*Isla*
“So she just waltzed right into your room, had a seat, and proceeded to ask you how to get with your man?” Poppy asks me as I stare at a plate of food I’m probably not going to eat much of. My stomach is still churning, and I don’t know if it’s because of the odd conversation I had with Sydney or if it’s something else.
“Not exactly,” I tell Poppy because I don’t want her to think I didn’t tell Sydney she could come in. And she didn’t exactly ask me how to get with Maddox… well, maybe sort of. “She just thought I was a professional breeder or something. She was looking for advice.”
“But… what about her current baby? Can you imagine her just hauling that kid around from one Alpha to the next while she tries to get knocked up again? And then she’ll do what? Leave a long trail of babies behind her?” Poppy shakes her head and sits down at the table with me, as if she is my friend, not my maid. She is my friend and my maid, but it seems so strange that she’s just sitting across from me with her arms folded under her chest, swinging her foot back and forth quickly while I take tiny bites of macaroni salad.
“Maybe that’s why she was asking me,” I suggest. It’s never easy for me to assume something bad about someone. I always think that people have good intentions. It’s just that sometimes they don’t really give everything as much thought as they should.
A vision of the dream I had last night pops before my eyes, and I think about Zabrina. That’s one woman, I have to say, who doesn’t have good intentions ever. So maybe I’ve been too quick in the past to give people the benefit of the doubt. But then, I think most people deserve that at least the first time around.
The second time around, I should know better.
I don’t always, though, because I am naive and gullible and hate to be mean or rude to people. The longer I stay in the castle, the more important it is becoming to me not to trust people. In this place, everyone seems to have an agenda. Everyone wants something. So far, the only genuine people I’ve met are Poppy, Seth… and Maddox.
“Well, I think King Maddox should just take that little tramp back to her home pack and drop her off. Just let them handle her and her bastard child.”
Poppy is genuine… but she is also direct. Sometimes I think she is too direct.
“I think she’s just scared. I would be if I was her.” I can’t imagine being in that position where I was pregnant by someone who was dead and no one seemed to want me.
“Maybe she should’ve kept her legs together.” Poppy reaches over and plucks a grape off of my plate.
I think about asking her if that means she’s a virgin then, but I keep my mouth shut. It’s not my business, and just because Poppy feels like questioning other people’s life choices, that doesn’t mean I should.
After all, I could be pregnant, and I’m not that much older than Sydney. And Maddox could decide that he doesn’t want me. I’ve already thought that he had made up his mind to let me go once in the not-so-distant past.
Then… what would I do?
I am almost positive I’m not pregnant. I almost died a few days ago. Surely, the wolfsbane would’ve ended any chances I had of being pregnant
Rather than commenting on Poppy’s statement, I decide to change the subject. “Do you know if King Maddox found Zabrina?”
She looks at me for a moment before she says, “I heard that he went to Duster pack to look for her, and she wasn’t there.” Poppy looks like she doesn’t really want to be the one to tell me this. “Sorry.”
I shrug. “I’m sorry that he didn’t find her, but… I’m sure he will find her.”
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. I just heard it from another maid while I was out helping straighten the rooms Alpha Jordan’s nasty-ass soldiers trashed before they either left or were locked up.”
“How long ago was that?” I just wonder why Maddox hasn’t sent me a mind-link message at all.
“Not long ago. Right before I brought you this,” she says gesturing at the food I’m eating sometime between breakfast and lunch.
I wonder how he can even know for sure that she isn’t there when he hasn’t been gone all that long. How long does it even take to get to Duster pack?
Poppy pushes off of the ground with her feet to move her chair back so she can get up. “Well, I hope that sorry bitch leaves you alone. Who knows what nonsense she might talk you into.”
I can tell by Poppy’s tone that she’s still mad at me for leaving while she was getting my food the other night without even saying a word to her. That’s why she’s being so snippy–more snippy than usual.
“See you later,” I say to her. She gives me a half smile and then she exits the room, and I realize I’m going to have to start doing whatever I can to make it up to her. Poppy is one of the only friends I have in the world, and I don’t want her to be mad at me.
Thinking of friends, my eyes go to the phone. I miss Ben….
*Maddox*
Beta Ian continues to stare at me as I unravel exactly what has happened here. Even with all of the horrible things I’ve seen in my life, this is one of the worst, and I am having trouble processing the part I played in it.
“What do you mean you’re to blame?” Ian asks me.
Shaking my head, I tell him, “I let a psycho know how much I wanted that woman in my custody, and it seems like he went to great lengths to make sure that no one else had her.”
“Who is this woman? Alpha Jordan’s daughter?” Ian asks me as the little girls his wife is holding in her arms behind him slowly start to stop crying.
“That’s right,” I tell him. “She caused all sorts of problems for me back at the castle, and I wanted her arrested. I have evidence that she came ashore here, in Duster pack territories, near Wolf Stone Bridge early this morning or sometime last night. My hope in coming here today was to talk to Alpha Hayes to see if his patrols had captured her. But then I found this.” I don’t see the point in telling him that I have evidence that men in suits collected her at the water’s edge.
Now, after the mind-link message I just received, I know that it wasn’t Alpha Hayes’s men who were there when Zabrina waded ashore.
I just don’t understand why anyone would go to all the trouble to attack an Alpha, his servants, and his Luna in their own home when it seems clear to me that the slain Alpha wasn’t even aware that the woman in question was in his territory.
But I am on my way to find out exactly why this horrendous act of violence transpired.
“And you somehow managed to get Alpha Hayes killed because you were looking for this woman?” Beta Ian asks.
“Not exactly.” I run a hand through my hair and try to cut myself some slack. “I went to visit Alpha Bryant yesterday because he had Alpha Jordan in his custody. While I was there, I discovered he’d gotten his niece pregnant. He tried to blackmail me into pretending the baby was mine. Things got a little out of hand….” Saying it now, I feel a bit disappointed with myself for what happened with Alpha Bryant yesterday, too. How am I any better than the murderers who took out these people?
Well, for one thing, I only killed a mouthy Alpha. I didn’t kill everyone else in the building.
“I heard that you killed Alpha Bryant,” Ian says to me.
I nod. “That’s right. I did kill him, and I’d kill any other Alpha who did what Bryant did. But that being said, Beta Vinny wanted to prove to me that he could take control of the pack and lead it as the new Alpha.” I take a deep breath, and my pause gives Ian a chance to speak.
“So you think it was Vinny who came over here and did this? In order to get the girl and impress you? And that’s why this is your fault?”
He has leaped to the same conclusion that I have. Of course, my hunch was confirmed when I had a voice in my head telling me that I had been right.
“So… what are you going to do now, Alpha King?”
Ian’s voice is snide as he speaks, and I don’t blame him. He was already angry enough with me to support his Alpha, his brother-in-law, in a bid for the crown. Now, that other man is dead, and he has to hold me at least partially responsible for that.
“I’m going to go pay a visit to Beta Vinny,” I say, certain that my next move will be the right one.
“And, are you going to make him pay for what he’s done here?” This question doesn’t come from Ian, but from his wife.
I nod in her direction. “I am. But you two need to make a couple of promises to me.”
Ian raises an eyebrow, like he doesn’t think he owes me anything. “Like what?”
“Like… give me a chance to handle this before you start to organize against me. You may not know the entire story of what was at issue between Hayes and me. You may feel differently about joining an uprising against me.”
Ian doesn’t make me any promises yet as he asks me, “And what’s the second one?”
Again, my eyes flicker to the tiny bodies in Alaina’s arms.
“Take care of these girls.”
Ian nods immediately. “You can rest assured I will take care of my nieces and raise them like they are my own. And you can also be certain that I will do what is best for my pack.” He narrows his gaze at me. “I don’t want to fight you, Alpha King Maddox. I always thought Hayes was a little too eager to improve his station. But at the same time, I can guarantee you that if you don’t get justice for my family, I will do so myself.”
In response, all I can do is extend my hand to him. “I will make sure that the shifters who did this pay for their crimes.”
He looks at my hand for a moment before he slips his inside of mine and says, “You’d better.”