Page 54 of Knocked Up By My Fated Alpha
I’d never realized how much I’d looked forward to talking to Raven and the small knowing smile that would play across her lips whenever our gazes met across a room. I even missed her unforgiving glare when I got on her nerves.
It certainly didn’t help that ever since she got mad at me, everything seemed to be going downhill around me. First was that localized earth tremor a couple of days back that had only affected my wing of the pack house and left my room a mess. I could have sworn at least half of my clothes and possessions had disappeared since that day.
“Is there an issue with the laundry?” I asked Margaret. “Mine hasn’t been brought in yet.”
She was one of the oldest maids in charge of housekeeping at the pack house. She delegated most of the other chores to younger maids but preferred to take on mine personally.
“It has, Alpha,” Margaret frowned in confusion, the wrinkles around her eyes crinkling. “I personally dropped it off myself.”
I let out a sigh of frustration.
“I can’t find my shirts and—”
My words hung in my throat as I watched Raven pass by, ignoring me but offering Margret a soft, friendly smile as she made her way to her new room that lay at the end of my room’s hallway.
“How is she?” I questioned Margaret once Raven’s door was shut behind her.
I was the one who’d pushed her away, but now, I was certain thedistance between us was going to be my undoing. I couldn’t stand not knowing what was going on with her, even though she didn’t want to have me close.
“Raven?” Margaret seemed unsure of how to answer my question. “She’s taking her meals and medication regularly at the general dining area, and she still refuses to let anyone into her rooms.”
Since she’d moved rooms, Raven took care of cleaning her room herself, refusing to let anyone through the doors, as though she suspected I would use the domestic staff to spy on her.
I’d intended to, but that was beside the point.
“You should apologize to her,” Margaret suggested helpfully. “Whatever it is you did, I know she’ll forgive you. Raven is very soft-hearted.”
But Margaret didn’t understand. I knew how warm and soft Raven could be, but when she’d been hurt? I’d never known anyone more stonehearted— perhaps save for myself. There wasn’t a chance in hell that Raven would forgive me so easily for how I’d treated her.
“I’ve been trying,” I said instead, and I meant every word. I’d tried to talk to Raven, to apologize, to explain, and every single time she shut me out cold.
I knew I could have forced her to hear me out, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not after the way I’d behaved. No explanation or apology could completely undo the effects of those hurtful words I’d said, and Raven was within her rights to refuse to listen to me.
I would wait until her anger passed. However long that took. It was the least I could do.
“There’s no proof?”I repeated flipping through the pages, as though that would change the content of Sinclair’s reports.
“None Alpha,” Sinclair bowed apologetically as though this was somehow his failing. “It would seem the Sky Pack truly isn’t to blame for the murders.”
I’d suspected as much. For all of Alpha Matt’s threats at the SilverstonePack, I knew he wouldn’t be behind such a premeditated, despicable act.
But deep down, I’d still hoped to find something, anything that would shed light on this situation, especially with the latest human disappearance. If the pattern stayed true, the body would be found any moment now, and the subsequent human declaration of war would follow.
We were out of time. Closing the report, I massaged my temple, suddenly feeling fatigued.
“I trust you are still monitoring Elias’s movement.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Sinclair nodded once at my query. “He is still communicating with the elders. Mostly Elder Malcolm’s faction.”
The same faction that hadn’t approved of my recent choices. I knew they were planning something, but without any damning proof, all I could do was wait.
“Keep watching them,” I instructed.
After Sinclair took his leave, I combed through the files of the five dead and the one missing human as I had done several times in the past, trying to find a pattern I couldn’t see. They didn’t have mutual friends or any peculiar ties to the werewolf community, nor did they share any overlapping occupational interests or hobbies.
One had been a doctor returning from a particularly long shift. Another homeless man, for whom there were scant two lines in his file. There was also a mechanic, a female traveler, and a true crime podcaster.
There were no traces of drugs in their systems, although an insignificant amount of trace metals had been found on the mangled bodies, which had been attributed to the murder site more than anything.
