Chapter 226

Aiden’s POV

I had to kiss her to make sure it truly wasn’t her. Which is exactly what I’m going to tell Carol once I find her. But the woman in the suite was not my mate. I had a sinking suspicion that she was actually the girl Candance was telling me about… Raelyn. But Candance had told me that she saw swirls of darkness surrounding her when she was a little girl; it’s hard to believe that the darkness would just disappear over time. Wouldn’t it just get bigger and more hectic?

I brushed the thought out of my mind and went straight to the King. The guards outside his door gave me a strange look, obviously not expecting the intrusion. One of them knocked on the door and waited for the King to bark for them to enter. He poked his head through the door and murmured something I didn’t hear.

A moment later, he slid his head out of the door and narrowed his eyes at me.

“You can enter,” he told me, his tone emotionless.

I nodded my thanks and stepped around them to enter the office. The door shut behind me and I was standing in the middle of the King’s office, feeling a little weird. His office was huge and had a nice view of the empire. The King sat at his desk, writing something in his notebook for a moment before he stopped and looked up at me.

“What can I do for you, Alpha?” He asked; he was all business, which wasn’t surprising.

“Carol isn’t Carol,” I blurted.

He raised his brows at me.

“Am I supposed to know what that means?”

“The Carol in the suite right now is not my mate. I think she might be Raelyn,” I told him. It felt weird saying that out loud and I felt even weirder with the look he was giving me after I had said that out loud.

“This had gone on long enough,” he said in a growly tone and he was a second away from standing but I stopped him with my words.

“My wolf doesn’t want to go anywhere near her,” I told him firmly. “He knows for certain that she’s not our mate. I’m not sure how it happened, but I think she was switched. If this Raelyn girl really does exist, she would be Carol’s twin, which means they would look alike. At least somewhat…”

His brows furrowed.

“There’s no concrete proof of this. Are you sure your wolf can’t sense the mate bond?” He asked. He knew the mate bond was no joke, which was what was making him question whether or not I was telling the truth.

“Yes,” I told him with certainty. “Her scent is off, Your Majesty. Everything about her is off now that I’m thinking about it. Her belly is flat, and she lost a ton of weight…”

“She has gone through of trauma, and—”

“Not enough to lose that much weight in such a short time while pregnant,” I said, interrupting him. “I can see her ribs. It’s like she hasn’t eaten. Not to mention she’s extremely pale; her skin looks as if it’s never seen the sun before. It’s like she’s lived her life in a dungeon, which I’m pretty sure she has.”

The King was silent.

“Wouldn’t there be some kind of dark aura around her?” He finally asked after a long pause.

I nodded.

“That’s what I was thinking too. Which is why we need to see Candance and figure out if it’s possible for that dark aura to disappear.”

He was quiet for another long while before he sighed and stood to his feet.

“Okay, let’s go,” he said as he walked around his desk. “Where is Carol… or Raelyn, now?”

“In the suite where I left her,” I answered.

He nodded.

“And the real Carol? You aren’t sure about?” He asked.

I shook my head.

“If she truly is missing, then no, I’ don’t know where she is.”

He nodded again.

We left his office; he said something to his guards, and they nodded in understanding before the King and I left the area. We walked across the manor until we reached the infirmary. Candance was making the beds and washing sheets when we entered the space, but she paused as soon as she saw us.

She bowed to the King; her pink hair falling over her face.

“Your Majesty,” she greeted as she lifted her head to gaze up at him. “What can I do for you? Are you ill?”

“Nothing like that,” he said, waving off her concern. “But we do have some questions.”

She frowned as she took him in and then her eyes drifted to me, and I could see a flash of something in her eyes.

“It’s Carol, isn’t it?” She asked. “Something happened?”

I nodded.

“I think Carol is missing,” I told her. “I think the woman we saw here earlier and the one I brought back to the suite was Raelyn.”

She gasped at my words and dropped the sheets in her hands.

“What?” She gasped. “How can you be so sure?”

I explained to her what I explained to the King, and she nodded along, hanging onto every word I spoke until I finished speaking. Then she let out a breath; her gaze shifting downward.

“I feel so stupid. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of that,” she murmured, shaking her head at herself.

“Think of what?” The King urged. “Is there something we need to know? Is it possible for the darkness to just disappear?”

She shook her head.

“Not fully; but she can disguise it,” Candance explained. “With a potion. It’ll take away the darkness swirling around her and the dark aura that consumes her. It’ll hide it from our viewing. But not for long. She’ll need to retake this potion to keep us the pursued.”

“How do you get your hands on a potion that powerful?” I asked, my brows furrowed. I already knew the answer, but I needed the King to understand it as well.

“It would take a very powerful witch,” she explained, confirming my thoughts. “Someone with ranking. I have one here for emergencies, but it wasn’t made by me, and I don’t think I could ever duplicate it, even if wanted to. I’m not sure where she would have gotten one if she’s been locked in the dungeon…”

“A dungeon that the Queen mainly dominated,” I said, glancing at the King’s pale expression.

“No…” he said softly; deep in thought. “Elizabeth wouldn’t have done this… she wouldn’t—”

His voice trailed off when he noticed the look I shared with Candance; we both already knew the truth and we knew what she was capable of. Now, it was time that the King knew as well. He shook his head and kept repeating the same things; that his wife and Luna Queen would never do such a thing, but the more he spoke those words, the less he believed them.

Candance went to her cabinet of potions.

“Mine is still here,” she confirmed. “Which means that whoever gave Raelyn the potion had another. Do you think any of the guards have connections like that? Because if my suspicions are correct, she wouldn’t have seen anyone else other than a guard.”

We were all silent for what felt like an eternity before the King slumped down in one of the seats.

“There are only limited supplies; even for high-ranking witches, it’s extremely difficult to find some of these ingredients to create an endless supply. The Queen knows I have this… if she’s behind this, she’s going to tell Raelyn to steal it so she can keep up the rouse a bit longer.”

“So, you think she will come here to get that potion?” I asked.

Candance sucked in her bottom lip and nodded.

“If she comes here and tries to lure me out of my infirmary, then we will know for certain that this is not Carol,” she confirmed.

I nodded and looked at the King.

“So, we just wait?”

He was quiet for a long while before he sighed, running his finger through his hair.

“Yes,” he answered. “We just wait.”

I went back to the King’s office with him while Candance remained in the infirmary. I spent the day helping him with some pack matters and trying to keep myself busy. A few hours later, Candance was standing at the entrance of the doorway; her face grim.

“She’s in the infirmary,” she said softly. She held up the vile potion. “And I took this before I left.”

I looked at the King who had paled; I knew he was hoping she wouldn’t have gone there, but now our suspicions were correct. Only the Queen was aware that the potion was in the infirmary, which meant she relayed the information to Raelyn. This also meant that Carol was somewhere else, and Raelyn had taken over in her place. This was the Queen’s doing; it had to be.

The king stood to his feet.

“Let’s go,” he ordered us.

We traveled back to the infirmary just in time to see Raelyn pulling open the door to the potion cabinet. We waited for a beat longer as her eyes found the spot the potion, she was looking for should have been.

“Looking for this?” Candance asked, holding up the vile of potion.

Her entire body froze, and she slowly turned to look at us; her eyes widening when she saw that Candance wasn’t alone.

“What the hell is going on?” The King asked, stepping forward.

Her face was flushed, and she knew she had been caught red-handed.

“I… I…” she stammered, trying to come up with the right words to explain her actions, but she came up empty and it was clear all over her face that she had nothing.

“Who are you?” The King demanded, his Alpha aura washing over us.

“I’m Carol…” she tried to say but I held up my hand.

“I know my mate; you are not my mate,” I said through my teeth. “Now tell me where she is.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and she bit her bottom lip. It was strange because she was supposed to be the priestess of darkness, but she looked terrified and sad. My furrowed at her expression.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I had been here the whole time. I didn’t do anything to her…”

“Do you remember me?” Candance asked stepping forward, her tone soft and filled with compassion. “Because I remember you, Raelyn. You don’t need to give into the darkness because it’s not consuming you. You aren’t dangerous… you were raised to be dangerous and to think you were a monster. But you aren’t. You have good inside of you… I can feel it and I need you to feel it too. I need you to help us because I think you are the only one who can.”