Page 14 of Alpha's Claim

As I made my way down the stairs I heard voices- my father, Preston, and a few of the higher ups were in the conference room talking in hushed, serious tones. They must have been talking about me, so I just walked in. The voices dropped off as people noticed me. It was definitely about me, I thought, or they wouldn’t be staring at me like this.

“Are we talking about me?” I asked. I wasn’t confrontational, I wanted them to talk about what had happened to me. I wanted to know who had done this.

“Cora, now really isn’t the time-” Preston started, but I held my hand up weakly to stop him from speaking.

“I could have been killed last night, Preston. I think I deserve to know everything that you all know.” I smiled slightly when my father nodded once in agreement.

“We know who has done this to you.” He was more serious than I had ever seen him- but then again his only child had been attacked in the middle of the night. The smile dropped from my face as the realization caught me.

“You know already?” I asked, and he nodded, steepling his fingers in front of him. My father wasn’t making eye contact with anyone in the room. Strangely he seemed briefly lost in thought, as if he was a million miles away from us. After a moment he took in a deep breath of air before he spoke again.

“We know already. It was a member of the Silverstreaks- a new pack around here. The Alpha.” That wasn’t possible, but I couldn’t explain why yet.

“What? Why would they attack me?” I asked, moving to take a seat and get off of my feet while we spoke.

“I invited their Alpha for lunch to bring him into the fold,” I’d known that already. Weston had told me. “I gave them the same options as I give all packs who live in this general area. They seem to have chosen fighting and acted to make the first move.” Surely Weston or Yari wouldn’t do this. He was my mate and she was his Beta. I had to be able to trust them. “We smelled them last night while we were looking for you. They didn’t stick around once we found you.” My father looked deadly serious. They’d been in the area? Weston would never take part in something like this. He just couldn’t! He was my mate. People so rarely caused pain to their mates.

But I didn’t know him yet.

And Yari- I was well aware that she was wary of me. I hadn’t gotten the vibe from her that she was violent, only sarcastic and worried about her friend. That I could completely understand. My father had given them a terrible first introduction to our pack. I could see why my father would suspect the Silverstreaks as well. From his perspective they would be the most likely suspects after all, being new and leaving the estate upset.

“You smelled them,” I repeated his statement, raising a hand to my neck where there was still a bite mark. “How do you know?”

“I met with their Alpha and I could smell him in the woods. The others weren’t scents I’ve come across before. But that Alpha was here and there were strangers in the woods. After I got you inside I heard the pack howl. They must have orchestrated this. You’re lucky to be alive.” My heart was pounding, exacerbating the headache even more. What if he was right? Weston could be a monster; I didn’t know.

“Oh my God,” I said softly, letting my hand drop to my side. “I can’t believe it.” I murmured under my breath. “I want to contact them. There might be some kind of mistake or misunderstanding.” Surely if Weston had been here and attacked me I would have smelled him. Then again, my memory of the previous night was fuzzy and kind of vague up until I was dressed and placed into bed.

“Why would I put you in touch with someone who tried to kill you?” My father asked, but he wasn’t angry. I had expected anger at my request, but he just seemed bewildered and curious. “Cora, the evidence is there.”

“Did you smell them at the scene of the attack?” I asked softly.

“I did. Once I went back out to find whoever did this to you I smelled that Alpha all over the area.” He responded. I just stood in stunned silence, begging my body not to collapse while my father scrutinized me closely with a worried expression on his face. “Is your memory in tact? Can you remember seeing your attacker?”

“I can’t- I can’t remember. I don’t think I got a good look at them. I barely smelled them. It was like I was attacked by a ghost,” I replied, pressing my hands to the shiny top of my father’s desk. I glanced around at the rest of the people in the room. Everyone had some kind of look of pity or worry on their faces. All of them but Preston, who stood rigid behind my father with his hands behind his back with an inscrutable look on his face. The lack of emotion kind of made me nervous. He hadn’t tried to interrupt us once since we’d been speaking, for which I was grateful.

I turned my attention back to my father again, trying to process what I was being told. “I’m feeling a little faint,” I said slowly, catching my father’s eye. “I think I need to lay down and eat something. Please assure me you’ll reach out peacefully to their pack before sending some brute squad after them. I want them to get a chance to explain. I want to know why this happened.” My father was silent for a moment, his eyes flicking over my injuries as he clasped his hands in front of them. He was thinking about it at least. I couldn’t protest further without the risk of exposing my relationship with Weston.

“I’ll make one attempt to contact them, and if they can’t give me a good explanation I’m going to send out my ‘brute squad’ as you put it.” That was enough for me. It would at least give me time to process all of this information and get in touch with Weston. I wanted the same thing my father did- a good reason for them to be here last night if they weren’t the ones who attacked me. “Go lay down, Cora. I’ll have someone bring food up to your rooms as soon as possible.” I simply nodded and stood, aided by one of the other women in the room. She helped me the entire way up the stairs and back to my rooms.

“You look so pale, my dear. Do you want me to sit with you for a while?” She asked, and I smiled but shook my head no.

“I think I need to just process all of this and focus on healing. I want to be alone if you don’t mind. I very much appreciate the offer, though.” I replied, and she nodded.

“I’ll make sure they rush up that food to you. Let me help get you propped up in bed so you can eat, okay? I’ll be out of your hair after that.” She said, escorting me into my private rooms. She made quick work of arranging my pillows so I could sit up and bringing me my lap tray so I could eat comfortably. The only thing I really needed was my phone on the table next to me. It was well within arm’s reach.

“Thank you so much, Anna.” I said, squeezing her hand in gratitude.

“Of course, Cora. You’re dear to all of us. It’s absolutely not an imposition to help you,” she said, smiling slightly and heading out of my room shortly after.

It was killing me not to call Weston. My whole body ached for him, I wanted to hear his voice and I wanted him to reassure me that he hadn’t been the one to put me in this bed. I simply sat back and grabbed it to have something to do with my hands. I needed to wait until the food got here to call Weston so nobody suspected yet that I was in contact with him. It didn’t take long for the food to get to me. I thanked the person who brought it to me and started in on it. I made it about halfway through the meal before I set it aside. I’d finish it later. I needed to speak to my mate.

I pulled my phone back up only to look down at it with trepidation. It was a little thing, but what if I found out my father was right? What if my mate turned out to be someone so evil that he could attack me? I was his mate too. I just didn’t think that I had enough information to make a judgment call about what had happened to me the previous night. As I stared at the blank screen in front of me I felt myself get angry.

What the hell happened to me? I couldn’t figure it out. There was so much evidence that my mate did this to me but I just couldn’t believe it. I didn’t feel like he would have done this to me. That was the problem, though, wasn’t it? I didn’tfeellike he would do this. Feelings were the only thing fighting against cold, hard facts. The thing about the situation is that my father was being so incredibly genuine in my eyes. He was hurt and angry and confused, just like me. He wouldn’t be making things up, not about this. Never about my pain. I hit the call icon and pulled my phone up to my ear. It took only one ring for him to pick up.

“Cora?” He asked, and I hummed a yes into the phone. “What’s going on? What happened last night?”

“My father says you attacked me.” I said softly, moving my free hand up to pinch the bridge of my nose to fight against the pain of the voice being so close to my ear. “He has a lot of evidence to prove it.”

---