened. She had been bothered by my reaction when I’d seen a man hit on her in the past. Would she hide it from me in an attempt to avoid a scene?If he had tried to corner her when she was alone-

A loud crack broke the silence and I looked down to find my pen snapped in my hand. Ink spilled over the letter, blotting out the words and rendering it unreadable. I tossed the broken pen into the trash and groaned. I would have to start over.

There’s nothing to this feeling, it’s just jealousy. It’s unfounded. Nora’s ritual is making me nervous, that’s all it is. The sooner we complete it, the better. If it turns out that someone else is her mate, we’ll have to deal with that. There’s nothing that can be done to change the goddess’s will.

There was a fi rm knock at my door. I crumpled the ruined paper and tossed it into the trash.“Come in.”

Maisi e entered and closed the door behind her. She took one look at me and frowned deeply.“I take it you’re not done drafting the invitation.”

I picked up a handkerchief and wiped uselessly at the ink on my hand.“No.”

She approached the desk and glanced into the trash. “Talk to me,”she said.

I growled and stood up.“I wish you weren’t so goddamned perceptive sometimes.”I walked toward the window to avoid looking her in the eye.“I’m worried about Nora,”I admitted.

“Has she given you reason to worry?”she asked.

“No, but those bastards have given me plenty ofreason to worry. They aren’t above using Nora in their schemes. I worry that she is too trusting and it makes her vulnerable.”

I could see the garden from my office window. The statue of the god dess shone brightly in the earlymorning light and not far from it, Nora was sitting beneath a tall tree and sipping her coffee.

She looked so comfortable and at ease. It made my heart full to know that she considered the castle her home and that she was finally good in her own skin here. The care that she had shown by volunteering for the pack made me proud. I didn’t want to do anything to risk the peace that Nora and I had achieved.

I didn’t really have a choice, though. We were going to have to deal with Lanecreek one way or another.

“I understand your concern,”Maisi e began.“But Ithink it’s somewhat misplaced. You have a strong, intelligent Luna. She’s doing everything she can to become even stronger.”

“She’s vulnerable without her wolf,”I said softly.

Maisi e frowned deeply at my words. She probably didn’t know that the rumors about Nora having lost her wolf were true. Caleb let out a low whine. I couldn’t imagine how I would navigate the world without his strength and instincts to help guide me.

“Vulnerable and weak are not the same thing,” shesaid after a pause.“I know that it’s difficult to accept, but you can’t protect everyone all the time. All we can do is take reasonable precautions and be on our guard. We can’t run the pack from a place of fear.”

She put her hand on my shoulder and I was grateful for the weight of it. I wasn’t used to these feeling of uncertainty. It made me feel untethered.

“It’s my job to protect her,”I said.

Maisi e sighed.“You need to give her the space to grow in her own way, the same way you have.”I was not the same brash, foolhardy young man I had once been. I was lucky to have had parents that gave me the space I needed to make mistakes and reco ver from them. Nora deserved that same grace.

“Thank you, May,”I replied softly.

There was a so ur look on her face when I turned to look at her.“I swear, if you call me that in front of anyone…”

I laughed. When I first met Maisie, she had introduced herself as May. She was just a kid then, and now, she believed that the nickname took away from her respectability and made others treat her differently. It was a silly thing to worry about, but it was the last remnant of the nervous girl I had met so many years ago.

“I’ll rewrite the letter and you can take it with you,”Istated.“It will only take a few minutes.”

She nodded.“I’ll wait here. We wouldn’t want you getting distracted again.”

I looked out the window at Nora. I trusted her judgment, and this was her idea. She seemed to feel that Graham was sincere in his desire to reconnect the family and do what was best for his pack. I had my doubts, but it was very likely that my judgment in this instance was tainted by my hatred of my uncle and Kelly.

I couldn’t trust myself on this matter, nor could I fully trust my council or warriors.

Nora was the only one that I could trust.

So, I reluctantly tore my gaze from the window, sat back at my desk, and began writing once again.