The Mad Alpha's Substitute Bride-Chapter 33: Lurking Danger

(CORRINE)

Maya Sorin is a researcher at heart.

The Human Kingdom strives to keep its presence secret from humans, but now and then, a human comes along who discovers the existence of the beasts residing among them. Their first reaction is generally to panic and freak out. But that wasn’t Maya’s.

I never intended to tell her what I was. I thought it would be easy to keep my true identity as a wolf shifter secret from her. After all, it wasn’t like I was going to shift forms in front of her.

Throughout my pregnancy, I craved meat. Very rare meat. Maya was more than accommodating, grilling me rare steaks when I didn’t have the strength to. I would often see the curiosity in her eyes, but she never asked.

Erik had already told me to reach out to him when it was time for me to give birth. But the pregnancy was hard enough on me, and I didn’t really trust the king of the Human Wolf Kingdom all that much. A part of me was terrified that all his kindness up till then had simply been so that he could take my baby from me and give it to Locke. During the last few months of my pregnancy, my wolf became even more paranoid, desperate to protect our child.

When the time came, Maya was in the apartment with me. One thing about wolf shifters, a fact I never knew before, is that we cannot give birth in our human forms. When my body began to change, I panicked and tried to tell my roommate to leave.

She didn’t.

Not only did she stay, but she also helped me deliver Finn. My wolf had begun to trust her at that point, and when I woke up in my human form, there was my friend Maya, holding in her arms a dark, little wolf cub, swaddled in a blanket.

Her first question was not "What are you?" but "Are you alright?"

She looked after me without asking questions. Not until I fully recovered did the dam break. Finn shifted into his human form a week after he was born. Maya counted his ten fingers and ten toes and gave him a bottle of my breast milk, which I had already begun to pump. Then, she finally looked at me and asked, "So, what are you, a werewolf?"

Over seven years later, I still smile at the memory.

Later, I had to tell her very clearly not to run experiments on Finn. It’s not that I don’t trust Maya. It’s just that I know she’s very analytical, and sometimes she doesn’t understand where the line is.

She wasn’t doing anything dangerous to my child, simply measuring how quickly he could shift, how fast he could run, and how strong his bite was. None of her data-gathering was harmful to him, or even invasive, but it troubled me to see her studying my child like that. However, I know she loves Finn dearly.

Which is why I’m sitting in this café, discussing Erik’s proposal with her.

"I think it’s the practical decision to make," Maya says, her gray eyes glinting seriously behind her round, rimless glasses. "Besides, this is all you’ve ever worried about: Finn being safe. Your ex won’t be able to touch him, right?"

Her referring to Locke as my ex is such a human thing to do. It tells me that she doesn’t really understand the concept of fated mates. Neither does Erik, it seems. He doesn’t have a fated mate, which is why it was easy for him to make me the offer he did.

Whatever Locke did to me, whatever he put me through, it doesn’t change the fact that our souls are bound. His actions shattered my wolf’s pride and confidence. They shattered my confidence in myself. Even now, there are times when I can’t sleep at night, wondering why I wasn’t enough.

Logically, I understand the why of it. If I think about it practically, he had to do what he did. But all the justification in the world won’t do away with the pain that still claws at my throat, bringing me back to the same point over and over again, the one my wolf reiterates.

Why weren’t we enough?

"I would prefer to have my identity concealed," I tell Maya. "I don’t want to act as his mate. I don’t want to touch Erik physically. My wolf is a sentient being within me. Despite what we went through, the idea of touching another male is difficult for us."

"So, you’re going to be alone for the rest of your life?" Maya looks displeased by the idea. "If your ex is so comfortable being with another woman, why can’t you be with another man?"

"I don’t know. I can’t make decisions for my physical body when my wolf is in denial. And honestly, Maya, I have no desire to be with anybody." I sigh. "I have my son. I have everything I ever wanted."

"Are you still in love with him?" she asks slowly. Her question takes me aback. In love with Locke?

"It’s been eight years," I whisper, my eyes drifting to the top of the wooden table. I fiddle with my coffee cup, the sounds of the café fading away. "I don’t think I love him. I don’t know what this feeling is. Can you love someone who betrays you? You would be foolish if you did, wouldn’t you?"

Maya takes a bite of her cake, appearing to be thinking over my words. "Maybe. If a man did that to me, I would spit on his grave and dance on it. But that’s just me. Look, whatever decision you make, just think it through first. It wouldn’t be the worst decision to pretend to be Erik’s mate. You’d finally be free from everything."

"But I won’t be able to do my job. I’ll have to leave my career behind.

I’ll have to fully step into wolf society, which I don’t want to do."

She taps her fork on the edge of my cup. "I get that. I wouldn’t be able to leave my job for anything. Just do what you think is best. You don’t have to overanalyze everything. Which reminds me, I have to get going."

She shoves the remaining cake in her mouth and gets up. "I’ll see you this weekend. We have a team-building exercise at the institute. Something about how going skiing with each other is going to help us work in the lab together better. I swear, these people are nuts. Just do your job, get the money, and move on. I’ve never understood this team-building nonsense. It’s a waste of time when I could be working."

My lips twitch as I watch my friend complain. I know she’s going to have the time of her life. She loves skiing. But she also loves her job.

I wait for Maya to leave before taking out the file that Erik sent to me. In it is everything about the two missing teenagers. Friends for years, nothing about them stands out. They’re absolutely ordinary.

I stare at the photograph in the manila folder. It’s a circle in red paint, inside of which the kids’ wallets and phones were neatly piled.

I slam the file closed. It’s just like with the other victims. Their belongings had also been left behind, on a small cross drawn in blood.

I frown, racking my brain.

Why leave those things in plain sight? Why not hide the evidence of the kidnapping? Unless they’re being arrogant. They want us to know.

Opening the folder again, I move the picture aside and focus my attention on the faces of the two victims. They can’t be older than fifteen. Young and confident, they walked through the woods to reach the other side, where the business district in their area is located. Young shifters like this would have shifted into their wolf forms rather than walked. If they were captured and rendered unconscious, they would have shifted back. The wolves here wear the special clothing that disappears when they shift. That is how their belongings must have been taken from them.

I can understand why Erik came to me with this case. So far, his intelligence unit has been investigating from a shifter’s point of view. I studied under humans. I know that motivations can differ. If we are dealing with humans here, I may be able to help. But there is no way humans would have been able to overpower Harold. And two young juveniles? Impossible.

Tranquilizers don’t work on us. Even our own kind hasn’t been able to create something that can knock us out, so how could humans?

At least, that’s the general consensus.

Wolf shifters don’t believe in the concept of autopsies. They find the whole ordeal disrespectful, which is why none was conducted for Harold. But a preliminary exam report showed clear signs of torture when he was found.

And then there was the clear look of madness in his eyes. He had been rabid in his last moments, and his attacks had been on his own body. As if he had been trying to get rid of something.

That was a year ago.

I know this is personal for Erik, but I also know that he is concerned about these recent kidnappings. There had been no reported abductions of this nature before Harold’s.

Erik tasked two members of his intelligence unit to investigate the matter of Harold’s kidnapping after Harold was found. Both investigators were found dead in their homes, their hearts torn out and placed in their hands.

I’ve been following this investigation off the record, making sure to remain discreet. I do not want to get involved officially. Even now, I don’t think it’s a good idea. But the manipulative bastard is dangling the carrot that is my son’s guaranteed safety in front of me. I know he knows I’ll bite.

There’s nothing in this world more important to me than Finn. No matter where I go or how much time passes, I would be a fool to think that my son will ever truly be safe. It is only a matter of time before somebody or other sees him and recognizes him. As Finn grows up, he resembles Locke more and more. There is nothing I can do about it.

Yet, Locke never even had the chance to touch me on a full moon night. Even if somebody has suspicions, they would have no reason to believe that Finn is his son. And if I go along with Erik’s plan, the chances of even that much will disappear.

I lean back in my chair, looking at the ceiling.

I already know what I will do. Erik is willing to keep Finn safe. After seeing that even children are at risk of being kidnapped now, how can I sit still when I have a child of my own?