42. Aiden
42
Aiden
“Found her while I was coming over here,” Constance explains. “She told me she was waiting for you.”
“Well, it was the only way to get you to not chase me down,” Delilah huffs.
“You were stalking around and following our king,” she drawls. “What else was I supposed to think?”
Holding up a hand to cease the very clearly brewing argument, I say, “Thank you for waiting, Delilah. I’m sorry that it took longer than I expected.”
“Daniel does that.” She shrugs. “He may not like you, but he’ll still try to win you over.”
My brows rise.
It wouldn’t be the first time a pack alpha has expressed their displeasure over an alpha king, but Daniel is the last person I would’ve expected that from. He bent over backward trying to accommodate us, so much so that it felt like he was trying to overdo it.
Perhaps that was more overcompensation than what I originally thought—trying to throw us off whatever scent he’s terrified of us finding out about.
“I see,” I mumble.
Does that mean that Daniel believed Raine’s story about the identity of her baby’s father? It could be argued that him forging that letter and giving it to me was a way to punish her in general, even if he thought she was being delusional.
But him acting like this and going out of his way to not only give me that letter, but welcome us into his pack so soon after selling Raine off, is making me think that he’s definitely trying to cover his tracks.
“What did he say?” Delilah’s eagerness is palpable. “Did he say anything about Raine?”
“Actually, she never came up.”
She deflates instantly. “Oh.”
Wincing slightly, I clarify, “I meant that we didn’t get to the subject yet. I’m planning on talking to him about it tomorrow.”
I don’t want her thinking that I’ve completely disregarded everything she’s said to me, even if some of it seems far-fetched and unbelievable. I want it to be the case that Raine simply left her pack and is now living among the humans, or joined another in order to have a better life for her baby than what could be provided here.
The chance that she was sold off to some pack in the South haunts me even if we haven’t proven it to be true yet. Delilah can say all she wants that it’s happened, but she could also be wrong.
I hope she’s wrong.
“But you’re going to ask him, right?” Her ears are eager.
“Yes. Of course. Either way, we’re going to track Raine down and figure out where she’s gone to.”
That seems to calm Delilah quite a bit. Her shoulders sag and slowly, she leans against a tree and sinks down to the ground. “Great.”
“Are you okay?” Camden asks.
“It’s just…” Delilah shakes her head, her long golden brown locks falling all around her face in messy waves. “Since we got back from the ball, it’s been a mess.”
I frown. “What happened?”
“Well, nothing at first. Raine’s never been treated well here. Her dad, uh…used to be our beta.”
“Used to be?” Constance says.
Delilah nods. “He defected years ago. Left Raine behind, and Daniel’s been treating her badly ever since. He’s always used her as an outlet for her dad. It’s been horrible.”
The words cause my stomach to sink.
When I met Raine, she’d been slow to trust, but I figured that had been the result of us not knowing each other. To hear that her pack alpha had been abusing her has me wanting to shift and run back to that damn mansion and tear him apart with my teeth.
Regardless if she lied to me about the baby, Raine’s still my mate. Protecting her is ingrained into my bones.
“After we found out she was pregnant,” Delilah goes on, “I talked her into telling you…I regret that now. But at the time, I felt like it was the right thing to do. I figured you’d come and take her. But you didn’t.”
Her eyes are hard when she focuses them on me.
She doesn’t need to lay the guilt on me—I already feel it tenfold. Dragging my feet in coming to see what was going on after the letters stopped is my biggest regret. There had been no excuse for me not to.
What if she’d been hurt badly? I would’ve never known because I’d simply figured she’d gotten busy, or whatever other excuse I’d made for myself because I’d been too afraid of my growing feelings for her and facing my elders.
My cowardice cost Raine so much in the end, and now my karma is a race against time to try to find her.
“Daniel caught her sneaking into town sending the test and the letter telling you she was pregnant with your kid. He threw her in the cellar. He’s got a jail down there. Next time you’re there, ask him to show you. You’ll see I’m not lying.”
I feel both Camden and Constance’s eyes on me.
“Where in the mansion?” I ask.
“His office. There’s a hidden door. Take it and you’ll end up in a room in the cellar right about where the trapdoor in the floor is. It’s not hidden once you’re in the room.”
“How do you know all of this?” Camden asks.
She glances over at him. “Who do you think broke her out? I was so happy when she got free. I thought for sure in two weeks, there would be an army on the doorstep of Andromeda coming to get the rest of her things and take them back to Pollis.”
She shakes her head.
I know exactly where this is going but I’m too frozen to stop her from speaking it out loud, telling both of my closest confidants my dark secret.
“But you never did. You never came and then she was dragged back here and sold off like a pig.” Her glare is filled with heat when she turns it on me. “Why couldn’t you believe her? You believed a pack alpha over your own fated mate .”
I did.
And a part of me still does.
I hate that I can’t shake it. That I can’t trust everything from Raine and Delilah like I should. My father raised me to be too paranoid—that fated mates were just fairytales told to children at bedtime.
I’d been a firsthand account that they aren’t, and yet still I can’t bring myself to admit that I was wrong. Not until I can see the proof with my own eyes.
I don’t deserve Raine, no matter what the outcome of all this is.
Constance sighs. “There’s no use passing the blame around when it’s already happened. For now, we need to get your pack alpha to tell us who he sold her to.”
“There should be records,” Delilah says, perking up. “He’s always been meticulous about that.”
Well, there’s a silver lining.
Glancing over at Constance, I say, “Look into that. Camden and I will keep him distracted tomorrow while you sneak around.”
She nods. “Will do.”
“And Delilah?” I turn to her. “I’m sorry.”
She’s quiet for a while, a slow frown tugging on her lips. “Don’t say that to me. Tell that to Raine when you rescue her.”