Chapter 22

22

CHARLOTTE

A s I make my way back to my living quarters, my wolf gets more and more frantic about being away from her mate and how we left things. She's worried about him whenever we're not together and thinks something terrible is going to happen the second we're apart.

Her attachment to him is growing, and getting a taste of him has only made her want him more.

When I march inside, Theo looks up at me from the large dining table in our communal living space. His laptop is open, and the surface is covered in both freshly printed pages and old books.

"Getting anywhere?" I need a distraction, and technically, I'm still on the clock.

Sinking into the chair beside Theo, I pull the nearest papers closer and baulk. Minutes from meetings held in the palace between King Morgan and the head alphas in the region, along with a delegate from the most powerful noble families. They all predate the king's disappearance.

"I've gone through them, back years, and apart from some petty disagreements about how much the richest families should contribute to the running of their packs, there's nothing that stands out."

"Or nothing they were stupid enough to air in a minuted meeting," I point out, because those are two very different situations.

Theo shrugs.

"It was worth a shot." He picks up the first council meeting notes from after the committee was formed. "These are painful to read. Lots of self-congratulation for stepping up when the king vanished. Very little actual mention of finding him, or even giving a shit that he'd been hurt or killed. And then it doesn't take them long to start carving up the decision-making powers amongst themselves."

It was a money grab. Even if those families were too cowardly to do it themselves, they were thrilled to pick apart the carcass of the royal family.

"Priscilla barely got a mention, even though she was murdered inside the palace. And because she hadn't produced any heirs, she was barely given any special treatment in death. Only a perfunctory royal burial to keep her family happy."

"The king never believed she knowingly was involved. Maybe she was tricked or accidentally gave away his location, but he never thought she turned on him."

Theo sighs and rubs his bloodshot eyes hard. "She seemed… innocent. From what I can tell, they only met once before their wedding day. It was an arranged union, even though palace staff seemed to think they were well-matched. Although, there were rumours before their engagement that her heart lay elsewhere."

And the story gets even sadder.

"Well, that's depressing."

But then, it's no different than what my mother is asking Elodie to do: ingratiate herself to the king, spend time with him, no doubt, with the end goal of making herself the obvious choice for a chosen pairing.

"Not everyone gets to find their fated mate. We should be so lucky, eh?" Theo crosses fingers on both hands and holds them up.

I chuckle, because the sight of the big, burly man praying to find true love is jarring.

"Maybe." I flick through the pages of minutes to avoid meeting his eye. "Even fated pairings don't work out for everyone. Ask Rex Jones."

Theo scoffs at my pessimism. "I let Rex in at the gate, and he and his mate were making out like teenagers while I checked out the car. He seems pretty happy with how things worked out in the end."

"Hmm." I don't particularly want to talk about deliriously happy mates. As I scan the pages in front of me, something scratches the inside of my brain. I spread out the front page of each document and tap the attendance list. "Have you gone through these?"

Theo nods, leaning forward to look at the print under my finger. "I have. It's always the usual suspects."

My eyes fly over the writing as a pattern emerges before them. "Ah yes, but what about who's missing?"

Theo frowns and examines each document again. "Damn. I never spotted that." Leaning back, he laces his fingers on top of his head and closes his eyes. "I'll let you break the news to Zane. It's better if it comes from you."

"Break what news to me?" Zane walks in, posture ramrod straight as he approaches the edge of the table, looking over the mess of documentation scattered in front of us.

"There's always two people missing at the same time. If one of them is absent, so is the other," I explain.

Zane's eyes flash in irritation as I delay getting to the point.

"My grandfather. And Priscilla."