The Alpha King's Princess
The Alpha King’s Princess – Chapter 33

I turned over the discovery and pushed the analyst team in my mind. It had been a few weeks since the analysis was complete, but there still wasn’t any further progress. There had been more murders across the territories, and they had all been getting closer and closer to Candido’s territory. There had been over twenty cases, and if they were all connected to the death of the former alpha king and the Blue Moon Pack, wherever they were, then it was just a matter of time before I figured out the bottom of all of this.

I crossed the room to my closet to figure out what I was going to wear tomorrow and stopped as I caught sight of myself in the mirror. I had been so preoccupied with the investigations that I hadn’t been weighing myself or measuring my waistline. My clothes were hanging off me now, a full size too big, at least if not more.

I pulled out a pair of jeans and slid into them, happy, and a bit horrified that there was so much space in them. If only I’d been paying more attention to how my body had been changing, I might have been a little more prepared.

I tried on all my jeans and found them all too big. My sweatpants were too big, but at least there was a drawstring. The problem was that wearing sweatpants now when I had lost so much weight wouldn’t get me the impact on the campus I was looking for.

At least someone in the territory would benefit from me having to give away most of my clothing.

The only decent things I had left were workout clothes, loungewear, and a few dresses that had been hiding in the back of my closet from years ago.

I’m going to have to go shopping. It wasn’t a bad thing. Candido wouldn’t hesitate to take me, but it was a bit annoying.

A knock sounded on my door, and I went to it. Candido was on the other side, but I hadn’t felt his presence the way I had been.

I guess it had been just a fluke before or something else was going on. Still, I was happy to see him.

I eyed him. In place of a glass of milk, there were several bags on his arms, all printed with designer boutiques and clothing stores I recognized.

“What’s going on?”

“Did you plan to wear loungewear to school tomorrow?” He walked into my room and set all the bags on the dresser. He glanced at the stack of clothes I had pulled out. “I’ll have someone take them to donate. Come with me downstairs.”

I pouted, looking at all the bags, but I followed without a fuss.

“Did you buy me a new wardrobe?”

“Did you need one?”

I sighed and wrapped my arms around his arm, pressing close to him. I wondered if he had ever bought Sibyl anything expensive or anything she wanted. Had they ever been intimate? Even when they were younger?

How long had Sibyl known Candido?

Had Sibyl ever met his mother? His father? His brother?

“You seem pensive,” I said, looking up at him. “Penny for your thoughts?”

“My thoughts are worth a lot more than a penny.”

I laughed as he led me downstairs and into the kitchen. On the table was a small cake, two glasses, a bottle of what looked like wine, a small jug of chocolate milk, and a folder.

“What’s this?” I worried my l*p. “My birthday…”

He picked up the folder and gave it to me. “Read it and replace out.”

I was hesitant. This seemed so out of the ordinary and out of character for Candido. Still, I opened in. Inside were my medical records from my physical last week. I frowned, not sure what I was supposed to get out of it.

I had lost a lot of weight. My heart rate and b***d pressure were good. Then, my eyes stopped at the section that I had never looked at since the first time I’d gotten a physical: the b***d analysis.

The section that they had been tracking since I came to Candido’s, the one that correlated to how much of the poison Lilian had been feeding me my entire life, was gone. I flipped on to the doctor’s notes, but the man was clear in that the poison was completely out of my system.

“I… I don’t know what to say….” I said. He took my hand and drew me closer to him.

The scent of his cologne made my head spin.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Candido said. “I just wanted to celebrate you reaching this point.”

I smiled up at him. Originally, the doctor had been sure that the poison would affect me for the rest of my life and drive me to an early grave, but since Candido had started giving me his b***d, there had been hope that even if I never shifted, I would still live a long healthy life.

“I don’t want you to overthink it,” Candido said. “It’s for sure that you’ll have the lifespan of a normal werewolf, but that doesn’t mean all of your instincts will resurface at once or at all.”

I slumped a bit and glanced at him. “You… mean I’ll just be physically healthy?”

I didn’t want to just be physically healthy. I wanted to be able to shift. I wanted everything that had been taken from me. I wanted to know if Candido was my mate or if isn’t then who is.

Candido cupped my face and wiped away the tears that had just started to slide down my cheeks.

“It means there’s a good chance that they will,” Candido said.

“When?” I gasped out, pressing the folder to my chest. “When?”

When would the years I spent in Wolf Fang stop haunting me? When would I really be free of them?

“Soon,” Candido said. “The Moon Goddess would not let someone so precious suffer… She led you to me, into my care, Hedy. I cannot imagine she meant that to be the end of it.”

But what end did she see? I let Candido sit me down across from him at the table. He cut the cake for us both and filled my glass with chocolate milk. Eating this cake was the only time I drank chocolate milk. I was surprised he remembered that. He poured himself a glass of red wine and I wrinkled my nose.

“You’re ruining the chocolate-on-chocolate experience.” I took his glass and gave him mine. “My celebration request.”

He grimaced a bit but nodded, taking a bite of cake and a sip of chocolate milk. He pressed his lips together in an almost pained expression and I laughed.

“Is it too sweet?”

“Much too sweet.”

I took a sip of his wine and wrinkled my nose. “This is bitter.”

“It’s supposed to balance out the sweetness,” he said, his voice a little amused. “Your unrefined palette probably doesn’t even know what that means.”

I stuck my tongue out at him and traded our glasses back. “You have your bitter wine, but I know chocolate milk is better.”

He lifted his glass to me. “To each their own.”

I smiled at him, eating, and asking him about what he’d been up to since dinner. He glossed over his usual business, but I had a feeling he was trying to make sense of murderers and how they all tied together. ha

“Is everything okay?” I asked. “With the pack and everything?”

“More security,” he said. “Everything should be fine, but you should continue to listen to Team Gamma for your safety.”

I rolled my eyes. “You make it seem like I’m reckless.”

He set his spoon down. “I replace that you are becoming more of an enigma as your birthday draws nearer.”

I met his gaze, surprised by the statement, and intrigued by what he could mean by that. He lifted his glass to his lips and drank the deep red liquid and I froze.

B***d.

Vampires needed b***d to survive. If my hunches about werewolves and vampires being related to one another in some way was right, was it possible that vampires had once fed on werewolves? If not, what were they feeding on now?

I didn’t know, but aside from the origin of our conflict, we shared some sort of commonality.

If the b***d of a golden werewolf could heal, was it possible that the b***d of a vampire destroyed?

Maybe the substance was vampire b***d, but why would it be mixed with werewolf b***d unless a werewolf was drinking from a vampire?

My stomach churned at the thought.

“What is it? Too much sugar?” Candido teased.

I looked up at him, wondering if a bit of disgust had shown on my face. I wrinkled my nose at him.

“Watching you drink that wine turned my stomach a little.”

He laughed and I hoped that it was enough to keep him from asking anything else.