The Alpha Who Saved Me

Chapter 41

Declan

I had just laid my son in the small makeshift bed that I have in my office, so I could tackle a few of the more important things while he sleeps. I’m not even five minutes into my work when one of my warriors that is on border patrol mind links me.

“I think you had better come to the eastern border, Alpha. We just found another body.”

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I curse under my breath, “Do you recognize who it is and what pack they are from?” I ask as I pick Holden back up and head downstairs.

“Uh, that isn’t possible. Whoever did this did a *good job in hiding this she-wolf’s identity. She’s unrecognizable, Alpha.”

“*it! Okay, I will be there as soon as I can. I’ll send some more warriors out to you in the meantime. Do not touch anything while you wait.” I order my warrior.

“Copy that, Alpha.”

I close our mind link only to open another one to both Carter and Keenan. I inform them of what is going on and tell Keenan to send a group of warriors over to the location to begin their search for any kind of evidence. I’m assuming that whoever did this is long gone by now. Carter is to come and meet me out front before I leave myself. After leaving them their instructions, I’m once again searching for Lila.

‘Why is that woman always gone when I need her?’ I growl to myself, but then Duke answers.All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

“You don’t need her, Declan. There are plenty of others around to help out with our pup. Maybe it’s time you start taking note of her comings and goings. Eventually, she will *up, and maybe we can boot her *out.’

What Duke says makes sense, but I don’t know exactly how all of that works. Maybe it’s time that I visit the Elders and find out what it takes to be able to denounce a forced Luna, but in the meantime, I need to find someone to take my son.

I run into one of the omegas that likes to help my mother out in the kitchen and ask her if she’s seen the former Luna. I am told that she has gone to a neighboring pack to visit a friend of hers. So, I switch directions and head out to meet with Carter.

My Beta is already waiting for me when I come out the front door, “I need you to stay and hold down the fort for me. This is something that I need to take care of myself.”

“No problem, Declan,” he glances at the bundle in my arms, “Does that include Uncle duty as well?” There is a bit of nervousness to his voice, and I grin.

“Why yes, yes it does.” I carefully pass Holden over to him as to not wake the little tyke, “Lila has disappeared once again, and my mother is visiting a friend.”

“You do know that I know nothing about babies, right?” Carter’s face grows a little pale, “Can’t you just mind link his mother?”

I sigh, “I can but I really don’t like doing it, because once I open the link up she thinks she has free reign to talk my *ear off. Besides, don’t have time to wait for her. You are here now. Take him to his room and place him in his crib. He should be out for a while, just make sure to keep the baby monitor with you at all times.”

“Okay, that doesn’t sound so bad.” His big, bad Beta chuckles nervously.

I roll my eyes and grin at him. “I will link Lila and tell her to get her *home, but if she doesn’t let me close it right after, you will be on diaper duty for a week!”

“No!” Carter rushes out, “I mean, don’t worry about her, I can link her myself. You’ve got too much to do, scram!”

I smirk at my best friend, “Are you sure? I know you hate linking her just as much as I do.”

“Pfft, I will be fine,” He waves me away. “Go catch that killer, Alpha.”

I don’t waste any more time, as I turn and transform into my wolf. Stopping at the tree line to grab a pair of shorts in my teeth, I take off toward the eastern border. It doesn’t slip my mind that this specific border also borders Quinn’s pack, so it makes me wonder if the killer left the body on my property accidentally. If so, that would make it two bodies that they have left for the new Alpha. Why would they be targeting her, though?

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When I get to the area where the body was found, I see that we are only about three meters from Dark Moon’s border. I’m fairly sure that my assumption is correct, and this body was meant to be on Quinn’s property. As I get closer to the still form lying on the hard ground, I slow

my steps. For a brief moment my heart stops as it takes in the color of the dead she-wolf’s hair.

No, no, no, no, no it can’t be her! I move quickly until I’m kneeling beside the *form. All I can smell is death, the woman’s natural scent is long gone. My warrior was right, she is unrecognizable, with her face beaten to a *pulp and *all over her body. Quinn has no identifying marks on her, her skin is perfect, so I can’t go by that either.

Lifting one of the eyelids, I snatch my hand back really fast. Staring back at me is one blue eye; not quite the same color as Quinn’s, but that could be the rigor mortis setting in. For the first time ever, my stomach turns and wants to empty itself over a dead body. I don’t have my phone on me so I can’t call her yet, but I do send a few warriors over to Dark Moon’s pack house to see what they can find out.

Fifteen minutes later, I get a mind link from one of the warriors telling me that Alpha Quinn isn’t home and that they do not have her permission to tell us where she is at. What the *, Quinn? She knows there is a *on the loose and she takes off the way she does? There isn’t much that I can do about it until I have the body taken care of.

glance down at the she-wolf once more, before instructing my men to take her back to our pack and give her over to Milo, who we like to call the pack’s mortician. He’s the closest thing we’ve got to one, and he’s does good work in finding out cause of deaths. We burn our dead, sending their spirits back up to the Goddess Selene, so it’s not like he needs to do any embalming or preparations to the body. My main concern is finding out who this she-wolf is.

Once I get back home, I immediately text Quinn, but I get nothing back. I proceed to call her and get nothing but her voicemail. I’m on edge all night as I call and text her continuously. At some point, exhaustion takes over and I fall asleep sitting at my desk, with my phone in my hand. Waking up with a jerk, I look around my office and then stretch my sore back out. Taking care of the kink in my neck, I check the time on my phone and see that it’s only half past six in the morning. I also notice that my phone is about to die, so I stick it on the charger and leave to go check on my son.

Finding him in his crib, his monitor is gone, and I’m not sure who has it, but they are doing a terrible job at monitoring him because he’s fussing as he lays in his bed. I pick him up and notice right away that he’s soaked through both his diaper and his pajamas. I automatically feel responsible for the state that my son is in. If he’s soaked all the way through, then he’s probably hungry as well.

Giving Holden a quick bath, I put him in a new diaper and a dry onesie before going to the kitchen to make him a bottle. When I see that Lila hasn’t left any extra for me to feed him, I stomp to her room and without knocking, I throw the door open, causing it to crash against the wall. The she-wolf jerks to a sitting position, wiping the sleep from her eyes. When she finally focus’s in on me, she lays back down, covering herself back up.

“What do you want, Alpha? It’s too early…”

I notice the baby monitor beside her bed, and I growl, “Did you not check on our son once during the night?”

“I have the monitor…”

It’s then that the scent hits me, “Were you out drinking last night?”

“What’s it to you, if I was?” She mumbles.

I march over to the side of the bed, and throw her covers back, “Are you *serious right now? You’re asking me that? My son is my business and when he has to depend on you for his food, and you think it’s okay to drink and do Goddess knows what, then yeah, it is my business!” i grab her by the arm and pull her out of the bed, “I found Holden soaked through, and I now know that he is probably hungry as well. Since we can’t use his mother’s milk to feed him, you will get your *to the store and buy him some formula!”

I’m seething right now, and if I didn’t have my son in my arms, I probably would have strangled his mother. The gall of her to go out and get drunk when she knows that she is nursing our son!

“Where were you all night, Alpha? Don’t be putting all the blame on me when you’re the one who usually takes care of him during the night.” The she-*spats.

Laying my son down on her bed carefully, I turn and grab her by the neck. Duke comes forward at this point, and I take a backseat, “You dare try and cast blame on your Alpha when he is the only one that takes care of the pup, while you run around doing Goddess knows what?! Your Alpha has a lot going on, but he still takes care of his pup. Had you not been so drunk and brought him the monitor, our pup would have been taken care of!” Duke’s fangs are out and are dripping with saliva.

Careful, Duke, we can’t kill her over this.’I warn him.

*As much as I would love to, I know it’s not a big enough offense to off her just yet.’ My wolf responds before turning his attention back to the pack’s supposed Luna.

“You wanted to be Luna, but you don’t know how to even act like one! You’re a pathetic she-wolf who wants to play Luna but doesn’t want the responsibilities! You may be considered Strom River’s Luna, but I will never call you by that title again. Until you can prove yourself to us that you can be a good Luna and a good mother, you will be treated as a regular she-wolf.” Duke spits out, and I completely agree with him.

I come forward once more, “Now, like I said, you will get your *to the store right now and get my son some formula. When you get back,

you can return to your room on the second floor.”

“What about Holden? You would make him stay with the unmated males too?” She asks shocked.

I laugh in her face, “My son is the heir to this pack, and he will stay where he belongs. As for you, you’re nothing to this pack; you have a . title, that’s it. You don’t belong in the Luna wing. As I’ve said before, you belong sleeping with the unmated males, right where you’re used to being.”

“You can’t do this, Alpha! I will go to the Elders!” She threatens.

I laugh, “Go right ahead and see where that gets you. Now get your *moving, my son is *hungry!” I roar at her, and she hustles. I watch as she throws on a pair of yoga pants and throws her hair up into a bun before hurrying out the door.

I go over and pick my fussing son back up, “Shh, it’s okay, Daddy is going to get you fed real soon.” I coo as I bounce him in my arms.

Making my way back to my office, I look at the time and see that it’s almost seven. My phone has a little bit more charge to it, so I dial Quinn once more. My heart *as I realize that my call was ignored. That’s a good sign, isn’t it? I redial and wait.

“What in Goddess’s name can be so important this early in the morning?” Her beautiful growl reaches my ear and I release a huge sigh of relief.

“Quinn! Thank *! I’ve been going out of my mind worrying about you!”

“Why, what’s going on?” She asks alarmed.

“Another body was found. It was unrecognizable but she had the same hair color as you. Had you not answered in the next fifteen minutes, 1 was coming to your territory.”

“Wait a minute, another body was found? Where?” Comes her response.

“Right between your border and mine.” I reply.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t answer your text last night. I was busy, but had I known, I would have texted you back right away.” I can hear the regret in her voice.

“Yeah, I didn’t think to say why I was trying to get a hold of you, sorry.” Holden starts to fuss again, so I start to bounce him once again as I soothe him.

“I better let you take care of the little guy. Let me know if you need my help with anything, and please, keep me in the loop as to who it is that was found.” She’s quick to want to get off the phone with me, and I try to stop her.

“Quinn, I don’t…” I’m cut off.

“I’m sorry, Declan, I’ve got to go. Have a good day.” And then she is gone.

I stare down at my phone, ‘What in the world just happened?’