*Maddox*
In my office, I sit by myself and ponder what to do. I have a few options, but mostly, I need to do whatever I can to shore up my defenses. It seems quite clear that I’m beginning to lose control of the kingdom.
I can’t even keep people safe in my own fucking backyard.
Finding one of the maids who was in Zabrina’s service shouldn’t be too hard. I believe she abandoned all of them when she left here. I know none of them left the castle with her, and I doubt that her mother would have taken many of the maids that serviced her daughter with her when she left since she had her own maids. And Zabrina’s friends. She had brought a couple of her cronies along. I’m pretty sure they left with their Luna.
So… what would we have done with extra maids? I’m guessing they would probably have just been assigned to tasks within my household.
I pick up the phone and call the number that goes to the head maid’s room. I have no fucking idea who it is now since Mrs. Whateverthefuckhernameis was fired and the replacement was locked up for unlocking every door anyone asked her to.
“Yes, Alpha King Maddox, Sir?” a female voice answers. “How may I help you?”
“Hello–who is this?” I ask.
“This is Gretchin, Sir. The new head of maids.”
I know who she is, and I’m a little surprised that she was placed in that position because she hadn’t been here for very long.
“Gretchin, do you happen to know if any of Zabrina’s maids are still in the castle? Did they all leave when the Luna left? Or are some of them still here?”
“Oh, yes, Sir,” she says. “A couple of them are still here. One called Maude and one called Heidi.”
“Perfect,” I tell her. “Can you send them to my office, please?”
“Yes, sir.”
I thank her and hang up, and my mind continues to wander. Perhaps I should call Alpha Henry and see if he knows about his son’s plan, but I don’t know if I have time for that, and less than ten minutes after I requested the presence of the maids, they show up, knocking hesitantly on my partially open door.
I look up to see that one of them is quite old–maybe in her sixties–and the other looks to be younger than Isla. They stand there in maids’ uniforms, their heads tipped, but the older one has a scowl on her face.
“Come in, ladies,” I say, gesturing toward the chairs across from me. “Be seated, please.”
“Yes, Sir,” they both say at the same time.
“I have a quick question for both of you,” I begin, folding my hands in front of me. “I hope that you will both be willing to tell me anything that you may know that will help with solving the problem I’m currently working on.”
“Of course, Sir,” the younger one says.
I have an idea that she is Heidi just because Maude is a bit of an old-fashioned name, but I’m not sure. “Which one are you?”
“This is Heidi,” the older one says, hooking her thumb at the other girl. “I’m Maude, Sir.”
I nod–just as I’d suspected. “Do either of you happen to know who Zabrina’s fated mate was?”
I have blurted the question out there, and it seems to have taken them by surprise as they exchange glances with one another, eyebrows raised. “Sir?” Maude asks me. “You mean… the man she was fated to that she rejected so that she could come here and try to be your mate instead?”
I scoff. I can’t help it. It’s not because of what Maude has said but because it angers me that Zabrina would even think that was possible. “Yes, I suppose that is what I’m asking,” I say.
They look at one another again before Heidi speaks up. “She told me very little about him, Sir. I only know that she met him at a Moon Goddess Ball when she was twenty-one. Her father instantly told her to reject him as his pack lands were far away, he wasn’t very powerful, and he had it in his mind that she could be the next Luna Queen.”
I nod along with what Heidi is telling me. “Who was he?” I ask.
“We don’t know,” Maude answers quickly, that scowl back on her face from earlier. “She never told us his name or what pack he was from.”
She seems dismissive, like that’s that, and she doesn’t expect me to ask any more questions.
Unfortunately for her, I’ve never been one to give up so easily. “Oh,” I say. “Nothing at all? Only that the pack was far away? I was under the impression the two of you were close with Zabrina, that she would’ve trusted you.”
“She did trust us,” Maude says quickly, obviously irritated that I would suggest otherwise. “But we don’t know the details. She didn’t like to talk about it.”
“Why is that?” I ask, more curious now than conniving.
“She didn’t like that her father had made her go to such great lengths. And she was superstitious. She was afraid that rejecting her true mate would bring bad luck to her life,” Maude is telling me. “Turns out she must’ve been right.”
“Why do you say that?” I ask her, thinking I already know what she will say, but I want to hear it from her mouth.
“Well, because! Look at her now! She’s dead! If she hadn’t been forced to reject her mate and come here to seek you out, been told that she had no choice but to succeed or forget about ever coming home, well, perhaps she would’ve made other choices.”
Listening to Maude talk makes me feel slightly bad for Zabrina at first, but then, I remember how horrid that bitch was, and any hint of sympathy that was beginning to bubble up inside of me is squashed.
“Are you saying that Alpha Jordan forced his daughter to come here and wreak havoc on my life, try to kill my breeder, kill a couple of my guards, and one of your own?” I ask them, lacing my fingers together.
The two of them exchange glances, but Heidi is the one who speaks next. “We feel that Zabrina let the pressure get to her, and she made some terrible decisions, sir. But it was all fueled by the insistence that she could not fail. I personally believe it drove her a bit mad.”
“So really Alpha Jordan is to blame for all of this?” I ask them.
“No,” Maude says quickly, shaking her head dismissively. “It wasn’t the Alpha who caused all of the trouble, sir.”
I am confused. “But you just told me that he was making Zabrina act the way that she was, didn’t you?”
“We said someone was forcing her, Sir, but we didn’t say who,” Heidi explains.
“Well, who else could it have possibly been?” I am confused and beginning to feel like they are messing with me.
The answer comes from Maude. “Luna Elaine, Sir. She was the one who wanted her daughter to come after you so hard. She was the one who insisted that Zabrina could not fail in becoming the next Luna Queen.”
I try not to stare at them too hard or let my mouth drop open, but I am shocked. I never would’ve dreamt that was the case. Lune Elaine always seemed like a bystander in all of this. But these women seem very clear on the idea that Luna Elaine is to blame for much of this.
I clear my throat and then ask the question I most need an answer to before I let them go, even though they’ve already tried to tell me that they don’t know. “Who was the mate?”
“You’d have to ask Luna Elaine,” Maude tells me. “She would know.”
“Do you know where she’s hiding?”
They look at one another again, but neither is asking.
“She left you here, you realize? She didn’t take you with her when she fled. She took others but not you, and even if you say it’s because you were her daughter’s maids and not hers, that doesn’t change the facts.”
“Beach Front pack, Sir,” Heidi blurts out. “That’s where they went.”
Maude groans. “Heidi! We don’t know that for sure!”
“We do,” Heidi says, shaking her head. “We do know it, Sir.”
“Very well, thank you. You may both go.”
As soon as the two maids leave my office, I pick up the phone Beach Front pack is one of the most remote packs from the castle, and though I’ve never had a problem with them, I also don’t know their Alpha, Alpha Geoffrey, very well.
It takes a few rings for anyone to answer, but when I hear a secretary’s voice, I ask for the Alpha. Again, I must wait, and then, I begin to think about all of the facts I’ve been given from the two maids, and the situation becomes a bit clearer to me.
Alpha Geofrey has three sons. One is my age. One is about Isla’s age, and one is about Ben’s age…. Could one of his two oldest sons be Zabrina’s mate? His Luna passed away about five years ago, so Alpha Geofrey might be a little lonely out there along the coast by himself…. Perhaps Elaine had more reasons to tell her daughter to reject her mate than she let on.
“Alpha King Maddox,” Geofrey says in my ear. “I’m surprised you would have time to call today with so much going on at the castle.”
It’s evident from his attitude that he’s not got my back. “Cut the bullshit, Geofrey,” I snarl at him. “I need to talk to Luna Elaine.”
“What makes you think she’s here?” he asks, but I can tell by his tone that he is mocking me.
“Don’t make me use my Alpha voice,” I tell him, which makes him chuckle under his breath.
“Fine, she is here, but I have no idea why you would need to speak to her, Sir. Haven’t you done enough to damage her today? You killed her daughter yourself, I’ve heard.”
“What I do to prisoners who have been sentenced to death is none of your affair, Alpha Geofrey. Now, put her on, or I will send my warriors to fetch her from you.”
“You would send warriors into a peaceful pack? That sounds like an act of war,” he snarls.
“And you refusing your Alpha King seems like an act of treason!” I wish I could reach through the phone and shake him.
The phone goes eerily quiet, so I wait, growing angrier and angrier with each passing moment.
Finally, I hear someone pick up the receiver, and then, in a breathy, feminine voice that reminds me too much of her daughter, Luna Elaine says, “So… you finally figured it out?”
And it’s all I can do to keep from slamming the phone down on my desk and shattering it.