ZADE’S POV
I returned to my Pack with mixed feelings. When I had decided to go meet my step-brother for help, I had known that there was a very high possibility that he wasn’t going to help me but I just had to give it a shot for the sake of my Pack.
What I had not been expecting, was to see my mate there. And the worst of all was that she was already married to that monster.
I banged my desk hard in anger just as my Beta came in. He looked somewhat pissed that I hadn’t allowed him to accompany me to my step-brother’s Pack but I didn’t care at that moment.
His expression changed to one of concern when he saw how pissed I was.
“I take it things didn’t go well at your brother’s Pack,” he said as he took his seat in front of the desk.
“He is no brother of mine,” I spat out.
“Woah! Okay, please just calm down and tell me what happened.”
His mouth hung open as I told him how I had seen Malia and how she was already married to him.
It took him a while to recover.
“Then why didn’t she come with you?” he queried and I rolled my eyes.
“Were you not listening to me when I said that she is now married and the Luna of the Red Claw Pack?”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “Yeah yeah. I heard. But the Malia I know would have offered to help if you had told her that she was the solution to all that is happening to us.”
His eyes narrowed. “But you didn’t tell her. What the hell is wrong with you, Zade? This is someone we have spent so much effort looking for and what did you do when the Moon Goddess decided to help you? You just let that opportunity slip through your fingers. ”
I bowed my head in shame. “I’m so sorry but when I was with her, I just couldn’t bring myself to ask for her help knowing fully well how much I had wronged her.”
“All I wanted to do when I had the chance to speak with her was tell how sorry I was for the way that I treated her.”
“I realized something else. I think her curse has been broken, Tommy. I could sense her wolf and I had to restrain myself a great deal to keep from touching her. It was maddening.”
I was more concerned with how that bastard was treating her. She looked abused. Not physically though, but emotionally.”
“Then we have to get her out of there,” he suggested.
I shook my head. “Tommy, she doesn’t want to leave. And even if she leaves, there is no way she’s coming back to me,” I replied glumly.
He sighed. “We will figure out how to win her back. But for now, let’s focus on what this Pack needs. Her help. Since you can’t ask her for it, I’m going to do it for you. I am going to the Red Claw Pack,” he said and stood up to leave.
“You can’t go now. Let’s give it a few days. Ryder is not going to want to accept another visitor from a rival Pack so soon.”
He sighed and nodded. “You’re right,” he agreed as he returned to his seat.
“I’m curious about one thing though,” he began. “I thought you told me that the seer said that Malia’s curse was permanent. Does that mean that she lied?” he wondered.
“With all the things that I have learnt, I think it’s possible that she was bribed by someone to tell that lie so that I would believe that there was no hope and choose someone else as Luna,” I replied, thinking that if this was truly the case, then I was a great fool indeed.
“You may be right. My best guess on who bribed the seer is Victoria. She had motive,” he said.
I raked my fingers through my hair and sighed deeply in frustration. “I wish I could just turn back the hands of time. I should have not taken the seer’s word for it. I should have gone to see some witches. I should have done better.”
Tommy suddenly sat up straighter. “It just occurred to me that if at all the seer was bribed to lie about Malia’s curse, she could have also been bribed to lie about these attacks we are facing. It may not be some supernatural bullshit. Someone who knows the secrets and inner workings of this Pack might just be messing with us.”
I regarded my Beta with eyes filled with gratitude. “Thank you for always thinking straight when I am not. We need to go see a witch right away. Do you know where we can find any?” I queried.
He shook his head. “No, I don’t. But I can find out before tomorrow evening,” he replied and got to his feet. “Let me get to it immediately.”
I nodded and he left.
I leaned back in my chair and for the hundredth time that day, my thoughts drifted to Malia. Even though I was a few miles away from her, I could still smell her. It was a sensual one that went straight to my groin area. Or maybe I was just imagining it.
I let out a groan of frustration. She was still as beautiful as ever with those bewitching blue eyes and sensuous figure. I ached to hold her in my arms.
“But she’s in the arms of another. I can not believe you left without her,” my wolf said.
I sighed. I couldn’t believe it either but I couldn’t possibly have asked her to come with me.
Even if she had somehow miraculously forgiven me or had agreed to forgive me, there was no way that scoundrel, Ryder, would have allowed her to leave. I scowled as I remembered how his arm had been around her waist as though he owned her.
My mind started to make things worse by bringing up wicked images of them making love.
This time, I growled in anger and pushed all the files on the desk to the ground.
I was going to kill him if I had the chance. I had still not forgotten how his mother had tried to come between my parents.
She had wanted to be Luna so bad that she had drugged my father and slept with him. I guess she had felt that if she got pregnant, he was going to make her his Luna because he had not yet found his mate.
My father had no idea that she was pregnant. It wasn’t until he was married to my mom and she was heavily pregnant with me, that Ryder’s mom showed up with a one-year-old baby and claimed that it was my father’s and asked him to take responsibility.
My mom had only asked just one question and that was if he had ever slept with her. My father had answered truthfully and my mother had left to go be with her parents without even listening to any further explanation from my dad.
It was exactly what Ryder’s mom wanted. She wanted my mom away from the picture so that she would become Luna since she also had a son from my father.
But to her greatest disappointment, my father didn’t rest until he got my mom to come back to the palace.
He agreed to take the kid though but the mother had to leave. She could check on him but my father refused to allow her to live in the palace with us. He believed she was going to do something to hurt his Luna and his heir.
Ryder’s mom had been livid and she had ended up leaving with her child.
Ryder himself had shown up when he was a teenager. My parents had received him with open arms but he had shown them hate in return.
He tried to set the house on fire one night when we were all sleeping. My parents and I had managed to come out of the building unscathed.
It wasn’t until one of the guards caught him when he was trying to poison our food that my father threw him out himself. I guess his mother had poisoned his mind against us and that was the reason for his hatred.
And now, he had my mate in his arms. I would have loved to think that he had knowingly decided to take her from me to punish me but I was well aware that it was my fault that Malia had run away from the pack. She was in his arms because of my foolishness and now I had no idea how to get her back.
I sighed and was just thinking about getting a good nap when Victoria stormed in.
I mentally groaned. I wasn’t in the mood for an argument which was what pretty much summed up our lives these days. I was tired of the endless arguments and fights. The other day, we had had a fight because she asked me to name our son as heir but I told her that it wasn’t time yet.
She had become very angry and accused me of having a bastard that I wanted to name as heir. Despite her accusations, I still didn’t name our son as heir. I didn’t know why I was hesitant. Maybe it was because of the troubles this pack was constantly facing. I feared that the pack would be no more soon. So there was no need to name him as the heir apparent. A part of me had completely lost hope.
“You have been around for a long while and you didn’t even come to see your son and me after how much we’ve been missing you,” she said angrily.
I sighed and silently prayed to the Moon Goddess for patience.
“I’m sorry Malia,” I replied and heard her sharp intake of breath.
“Shit,” I silently cursed and my wolf howled in laughter. If I could strangle him, I would have done it.
“So it’s true. You went to see Malia. Why didn’t you tell me that you have found her?” she queried, moving closer to my chair.
“Oh Good Goddess, save my soul,” I muttered under my breath.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I began. “The last person I was expecting to see when I arrived at my step-brother’s pack was Malia. But there she was, alive and healthy,” I replied.
She scoffed. “Can you sit there and tell me that you two didn’t do anything else apart from look at each other? Please, I’m not a fool. I know how the mate bond works.”
I buried my face in my hands and tried not to yell in frustration.
I raised my head and spoke calmly to her. “Victoria, nothing happened between us. And please I’m not in the mood for this. I’m very tired and I need to rest.”
“We aren’t supposed to be fighting and arguing all the time. We are not setting a good example for our son and I’m sure he’s being traumatized.”
She opened her mouth to say something but thought better of it.
“This conversation is far from over,” she spoke finally after a brief moment of silently scowling at me.
I sighed in relief as she turned and started to march out of the room. But that relief quickly turned into frustration when she opened the door and Elder Zelda was standing there with a shocked expression on her face.
Oh crap. Here we go again.
Victoria walked past her without saying a word.
I braced myself as Elder Zelda walked in. She didn’t even bother with greetings before she spoke. Not like I cared about her greetings. I just wanted her out of my sight.
“Tell me I heard correctly. Malia is alive? You saw her?”
I nodded.
“Then why isn’t she here with you?” she queried.
I inhaled deeply. “I’m not sure that the Alpha of the Red Claw Pack would have allowed his Luna to just come with me.”
I got to my feet. “Now if you would please excuse me, I am very tired and would love to take a nap.”
I walked out of my study before she could say another word and walked straight to my private chambers where I immediately collapsed onto my bed and slept.
I didn’t wake up until late at night when I heard the knocking on my door.
I groaned as I opened my eyes and silently cursed the person who had dared to wake me up.
I rolled out of bed with a sigh and walked to the door, hoping that it wasn’t Victoria.
I yanked the door open and was surprised to see my Beta with a serious expression on his face.
“This had better be worth it,” I murmured as I allowed him to come in.
“Oh, it is worth it,” he replied gravely.
“Have you found a witch?” I queried as I plopped down on my bed.
“Not yet,” he began. “But I found Zelda and we were right. Please do not ask me how I got her to speak. But I did anyway and she told me how Victoria and Lily had come to her on two different occasions.”
“The first one was to make you believe that Malia’s case was hopeless and her curse could not be broken.
The other one was to have you convinced that Malia was the cause of the attack. You were actually supposed to find her and kill her for the mysterious attacks to stop.”
I gasped in shock. “If that is the case, could this mean that the attacks are truly mysterious and Victoria just wanted to use it as an opportunity to get rid of Malia once and for all or could it be that she’s the one behind these attacks?” I wondered.
“Or both?” Tommy murmured.
“Good Goddess,” I silently exclaimed. I had been so blind. I rose from the bed and walked hurriedly towards the door.
Tommy blocked my path and I arched an eyebrow at him.
“What do you think you are doing?” I queried.
“And where do you think you are going?” he returned.
“What do you mean? Can’t you see that I need to have her banished or locked up or better still, killed? Get out of my path this instant,” I ordered but he wouldn’t budge.
“You need to think about this first. I understand that you are very angry but I want you to think about your son and handle this in the best way possible. You don’t want to traumatise him or make him hate you. Dragging his mother out of her chambers in the dead of the night is going to do just that,” he reasoned.
For a moment I just wanted to push him out of my way but I saw the sense in what he said and I took deep breaths to control my anger.
He led me back to the bed and sat beside me. “I suggest you go back to bed. At least now that we know what’s going on, we will be able to stop these attacks. You should take comfort in that and sleep. You will be a lot calmer and clear-headed when you wake up. Then, I will support you in any decision you make.”
He left my room a few minutes after biding me goodnight.
I lay awake for a while, resisting the urge to go around breaking things. That wasn’t going to help.
I tossed and turned on my bed for a full hour before sleep finally came to claim me.
The first sensation I felt when I woke up was hunger. Gnawing, biting hunger. I placed a call to the kitchen to have my food served in my office as soon as possible and went to the bathroom to clean up.
Tommy was right, I did feel a lot calmer and clear-headed and I knew exactly how I was going to handle the situation.
On the way to my study, I stopped by Victoria’s chambers to check on my son. He was already awake and having breakfast.
My three-year-old son ran towards me as fast as his little legs could carry him with a wide smile and eyes filled with excitement.
“Come here, big boy,” I said with a grin as I bent to lift him from the floor. I threw him up and caught him a couple of times and he gave tiny squeals of excitement.
“I missed you, papa,” he said and I hugged him tightly, hating what I had to do to his mother.
When I put him down to continue eating, I saw that Victoria had been watching us with a smile on her face. I tried not to scowl at her.
She came towards me and wrapped her arms around my waist. “I missed you, papa,” she said mimicking our son.
I forced my lips into a smile and returned the hug.
“Aren’t you going to lift me and throw me up into the air also?” she asked and our son giggled.
I forced myself to be playful with her for the sake of our son. I picked her up and carried her bridal style. Then I proceeded to spin around and around with her in my arms.
Both mother and son squealed in excitement and he ran to me immediately I set his mother down for his turn.
I picked him up and spun around though not as fast as I had been with his mom. I didn’t want him to get too dizzy.
I was able to escape to my study after that. I sighed in appreciation when I saw that my food was already waiting for me on the mini-dining in my room.
“I swear these maids treat you better than they do me,” my beta said without preamble as he came into my study.
“Your food just doesn’t look better than mine, it also smells better than mine and I bet that it tastes better too.”
I smirked. “That’s why I’m the Alpha. I deserve and get the best of the best.”
He scoffed. “So it is I who does not deserve the best of the best, right?” he asked with a grin.
“Just come as an Alpha in your next life,” I teased.
He snorted. “Unfortunately, I do not believe that a next life exists, and even if it did exist, trust me I would not want to return to this Earth.”
“Interesting,” I murmured as he sat on the chair beside me and eyed my chicken breasts with alarming lust.
I shifted my food closer to me protectively. I was not in the mood to share.
I sighed in irritation when he continued to look at my food and gave him one of my chicken breasts. His face immediately split into a grin and I scowled at him.
“Come on, you know I deserve to eat out of your plate. I always eat out of your plate of worry so I might as well eat out of your plate of food,” he reasoned.
I gave him a look. “You are unbelievable, you know that right?”
He nodded as he happily devoured his chicken.
“Just remind me to announce to the pack that I am in need of a new beta,” I said to him.
“I sure will, but I know you will not find anyone like me,” he replied with a smug smile.
I resisted to urge to punch him in the face. But he was right. I was never going to find anyone like him. He was loyal, good at what he did and the most amazing best friend that anyone could ever ask for.
We did not say anything about Victoria’s case until I was done eating and seated at my desk.
“I take it you have already made a decision,” he said to me with a serious expression on his face.
I nodded. “I listened to your advice and put our son into consideration. I have decided to put her in a separate house. A jail actually but a well-furnished one that would have guards around it all the time.
Her son will be able to visit her there and not suspect that his mom is in prison. For now at least. He is going to realize it when he is much older.
Naturally, she is going to be stripped of her position as Luna and never allowed to step a foot out of that house until she dies.”
“And what about her sister, Lily?” he queried.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to banish that one and have the guards kill her on sight if she dares to cross our boundaries,” I replied.
Tommy nodded in satisfaction. “I think it’s a very good decision.”
Two days later, we found substantial evidence that tied Victoria to the attack on my Pack and I had her locked up in that house. Lily was banished as she was her accomplice.
A few days after that, the men who were supposed to be guarding the house that Victoria was locked in, were found dead and she was nowhere to be found.