Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins

Chapter 87

**Nora POV

I was sitting beneath my favorite tree in the garden and sipping my coffee. The castle felt peaceful for the first time in weeks and I was determined to enjoy it, even if it didn’t last long.

I had a letter sitting on my lap with the seal of Moonery on it.

It felt almost like I was communicating with a ghost. I never thought that I would hear from my surrogate mother again, not after everything that had happened. There was a faint scent of lilies on the paper that reminded me of her perfume. It made my chest twist.

At my birthday dinner, I told Jeremy that it would be okay for his mother, the Luna that raised me, to reach out. I hadn’t seen her since before I was imprisoned in Moonery over a year ago. I was

nervous about opening this letter. I had no idea what to expect.

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen Cressa at all since my 18th birthday. She hadn’t been present at Jeremy’s wedding to Helen or at my almost-wedding to him. Had she refused to participate in protest, or had it been something else?

The thought spurred me into action. I broke the seal on the envelope and pulled out two sheets of writing paper.

I skimmed over the formal greeting at the top and started to read.

I felt my pulse quicken as I did. When I heard that Cressa wanted to talk to me, this isn’t what I had expected her to say. My fingers were trembling on the page as I read.

It was as if Cressa had been hearing my thoughts over the past few weeks. She had included in these pages everything that she knew

about how I was found. Every little clue that might tell me who my parents really were was laid out on these pages.

According to the letter, the cabin that I was found in was an old hunting cabin. The surrounding packs used to share that forest and use it as a hunting ground, that’s why it wasn’t considered a part of any specific pack. There was a treaty dictating that it would remain neutral so that all of the packs could benefit from the bountiful game in the forest.

This meant that it was most likely that I came from one of the packs that bordered the forest. Moonery was already ruled out, so that left only three options; Silcreek to the south, Willow Wood to the east, and Reed to the north.

There wasn’t much left of the clothes that I was wearing. They were torn and stained so badly that no distinctive patterns could be seen. She did note that they were

made of ordinary cotton fibers. This information didn’t narrow it down at all, although it did make it unlikely that I had been wearing anything expensive when I was abandoned.

There were no signs of anyone else nearby. There were no signs of blood or indications that there had been a struggle. It didn’t seem like anyone had been injured and forced to leave me because of it.

She wrote that when I first arrived in Moonery, I was very young. I hardly knew how to speak, so I wasn’t able to tell them anything about where I had come from. That’s probably why I remembered so little now. I was too young.

She did point out that I was a very polite child and that I seemed to know a bit about how to act around people. I said ‘please’and I knew better than to put my elbows on the table.

I smiled at the letter, remembering

how often she would have to scold Jeremy for propping his elbows on the table while we ate. It drove her crazy.

The smile fell away at the next part of the letter.

It read:“There was a song you used to sing. I don’t know the words or the name of the song. In your babbling baby tongue the most I could understand is that it was the story of a princess who was chased by a red wolf. She ran away, but she wasn’t afraid. I had never heard the song, no r had anyone I asked about it. Eventually, you stopped singing and it didn’t seem to matter anymore.”

I had to lower the papers to my lap and breathe deeply through my nose. My vision was obscured by the tears that were threatening to fall.

It had to be a coincidence, yet it felt so important. The crimson wolf in my dreams was clear in my mind’s

eye, even as I tried to shake the vision away. It didn’t mean anything. It couldn’t.

I read the last few lines of the letter. Cressa said that she wished me well and that she would wait and hope that I would write back. I sl*pped the pages back into the envelope and sat it on the small table beside my chair. I picked my coffee up and took a drink.

There really wasn’t much information there that I didn’t already know, but the fact that she wanted to share everything with me meant the world to me.

The sound of footsteps on the stone path drew my attention and I looked to find Maisi e approaching me.

“Good morning,”I said.“You’rehere early.”

She sat in the empty chair beside me and sighed.

“Blake asked me to come evaluate

the new recruits this morning,”she explained.“But on my way I saw you over here with a serious look on your face, so I thought I’d say hello before I head to the training grounds. Is everything alright?”

I nodded and indicated the envelope.“Yes, I’m just thinking about the letter I received from Moonery today,”I answered.“The Luna wrote to me with some information that might help me understand my past a little bit better.”

“Oh?”she stated in surprise.“Is thatsomething that you’ve been trying to figure out?”

“I’m an orphan,”I noted with anuncomfortable shrug.“Naturally, I’m curious about where I came from.”

“It seems like whatever you readupset you,” she pointed out.

I smiled bitterly at her. “It just didn’t have all of the answers that I wished it did.”

Maisi e looked at me thoughtfully. “What information do you thinkthat you’re missing?”

I sighed and looked up at the tree branches overhead.

“Am I fit to be a Luna?”I askedquietly.“I don’t know anything about my lineage. How can I be sure that I’m worthy of this position? So much in the kingdom depends on the decisions made by the Luna Queen, I just don’t know how I can be sure that I’m the right person to make those decisions.”

I didn’t have the benefit of being Blake’s fated mate, so there was nothing to reassure me that I really belonged here. I was trying my best, and it seemed like things were working out, but the fear that I would fail the pack and the entire kingdom was difficult to overcome.

Maisi e leaned forward and looked at me critically. It was the same expression that I had seen on her face when she was considering

tactical plans.

“You don’t need anyone’spermission to be the Luna Queen,”she noted suddenly.

I was taken ab ack by the comment. “Of course I do.”

“No,”she said firmly.“You don’t.Blake chose you as his queen. You have filled the role with grace and care. That is all the confirmation that you need.”

I was finding it hard to look her in the eye, but I didn’t dare look away. “You really believe that?”I asked.

I hated how unconfident I sounded, but Maisie’s support was something that I really valued. If someone as observant and critically minded as her believed in me, then maybe I was living up to my title.

“I know it,”she replied.“Now,Ihave to get to work. Blake will be waiting for me. We’ll talk soon.”She patted my shoulder firmly, then stood and walked away.

I held my coffee cup firmly in both hands. Maisi e was probably right. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need for external validation so strongly. Blake believed in me, and surely that was enough.

I hoped.