Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Caden’s POV.

She is here.

I’m more surprised than anything. This is the first time since she arrived that she is out of her room and socializing.

It doesn’t look as if she wants to be here but at least she is present and talking to someone.

“You may bore a hole into the side of her head if you keep staring at her like that,” Raphael says beside me, drawing my attention away from Alessia eating her plate of spaghetti.

from “I wasn’t staring.” I deny the accusation and focus back on my plate.

“Sure you weren’t,” he ribs, a s h i t- as s-eating grin on his face.

I choose to simply ignore him. He gets his pleasure when he sees he’s riling me up. I wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction.

“What are you two talking about?” Alex asks as he settles into the other seat beside me with his newly filled plate in his hand. “What did I miss?”

Great, now I have the two of them to annoy me.

Just Caden staring at his pretty little mate, Raphael’s mind links to Alex and me, more than happy to fill Alex in on the topic of the conversation.

I hold my remark at his choice of words used to describe Alessia. Doing that would just make their day.

“Oh, realllly, “Alex drawls out like the a s s h o l e that he is as he looks over at where his mate and mine are chatting away. ‘Scarlett told me that she was going to try and befriend her. Seems she made it work,” he announces with a smile on his face.

I wasn’t surprised that he told Scarlett about the true identity of Alessia. Those two never kept anything from each other and I would never ask him to hide something away from his mate.

“Why would she want to do that?” I ask, genuinely curious and slightly thankful for the gesture. Why I was grateful to her for trying to get Alessia out of her shell is something I wasn’t willing to think about.

“She noticed Alessia wasn’t coming out of her room. Said it wasn’t healthy for someone to be closed in all day and declared to fix it,” he explains, turning his gaze away from the ladies and digging into his food.

Sounded like something Scarlett would do. Once that minx got something stuck in her head, she went for it without another thought. It was one of the reasons why Alex was so crazy about her. It is also a trait that I appreciate at the moment. Alessia needs someone like her.

I decide to share an ounce of the problems weighing on me.

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Chapter 9

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‘Do either of know of an Alpha that has a daughter or immediate relative that went missing? I mind link to Alex and Raphael.

If Alessia has a wolf of that size then she is definitely related to an Alpha but I haven’t heard of any Alpha with a missing family member. I was short of ideas and didn’t know what other explanation to come up with. Sure, Alessia and I were going to straighten things out later but in the meantime, my mind couldn’t help but cat away at my inside.

‘No, I haven’t heard of anything of that sort, Alex answer.

‘Same here. It’s Raphael this time. “Why do you ask? Did something happen at a pack in the region?”

I try not to let their answers dampen my mood. I was going to get the real answers later tonight anyways. I just have to pace myself.

‘No reason. I know they wouldn’t believe my vague reply but I wasn’t ready to share anything with them when I didn’t have all the facts yet. When I figure out what the hell was happening, then I’ll relay it to them but for now, it was better they were kept in the dark.

After dinner, I make my way up to my office to wait out the hours left for me to go to Alessia’s room.

Besides not wanting to come off as an impatient brute, I also didn’t want to risk the chance of someone.

seeing me entering her room. Our already sketchy excuse wouldn’t be able to get us out of that situation.

So I wait at my desk, doing mini-tasks to help keep me preoccupied.

Once the clock’s hand hits eleven, I’m off my desk and heading for Alessia’s room.

I scout out the premises before placing two swift knocks on her door. I half expected her to be fast asleep but as soon as I place the second knock, the door flies open to show a fully awake Alessia.

She wearing a thin black tank top that hangs a little off at the shoulders and black shorts, another borrowed set of clothes from Scarlett.

It occurred to me that I should have already bought her some new clothes of her own. Most of her clothes. were ruined when those rogues searched through her things. I put the thought at the back of my mind for future purposes.

“Are you planning on having our talk in the hallway?” I ask, seeing as she still hasn’t opened her door for me to walk in.

“Sorry,” she whispers, realizing her mistake. Her cheeks tint a lovely pink color and she moves away from the doorway, holding the door open for me to walk in.

I quickly move in, not wanting someone to catch me doing that. Once in, I walk over to the open and stand in front of it, gazing out at the dark sky brightened by a single moon.

window

At the sound of footsteps, I turn around to find Alessia sitting at the edge of her bed.

In that moment, I contemplate the wiseness in picking her room as our place of meeting. It wasn’t safe to

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Chapter 9

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be in closed quarters with her. Not after what happened in the woods. Not after realizing that my body couldn’t be trusted around Alessia.

“Why did you want to talk to me?” Alessia questions.

Thankful for the distraction. I lean on the window edge and cross my arms over my chest. “Who are you?” This was the second time I was asking her that question and this time, I prayed that she didn’t tell me another lie.

She sighs, twirling her fingers in her lap- something she does a lot. After a few beats, she looks at me and holds my gaze. I’m the daughter of an Alpha.”