Chapter 116

Chapter 116: The Alpha Tooth

Moana

That night, Edrick asked me to sleep with him. I didn’t know exactly what changed, and why he didn’tseem to want me to leave his side, but I chalked it up to the anxiety caused by the whole ordeal.Besides, I wasn’t complaining; I didn’t want to be alone, either.

Feeling his warm arms wrapped around me was a sorely needed comfort, and I found myself slippingoff into sleep within moments of laying down with him.

Edrick and I didn’t wake up again until the next morning. Somehow, we slept through the entire day andnight, and still felt tired in the morning.

We laid there for a while after waking up, not speaking as we both stared up at the ceiling. I had somany questions about what happened the day before, and how he found me… But it seemed that hehad questions of his own, too.

“Can I ask you something?” he said, turning to look at me.

I nodded as I tried to ignore the feeling of my face turning red under his gaze. I was so used to theAlpha billionaire’s stern eyes by now, but I wasn’t used to how soft and sincere they’d suddenlybecome since he found me in that alleyway.

Edrick seemed to be searching for the right words for a few moments before he finally spoke. “Do youknow anything about your lineage?” he asked. “I mean… Do you know who your parents were, oranything like that?”

I felt my heart start to race. Surely he had some idea that I was a werewolf if he truly followed my scentto replace me, like Mina said. But I wasn’t prepared to tell him right now. What if it turned out that my wolfnever wound up being able to emerge? I couldn’t tell him until I was certain. I had planned all along onwaiting until I shifted for the first time to tell him the truth, assuming that we would still be living togetherby then.

I suddenly sat up, shaking my head.

“I don’t know anything about my heritage,” I lied. “All I know is that I was left on Sophia’s doorstep.That’s it.” I threw the covers off then and swung my legs over the side of the bed. “Are you hungry? Ican make breakfast. I’ll bring it in here if you still feel sick.”

Edrick’s hand suddenly shot out and grabbed my arm — not hard, but firmly enough to show me thathe knew I was lying, and that he wanted me to stay and talk to him.

“Please, Moana,” he said quietly. “I’m the father of your baby. I think it’s only fair for you to be open withme.”

I paused, unsure of what to say. Edrick clearly had some inkling of my true heritage. I couldn’t exactlygo on like this forever, keeping the truth from him. Eventually, our baby would be born and it would befully werewolf, not human. There would be no hiding it then, and the longer it went on, the more Edrickmight start to resent me for not telling him the truth.

Finally, with a sigh, I nodded. “Okay,” I said. “But let me get something first. There’s something I needto show you.”

Edrick’s eyes widened. He released his grip on my arm and I stood, putting on my robe before I slippedout of his room. It was still early enough for the other servants and Ella to be asleep, so I was able tomake my way to my room without being seen and questioned over why I had slept in Edrick’s room allday and night. Once there, I opened my top dresser drawer and rifled through it until I found the small

wooden box where I kept the wolf tooth that Sophia had given me. I hadn’t looked at the tooth in awhile. When she first gave it to me, for some reason I couldn’t stop carrying it around in my pocket —but when I eventually realized that I could have lost it or broken it, I decided to tuck it away in a boxwhere nothing could happen to it. This tooth was the only link to my parents, and I didn’t want anythingbad to happen to it. Even if my parents did leave me on Sophia’s doorstep because I didn’t have a wolfas a baby, I still wanted to hold onto the possibility of meeting them someday when my wolf didemerge.

Then, swallowing the lump in my throat, I carried the box back to Edrick’s room.

He was sitting up in bed when I arrived, waiting for me. I didn’t speak as I set the box down in front ofhim.

“What is it?” he asked tentatively, glancing between me and the box with a confused expression on hisface.

“Just open it,” I replied. I didn’t have the strength to speak; I just wanted him to see the tooth forhimself.

Slowly, Edrick opened the oblong wooden box. His eyes widened as he stared down at it. Then,gingerly, he picked the tooth up and held it up to the light. I watched in silence, my heart racing, as heturned it over in the light, inspecting it closely.

“This is yours?” he asked, his disbelieving gaze sliding over to me.

I nodded. “Sophia gave it to me. She said that it was in my hand when I was left on her doorstep as ababy. And… She said that it’s usually a sign that a child is a werewolf, and it’s not just that; she alsosaid that it’s usually a sign that werewolf parents have chosen to abandon a wolfless child, pronouncingthem as dead instead of embracing them for who they are. I didn’t believe her at first when she saidthat I might be a werewolf, but I know it’s true now.”

“How do you know?” Edrick asked. I think he already knew the answer.

“I’ve been hearing my wolf’s voice for a few months now. I think that she was the one who protectedme, along with the baby, when I was in the Rogue district yesterday.”

Edrick fell silent. He was still holding the tooth in his hand, and looked back down on it with a curiousexpression on his face. I didn’t realize it before, but my hands were shaking as I stood at the foot of thebed.

Was Edrick my mate? Was that why he was able to follow the scent that Mina released? And was thatwhy he was so warm toward me now?

But as he continued to stare at the tooth, his eyes wide, I could tell that there was something else goingthrough his mind. He seemed to notice something. Something shocking.

“What is it?” I asked. “Do you notice anything about the tooth?”

Edrick paused for a moment, then suddenly put the tooth back and snapped the box shut, shaking hishead. “Nothing really,” he said quietly, picking up the box and holding it out for me with a pensiveexpression on his face. “But I do think that it might just be more than a regular werewolf tooth.”

I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?” I asked.

Edrick sighed. “I think it might be an Alpha tooth.”

Tip: You can use left, right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.Tap the middle of the screen to reveal Reading Options.

If you replace any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report