Chapter 138

Elroy POV

“I can stay and be helpful,” I heard Orlando say.

“I know, but there’s no need. Jordan and I can take it from here,” I heard Olivia reply.

I was still a half-mile from the inn, but my alpha ears could pick up their conversation easily. I didn’t want to alert Olivia with the mindlink. Besides, listening told me all I needed. I knew that little jackal had his eyes on my mate.

“You’re vulnerable here,” he said next.

“If you want to be of service to your Luna, then please return to the Palace and tell Alpha Claudia that I am all right.”

“But I want to be with you. I love—”

“If you have any respect for your Luna, you will not finish that sentence,” Olivia said firmly, and in surprise I slowed my trot down the path, my paws seeming to act on their own accord.

I listened to the silence for a moment, then Orlando said somewhat mulishly, “Yes, Luna.”

“You’re a loyal young man,” Olivia said. “You will make a fine mate just as you make a loyal member of Lunaris Pack.”

“I’m Moonshadow first,” he muttered.

“I’m going to do you the courtesy of pretending I didn’t hear that.”

“But—”

“Orlando, return to the Palace and tell my mother I am all right before she wakes up and wonders where I am. Go now.”

“Yes, Luna Olivia.”

Heard the rustle of a transformation and then the padding of paws. I didn’t want to deal with the impertinent pup right then, so I sat beside a bush of sweetshrub to cover my scent while he loped past me in his fur. I would see to his punishment later.

So, Orlando had helped Olivia escape in the middle of the night because he loved her. She had let him help because—

My thoughts broke off. Why had Olivia believed she needed to escape in the first place? She was free to come and go. Did she really think I would have tried to stop her?

A Luna who is rejected by her Alpha does not do well in life afterward.

I growled at the words in my own mind. I was tired of being reminded I had said something so vile. Tired and furious.

But Mother was right. I had no idea just what or whom I was furious at.

I covered the rest of the ground to the inn slowly now, struck by the new thought that Orlando was serving and protecting Olivia because he loved her, or at least was infatuated with her. I was supposed to love Olivia, so where was my service to her?

Instead of protecting her, I’d frightened her.

I switched back to my skin before I walked up to the door of the inn, saw the door was locked tight, and knocked. It was after hours, I supposed.

I saw a small panel in the door be pushed open and two eyes looked at me before widening. After a pause, the door opened.

“Alpha,” the hostess said as her light blue eyes looked at me uncertainly. She wore a robe over what I assumed was a nightgown, and her brown-gray hair was pulled into a braid the way many did before going to bed.

“Where is she, please?”

“I gave her our best room, of course. It’s up the stairs and first on the right.”

I nodded. “You may return to your bed, Hostess. We’re just going to talk.”

“I can bring you both some supper,” she said.

I was going to say not to bother, but then I realized I was starving. And Olivia was certainly the same.

“Thank you,” I said before turning to walk up the dark wooden stairs. They were solidly built and didn’t creak, but I assumed Olivia knew by now I had arrived.

Jordan opened the door to the room as I approached.

“Alpha,” she said quietly.

“I’m here to talk to my wife,” I said.

“Of course, Alpha.” She opened the door wider and stepped back.

“You may leave us,” I told her.

She nodded, but then she looked over to Olivia, who was standing by the lit fireplace. “Is that all right with you, Luna?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Jordan nodded again, though this time more firmly, and then shot me a veiled look before she left and closed the door behind her.

I stood there a moment looking at my mate. The firelight danced over her smooth skin and caught in the highlights of her hair. The folds of her white robe curved over her swollen stomach, and I felt my connection to our child inside her.

“Why did you leave?” I asked, which was ridiculous. We both knew why.

“Why did you follow?” she asked back, and it occurred to me that perhaps she didn’t know why.

“You’re my wife, my mate, my Luna, and the mother to my future child.”

She looked sad and turned to gaze into the fire.

“I love you,” I said.

“No, you don’t. You couldn’t say what you said to me if you loved me.” Her voice held not a trace of reprimand, but I felt shame flow through my body. “Besides, it’s clear you love her.”

“I have been faithful to you.”

She shrugged. “With your body, perhaps. But with your heart?” She looked at me, and it hurt something in my chest.

“You have given something to Emma that you never gave to me, and we all know it. Whether or not she’s right that you will take the child and banish me, you have left me. Now I have to make a life for myself and for my child that protects us from—”

“Wait,” I said, holding up my hands. “What did you say?”

“You heard me.”

“I have no intention of banishing you or interfering in your care for the child. If she said that to you, she had no right!”

“If she said it?” Olivia looked disgusted. “Is it not enough that I said she did?”

I wanted to say that of course it was enough, but what came out of my mouth instead was, “I see you had no trouble leaving the Palace with Orlando professing his love.”

She snorted, and it reminded me of my mother. “I refuse to pretend for one second you believe Orlando is important to either of us now.”

She turned away from the fire to face me fully. “You put Emma of Ravencrest before me, your wife and the Luna of your pack. You come here now and demand I explain myself?”

She sneered. “How’s this for an explanation, you emotionally cheating bastard. Fuck you. There. Now, I’ve explained myself.”

I felt my mouth fall open.

“You obviously came here expecting me to return to the Palace with you. I’ll never set foot in there again because I don’t feel safe there. I suggest you go back there and marry Emma. It’s what everyone expects.”

“Why do people keep saying that?” I thundered, my hands in fists again just to help me hold my place. “I have no intention of doing any such thing!”

“You accepted her immediately. You talk about her incessantly. You gaze at her with open adoration. Tell me you didn’t meet her in the garden in the moonlight. Tell me, Alpha Elroy, tell me while we’re both standing here that you’ve behaved as a wolf mated to me should.”

I was going to retort, say something about how she was crazy, but one word struck me like my mother’s hand had slapped my face only hours before.

Adoration.

I thought of the council meeting and all those adoring faces. Most of them didn’t even know the alpha. She had been away for years, and yet there was never a hint of suspicion about her. There was never a question about where she had been or what she had been doing.

“A question,” I said aloud.

Olivia frowned at me. “What?”

“Sam told me that Ines took her on as a leader in the White Paw Initiative without question,” I said. “No one has asked her a question about why she lived with humans or why she cares about them. She has not answered a single question of significance since she came back to Lunaris.”

Olivia raised her eyebrows. “Yes, all that is true, though I’m surprised you’ve noticed.”

I shook my head and looked down before squeezing my eyes shut. What was this fog in my brain?

“This isn’t right,” I told myself.

Silence answered me, and surprised she hadn’t taken the opportunity to agree with me, I looked up at Olivia, who looked puzzled.

“This isn’t right,” I told her. “Since when do I behave this way? Since when do I trust some alpha female I don’t know like this?”

“You tell me,” she said.

“Mother told me that I was mooning after her. I’m not even sure I like her. I certainly don’t trust her—and yes, I know I act like I do. When she’s around, I’m not, I don’t.” I shook my head and shrugged.

“This isn’t right.” I squared my shoulders. It was as though being away from Emma and out of the Palace was releasing me back to myself somehow.

“Olivia,” I said even as I was realizing my own words were true. “Something is very, very wrong here.”