Page 21 of The Wolf Prince's Mate

Finally deciding to play it safe, I intentionally knocked a little bit of caviar on my dress and excused myself to the bathroom. I turned on the tap, letting the cool of the water travel from my hands to the rest of my body. Victor was a great guy. Noah loved him, too. But he knew nothing about the person I was.

Except for Adrian, I have told no one the truth about my past. Even Adrian knew the story in bits, as I couldn’t risk divulging the supernatural world to him.

With Victor, I had to be honest. He was a werewolf like me, and if we were together, he’d eventually learn the truth. I just didn’t think I was ready to unpack all of that. Plus, I couldn’t bear for him to look at me differently. If my own mate didn’t believe me, what were the chances someone else would?

I heaved a sigh of relief and was suddenly attacked by the intoxicating scent of sandalwood and pine. My eyes snapped to the door to find Griffin leaning on the doorpost, his eyes alive with unyielding rage.

CHAPTER SIX

Griffin

“He left her everything?” I queried, staring at the file in front of me in utter disbelief.

“Not really. His nephew got a chateau in France, and his extended family got a ranch. But everything else went to her,” Micheal replied, flipping the pages until he got to the part where Adrian Diamond willed some of his landed properties to a few family members.

Not that it mattered, though. Those were as good as a free meal ticket coming from a man of his wealth and status. It was that the estates, the winery, the construction companies, the finance firms, and his ultra-modern house in New York, including every drop of money left in his account, went to Mira that bothered me.

He only knew her for about three years. They were married for two, and yet he gave her everything. She sure does have her way with wrapping men around her fingers.

Like she did with you, my wolf mocked, but I chose to ignore him and focus on the task at hand.

Mira has a game plan, of that much, I’m certain. No one amasses such a level of wealth without one. I just had to figure it out as soon as possible.

“So, she met a multi-billionaire who left her all of his money after knowing her for three years, and no one came after her?” The story wasn’t adding up to me.

“Adrian’s nephew, Tom, contested the will several times, but Adrian left a letter stamped with his private seal. In it, he spoke about how he met Mira at the darkest time in his life, and she brought life to him. He equally iterated that he was terminally ill and was given, at most, a year by his doctors and, while family members concerned themselves with how to share his wealth, Mira kept him alive longer than a year.”

Michael’s words silenced me for a moment. That did sound like Mira, at least the Mira I thought I knew. She was kind. She had something in her, and it gave life to all around her. But at the same time, the fact that she was always gaining from influential men didn’t sit right with me.

There was Karl, her Alpha’s son. There was me and now Adrian. Karl and I might’ve been strong enough to resist her, but Adrian was on his deathbed.

“She was able to turn the fate of the company around in two years with no help at all? There was no high-profile benefactor or investor?” I queried, unable to wrap my head around how one woman could turn the fate of an international, multi-million company around.

“I was able to pick the brains of one of her employees. She said Mira is the best boss she has ever worked with and that she has a way with people and an intuition that is almost always accurate. Some people even say she has the Midas touchand can transform anything givento her. Personally, I think her multiple charity balls and fundraising humanitarian projects helped win her the favor of the high society, hence, more investors.”

“Charity balls?”

“Yes,” Michael replied, showing me an invite to a past charity event that was held in London. “It’s an annual project she hosts to raise money for kids and old people with no one to care for them and some estranged animals.

A charity to help the helpless. That sounded like something she would do. But now that I’ve seen past her mask, her motives were questionable to me, and I didn’t trust that her intentions were entirely for the best.

I let out a long yawn. The stress from a day of chasing after Mira’s past and shadow was finally slowly catching up with me.

What had been a few minutes of interaction turned into hours and a long night of obsessing over her. She was all I could think of. Her heart-shaped face and blue-gray eyes consumed me whole. Her scent still lingered, haunting my senses, and sometimes, I could swear I felt her touch burning through me.

I should have left her alone last night. I had no business forcing a dance on her, but she waltzed into the ballroom in that long red dress that clung to her body like a glove, commanding the attention of almost every red-blooded male in the room, and I was overcome with the sudden urge to stake my claim.

Even then, I could have controlled myself to an extent. I was doing a good job holding my wolf in, but she just had to go ahead and call me Mr. Thorne in that monotonous voice of hers, like she was meeting me for the first time, and I snapped.

It was one thing for her to try to disappear after trying to ruin my life and go after my business from the shadows, but acting as though I was a stranger was something I was not going to stand for.

I was hell-bent on forcing the truth out of her. I wanted everyone in that room to know that I wasn’t “Mr. Thorne” as she called me. I wanted them to know that I was…..well, it didn’t matter what I was or what we were to each other. The only thing I seemed to have achieved that night was carrying bits and fragments of her with me and obsessing over every little detail of that night like a mad man.

My fingers curled into a fist, my claws digging into my palms as I gritted my teeth in anger. She seemed to always have a way of eluding me and beating me at every point, but I was done letting that happen.

“Keep digging,” I said, returning the file to Michael. “I want to know every detail about her: when she wakes up, when she goes to bed, what she eats, and how she eats it. Heck, I want to know the brand of cutleries and makeup she uses. Leave no stone unturned.”

“Yes, my prince.” He bowed, picked up the file, and closed the door behind him.

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