The Alpha King's Princess
The Alpha King’s Princess – Chapter 68

I didn’t know what to do or say. I was just lost and alone in Candido’s office. I looked around, remembering most of the moments I had spent in here, stealing a bit of his time for myself.

Could I stay in this house?

Could I stay at his side when he found this woman he spoke of?

Could I ever let him go?

I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to think about him and this woman that would spend the rest of her life with him. Everything in my heart was crying out in agony at the thought, yet I could feel myself distancing from it. There were so many things that could change, so many unknowns, and so many issues that I just couldn’t solve on my own.

But there was time.

Candido said he’d met her weeks ago, but that was before the moon before my birthday. What if he was feeling something that I simply wasn’t old enough to feel yet? He could have confused me with someone else. Even if it was a different person, he didn’t know her.

He knew me. He loved me, no matter what he wanted to say about fate and what the Moon Goddess had said would be.

He wouldn’t have kissed me if he didn’t. He wouldn’t have said he’d been reaching for something he couldn’t have if he didn’t want it—want me.

I needed to talk to someone about this, even though I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I needed to get someone else’s opinion on it. More than that, I had to get out of this Estate. The more time I spent lingering on it here, the heavier and more hopeless I felt. If I was going to get through this, I had to keep moving forward, keep thinking, and keep hoping.

He didn’t know who she was exactly. That meant there was time to change his mind. There was time to show him that maybe the Moon Goddess could be wrong, or it could be me that he thinks is his mate, and he just doesn’t know it.

There was still time before I had to truly mourn my relationship with Candido. I had a month before my birthday.

I stood, not bothering to change clothes as I left the Estate. Team Gamma-2 looked distraught, but they said nothing as I got into the jeep. I could tell that they had hoped for something to have come from all of this, but they kept it to themselves.

I wondered if Candido would ever try to address what happened at the mall or if he even considered it at all.

“Take me to campus, please.”

“As you wish, Miss Hedy.”

I looked out the window as they drove me across town. The sun was setting in the distance. Night would fall soon. Did Candido expect me back tonight? Would Claire let me hide in her dorm for a little while? I didn’t know if Candido would be looking for me, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to see him either. My lips still tingled from when he’d kissed me, but my heart clenched in grief too. The desperation of it and how right it felt were amazing, but everything he’d said afterward told me everything I needed to know.

Candido might love me, but he was still bound to follow the path the Moon Goddess had laid before him. On the one hand, I could understand. The Moon Goddess had led me to him, to Moon Shadow, to my life as it was now, and I would be forever grateful for that. On the other hand, I had never known Candido to be devout.

There wasn’t much ceremony to worshipping the Moon Goddess, simply living as she would have intended was enough, but people did go to the temple to pray for blessings and consult with the priests.

I needed to get away from him and any place that could make me think of him. Maybe I would cry, maybe I would just sit in silence for a long time. Maybe I would throw and break things, but mostly, I just needed the simple comfort of my best friend.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Claire’s number. I wondered if she knew Candido to be devout. Maybe he went to the temple all the time, and I just didn’t know it.

She didn’t answer. I frowned as the phone went to voicemail. It was possible that she was with Francium or busy, but I couldn’t think of why she wouldn’t answer unless they were in the middle of something. The entire territory had been tuned into the wedding. Knowing Claire, she would have been too.

As I thought about it, it was strange that she hadn’t called me since the coverage of his marriage had started. She hadn’t been around at all.

I frowned, and my stomach started to feel unsettled. That wasn’t like Claire at all.

When I called back, she picked up.

“Claire? I really—”

A scream came from the other end of the line. I recognized it as Claire’s voice. My heart lurched as we pulled up to the school. I jumped out as I heard someone else speaking in the background. I couldn’t make out the voice, but I ran inside as my mind jumped from potential to potential.

What was happening to her? Would I make it in time? Would I be of any help? I lifted the skirt of the gown and rushed down the corridor, kicking off my shoes as I ran.

“Claire? Claire, where are you? Who is that?”

There was no reply, just the sound of her heavy, panicked breathing. Could she not hear me, or could she just not answer me? Had she been kidnapped? I turned a corner and opened the Moon Shadow mainframe using my phone. I slid to a stop, quickly getting through the mainframe to replace the tracker I had on Claire’s phone and access the location.

Armageddon sent me a message.

What’s going on? This is for emergencies only. Do you need backup?

This is an emergency!

What’s happening, Pandora? Where are you?

He tried to call me through the system, but I couldn’t answer him right now. It would hang up my call with Claire, and I needed to hear everything that was happening to her if I was going to help.

Finally, the system found Claire’s phone. Based on what I knew of the building, she was in the library. I turned and rushed towards the library, making sure to record every moment. When I arrived, I found the library quiet. I could still hear her breathing through the phone. I searched the aisles, hoping to run into her when I stopped.

The dot that tracked me was right on top of the dot that represented her phone.

Pandora, where are you? Take the tracker off of your device so I can help you.

I can’t. I replied and clicked out of the chat window.

There was only one reason she would be below me: she was in the caves beneath the school. I looked down, crouching down as I strained my hearing, hoping to hear something. I had heard the beast that had come up before it had emerged, but I heard nothing.

Claire’s breathing picked up, and I heard something metallic in the background.

“P-Please don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me…”

My heart lurched. I jumped to my feet and turned back towards the painting that covered the secret passage. There wasn’t a gust of air coming from around it or any sense that it moved. The stone wall behind it was solid and looked as though the mortar had been there for ages, but I knew this wall moved. I had seen it before. I just had to figure out how to get it open. I pulled on the edges of the painting, hoping to budge it with my extra strength, but my strength failed me.

The bright orange light of the setting sun came through the windows, setting the eyes of the running wolves aglow and revealing the faintest image of the vampires in the painting.

My hands slipped from the edge of the painting, and I tumbled back with a grunt as I landed. At my strongest, I could pick up things several times my size and rip trees out of the ground. I should have been able to get this door, no matter how big it was. Between the attack at the mall, the wedding, and the run here, I had used up all of my strength, it seemed. I could feel the exhaustion pulling at me.

“What’s happening? Where are you taking me?” Claire asked. “Let me go! Let me go—”

“Quiet,” the voice said. I heard Claire panting. I could almost feel her fear, but the voice was familiar. “Restrain her.”

Claire let out a frightened sound. I heard scuffling across the ground and her struggling, but no one else spoke.

The hair on the back of my neck lifted with terror.

It was the man from the forest.