Page 13 of Knocked Up By My Fated Alpha
Exile from one’s pack was no longer the death sentence it had once been in the past. Rather, Marie would be shunned, homeless, and penniless, with all her valuables confiscated by the pack.
Marie raised her head, pale with fear at my words.
“Alpha, please—” she stuttered, but my guards were already picking her up, forcibly escorting her out of my study. It’d taken too long to catch Marie.
If the Elders had caught wind of this, they’d have more grounds to push me on, naming an official heir to deter power-grabbing plots like these.
But that wasn’t what bothered me.
My wolf stirred anxiously within me, unsated, ravenous, and more agitated than he had been in years. I was tormented by my fractured memories of her—the mystery woman from the elevator that night. Marie’s drug might have rendered me incapable of recalling her face, but everything else was excruciatingly engraved in my mind.
Her potent, intoxicating scent of jasmine and vanilla, lush, dark brown hair tangled in my sheets, breathy, desperate sighs in my ear, her nails raking down my neck and back, and the empty promises she whispered against my skin that still haunted my dreams. The inexplicable feeling of betrayal and loss I felt when I woke up to realize she was gone.
“Alpha?” Sinclair, my Beta, stood in front of me, his gaze slightly puzzled as though it wasn’t the first time he’d tried getting my attention. A blaze of annoyance surged through me. How could I have been so thoroughly distracted by thoughts of her that I hadn’t even noticed Sinclair entering my study?
“Report,” I growled, my voice tight with irritation.
Why couldn’tI get her out of my damn mind? If Sinclair noticed I was being odd, he didn’t mention it. Rather, he launched into his report, dropping a file and a sheath of papers onto my desk.
“These are the sentry reports for the past month that you requested. It seems the Sky Pack is still sniffing around our borders,” he paused. “We have begun tracking down Elias as per your request. Information on his whereabouts should be available soon, and this file contains the results of the audit.”
I frowned, my fingers rapping against the closed file. The recent development with the Sky Pack was concerning, considering our murky history, but it was Elias who held my attention. Something felt off. And it wasn’t just because I hadn’t approved of my nephew’s choice of mates or because Elias had insisted on having me excluded from his mating ceremony, only to postpone the entire thing indefinitely and fall off the grid.
Whatever it was, with my older sister Natasha gone, it was my duty to look out for him. I swallowed the pang of guilt I felt at the thought.
“And the woman…” I hesitated, but the words left me anyway. “Is there any update on her? I didn’t need to clarify what woman I was referring to before Sinclair shook his head, his expression contrite and apologetic.
“Nothing yet, Alpha.”
Weeks of searching had done nothing to unearth the identity of the woman from the elevator. None of the hotel surveillance had been recording, and my disjointed description of her hadn’t matched anyone the staff remembered.
It frustrated and infuriated me in equal measures. I’d sworn off relationships over a decade ago, and I’d stuck by it…until her. I didn’t understand my desperate need to find her or why my wolf was so aggravated by her disappearing act.
If I hadn’t already met my fated mate, I might have assumed—No. My fists clenched until my knuckles cracked, every muscle coiled tight as anger, disgust, and rage warred within me.
No.
I refused to think of Rielle’s treachery. Not today.
Sinclair’s phone buzzed, and seconds later, his voice cut through the haze of my thoughts.
“We’ve found Elias.”
My nephew was seated in the dimly lit VIP room of his newly acquired nightclub, making out with a topless stripper on his lap, the acrid stench of alcohol, vapes, and Goddess knew what, in the air. Sensing my approach, the stripper hurriedly climbed off him, bowing and baring her neck in submission.
“Alpha.”
I didn’t spare her a glance.
“Get out.”
Clutching her hands to her chest, the stripper scurried out of the room, and Elias levelled a glare at me, unashamedly adjusting his pants.
“You can’t just barge onto my property whenever you feel like it.”
With his dark hair, pale blue eyes, and high cheekbones, he lookedso much like Natasha by the day that it was almost painful to see. Especially now.
“Is this what you abandoned the company and our pack for weeks for?” I could barely rein in my disgust and anger at Elias’s actions. “Have you forgotten you have a mate?”
