Chapter 38

Luka

“Your things, ma’am.” The stone-faced attendant plunked the stack of clothing into my arms like it was a pile of garbage. “Since you were so concerned about them.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly, looking down at them. I didn’t care about them at all, but they were my last connection to Caleb, the only things to remember him by.

I couldn’t understand.

“And if the Alpha King has a need for me…?” I asked brightly.

The attendant scoffed with a grimace. “He won’t.”

“Let him know that…”

The door slammed before I could finish.

“...I miss him.”

Myrna had turned me away already, not once but three days in a row. “The Alpha King is not available.”

I looked for him everywhere, asked about him anywhere I went, both obliquely and directly. I approached Mia’s house, but the security was tighter than it was.

The one saving grace was that my new apartment was in the same building as Jordyn’s and Devin’s. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough grace to make up for my other new neighbor: Declan.

He was in the same complex, which I took to mean that this was a place for non-desirables who had fallen out of the pack’s favor. Whatever my new status was, it wasn’t good. It wasn’t even established enough for me to be worthy of knowing how lowly it now was, because I couldn’t get any answers.

I had no idea what was in store for my future, but if Jordyn and Devin were with me, I didn’t need much. They gave me a sense of belonging I hadn’t felt since the days when things with me and Caleb were still good.

It wasn’t being a mate, or even a child. It was friendship, real friendship, outside the bonds of family or mates or pack.

But the turn of events had me questioning everything.

I tried to establish a routine, but not knowing if anything would change from one day to the next, it was precarious. In the morning, I trained with the pack in the main facility. I looked each day for Caleb and Mia, but they had changed routines, I was sure, to exercise in the elite royal facilities, the ones I had been in before.

I took lunch with Jordyn and Devin, and in the afternoon I took walks around the grounds in solitude, practicing drawing. In the evenings, I would help prepare the meals with Jordyn and Devin, and at night I would go to sleep in my own apartment, dreaming of the day when I had more certain knowledge of my future.

I looked for Caleb everywhere, with the same doggedness that led me to try to avoid Declan. Leaving the house in the morning for the training fields, he cornered me. I tried to vary my times, but it was like he was clairvoyant.

The minute I got onto the path leading to the training grounds, I was pushed into a tree.

“I’m not done trying, Luka. You look stunning, you look good enough for an alpha,” he whispered in my ear.

“Stop! I want nothing to do with you. You know that.” I pushed him away from me, but it only egged him on more. In times like these, I missed Caleb profusely, longing for his protection and longing for his touch rather than the fingers of this monster.

“I don’t know that at all. Although I know the Alpha King wants nothing to do with you, and thinks we should be together, and you still can’t take a hint. Even a letter under your door leading you to me wasn’t enough…”

“Wait…” My head was spinning.

“Wait, what, Luka?”

I assumed the letter from Caleb was a test of some sort, but I always assumed he had written it. It had the royal seal, and it sounded like Caleb’s language, at least when Jordyn read it.

I thought it was a crazy coincidence, that something kept me from getting to Caleb, that

“How did you know it was under my door?”

Declan backed away, which normally would have been welcome, but I wanted to see the look in his eye.

“I…know what was under your door?” Declan raised his hands, looking side to side.

“The letter. From the Alpha King.”

“I…” Declan looked around once more and bolted. I chased after him as fast as I could, my strength suddenly surging, surprising me.

I was fast enough to catch him.

“What happened? Tell me now, or I swear you’ll pay.” I gripped his wrists with my hands, newly strong. He couldn’t break away.

“She told me…”

“Who’s ‘she?’”

He pursed his lips tight.

“Olivia?”

He didn’t speak, but I could tell in his eyes that I was right. “You and Olivia forged the letter and planned that. And let me guess. It was staged for the benefit of the Alpha King.”

Declan finally managed to break free from my grip, and he ran into his own apartment building, the door slamming behind him.

“Declan, I knew you were low…” I said to myself, tears of frustration creeping from my eyes. I banged on the door once, imagining I was banging on his skull, but I knew I was wasting my time.

I didn’t care about Declan, I never had. The mate bond with him was like a charged battery, an annoyance that I had to subdue, not an attraction I had to fend off.

I ran as fast as I could for the Alpha King’s house, my former home. I needed to get to the bottom of this. Every stage of my world here passed by, like it would fly away from me if I didn’t hang onto it as quickly as possible and get to the bottom of all of the confusion of the last several weeks.

I ran up to the front of the manor house, seeing the additional security in place, some of them familiar faces, some of them new.

“May I help you?” Myrna asked, as if I were a stranger.

“Yes, Myrna, please. It’s urgent. I need to speak with the al—”

“I told you already, Miss, that he is not available. If you try to meet with him again against his will, you will be punished. This is not a trivial matter.”

“But it’s not against his will, I know he’ll want to hear what I have to say!” I shouted.

I sat down on the front concourse, rooting my feet firmly on the ground, and clutching the railing with my hands. “I’m not leaving until I can speak with King Caleb. I was proclaimed his mate publicly, and this is not conduct worthy of a king to simply cut off contact without explanation.”

Arthur, the head of security, whispered something into an earpiece, and a number of vehicles started coming toward the home, along with individual guards. Two shifters, both towering more than seven feet high, approached with tasers in their hands, along with handcuffs.

Together they lifted me up from my seated position like I was a feather, and they opened the handcuffs.

“Enough.”

Instantly I recognized Caleb’s voice. I craned my head to see him, and the guard held my neck in place.

“Caleb?”

“Sir? What should we do with her?”

“Leave her to me. Unhand her.”

Was he here to save me?

“Oh, thank you, Caleb, I had to talk with you.” I started to run toward him, but he put his hand up to stop.

“I don’t know what you think this is, but you are not to treat me so casually. I am your King. You are an omega.”

The color drained from my face. I had still held out hope that things weren’t finished, but this eliminated it all.

“Leave us,” Caleb said to the group. “Stay near the perimeter.”

Caleb seated me in the front room, with Arthur standing guard.

“Caleb, I wanted to explain, Olivia and Declan, they tricked me. They gave me a letter, saying it was from you, that things were done with us, to stage me and Declan being together, that…”

“Things are done with us, Luka. To the extent they ever existed. You think I make decisions based on childish ruses?”

I looked down. “No, of course not, my Lord.”

“Your highness. You will address me as ‘your highness.’”

“Yes, your highness. But they tricked me…”

“Did they?” Caleb was speaking in riddles.

“Yes. They…”

“Because the mate bond is not a trick, Luka. It’s real, and I’ve seen it. You and the Long Lake Pack Alpha are fated mates. I’ve witnessed it. That cannot be fabricated, and as we’ve seen with you, when it’s real, it cannot be severed. I am sorry. But there are not enough tricks in the world to make this work.”

“But…”

“I took a chance on you, Luka. A chance is not a certainty, especially for something as unorthodox as an alpha and an omega. Especially an alpha king. It’s only because of my mercy that I’m not exiling you, or worse.”

“But you said…”

“You dare challenge me? I suggest you know your place. For now, you may stay in this pack. But if you’d rather be exiled or go rogue, that can be quickly arranged.”

I nodded, afraid to speak.

“Now, leave. And do not come back here.”