Clara’s POV
He just keeps getting stranger and stranger.
Walking with Sonny allowed me to see more of the pack, but, at the same time, it made me stay close to him. I was beginning to feel things towards him that I wasn’t ready for, and I didn’t want him to think that I was ready to move forward with whatever was happening between us.
I couldn’t stop thinking back one the sparring match we had. How he moved, how he was able to counter every move I made.
There was no way he should have been able to do that. I had Alpha blood inside me—I was stronger than a normal wolf.
Things just didn’t add up at all, and I hated secrets.
Completing my mission felt more and more urgent. I could feel myself losing focus—because of him, and maybe because spending time with these people made me imagine a comfortable life here. But I couldn’t entertain that. There were killers within this pack.
Sighing, I leaned my back against the wall of the living quarters and tried to wrap my mind around everything.
Right now, the most important thing was finding out where this Alpha was—or, better yet, who he was.
The way Sonny seemed hesitant to talk about the Alpha didn’t make sense. It was like he was hiding something—but why?
I still had a lot to learn about Sonny, and this pack—but my time was running out. The longer I stayed here, the longer I was at risk of becoming attached to this place and making a mistake.
When the coast was clear, I moved toward an office that Sonny had pointed out to me on our walk back: the Alpha’s wing.
If the Alpha wasn’t on the pack territory, then I should be able to get in and out without anyone knowing, and my scent would have long faded away by the time he came back.
That was the hope, at least.
Pushing open the cherry wood door, I crept quietly in and closed it behind me. I had to be quick, But I also had to be quiet. I couldn’t risk someone seeing me here.
That wouldn’t be good.
The room was large with an airy feel to it, but also the signs of masculinity that would suit the pack’s leader—the murderous Alpha Stone.
Walking towards his desk, I picked up the papers that were scattered around and found it odd the pack Alpha wasn’t as organized as I thought he would be. The documents were about trade routes and business deals with a pack called the Cross Pack.
I vaguely remembered the Cross Pack from when I was a child, but its land was far away, and I had thought it had been wiped out in the war. It was interesting to see that wasn’t the truth.
The sound of footsteps in the hallway made me freeze in my place.
Shit! Was someone coming?!
As the footsteps began to fade away, I let out a sigh of relief and put the items back how I had found them. The less I touched, the better.
As I scanned the room once more, I realized there wasn’t much here for me to learn. No photos decorated the office—nothing that would signify the Alpha even had a mate.
If the Alpha had a mate like Sonny said, then he would have had photos of her in his office.
The oddity in the situation had me doubting a lot of what Sonny had been telling me. Something didn’t make sense, but I couldn’t understand why my mate would lie to me.
Unless he was a direct agent of the Alpha.
I made my way towards the office door, unhappy that I hadn’t found anything useful.
It wasn’t until I passed by a wall near the door that I realized it was different from the others.
I took a step back, staring at it for a moment.
Curiosity filled me, and I let my hand brush against the designs on the wall before applying a bit of force
The wall popped open.
A hidden passage within the wall led to a small room—one with a glowing red light.
“What in the hell—”
I wasn’t sure what the room was for, but I knew without a doubt what was emitting the red glow in the room.
It was the Alpha Stone.
“They still have it.”
My fingers reached out brushing the stone, and confusion filled me.
The rumor was that the Alpha Stone had been lost in the great war, and that the Stone Pack Alpha had been searching for it for years. It was another reason why getting rid of him was so important—he would be even more dangerous with the extra power the stone gave.
My heart sunk in my chest realizing that the Alpha Stone had been here the entire time.
Why was he searching, then? Was he looking for the other stones?
My hand went up to my heart, and I pulled the long gold chain from my cleavage that held the locket containing the healing stone.
It was much smaller than the other two stones, and it was the last thing my mother gave me before I fled from our pack. No one knew I had it. Not even the others I had stayed with all these years.
It was my secret to protect. My burden to bear.
“He is lying to me. I know he is.”
My whispers were only meant for me to hear, but at the same time, part of me was talking to my mother—her spirit, which I felt around me at all times.
I caught a woman’s voice approaching in the distance, and I knew that someone was coming. I closed the hidden room back up and pushed the locket with the healing stone back into my cleavage, out of view from anyone else.
As the sound of the woman's voice got closer, I recognized it as Emily’s.
Great. The last thing I needed was for her to find me.
She was too close for me to slip out into the hallway. I needed an alternate exit.
Running towards the window on the far side of the room I looked out, and saw the small lake below it. If I jumped out of the window the water would break my fall.
Opening the window I braced myself on the ledge before looking back at the office one more time. Taking a deep breath, I jumped out into the open air. I thought I heard someone cry out as I hit the water.
The coolness of the water enveloped me, and I allowed myself to sink out of sight. But when I tensed to begin my ascent to the surface, I noticed something was wrong.
My body felt weak, limp. It was like my muscles weren’t responding. It was then I noticed a strange emptiness inside..
I couldn’t feel the connection to my wolf anymore.
What the hell!
Confusion and fear filled my mind. I began to struggle, but my movements were sluggish, too weak to push me up to the surface. I gasped, and the lake water rushed into my lungs, making my head dizzy.
As my vision grew dark, I felt something wrap around me.