Chapter 98

Elroy POV

Her room was empty, but that didn’t alarm me at first. There were many places throughout the palace where she could be reading or napping or hosting a return visit from one of the pack leaders.

But even as I walked the halls, I knew she was doing none of these things. I could feel her missing presence like an ache of hunger.

After wandering about like a fool, I went to my mother’s rooms only to find she also wasn’t there. After that, I questioned Jordan, who claimed she had no idea where Olivia was (I believed her.) and said she would help me look. I found out she and Ines were working on the agenda for a WPI meeting and asked them both to stay on task.

I told myself I could find my wife and mother by myself, with Sam’s help, of course.

An hour later, I revised my opinion of our abilities. One of the main problems with being Alpha, especially an Alpha who wanted to bring his people peace, was that no one wanted to tell me the truth, particularly about daily matters and common gossip. I relied on Sam for that, but my beta knew nothing.

Think calmly, Alpha, I thought. My childhood had been filled with finding passageways and discreet doors throughout the palace, and it seemed unlikely, with orders I had given out, that Olivia and Mother walked out the front door.

So, who could have helped them walk out the back?

Two minutes later Sam and I had found Astor, who was looking over some financial reports in an antechamber to the library and looked up at our approach with such an innocent expression I knew I had found the right person.

I wanted to rip his head off, but I could tell he knew that already, so it seemed pointless.

“Where are they?”

Astor looked at me, then at Sam, then back at me.

“Alpha Claudia’s keep.”

That wasn’t what I expected to hear. “Olivia’s mother?”

Astor nodded. “She’s been keeping her health, relatively speaking, for years, but Apothecary Iris received word she’s suddenly gotten much worse. She needed Olivia to help her gain access.”

What kind of ruse is this? I wondered angrily. But no, that didn’t make any sense. Oliva and Iris would be at the Moonshadow keep openly, publically. They couldn’t be sneaking off to help Denis, or anyone else.

And since when do you suspect your own mother of plotting against you?

I shook my head. “Why didn’t they just tell me they needed to go?”

Astor snorted. “Everyone in the palace knows you’ve ordered your own wife to stay in the palace like a prisoner. Why would she think you would recognize the importance of taking care of her family?”

The words hit me like a blow, and I found myself almost collapsing into a nearby chair. Sam, Goddess bless him, took up a position at the door to ensure our privacy, and I took several deep breaths to work through the pain of the thought.

Olivia thought I would forbid her from seeing her mother? My mother thought I would forbid her from helping?

“You know, I never wanted to be Alpha.”

It took me a minute to realize what Astor had said. I looked up at him as he sat across the table from me.

“What?”

Astor shrugged. “I was never in line, of course, not seriously. Didn’t you notice I put up no argument when you challenged me for the position?”

I could tell him I thought he didn’t have the courage to fight me, but though that was true, it suddenly wasn’t anymore.

I had to fight to be Alpha not just against my own family but against many who thought that since I was not born from a Luna, I wasn’t suitable, wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t good enough. When we were children, Astor and I had been friends, but that was so long ago now.

I could see how easily I had pushed my half-brother from my side, from my life, and how I had marginalized him because he didn’t want to put on his wolf and fight to the death for power. I knew my reputation in the pack was for being ruthless, even unscrupulous.

“Why did you help them?” I asked, though the question I really wanted to ask was, How could you help them so easily?

“I had nothing else to offer. I agreed with what Olivia and Iris wanted to do, and I knew about the passage down to the back garden gate.”

“We found that together,” I said. “Sometimes it felt like this place had more secret passageways than regular halls.”

Astor snorted again, but it was a friendlier sound this time.

“You care for Olivia,” I said.

“Very much. If she were free, I would court her. But she’s not free, and for reasons I don’t really understand, she seems to be in love with you.”

I didn’t quite understand him at first, and then I realize he was ribbing me a bit. No one else in my life did that, not anymore. Mother loved me, but sometimes I worried she feared me. And Olivia—

Oh, Goddess. What did I do with Olivia, and how am I going to fix it?

“You didn’t ask me why I never wanted to be Alpha,” Astor said next.

“Why, then?”

“Because it seems to me the loneliest job on the planet. Do you really have anyone in your life you can trust? Sam over there is your faithful beta. I’m fairly certain he would die for you. But do you trust him completely?”

I looked over at Sam, who was giving every impression of not listening to the conversation.

“Of course I trust Sam,” I said, but the words rang hollow even to me.

“I’m not Denis, Elroy,” Astor said. “I don’t even understand what makes our half-brother tick. I pity him for what our father did, but I cannot condone his actions.”

“Our father was a jackal,” I said.

Astor nodded. “And a snake. I consider it a triumph in my life that I turned out nothing like him.”

“You certainly didn’t.” The exhaustion of the past few days washed over me, and it loosened my lips like a barrel of wine. “I worry sometimes about myself.”

Astor waved a hand. “You’re nothing like him either, except for your strength. Our father did things for no other reason than it suited him. He abducted your mother, an omega wolf of rare beauty and intelligence, from Moonshadow because it suited him. He fell in love with her because it suited him.

“He almost married her, I’ve been told, and I’m sure it was because it suited him. And then he treated her like nothing more than a pup-maker.”

“My mother killed him in single combat because it suited—no, that’s not right.” I had a sudden insight into my life. “She knew he would never stop fighting me after I took over. She hated him. I’m sure her wolf delighted in his death. But that’s not why she challenged him.”

Astor shook his head. “No, you’re right.” He tilted his head at Elroy. “Have you thought much about the prophesy?”

I looked at him in shock.