Chapter 182

Xaden’s POV

How was it possible she was taken right from under our noses?” I asked through my teeth, my wolf surging forward, ready to rip apart the entire world to find our mate and our unborn pup. Maggi was crying as she sat on the couch, my father had questioned her numerous times, trying to figure out what had happened. According to Maggie, Maeve was in our bedroom sleeping, after the attack, or at least Maggie thought she was.

“And you don’t know who shouldn’t be wandering around here?” Arlan asked.

There was a silence in the room that fell upon everyone as we looked around. I had been at the royal palace for the last couple of days; I hadn’t been able to be here, but it was clear something had been going on while I was gone. Someone was there who shouldn’t have been, and my stomach turned at the thought of Maeve being in danger.

Charlotte and my mother were also seated in the parlor, listening to King Arlan question not only Maggie but also the other staff who worked in my mansion. Prime Beta Burke and a few others were searching the rooms, including my bedroom. I was pacing back and forth, trying to figure out who the fuck would want Maeve and what for?

The only ones who knew about her carrying an Enigma were in the family, and the ones who tried to kidnap her all those times before were in the dungeon.

The front door opened and soon Nicholas, with a couple of his warriors, were walking in. Nicholas, despite being the Commanding officer for the Gamma warriors, was also just named the new Alpha Minister of the Dawnguard pack.

“I just reviewed the camera footage, Nicholas announces as soon as he enters the mansion. He freezes for a minute, his eyes wandering behind me, and when I turned to see what caught his attention, I see Charlotte who immediately averted her gaze. My brows furrowed at the quick gesture before I turned back to Nicholas.

“And what did you see?” I asked impatiently.

Pulling his eyes away from Char, he looked back at me.

“The footage from upstairs has been wiped completely,” he said, shaking his head. “They deliberately didn’t want anyone to see the footage upstairs.”

“What about downstairs?” I pressed my tolerance for bullshit thinning by the second.

“Not much going on, but there were a few gammas I noticed patrolling the foyer that I didn’t actually recognize, and I make it a point to know all the faces of my gammas in the kingdom. I know there’s a lot of them, but these ones weren’t familiar to me.”

I frowned and stepped towards him as he held out his tablet that had the footage playing. I narrowed my eyes at the gammas who were patrolling the main foyer, almost like they were on the lookout for something specific. It was late at night, so there wasn’t a need for them right there at that time. Typically, I like when my patrol gammas keep patrol outside and have one Gamma inside in case of emergencies.

All my men knew this and that’s how it’s been for as long as I could remember unless otherwise stated.

I showed my father the same footage and his brows furrowed, shaking his head. He too had no idea who those gammas were.

“Okay, we need to question every gamma on duty last night,” I growled, my wolf close to the surface. “None of them are leaving this mansion until we have some answers.”

“I’ll start rounding them up,” Nicholas said as he was about to leave the room. Before he left, though, his eyes flickered back to Char for a beat too long before he disappeared out of the parlor.

Char’s face was red as she stared at the ground, my mother looked curiously between the two of them, a knowing look in her eyes. If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in finding my mate and unborn pup, I would have questioned her a bit more about her relationship with Nicholas. I wasn’t stupid; I knew something was going on there, but I couldn’t take the time to care about any of it right now. I just needed to find Maeve before I turned this entire Kingdom inside out.

…..

Maeve’s POV

The fire was warm as I watched it crackling in front of my eyes. There were a few others gathered at the fire, Mirage and Eric included, but the rest wandered off to give us privacy. I felt a strange sense of tranquility despite everything that was happening around me and to me. I was kidnapped and put on the Lost Island, yet I felt nothing but calm.

I knew it was because of that lavender tea I was given, but still, it was a surreal feeling. Eric hadn’t said anything for a long while, but he kept sparing glances at me, studying me like I was a complicated puzzle to figure out.

Mirage had a fire stick, and she was aimlessly poking at the fire, fascinated by the sparks she ignited that floated into the night’s sky.

“For as long as I could remember, I thought I was just an outcast,” Eric began to say, breaking through the silence that consumed us. “I thought that was the reason I didn’t fit into my family. Why my parents didn’t seem like my parents… why my siblings barely knew me.”

I looked across at him and saw that his eyes were fixed on the fire, the flames dancing in front of his face making his darker features glow. He was lost in thought; lost in his memory.

“It wasn’t until I found something that made me question everything,” Eric said softly, his voice trailing off.

“What did you find?” I asked him, trying to sound patient.

“A letter,” he answered. “From my birth mother.”

My heart felt heavy in my chest.

“What did the letter say?” I asked him.

His next words surprised me because they weren’t his own. He recited the letter word from word, as if he had read it so many times he was able to memorize it.

“Dear Arlan,

I know you never wanted to hear from me again. I promised you I would leave, and I did. I left my coven, my home, my family…all because of your orders. If I didn’t, I knew you would kill them… and me. You took my baby from me, and I’m not surprised or angry. I know you can give him a better life than I ever could. What kind of mother would I be if I didn’t give him a stable home? I am writing you this letter because I wanted to tell you that I don’t resent you. I don’t hate you. I cherish the time we spent together and the son we created. I know what we did was wrong; you are a married man after all… but I can’t bring myself to regret it. In my own messed up way, I did truly love you, Arlan. Even after you threatened me to leave, I still found myself loving you. I guess this letter is for closure. Please, take care of our son.

Love always,

Athena.”

My heart twisted in my chest as Eric recited the letter without having to look at the page. A part of me was compelled to reach out to him and provide him with some type of comfort. That must have been hard for him to read, but at the same time, how did he know it was even his mother? For all we know, it could be a completely different woman.

“That’s no proof of anything,” I told him bluntly. “You don’t know that’s your mother.”

“I confronted him that night with the letter,” Eric murmured, his eyes remained on the fire. “He didn’t deny it.”

I raised my brows.

That argument I heard… when Eric told him that he knows the truth. My chest tightened and I swallowed the lump in my throat. I sat back in my seat, not knowing what to say.

“I did some research and found out some stuff,” Eric continued. “I found out about the Red Oak tribe and that was where my mother came from. I found out she died a few years ago during an attack. I also found out about this island; there had been rumors about this witch tribe on the Lost Island for a long time, but it’s heavily protected. Only those who have the blood of the coven can see it.”

“What kind of research did you do? How did you discover all of this on your own?” I pressed; he was being vague, and it was bothering me.

His gaze darkened for a moment.

“I have reliable sources,” he admitted. “I can’t get into that part right now. But I found out a lot of information, including about you.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“About me?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Your real mother, she founded the coven. She was their leader,” he told me. I bit my lower lip, not confirming or denying this information, but I suppose now it was pointless keeping that hidden considering Mirage and the others here knew my mother. “And I also know that the baby you are carrying is an Enigma.”