The Mad Alpha's Substitute Bride-Chapter 31: Alpha’s Secret Baby

(CORRINE)

I walk into the bathroom, and I see the large scar across my back. It has never healed.

Wounds received from the magical, mutated monsters roaming around the Veil can be life-threatening. They don’t heal like other injuries. I still don’t know how I lived through that night. Thanks to Freya’s bracelet, even though I was bleeding and badly injured, I managed to crawl through the Veil.

This scar is a reminder that I survived. Would I have struggled so much had I not known about the child in my womb? I don’t have the answer to that.

I step into the shower and wash off the grime of the day.

I hate leaving Finn by himself. Maya always comes over when I need her to, but I worry about whether I’m neglecting my son. He seems pretty well-adjusted. He’s a happy child, and he doesn’t mind me putting in extra hours. But I’m all he has, and I cannot shake off the guilt when I come home sometimes and he’s already in bed.

I do make sure that I always pick him up from school myself. And that we have breakfast and lunch together. It’s just the other stuff that I have to miss out on occasionally. When he was very young, I would take him with me on stakeouts, and he would sleep in the car, completely comfortable. But as he grew older and more curious, I didn’t want to expose him to the darker sides of the world.

Finally clean, I put on my pajamas and open my bedroom door. My son is there, pacing the hallway impatiently with a book in his hand.

"Why do you take so long, Mom?" he complains before grabbing my arm and pulling me into his room. My hair is still wet, but I let it be.

Sliding into his bed with him, I hold him in my arms. "Come on. Let’s read you that story."

He snuggles into me, resting his cheek on my chest, his arms encircling me, and I begin reading. I’m only one page in when I hear soft snoring coming from the child in my arms. He is conked out and completely wrapped around me.

Sighing, I kiss his forehead. "You sleep like your father, all arms and legs."

It’s easier to slip out of his grasp than Locke’s, though. Once I’m sure he’s not going to wake up, I head to my room. It’s ten o’clock; I still have an hour to write my report. I secure my gun in my desk drawer and make sure all the doors are locked. It doesn’t take me long to send the report to the client. Closing the laptop—one of many incredible human inventions—I decide to make myself a cup of hot chocolate.

When I came home two hours ago, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep without even changing my clothes or cleaning up the mess I had walked into. But that hour-long nap has me feeling more like myself, and while the hot chocolate is heating, I straighten up the living room.

After starting a fire in the fireplace, I settle down in the armchair, warm cup in hand, my legs tucked under me. Another rarity in the human world. They prefer their heaters to fires. Safety hazards, they claim.

They’re right. I would never let Finn sit near the fire like this at his age. But I love it. I don’t know why it comforts me. I stare at the flickering flames as they blend with each other, shades of blue, orange, and yellow. Maybe I’m still holding on to parts of my past.

I don’t want to sleep yet, my mind buzzing with the contents of the report I just sent. The client who hired me is madly in love with her husband and mate. But she has become suspicious of his relationship with her younger sister. Tonight, I removed the tracker from his car. He has been visiting the sister’s house multiple times a week. My client is going to be heartbroken.

According to her, her mate had been in love with her younger sister, but she rejected him. He then pursued my client, who fell in love with him. And now, her sister wants him because—

I don’t even know why she wants him. But I can understand how my client must feel.

I felt the same way, knowing my fated mate chose another over me, going so far as to order my death. The agony of learning how worthless I was in Locke’s eyes never really went away. I moved on, but the memory is painful. The torture that he ordered and his hatred for me still cut me deeply.

The bright side is that I’m no longer Princess Ravenna’s shadow. I am Corrine. I am a mother. I am a PI. I have friends. I don’t have to bow my head in front of anyone or lean on anybody for survival. I am enough.

My hot chocolate is going cold, and I’m about to sip it when I hear a knock at the door. Frowning, I look at the time before going to check the security camera. When I see the person standing there, I let out a sigh. Of course it would be him at this hour.

I open the door. "Your Majesty."

Erik Wild is not as tall as my mate. But he’s bigger than me, and he has an imposing presence that commands respect. He eyes the hot chocolate I’m holding. "I see you were expecting me."

Plucking the mug from my hand, he enters the house with the ease of a person who has been here several times before.

"That was mine," I mutter.

He takes a drink of the hot chocolate and looks displeased. "It’s cold."

"Let me make you a new one," I say reluctantly.

"Coffee, please." He follows me into the kitchen. "Where’s Finn?"

"Sleeping. Surely you didn’t expect him to be awake at this hour?"

"This hour?" He checks his watch and looks surprised. "I thought it was before nine. I guess I got caught up with work."

As I start the coffeemaker, I ask, "What brings you here?"

"There’s been another kidnapping." His voice is low, and a shiver runs down my spine. I was afraid of that.

Lately, there’s been a string of wolf shifters going missing. At first, it was assumed that they had simply taken off, but no one could come up with any explanation as to why they would have done so.

"This would be the fourth case since—"

"Since Harold," Erik finishes. "Yes."

"Who is it this time?"

"A couple of juveniles. They were on their way to meet some friends. Never showed up. This was three days ago. I just got the information this afternoon and ordered a search of the general area of the path they should have taken. We found their belongings. Phones and wallets."

"Teenagers," I murmur, feeling sick to my stomach. "And you’re sure they didn’t just run off on their own?"

Erik shakes his head. While I process this new information, he opens the fridge and peeks inside. "Finn told me you had lasagna yesterday."

"Stop talking to my son when I’m not around," I say irritably. "And focus on the topic at hand, please."

Erik takes out a hunk of cheddar cheese and bites into it. The man has the weirdest tastes. When he looks at me, however, his eyes are tense. "We wouldn’t even know about these kidnappings if it weren’t for Harold’s case. If word spreads, chaos will follow."

I silently agree.

A year ago, one of Erik’s advisors went missing. Nobody noticed his absence till a few days had passed. He was an important part of Erik’s internal circle, and his disappearance sparked a massive manhunt.

Unfortunately, not even Erik’s best trackers were able to locate him. It was almost as if Harold walked out of his house one evening to go get something to eat at a local diner and simply disappeared. He never reached the diner, according to the staff there. And since Harold was single, with no romantic partner, it took a while for anybody to figure out that he was missing.

I watch Erik munch on the cheese, my brain working in overdrive. I was the one who ultimately found Harold, and then, I stumbled upon the case of another missing shifter. And then another. All after Harold’s disappearance.

I cross my arms over my chest. "Surely, you didn’t come here to tell me about the missing teenagers."

Erik studies me intently. "I know you’ve been looking into the other cases, even though I told you not to."

I turn my gaze away guiltily.

He sighs. "I’m forming an investigative task force, Corrine. I want you to head it."

My head whips back to face him. "No. I have a child to think of, Erik. You can’t drag me into this. You know what happened to the two shifters you had looking into these matters, and they were from your own intelligence unit."

"You’re already looking into these matters," Erik points out. "And we don’t know that my men were killed because of their involvement with these cases. They were working on other investigations, too."

I shake my head. "I can’t risk it. Helping you unofficially is one thing. I don’t draw attention. But if you drag me into this in an official capacity... Finn has no one in this world but me, Erik."

"He has me." Erik arches his eyebrows. "If anything happens to you, he won’t be abandoned."

I stare at him. "So, you do think something’s going to happen to me if I investigate this matter?"

A flicker of a smile crosses his lips. "No, I don’t. But I do want you to lead the team. You’re the only wolf shifter who works as a private investigator. My intelligence team is gathering information, but they’re used to dealing with intra-kingdom relationship investigations. I can give you as many people as you need to do your ground work for you. You don’t have to be at the forefront of anything."

I shake my head. "I can’t. I can’t take the risk." His eyes tighten. "You owe me."

My blood turns cold. "Do you plan to use that every time you need something from me?"

He shrugs. "If I have to. This is serious, Corrine. I wouldn’t come to you if it weren’t."

I hesitate, knowing what I’m about to say next is definitely going to piss off the man looking at me so expectantly.

"Erik—Your Majesty—"

His brows knit together at my formal tone. "I don’t think I’m going to like where this is going."

"You’re not." I try to keep my voice firm. Erik has a wolf’s nose for weaknesses, and if I give him any leeway, he’s going to make sure he corners me until I give him what he wants. "I’ve paid my dues to wolf society, to the Human Wolf Kingdom. I have already made my feelings clear to you about being involved in your world. I don’t want to belong to this realm of shifters. I just want to live with my son in the human world, where I can protect him."

I press my lips together as Erik’s eyes narrow. When faced with the king, I feel slightly intimated. Eight years of clawing my way to where I am has been good for my confidence and self-esteem, but I can’t shake off who I was for so long.

"If you drag me into this, Sire, you’re dragging me back into a world where I can be hurt, where my son can be harmed. There are people who would do anything to get their hands on him and kill him simply because of the mixed blood running through his veins. I already have more visibility among my own kind than I would like. You can’t ask me to jeopardize Finn’s safety."

Erik studies me, his fingers drumming a beat on the table.

The stretch of silence that follows my words makes me tense.