The Alpha’s Cursed Queen (Eternal Oath Saga #1)

Chapter 18

Darian

“I wanted to think that there was somebody out there who could love me.”

“If you loved me, if you cared for me, you would’ve stopped that mockery, but you didn’t.”

The sky is gray, reflecting my dismal mood. As I stroll through the park, Alice’s words and her tears haunt me. I believed that if I could get a reaction out of her, if I could get her mask to break in front of me, I would feel better. I would work with that and convince her to forgive me. But her words stripped me raw.

Did I make a mistake back then? Should I have sent her away immediately when I found out the truth? Would that have saved the two of us from endless amounts of heartbreak?

It doesn’t matter how much I think about it. Torturing myself won’t change anything.

It’s been a few days since the collaboration dinner. Katherine has been noticeably cool to me during our interactions, but I can’t find it in myself to care. My thoughts are too consumed with Alice. I had been angry when I forced her to attend the dinner, but when I saw her in the hall, looking so beautiful, my wolf whimpered in loneliness. Not having Alice in my life has been the hardest thing ever. But now, she’s so close, and not being able to see her or talk to her is killing me.

When she yelled at me that night, I realized I did not care whether she had been with another man and whether she had given her heart to him. I had looked into the matter of her deceased husband, and the discrepancies were obvious. If anybody with half a brain had done their research, her story would’ve fallen apart. I had already begun to suspect that Paul had been made up or perhaps a husband in name only. Or maybe she had slept with him once and conceived her daughter. But never had I imagined that she had taken a number of lovers.

I can’t say it doesn’t bother me. That it was so easy for her to move on from me feels horrible. I was the first man she was with, and then I pushed her into the arms of so many others.

The sound of children playing is fuzzy background noise to me as I sit on a bench in the park. I needed to get some fresh air or I would have gone insane in that hotel room, thinking of the pain in Alice’s eyes. The collaboration with Pinnacle Group is very important for my corporation, but I have not been able to focus on it. The whole reason I chose to make a personal appearance here in Phoenix was to build a relationship with Katherine and her company because their products have worldwide recognition. But business is the last thing on my mind right now.

The way she screamed at me, that broken edge to Alice’s voice—it all haunts me.

If I could just explain. If I could just tell her what happened. If she would just listen to me.

It wouldn’t change anything, the voice in my head whispers. My explanation will not erase the past, like she said. It won’t remove the scars from her soul.

If I had known what was going to happen in that ballroom, the vicious extent of it, I would have taken Alice away from there. But then, Willow’s nails dug into my arm. When I tried to move, she silently reminded me what was at stake. All I could do was watch while the woman I loved suffered.

I smell Jimmy before I see him. “I don’t need babysitting, Jimmy.”

My friend sits down next to me. “That’s not why I’m here. There’s something you need to know.”

He has a file in his hand, and he holds it out to me. Glancing at him, I open it, wondering what fresh hell is about to descend upon me now.

“What is this?”

“The white witches never stopped looking for Alice.” Jimmy’s voice is cautious. “You told me to investigate where the money was going. Well, a portion of it was going into this. I saw the steady payments, spanning seven years, and I got curious. This was the night she disappeared. They got as far as a shifter-run clinic in a small town on the border between California and Arizona. There were two healers there.”

I stare at him. “Healers? What—”

He holds up a hand. “It’s a little complicated. Hear me out. One of the healers remembers a girl being brought in during the wee hours of the morning. There were two people with her. One of them matches the description of Jason Marrock, and the other sounds like Mary, one of our healers in LA.”

“Alice’s friend,” I breathe. “I always suspected she knew what happened to Alice, but I didn’t want to grill her too much because I knew the witches would be watching my every move. I didn’t want to give them a reason to go after Mary.”

Jimmy nods. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. But that’s not all. The healer says they were closing up the clinic when Jason and Mary showed up with Alice. She claims she went home and the other healer stayed behind. She disappeared.”

“Who? Alice?”

“No.” My friend shakes his head. “The healer who looked after Alice. She was never heard from again. Now, on that same night, Lucius got a call.”

“Jimmy.” I look at him impatiently. “Where are you going with all this? You’re jumping from point to point.”

“Because it’s all connected!” Jimmy snaps. “I’ve been digging into this for three days! I remember that call, Darian, because I had been looking for you, and Lucius rushed past me to the king’s bedroom. That same night, the Black Arrows were dispatched.”

My brows knit together. The Black Arrows are a private squad that serves the royal family. Their loyalty lies with the king. One of the main things they do is get rid of evidence that links the royal family to anything unsavory. Only a handful of people are aware of their existence. Lucius would know of them, as does Jimmy because he is my right-hand man. But why were the Black Arrows dispatched that night? My father would have mentioned it to me—unless he didn’t want me to know.

“When I reached out to that healer, she claimed that all traces of her colleague had vanished. And somebody had cleaned the entire clinic spotless. When the local pack’s investigative force got there, they couldn’t even pick up a trace of a scent. Nobody does that good a job aside from the Black Arrows, Darian.” Jimmy is speaking fast, clearly excited as he leans forward.

I purse my lips. “You want me to believe that my father sent his most elite and secret squad to go clean some clinic because Alice was there? Why? Because he didn’t want anybody to catch her dark witch cooties?”

My friend scowls. “Maybe because he was trying to protect her.”

All I can do is scoff. “Protect her? My father didn’t want me to be with Alice in the first place!”

“He wasn’t exactly singing with joy when you married Willow, either, Darian,” Jimmy argues.

I shrug. “Fair, but—”

“He was pissed about what you did. He made no secret of that. And think about it. All the royal guards disappeared from the east wing at the same time? None of them had an explanation? They kept pointing fingers and making us run around in circles to figure out where the order came from to get them to abandon their positions. They could’ve told you the truth, but they didn’t. The only reason I can think of is that the order came from the king, and they were told not to let you know. Come on, Darian. It’s so obvious. The answer is about to body-slam you to the ground at this point. The king clearly had a hand in Alice’s disappearance.”

I close the file and consider Jimmy. “Fine. Let’s suppose for one minute that you’re right. Why? Why would he do that?”

Jimmy shrugs. “I haven’t figured that out yet. But get this. Jason Marrock returned to the palace the next day and had a private meeting with your father. And I heard that the king might have left the palace grounds the day Mary returned. Just something I heard from the guards at the time. I never paid much attention to it, but now I wonder.”

My head is beginning to spin. “You’re telling me there was a whole conspiracy going on right under my nose, and I had no clue?”

“You had a lot on your plate, Darian,” Jimmy replies, his voice serious. “And so did I. But if anyone knows the full truth, it has to be Lucius.”

“Yes, because Lucius is going to be so forthcoming with Father’s secrets,” I comment dryly. “He’ll take everything he knows to the grave.”

Jimmy shrugs. “Still worth a try.”

I lean back on the bench, pondering. “Maybe.”

“Anyway, back to what I was saying before.” Jimmy reaches out to grab the file from my lap. He opens it and points at something. “See this? Jacqueline Investigative Services. It’s one of the top private investigation companies in California. And get this: it’s human-owned.”

My eyes narrow. “Why are the white witches paying a human-run private investigation firm?”

“I don’t know, but they managed to get to the clinic where Alice was taken.”

“When was this?” I ask tightly.

“A year ago?” Jimmy doesn’t look certain. “The payments have been going on for seven years. The witches haven’t stopped looking for her. They clearly want something from her, Darian. And this company is looking at both the human world and the shifter world.”

A growl leaves my throat. “If they’ve told these humans about the existence of our kind, it’s a crime punishable by death. Contact the Dark Arrow squad and tell them to deal with the humans and find out how much they know. Gather all the proof you can find about the witches having shared information with the humans.”

“Already working on that.” Jimmy looks impatient. “There’s more. The investigator working on this case accessed Alice’s company website because of her name. This was ten months ago. They didn’t recognize her.”

I blink. “What?”

“They did not recognize her, Darian. I know her looks have changed, but not that much. They couldn’t recognize her features. One of the investigators came all the way to Phoenix to take a look at her, and he still did not recognize her. I know this because there’s a travel charge for Pheonix. He described Alice as a brunette in her late forties.”

“She doesn’t look like a brunette in her late forties in person or in her law firm photograph.” I would know. I’ve stared at her picture an unhealthy number of times by now.

“I took a look at it. She looks like the same, red-headed Alice to me,” is Jimmy’s response.

We stare at each other until I say, “I’m sure you have a point to get to.”

“It looks like magic.”

Jimmy’s blunt words stun me. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Just think about it, Darian. She hasn’t changed her name, yet nobody has been able to find her. Granted, you were looking among the shifters, and then you thought she had died. Try to consider this with an open mind. The witches cannot recognize her. They must have a picture; there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to identify her. The only thing that makes sense is that there is magic involved. Maybe it’s not that they can’t recognize her but that something is stopping them.”

“Her magic was sealed. And even if it wasn’t,” I say, furious now, “she didn’t even know she was a dark witch. She wouldn’t know the first thing about using magic—”

“A lot can change in seven years, Darian.”

I get to my feet, snarling. “No. If you’re here to convince me that Alice is using dark magic, you are way off, and that is not something I want to hear. Not from you.”

Jimmy tries to make his case. “What if she doesn’t know she’s using it?”

“Yes, that makes perfect sense,” I agree sarcastically. “Using magic is like wishing upon a star. It just happens with your thoughts.”

“Well, I’m out of ideas then!” Jimmy growls.

“If it is magic,” I say after a prolonged silence, carefully choosing my words, “who’s to say it’s not somebody else protecting her?”

“Like another witch?”

I meet my friend’s gaze. “Wouldn’t that be the more likely scenario? Even if Alice wanted to learn dark magic these past seven years, the seal on her would have prevented her from doing so. It only makes sense that there’s another witch trying to protect her.”

“A white witch protecting a dark witch?”

“I never said it was a white witch,” I say grimly. “It could be another shifter with a dark witch bloodline. For all we know, there may be plenty of them out there. Look, either way, it’s not Alice.”

Jimmy gets to his feet and starts pacing. “And if it is?” When he looks at me, his eyes are cautious. “If it is Alice, what will you do?”

I don’t even have to think about it. “I’ll protect her.”

“But she’s a dark witch,” my second-in-command protests.

“She’s my mate.” My voice is cold. “Whether or not I gave her my mating mark, she is still mine. She has never hurt anybody. Everybody else has hurt her. I’ll protect her, Jimmy. I won’t be making the same mistake again.”

My friend studies me. “What are you planning to do? With the white witches still in power and Willow as queen, you can’t really bring Alice back. And she would never agree to being a side piece. Even if she is your mate, she—”

“I would never insult her like that!” I snap at him. “No. Her rightful place has always been by my side, not in the shadows.”

When Jimmy falls silent, I look at the children playing near us, and for a moment, I can imagine my own child running among them, with Alice’s hair, her wistful smile, her pretty, blue eyes. My heart yearns for that child.

“I thought staying away from her was the right thing,” I begin in a low voice, “but I can’t do that. I’m going to divorce Willow.”

Jimmy hisses. “Are you sure? You know what will happen if you do.”

“The only reason I remained married to her all this time was because I wasn’t completely sure whether Alice was alive or not,” I say darkly. “The white witches are still hunting her, though. The agreement was that they would leave Alice alone if I chose Willow. So, there’s no point in staying married to her.”

“Yes,” Jimmy says, sounding tense. “But at least Alice is still alive. If you leave Willow and bring Alice home, the white witches are going to go after her.”

“There was another reason I came to Arizona, Jimmy. I’m looking for the archive keeper.”

Jimmy gives me a confused look. “Who?”

“The archive keeper for the royal family.” I glance at him. “Does it surprise you that the royal family has its own private archives? Only upon becoming king is the location of the archive room revealed to you. And nobody aside from the king even has knowledge of it. You’re the first non-royal individual to find out about it.”

“So, who is the archive keeper?”

“Nara,” I tell him. “She’s a witch.”

“A white witch?” Jimmy asks cautiously.

I shake my head. “One of the oldest surviving dark witches. My father told me about her. During the war between the white witches and the dark witches, she was rescued, an infant, and the queen at the time raised her.” When I see the shock in Jimmy’s eyes, I chuckle. “I had the same reaction. My father told me to go to the archive room and meet her, but I never did. I never cared enough, and I thought he was losing his mind. He always acted so paranoid after Willow entered the royal family, like he was sure she was listening in to everything he was saying.”

“Maybe he had a reason to believe that.”

It could be, I muse to myself. Or maybe his health issues had begun to affect his brain. I suppose we’ll never know. “I’m wondering if he told me that because he thought there was something about the white witches that I could use against them. Pinning them with financial fraud isn’t going to be enough. I need something stronger. They have become far too powerful. I cannot bring Alice back till I can destroy them.”

“You can’t destroy them!” Jimmy looks horrified. “They are the backbones of the healers.”

“That’s true,” I agree reluctantly. “But their numbers need to be thinned out. They are witches, not shifters. They have no business in our kingdom and in such positions of authority.”

My friend watches me in disbelief. “You’re certain that this archive keeper will have something you can use against the white witches?”

I raise a brow at him. “Have you forgotten that they removed certain books from the palace? They know the royal family has something on them. That is why they were so desperate to enter the royal palace to begin with. When my father was alive, the witches didn’t have such control. But the moment he passed and Willow became the queen, they started invading. The royal family has something on them, and I plan to find it. They made the mistake of going after the woman I love. They’re going to regret it.”

“What about Alice? You have to tell her the white witches are looking for her. What if she decides to leave? You may never see her again.”

This thought had occurred to me, but I’m still looking for a solution. I need Alice to trust me, but that’s not going to happen. She has closed her heart to me. I’m a reminder to her of every horrible thing that ever happened to her. She will never forgive me, and I know that.

Jimmy sits down beside me. “It’s not like you to give up.”

“I’m not giving up, but I don’t know how to look her in the eye, Jimmy.”

“You couldn’t have imagined what Willow and the white witches were planning to do to her. She needs to know that.”

“I tried to tell her, but she doesn’t want to listen to me. She needs to hate me.”

“Needs to?”

I’m silent at his question. Behind the tears and despair when she looked at me, there was something else, something that had been tormenting her.

She still loves me. That’s why she has to hate me. Because she will never forgive herself if she allows herself to love me.

If I were to say that to Jimmy, he wouldn’t believe me, but I saw that passion in her eyes, mixed with anger and hurt. Maybe it’s our fated bond.

I rejected her verbally, but I never tore out the bond. I couldn’t.

My wolf and I were in agreement about that. I could lose her, but I couldn’t lose the existence of our bond. It was all I had left of her.

I’m sure Willow suspected many times that my fated mate bond with Alice was still in place. But I never answered her questions. I barely tolerated the woman.

There’s a chance that the feelings Alice has for me are simply because of the bond we share. But at this point, I’m willing to take what I can get.

“Mira! Mira, stop! You’re not supposed to have two ice creams. Your mother’s going to kill me! Get back here!”

The woman’s cries have me looking up. “I know that voice,” I murmur.

“It’s that healer. Alice’s friend,” Jimmy says quickly. “And that must be—”

A child is running toward me, her mouth stained, a mischievous grin on her face, and two ice cream cones in her hands. As she runs, she is also quickly devouring the cones.

She’s so focused on her task that she doesn’t see us, and when she does, it’s too late to stop. She comes tumbling into my lap, the two ice creams splattering against my dark coat.

I barely notice them.

When I saw her from a distance in front of her school, she seemed like an ordinary child. But now, when she looks at me, those green eyes blinking in surprise and a little bit of dismay, I realize that I was gravely wrong.

There’s nothing ordinary about this little girl. Nothing at all.

“There you are!” Mary reaches us. “You little troublemaker! I knew I shouldn’t have—”

Her voice dies, and when I look up at her, I can read the shock and fear in her eyes.

“Your Majesty,” she breathes, fear thick in her voice. “Mira, come here.”

But when the girl tries to move, I grip her arms lightly. “No, stay.” My eyes are on the healer. “She’s a shifter.”

Terror flashes in her eyes. “I… Mira…”

The little girl is beginning to sense that something is wrong, and she tries to pull away from me. Dazed, I hold her tighter and look down at her. “Do you know who I am?”

She shakes her head mutely, glancing nervously over her shoulder at Mary.

“How old are you?”

“S–Six.”

“Six,” I breathe in a hushed whisper, a strange emotion burning through me. “Seven years since we… She was pregnant. She was pregnant when they—”

Bile rises in my throat.

“She has your scent,” Jimmy says in a disbelieving tone. “Darian—”

“I know.”

“Mira…” The healer still seems to hold some hope that she can undo this revelation. But it’s too late.

“Mary!” Another voice calls out from the distance, and this time, Alice comes into my line of sight. She’s holding two cups of coffee in her hands. When she sees the situation unfolding in front of her, she goes white, and the coffee is tossed aside.

“Mira! Come here!” Her tone is sharp and authoritative. Alice starts running toward us, and I see the fear crossing her face.

The little girl pulls away from me and hurls herself into her mother’s arms. I don’t stop her, just staring at Alice.

There was no husband. There were no lovers.

This is my daughter, mine and Alice’s.

The weight of this realization is staggering.

Alice shoves our daughter behind her, glaring at me. “What’re you doing here? Are you stalking me?”

For a few seconds, I can’t speak. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of this. “Why didn’t you tell me she’s mine?” I finally ask.

I see her swallow, and the fire in her eyes is mesmerizing. “Because she’s not yours. She’s mine!”

She could have repeated the story about her one-night stand, but we both know she has no leg to stand on anymore. I’ve already caught Mira’s scent, and seeing her up close is different from looking at a photograph. She has my eyes, the shape of them. She also has my smile.

There’s no mistaking it. I’m her father.

“Does she know who I am?” My heart is clenching inside my chest as I try to come to terms with the existence of a daughter.

Alice’s lower lip trembles, and then she looks at Mary. “Take her. I don’t want her hearing this.”

“But Mama…” Mira protests, her eyes welling up.

I raise my chin toward Jimmy. “Watch over them. Not even a scratch.”

Alice doesn’t protest my sending Jimmy along with Mary and Mira. When it’s just the two of us left, the silence between us is like a deep chasm, one filled with secrets and lies. I’m so tired of it all.

“Were you ever going to tell me about my daughter?”

“No,” she replies quietly. The denial feels like a knife stabbing me in the heart.

“Why didn’t you reach out? Why didn’t you—?”

“If you had been in my position, would you have reached out?” She bares her teeth at me, her eyes flashing. “For all I knew, you would’ve taken my daughter and hurt her just to get back at m—”

“Alice!” I roar her name, horrified by her insinuation.

She flinches.

It’s a struggle to control my temper. “Let me clear up one misunderstanding right here and now. I would never harm a hair on that little girl’s head. And I would never harm you. You should’ve told me about her, Alice. You shouldn’t have gone through the pregnancy alone! Even if you didn’t want to see me, I would’ve given you money, sent you somebody to look after you. It didn’t have to be me!”

“I didn’t and still don’t trust you. After what happened, do you really think I would have picked up the phone and called you?”

Her hands are clenched into fists, and when I smell blood, I grab her wrists and force her palms open. She doesn’t retract her claws in time, and I find myself staring at them. “You’ve gained your shifter abilities?” I lift my gaze to search her eyes.

She gives me a defiant look. “An unfortunate side effect of the sealing spell.” She snatches her hands away, or at least tries to. I don’t let go.

“Our daughter deserves a father, Alice. You can’t keep her from me.”

She narrows her eyes. “Who is saying this? Her father or the king of the Wolf Kingdom?”

My jaw tightens. “When I stand in front of you, Alice, I’m not the king of the Wolf Kingdom. I’m your fated mate and the father of your child.”

I see the emotion build behind her eyes, and she looks away as if to hide it from me. “Mira is happy with her life. She doesn’t need you.”

“Doesn’t need me?” I laugh bitterly. “Every girl needs her father, Alice. She needs me to protect her from the world—”

Her head snaps back toward me, eyes flashing in anger. “I protect her. I’ve protected her for the past seven years!”

“And what about when the white witches come for you? Will you be able to protect her then?” Her face turns pale, and I continue. “Yes. They’ve been looking for you.”

She tries in vain to pull away from me. “Is that why you’re here? You’re trying to sell me to them again! You bast—”

“No!” I growl. I see the panic in her eyes, and my heart breaks, but my hands tighten around her wrists. “I just found out about it right now. They gave me their word that they would leave you alone if I married Willow. I’ve kept my side of the bargain for seven years, but they haven’t kept theirs!”

“What?” Alice suddenly isn’t fighting me now, frozen in place. “What did you just say?”

“I saw the mark on your ankle the night we were together. I recognized what it was, but it didn’t really register on me at the time. Then, I discussed it with Jimmy. I was trying to come up with a way we could hide it, Alice. I knew you weren’t a dark witch. And it wouldn’t have mattered to me if you were. Carrying the bloodline of a dark witch doesn’t mean anything to me, but Willow was outside my room. She heard everything.”

I can feel Alice shaking, but she doesn’t stop me this time. She’s listening, and that gives me a tiny bit of hope.

“She’d already told them by the time she confronted me. If I hadn’t married Willow, the white witches would have executed you, and it would not have been a painless death. I had heard about how the dark witches were executed. I wasn’t going to put you through that.”

Alice sinks her teeth into her lower lip, and when I see her hesitating, I continue, desperate to get my point across.

“I thought I was protecting you, Alice. What I didn’t know at the time was that Willow was making her own deal with the white witches behind my back. They were never supposed to come to the ballroom. The sealing spell was supposed to take place in a private setting, with healers present to keep you safe and to numb the pain. But Willow had staged everything, and by the time I found out, it was too late. You’ve held me responsible for what happened to you, and in a way, I am. But what was done to you was through Willow’s manipulations, and if I had stepped in, Alice, the coven would have taken you away and done God knows what to you. It would have been a fate worse than death.”