The Mystical Attraction of Alpha
Chapter 258

Chapter 258

Chapter 258–Answers at Last

Ella

“You’re not my mother?” I whisper, my voice positively tiny. Looking at Reina, it makes sense. She’s talland willowy, with black hair, olive skin and dark eyes – just about my polar opposite. I’m recalling Henrytelling me that I don’t resemble her or Xavier, so I must take after the Goddess, but I didn’t trulyunderstand how great the dissimilarity was until this moment. It seems a silly question now; of courseshe’s not my mother. How could she be?

The weight of my crushed hopes batter me from every direction, as if they aren’t simply falling fromabove, but closing in around me, suffocating and strangulating. They’re all watching me with the samesympathetic expression: Reina, the priests and Roger. Only Cora refuses to pity me, choosing insteadto offer our hosts a death stare for upsetting me.

“Ella, please sit down.” Reina pleads, pulling me back over to the fire. “If you’ll listen, we’ll explaineverything.”

“Okay. I manage to utter weakly, reclaiming my seat. “Explain.”

Reina clasps her hands in her lap, taking a deep breath. “When I married Xavier, I had my entire lifeplanned out. I would finish school, wait a year or two before trying for pups, maybe work a little. All in allI expected to spend the first years of my union learning to be a queen and preparing to ascend to thethrone in another decade or so. Then Xavier’s father died suddenly and unexpectedly, and all at oncemy plans fell apart. We were coronated when I was just 22.”

She pauses to sip her tea, and though the flavor is sweet her lips form a grimace. “Xavier and I choseone another. He’d rejected his fated mate and all his parents‘ plans for an arranged marriage, and allfor me. At the time it was romantic, I felt like I was living a fairytale. And then things changed… or

perhaps the problem is that they weren’t changing.” Her eyes drop to my pregnant belly, and themuscle in her cheek twitches. “I had half a dozen miscarriages before the doctors told me to stoptrying… they said I’d kill myself if I continued.”

My cheeks are wet, as if her words flipped on a switch in my brain and opened the dam. “I’m so sorry.” Iprofess, “I know what it’s like to struggle with infertility but I never… I’m just so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Reina purses her lips, and I wonder if she truly means it. “You wouldn’t be here if I’d beenable to conceive, and we would all be the worse for it.”

“I’m still sorry.” I repeat, wanting to hug her but not trusting my ability to get out of my chair withoutassistance.

“I appreciate that.” Reina replies, softening slightly as she continues with her tale. “Of course, Xavierwas at a loss. His greatest responsibility as King was to produce heirs and carry on his bloodline. Myinability… my failure made that impossible. We were stuck. Xavier couldn’t reject me – not when I wascrowned queen and not after he’d made such a fuss about choosing me in the first place, though heprobably should have.” An expression of torment crosses her pretty features. “More than once over theyears I’ve thought this all could have been avoided if he hadn’t rejected his fated mate. They wouldhave produced heirs, the monarchy would never have been in threat, and his sons would have takenover when he died.”

“And we’ve reminded Reina that this was all put in motion by much greater forces than the workings ofa few power–hungry shifters.” Silas chimes in, using a gentle tone that indicates they’ve discussed thismany times indeed. “The God of Darkness has been at work for centuries.” Reina inhales a steadyingbreath as she meets Silas’s gaze, nodding in appreciation. “Well, however it came about, that was thebeginning of the end for me and Xavier. All the things that had seemed so romantic when we first fell inlove… all the sacrifices he made for me… they became naught but resentments. He blamed me for

everything that went wrong in his life from then on, and I could see him reframing the things he onceloved about me as annoyances.”

Her eyes fall shut, and I can almost feel her pain. “A couple of times when he became very drunk, Icaught him looking at me with such hatred in his eyes that I actually worried he might try to kill me justto get me out of the way. It was as if I had become this insurmountable hurdle standing between himand everything he’d ever wanted…” When her lashes rise again they’re wet with tears. “He forgot hewanted me once.”

“So I did the only thing I could,” Reina shrugs, “I prayed. I’d prayed to the Goddess for all my babies,but I’d never felt so utterly desperate. It was no longer simply a matter of wanting to be a mother, it wasa matter of my entire future happiness, my marriage and possibly even my survival. I’d never been solow before.” She lifts her eyes heavenward, to the open ceiling and the stars above us. “I neverdreamed she would respond in person.”

“She appeared to me as if she’d been there all along – one moment I was alone and weeping, the nextI was awake with this glowing being before me. It physically hurt to look at her, as if I knew I was gazingupon something I was never meant to see.” Reina’s attention turns back to me, and I’m surprised tosee she’s smiling. “You look so much like her, Ella. All of the beauty but none of the pain. ”

“So what happened?” Cora asks, leaning in as if she worries Reina might stop her story here. “Sheasked me why I wanted a child.” Reina replies, her gaze flitting to a vast moon dial in the center of theroom, checking the time. “So I told her that it was my duty, but more than that, that it was my greatestwish to be a mother. Then she asked why she should grant my wish over the thousands of othermothers in the world, and I explained that my child wouldn’t merely be for myself, but for all the unitedpacks. My child would become King one day, and not having one meant risking a power vacuum.”

Reina pauses then, clearly getting caught up in her memories. “When she told me that she would giveme a baby I thought I might faint, but my joy was only temporary. Because next the Goddess shared

her own story with me, the details of our world’s creation, the peril we would all be facing one day. Sheexplained that there was no stopping this war, but that the child I bore might allow us to survive it.”Reina recalls, “I didn’t really understand, or know what to think. It was all too surreal.”

“Then the Goddess told me that I wouldn’t get to keep you. I was so angry and outraged, I demandedto know why on earth I would torture myself carrying a baby I’d be forced to give up… Reina’s lips govery thin as she nods slowly, with the bearing of one who does not wish to remember this at all, “Andthat’s when she explained that Xavier took me to bed that night, it would be her child in my womb,rather than my own. I would be like a surrogate for her and the King not that he ever knew anythingabout it.” She shrugs as she watches me, her eyes welling over again. “In some ways it made it mucheasier to give you up, because you weren’t truly mine.”

I shake my head, unable to stay seated a moment longer. I manage to hoist myself out of my chair andcross to her side. The idea of anyone asking a woman who cannot have children of her own to carrytheirs is a cruelty beyond imagining. I can’t replace any words to express the depth of my horror andsorrow for her, so I simply wrap my arms around reina and squeeze. She gasps in surprise, butgradually returns my embrace, leaning into me.

–

“I tried not to love you, not to get attached.” Reina explains, weeping into my neck. “But I should haveknown better. Even humans fall in love with their babies before they’re born – and they aren’t bonded. Idid have fun with you though, I loved being a living miracle, I held onto you as long as I possibly could.Then Silas and Pollux came to take you – I never knew where you went.” “And Xavier?” Rogerinterjects, “how much did he know?”

“None of it.” Reina reveals grimly. “After so many miscarriages, it came as no surprise when I told himthe child didn’t survive.”

“So my father never even knew I existed?” I assess, my throat thick with emotion..

“I told him on his deathbed.” Reina shares. “We got through the next twenty–five years in a tensepartnership. We were no longer lovers or even friends, but bound together by our roles as leaders. Ilearned to feel safe with him again, and he learned to accept reality – though it took him a few years tostop flailing in protest. He was pleased Ella… when I told him about you, he said he wished he couldhave met you.”

I sniff as I process this information. “Did the Goddess tell you how I’m supposed to save our future?”

“No.” Reina dashes my hopes.“That, she will have to tell you herself.”

I untangle myself from her arms.“What do you mean?”

Reina gives me a wry smile, “You didn’t think she was going to miss your homecoming, did you?”

I can only blink, still not understanding. Then Pollux stands, “she’s here.”