Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>???
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If Charlotte had been able to betray others in the past, what was to say she wasn’t doing it again, right “Are you working for the Council still, Charlotte?” I demanded. “So help me, by the Moon, if you are-”
She held up both her hands in a placating gesture and waited for me to calm down. Not that I could, really. But I took in a few deep breaths and sipped some more water.
“Hey,” she said kindly. “I get it. If I were you, I wouldn’t trust me, either. All this cloak and dagger b ulls hit? You have to understand, it’s all been for my protection. You can’t talk about the things I was discussing without someone, somewhere wanting to come after you for it.””
“The Council, maybe? The same Council you just admitted to me that you were working with? Why shouldn’t I assume you still are?”
“I’m not. That was long ago, and I’ve regretted my involvement ever since. Even back then, I knew they weren’t going to use any of the information I gave them for good, but honestly, I was ashamed of being a hybrid. Of being different. I had no answers. All I knew was that I was not like anyone else….I was lost. I had nobody to help me. And, until you, Lanie, I had nobody I really needed to help.”
“I can’t really be the first one since the Great Wars to need you. I’m not that special.” I frowned.
“Oh, but you are. Don’t be falsely modest. You feel it. You know it.”
I thought of the Moon Goddess murmuring to me. Guiding me. I’d spent my entire life shield hybrid self as a result of a witch’s spell. I’d grown up never thinking I was anything other than nor “Like me, you’re strong. Like me, you can call upon powers that go beyond what regular Lunas access.”
I closed my eyes against a sting of tears. “But…why me?”
“Why? I have no idea, and I think it would be arrogant to try and figure it out. Only the Moon Goddess c say why she chooses who she chooses. Everything in your life that has led you to this point comes from her would never presume to guess her reasons, and I don’t think you should, either.”
I swiped at my eyes, dashing away the tears.
“Are you you saying the Moon Goddess made my Ancient vampire grandfather fall in love with my grandmother wolf shifter just so they could have my mother, who paid a witch to use a spell that would keep my vampire self hidden? Only to later need a different spell that made me forget who I was, forget my mates, flee to Stillwood, where I met my third mate?” I laughed harshly and shook my head. “That’s all very convoluted, isn’t it?”
Charlotte’s lips twitched. “But it’s how you ended up sitting here across the table from me. The person. who can answer your questions. But who knows? Maybe none of this is about you at all. Maybe it’s all about me and my journey. Did you ever think of that?”
I wasn’t sure what to say.
Her laughter caused a swirl of Lufia energy to whirl around us in wisps. It was the first obvious show of her Luna power since I’d arrived. She was no longer mated to an Alpha, though. How and why did she still have it?
“Everyone is the hero of their own story,” Charlotte told me matter-of-factly. “Why should yours be any more important than mine?”
“I guess that’s true,” I admitted begrudgingly. “But it doesn’t really explain to me why you’re helping me, then. If this is all about you.”
Her expression rippled with a flurry of emotions, one after the other. Grief. Fear. Shame.
“I started posting about my experiences on the dark web because I’d lived with my guilt for so long, I’d almost stopped believing I could ever atone for what I’d done. For a long time, I had convinced myself that what I’d endured from my Alpha was the price I had to pay”
“What happened to him?” I tried to be gentle in my tone, but there didn’t seem to be any good way to ask the question.
Charlotte’s expression darkened. “That’s a story for another time. What you need to know is that I’ve been waiting for you, Lanie, for a long time. And while I can’t be sure you’ve been sent to redeem me, I ama thousand percent convinced that the Moon Goddess sent you to me so I could help you.”
I sat up straight and boldly said, “So stop beating around the bush. Help me. Tell me what I need to know.”
Lanie–
“Nothing in life comes for free,” I said to Charlotte. “I know you’ll want something in exchange. Just tell me what it is. You already seem to have all the information I’ve got, plus more.”
“I don’t need information from you. I want revenge.”
I waited for her to explain, but that was all she said. watched Charlotte calmly lift her giant burger and help herself to a few more bites. She actually even rolled her eyes with how good it was. After a second, I picked up mine and did the same.
“You’re learning,” she said, sounding almost proud.
It took every bit of my willpower not to lunge across the table, slap the burger right out of her hand, and shake her until her teeth rattled. Then, I remembered the puzzles I’d solved to get to her. She liked to play games? I could play them, if I had to. So long as I got what I needed from her.
At last, she finished her food and sat back.
“I want revenge on the High Council, the Council, every last one of them. I want them to pay for the torture they put my family through. Not just mine, but all of them. I want them to suffer for the injustices they’ve caused. Taking babies…
She shuddered, her voice catching. Tears glistened in her eyes, and, like me, she dashed them away with an angry swipe. Her lip curled to reveal her teeth as her eyes flashed violet, although she did keep her face turned away from the room so only I could see the glow.
We sat in silence for a moment or so before she turned back to me.
“Your mate’s father. Orion, yes?”
“Yes.”
“He needs to pay”
I gave her a grim smile. “Well, he’s dead, if that makes you feel any better.”
Charlotte’s fingers curled into her palms, making her hands into fists. I could tell this was news to which seemed strange. She knew so much about everything else. Maybe the Council was spinning a stor hide the fact he’d died, although that didn’t make much sense “My grandfather killed him.”
“So the rumors are true. The Treaty has been broken?
“Yes. so you did hear about it?” I was curious about everything else she knew.
“I’ve grown accustomed to discounting rumors until have proof,” she said and added a humorless chuckle. “I suppose I’m a bit paranoid. All the intrigue.”
“It’s not a rumor. Malachi killed him. He’d taken the twins, and was attacking, and…” I spoke soberly, then. paused. “I don’t think my grandfather cared very much about breaking the Treaty.”
“I doubt it.”
“My mate, Xander… he didn’t know his father was not a good man.” I drew in a short, sharp breath. “He’d surrendered his Alpha status and passed it along to Xander, even before he really had to. He was proud of his son.”
one H
“He had two sons,” Charlotte reminded me. “And he was unconscionably cruel when it came to the other son…”
I nodded. There was no denying that. “When he died and passed the last of his Alpha powers to his other “All part of the Moon Goddess’s work. That’s what I believe. You and Mason were already mates, yes?”
I nodded.
“ALuna with an Alpha and a Beta as mates, then adding another…he had to become an Alpha, or I suspect he wouldn’t have survived. Loving you would have killed him.” Charlotte’s voice turned h o ar se.
1 recoiled in alarm at the thought.
“When I said there was nobody like you, Lanie, this is what I meant. A hybrid Luna. One mated to two Alphas, and also a Beta. I’m strong, but even I can’t compare to you.”
Instead of seeming envious, Charlotte had that proud tone to her voice again.
My head was starting to ache. It felt like the entire night had passed with all of this, but when I checked the clock on the wall, it had only been a little over two hours.
“Xander will be worrying about me. I can’t reach him through the mind link. That was on purpose?”
“Of course,”
I sighed and rubbed between my eyes, then pinched the ridge of my nose. “Not everyon bad, though. Right?”
cilis “Every single one of them will pay” Charlotte declared.
“Aldon helped me,” I told her. “There must be others who deserve some level of mercy?”
“No mercy. Aldon might have helped you, but let me assure you, it was for his own reasons. He’d t to turn on you, quicker than a snake can strike, if he thinks it will give him what he wants” Charlotte dra her beer and stifled a burp with the back of her hand. “No matter what good he did for you, he’s caused ha to countless others. He will come after your daughter, Lanie. The same way he came after mine.”
Lanie–
“My daughter was, of course, a hybrid, although I knew what I was before she was born. She seemed normal at birth.”
“Stella is not abnormal,” I cut in fiercely.
Charlotte smiled. “No. You’re right. Hazel was not abnormal, either. She was, in fact, extraordinary. As I suspect your Stella is.
Rare and extraordinary. But definitely not normal.”
“Fine,” I conceded.
“Let me describe her, and you tell me if I’m right,” Charlotte began. “Grew at an expected rate until close to her first doubling, when it became clear she outpaced her siblings by quite a bit.”
I nodded.
“You were lucky to have the comparison. I didn’t realize that Hazel was bigger than other pups at her stage of development. Oh, sure, I knew she was particularly bright and beautiful, but, after all…” Charlotte’s eyes shone as she ducked her head. “What mother doesn’t think her own child is the best, the brightest, the loveliest of them all?”
“We were all shocked when Stella started talking. All three of the pups had been babbling, but Isaac and Alaina were still only making those baby words when Stella was using full sentences.” A tickle caressed the back of my neck at the memory. “Was Hazel the same?”
“Again, I wasn’t fully aware that she was progressing so much faster than expected. I simply thought she was advanced for her age. But yes. She began speaking in full sentences. She could walk, talk, dress herself. She was able to use the toilet by herself within a few hours of me teaching her.” Charlotte’s gaze for a few seconds, and she fell silent.
Was. Were. She spoke of her daughter in the past tense, which sent a chill of worry twisting th Was she simply relating a story that had taken place in the past, or had something happened to Haz stant The thought of losing Stella had my heart seizing. I covered my sudden distress by taking a drink beer, but the sour flavor made me cough even harder. Charlotte turned her attention back to me and waite without speaking for me to clear my throat.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?