Chapter 74

Catherine POV

I sent for my travel bag, instructing my maid to pack it for an extended trip.

I wasn’t sure how long this would take.

Watching my cousin Claire the night before as she tried to make contact with the Alpha of the Silverfang pack, something about the block she encountered tickled my brain.

It seemed to be something I’d heard about before.

And I was pretty sure it wasn’t a naturally-occurring event.

Something suspicious was going on.

The rest of that evening I’d spent deep in thought, trying to find the memory that wanted to surface. When I woke up in the morning with the issue still stuck in my head, I knew I needed to act.

I knew I needed to go to the Silverfang pack, and see what was going on.

As I dressed for the day I realized that underneath the suspicion there was also relief.

Here, at last, was something I could do.

For weeks now it had felt like the entire world was falling apart, while I watched helplessly.

I volunteered at the clinic, but with no medical training I wasn’t much actual help. It was the same here at the palace - I wasn’t a warrior, and couldn’t help my uncle any more than I could help Claire with her patients.

Feeling useless, I had nothing to do but sit and worry.

Until now.

Later that morning I quietly left the palace, driving myself to the small private Royal airfield. I had already arranged for a pilot, and for a car to be waiting when we landed.

My determination grew as the plane taxied and then took off.

Silverfang pack’s warriors had a reputation for being ferocious in battle, and their Alpha was a well respected man. Why wasn’t he responding to this crisis, especially since it directly impacted Claire?

I wasn’t a fool, after all. I knew there was something, some connection, between the two of them.

Even if Claire and I weren’t yet close enough for her to confide in me what that connection was, I felt certain Nathan normally would have responded immediately to anything that threatened Claire’s safety.

Once we landed in Silverfang territory, I told the driver to take me straight to the pack headquarters.

My goal was to find Nathan in his office, and as we pulled up in front of the tall imposing building, I thought about the best way to approach a conversation with a man I’d never met.

But as it turned out, I didn’t have to.

Nathan wasn’t there.

Instead, when an administrative assistant led me into the Alpha’s office, the man that rose from the desk and walked over to greet me introduced himself as Beta Evan.

“Beta, where is your Alpha? I need to speak with him immediately.”

“I apologize, he’s at home. He’s…a bit under the weather.”

I raised my eyebrow at that moment of hesitation, studying the man’s face. He seemed tired, stressed.

Judging by the amount of paperwork piled on the desk behind him, he had reason to be stressed.

“Has your Alpha been…under the weather…for a while?” I asked.

The man looked away, knowing I suspected something else was going on.

I realized this conversation could go in two directions. If I gave him too long to think about it, the Beta would clam up, protecting his Alpha and refusing to be honest with me.

But if I could find a way to encourage him to be open and honest, we might actually be able to get somewhere.

Going with my gut, I decided to trust him and reveal why I was here.

“Beta Evan, I’m here because I suspect all is not well with your Alpha. My cousin, Princess Claire, has attempted to contact him multiple times. And he hasn’t answered her.

“She hasn’t seen or heard from him in weeks.”

His gaze sharpened when I said Claire’s name, confirming my thoughts about a connection between my cousin and the Alpha.

After a moment, Evan spoke, making it clear my instinct to be honest with him was the right thing to do.

“Duchess Catherine, I believe you’re right. Something is going on with our Alpha. I just wish I knew what it was.

“I’ve sent him multiple reports about the news coming out of the Royal pack. He hasn’t responded to a single one.”

“And have you been dealing with the day-to-day operations of running the pack?”

He grimaced. “What I can. Princess Sabrina has been issuing many orders - orders she claims come from Nathan - and I’ve had no choice but to implement them.”

My eyes narrowed at the mention of my cousin.

If anyone was at the heart of what was going on here, it would be her.

“I think we should go check on your Alpha,” I said. “Immediately.”

Beta Evan agreed, and we left pack headquarters in his car within moments.

On the way to the Alpha’s house, I braced myself for an encounter with Cousin Sabrina. Whatever plans she had going on, she wasn’t going to like me interrupting them.

But at the front door the butler informed us that the Princess had left that morning, traveling back to the Royal pack.

Beta Evan and I exchanged glances as the butler led us into the living room.

We’d both clearly been expecting to have to talk our way into the house, or maybe even push our way in.

Being let in immediately was a surprise.

Maybe this wasn’t going to be so hard after all.

Then we walked into the living room and I saw the Alpha.

And I realized that while getting in to speak with him hadn’t been a problem, actually getting through to the man might be more challenging.

The last time I’d seen Nathan had been at the Royal country estate, when he and Claire shared their steamy dance. I’d teased Claire about it afterwards, but in truth I’d been able to understand her attraction.

Alpha Nathan was a tall, confident man with an air of power and control around him.

Or at least he had been.

The man I saw now, slouched in an arm chair and staring out the window, seemed smaller somehow. Like parts of him were missing.

Beta Evan seemed equally taken aback by his Alpha’s appearance. It was a weekday, and the man should have been in his office, dressed for work. Not lounging in his sweatpants with a mug of tea in his hands.

“Alpha…” he began, then seemed to struggle with what to say next.

I crossed the room, kneeling beside the chair. “Alpha Nathan, I am Duchess Catherine. I’ve come from the Royal pack to see you.”

He didn’t respond to me. I wasn’t even sure if he heard me.

So I tried again.

“Alpha Nathan, Claire sent me. She needs your help.”

I watched his face carefully, but there wasn’t even a flicker of recognition at the mention of Claire’s name.

Beta Evan walked over to join me, staring down at his Alpha.

“Something’s wrong,” he said. “Something is very wrong here.”

I couldn’t help but agree with him.

Just then I caught a smell I realized was familiar…

After a moment I discovered it was coming from the mug of tea in the Alpha’s hands.

Reaching over, I took the mug from his unresisting hands. I took a small sip -

And immediately spit it out.

“I know what this is,” I gasped. “It’s poison! And it’s illegal!”

Beta Evan took the mug from me, smelling its contents. “The tea is illegal? What’s in it?”

“A mixture of herbs - a very specific mixture that has been outlawed in the Royal territory for decades. It’s…well, basically it’s a form of mind control.”

“Mind control?? Are you serious?” he demanded. “How do you know?”

“There was a nanny at the palace when I was a child. She was also an herbalist. She’d take us on foraging walks, show us how to make medicines and tonics.”

And this was what had been tickling at my brain ever since Claire encountered a mindlink block between her and the Alpha.

These herbs were known to cause just such an interference in the minds of the people who drank them.

“When Uncle found out she was showing us things like this, he blew up. She nearly lost her job as…”

As nanny to the Royal princess.

She was Sabrina’s nanny, and taught her everything Sabrina wanted to know.

I looked up at the Beta in alarm.

Sabrina had always been greedy, and not above cheating to get her way.

And now I wondered:

If she’d been poisoning the Silverfang Alpha, it was for a reason.

What was she up to??

“I have to go back to the palace!” I cried.

And I rushed out the door, hoping there might yet be time to stop whatever Sabrina had planned.