Page 3 of Betrayed Alpha Mate

Does it mean nothing to her?

Do I mean—

“Alpha! There you are!” Dustin, the beta of Silverfang, comes jogging over, catching me off guard and forcing me to quickly slip on the face of the alpha.

It’s a face I wear so I can cover up the shattered pieces of myself that threaten to hang on my sleeve. Like armor, a charming smile forms across my lips, a dimple popping in both cheeks for extra measure.

That does it. It always does.

“Yo, Dusty!” I chirp, patting him on the shoulder when he stops in front of me. “I was just about to come look for you.”

“Don’t lie, Sean,” Dustin says, rolling his eyes. He’s the only one aware that this cheerfulness is an act. It’s his duty, after all, to track my behavior for the sake of smooth-running pack dynamics, like he’s my therapist or something.

I don’t like it.

“Don’t act smart with me, Beta,” I say bluntly, reminding him of his position.

This doesn’t seem to faze him since he’s used to my antics. “Are you gonna kick me off the squad, Sean?”

“Don’t tempt me, Dusty,” I snigger as I wrap my arm over his shoulders, and he folds his arms with an air of haughtiness.

“Yeah, right! You’d never be able to replace me!”

“Unfortunately, you’re right,” I sigh, letting the mask slip momentarily as I remind myself that Dustin is the only one who’ll ever know that I’m not as unbothered about things as I pretend to be. “The team knows about Merlin Grimes’s whereabouts. We suspect the previous war took place there.”

“You think his remains are left there?” Dustin speculates, and I shrug.

“We don’t know what to think. You know, we cross-referenced all the Golden Tree archives, and all we know is that the witch, Azura, sacrificed herself in a blast that consumed Grimes. But now he’s back.”

“In his body?”

“No idea. There shouldn’t be a body. He should have been obliterated. Evaporated.”

“He has faithful disciples, Sean. There must be something keeping him bound to this realm.”

“You’re right,” I lament, nodding thoughtfully as we turn toward my house. Beyond it, Mount Mansfield is illuminated by the full moon hanging prettily in the sky, calling out to me, tempting me.

But it’s not just the face of the moon I see in the sky.

There’s another face…

“Emily’s still in her office,” Dustin informs me, as if answering a question I didn’t ask.

Frowning, I turn to him slowly, cocking my head to one side.

“I didn’t ask for her whereabouts,” I say in a stern tone, but again, Dustin sees through me.

“You might as well have asked,” he sneers. “I’m sure you want to update her about the meeting, right? It’s the first one she hasn’t attended with you. She was as much a part of black ops as you. That’s what you always said.”

Pausing as I watch him through narrowed eyes, I’m not sure if my beta knows more than I’ve ever told him, or if he’s just being straightforward.

He is right, though. I should be going to see Emily to give her an update about the meeting, even if I’m irritated that she didn’t accompany me to Wells.

It’s the first time she’s made an excuse not to join me, but she’s been acting strange since our last battle against the dark lord’s minion—a witch named Morganna—who was using a friend of Donna’s to get to us by poisoning his mind.

Donna defeated her by wiping her out, but not without some strain. We all felt it—Nicholas’s taste of death, Donna’s determination to save her mate and her friends, Tobias’s sacrifice, and our collective frustration that the warlock is still out there, plotting his next move.

All that’s left is to find the fifth witch from the prophecy shared amongst our witches, which foretells that five witches will emerge from the Golden Tree Sisters' bloodline and together defeat Merlin Grimes once and for all.