Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
“Ben, text Dad and tell him I’m not feeling well and that you needed to drive me home," I said quickly as I dragged Ben through the narrow parking lot on the side of the hotel where the exit door had spat us out. "Let’s head to the front entrance and see if we can spot the Alpha leaving."
"Magic, what…?"
"I want to follow him. I don’t think he really has some kind of Pack emergency to tend to, do you?" I hustled us into the parking garage where we quickly loaded into the Tesla.
I pulled out of the garage and drove us down the long entrance driveway, which was fortunately the only way in and out of the hotel.
"No, you’re right; he’s acting shady as shit," Ben agreed. "You think we can catch him doing something else fishy?"
"May as well try," I replied. "The more video evidence we have to hold over him, the better chance we have of convincing him to leave me the fuck alone."
"Genius."
Just then, we spotted the Alpha’s custom sky-blue Porsche Cayenne speeding down the drive.
I’d parked the Tesla near the front gate, nestled in the shadows next to several other unassuming cars, and we were able to creep forward and pull behind him with the sneaky silence of an electric vehicle as he exited the hotel property.
We kept a little distance as we tailed him onto I-20 and headed further north into Bossier City proper. Night had fallen long ago, so it was unlikely he would notice our car among all of the other headlights that dotted the highway.
We exited, ending up on the main city thoroughfare, which was lined with newer-looking strip malls, restaurants, and big box stores. We paused at a red light, three cars behind Alpha Monroe, then caught him taking a right turn into a gated neighborhood just off the main drag.
"Damn, I am a talented cameraman for having shot this little video from our creepy hiding spot on the floor," Ben commented, messing with his phone and apparently viewing what he’d filmed of Naomi Parker and the Alpha’s clandestine meeting.
I pulled the car through the open gate of the neighborhood. "So, was it what we thought it was?" I asked.
"Yeah, they definitely made out there for more than a few seconds, and he grabbed a big ole handful of her ass, too."
"Make sure that’s backed up to your cloud account. Just in case."
"Done. I put Monroe’s porn vid on there, too."
I slowed the car down, watching as the Alpha’s car turned left down a quiet street.
The neighborhood was nice but modest—small newer cookie-cutter homes lined the streets, with shrubs and skinny little trees planted along the yards at regular intervals.
They’d either bulldozed all of the native plants and trees to build this idyllic little neighborhood, or it’d been an open field to begin with.
The Alpha’s car turned and pulled into the driveway of the house that sat on the corner lot. I quickly parked the car along the cross street and turned off the lights.
"Quick," I said to Ben, smacking the phone out of his hand. "Let’s see if we can sneak up to where we can see that front porch from the neighbor’s yard."
"Okay, but I need this, obviously," Ben huffed, scooping his phone up off the car floor. "Since I am collecting blackmail material for you this evening."
We scurried across the yard of the adjacent house, hiding in the abundant shadows untouched by the dull streetlamps.
We hopped the high wooden fence that separated the two corner lot homes, sneaking along the fence line until we were up against the part of the fence that bordered the front yard at the side of the neighboring house.
Through the spaces between the fence slats we could see the front porch of the house where the Alpha had parked his car. He’d made it to the front door by the time we were in position, and he was currently standing there ringing the doorbell repeatedly, looking irritated.
Finally the front door opened, and a woman hurriedly stepped outside, shutting the door behind her with a firm click.
She was tall and slender with shiny straight black hair that fell to her mid-back.
She was wearing simple black leggings and a slouchy pink sweater, her bare feet just visible to us from our vantage point.
She had smooth, perfect skin and almond-shaped eyes.
It was hard to tell, but I guessed she was somewhere in her thirties.
She was also looking at the Alpha with what appeared to be a combination of both annoyance and fear.
"I don’t like to be kept waiting, Ashley," he said menacingly, arms crossed over his massive chest. He’d ditched his suit jacket and tie, but he still looked formidable in his dress shirt and suit pants.
"I know that, Alpha," Ashley replied, clutching the bottom of her sweater, eyes cast downward at the porch floor. "But it’s just really not a good time. She’s not doing well today."
"I don’t give a fuck," he spat. "You’ve put me off the last two times I’ve told you I needed to come over. We’re not just doing this on your schedule. I’m a busy man."
"I know, I know," she sighed, daring a glance up at his face. "And it’s not that I don’t want to see you. But I can’t always leave her unattended. Not if it’s a bad day."
"Am I not being generous enough with you, Ashley?" he asked. "This house, health insurance for the both of you, your allowance… I know there’s enough in there to hire help."
"She doesn’t do well with strangers, Alpha," she said. "You know that. It’s taken her this long not to overreact the times she sees you here."
"Sometimes I think you are just using her as an excuse to avoid me," he said in a low voice. "You aren’t still pining away for that neighbor of yours, are you? I told you I’d kill him if you let him touch you."
"Of course not," she gasped. "I still don’t know where you even got that idea. I can… I can only think of you. It’s just not always good timing when you want to come by, but I’m not avoiding you."
"Regardless," he said, relaxing his face and stepping closer to her. "You know I need to see you regularly. I can feel myself getting weaker when we wait too long."
"I… I know," she said again. "It does ease the pain a bit when you’re here."
"So what’s the hold up, then?" he said, reaching for her. "Let’s get inside—I can’t stay that long."
At first, she looked like she was going to flinch away from him, but once his hand landed on her shoulder, she relaxed into his touch. He pulled her in close to his body, running his nose up her neck and then inhaling deeply into her hair.
Ashley closed her eyes like she was frustrated, then she sighed and dropped her forehead to the Alpha’s shoulder while he sniffed her.
He released her after a few moments, then grabbed her hand while he opened the front door, dragging her through without further discussion.
Once the door slammed closed, Ben and I relaxed to the ground against the fence. I glanced at him, and he shook his head at me, eyes wide with shock. I clenched my fists, trying to rein in my mounting rage.
"That…," I started to say. I just could not fucking believe it. Not if that… exchange meant what my gut was telling me it did. "That Moons-damned fucking rat bastard."
Ben blew out a breath. "So, I get the sense we caught the Alpha cheating on his mate with not one but two other women tonight," he said. "But… that whole thing sounded eerily familiar, didn’t it?"
"Ben, I just can’t believe…." What were the fucking odds? "Do you think that woman is the Alpha’s fated mate? And instead of mating her, he’s just fucking stashed her away out here in the suburbs and comes over to screw her occasionally?"
"It could be, Magic," he said. "We may be jumping to conclusions since we’ve been so hung up on your current situation, but… I think you might be right."
"Ugh!" I spat. This was just the shittiest of shit icing on top of the shit cake that was my own mate bond situation. "No fucking wonder he’s been so adamant that Knox hang onto me in any which way he can. He’s got personal fucking experience sucking up power from his own fated mate."
"And the bad news is, I didn’t really get much of that on video," Ben said as he rolled the playback on his phone. "You can kind of see them talking in the part visible through the fence gaps, but we didn’t pick up any audio."
"Damn smartphone is no match for wolf hearing."
He stuffed his phone in the pocket of his slacks and stood, offering me a hand. "Let’s get the fuck out of here. It didn’t sound like he was in the mood for foreplay, so we need to get to the car before he comes back outside."
I nodded, grabbing his hand and pulling myself to standing. "I think we may just need to investigate this situation further at some point. The more ammo we have against the Alpha, the better."
We snuck back through the yard and over the fence, piling quickly into our car and hauling ass out of there.
A notification came through on the car’s control screen, which was currently linked to my phone.
Dark Prince: turning in for the night. hope the party was less torturous than you were expecting
Dark Prince: i have good news for you when i get back. ian thinks we’ll have to interact with the coven more tomorrow, so we won’t be getting on the road as early as we wanted
Dark Prince: goodnight wolf girl. love you
Good news? I didn’t want to get my hopes too high, but could they have found a spell that could tackle the bond?
"Ugh, he is such a nice boy," Ben lamented from the passenger seat, having seen the text come through. “He looks like the baddest of bad boy assholes, but is just the fucking sweetest, isn’t he?"
I sent Blake a quick heart emoji, making a mental note to send a proper goodnight text when I wasn’t driving.
"He is. It’s pretty fucking amazing having a guy who is so…
supportive and proud. Of me. Of us together.
" I glanced over at Ben, who was quiet and contemplative all of a sudden. "You’ll find that, too, Benji. You’re the sun—someone special is going to realize they can’t live without basking in your light. "
He reached over and squeezed my hand. "Love you, babe."
"Love you, Benji."
The following day passed by quietly. We’d updated Dad and Mom on the Alpha’s activities last night, and while neither of them were pleased we’d snuck off to follow him somewhere unknown, they didn’t disagree that having knowledge and at least some proof of his indiscretions was excellent insurance for the next time he decided to push me.
Blake wouldn’t arrive home from New Orleans until late, so we’d resolved that we’d have to wait until school tomorrow to see each other.
We’d texted a bit, and he seemed enthusiastic about what they’d found at the coven library.
Nothing was a sure thing, but once he and Ian got comfortable with a spell they thought might work, we’d decided we were going to go for it.
Worst case—I was still stuck with this rotten mate bond.
Best case—I was a free wolf and the Alpha had to give up his crusade to have Knox cage me forever.
As I lounged on my bed in the waning night hours after dinner, my girl Billie Eilish crooning in my earbuds, I took a moment to check in with my wolf.
We’d had little time to shift since the incident with Nikka, and I had a feeling that trotting around the backyard playing with Ben wasn’t going to cut it for her anymore now that she’d had a taste of a real wolf battle.
Maybe I could convince Ben to come let loose with me on Pack land now that we weren’t hiding anymore. Could I get Man Bun to let me spar with his wolf? Tempting.
I hummed a tiny bit of power and stroked my wolf, feeling her purr inside my chest. The bond was still there, clinging and on its last breaths, but still very much present.
I didn’t feel so drawn to Knox much anymore, but I still felt something off when he was in the room.
I could definitely still feel a faint pang of arousal when he was somewhere getting his rocks off, but it no longer made me feel like I was going to hurl.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt anything like jealousy when I’d seen him with other girls—only bone-deep hurt and physical repulsion—but I was extremely happy to have learned that neither me nor my wolf had any monumental feelings about catching Ice Man with his dick literally inside Madison.
I believed in Blake and his strength as mage and had hope that I could be free of this thing for good, but my wolf and I were settled in the notion that if we had to live our lives with this bond, maybe it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
It was the Alpha and his fixation on me that were worrisome. Now that I suspected he had his own personal experience with a fated mate, who he appeared to keep trapped in her own type of cage, I knew he’d probably go to great lengths to secure the same for his son.
It was time to get serious about removing him from the equation.