(Alexis's POV)
After a sleepless night reviewing Victoria's security reports about Katherine, I claimed my usual corner table at the Silver Moon Café. The documents had seemed legitimate – surveillance photos, intercepted communications, witness statements – but something about them nagged at me. Like my memories of that long-ago rescue, the details felt somehow manufactured.
Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, I observed both the busy street and the café's interior, a habit from years of watching for threats. Last night's revelations about my stepmother's possible return had heightened my paranoia. I'd doubled the patrols around Grace's healing center and our territory borders, though I'd told no one else about Katherine's threat. No need to cause panic until I verified Victoria's intelligence.
My phone buzzed with Grace's morning check-in. A simple "At the healing center" was all she wrote, but our mate bond thrummed with her underlying exhaustion. The memory of her leaving the healer's office yesterday, looking pale and protective of her stomach, still worried me. Before I could respond, Victoria's scent drifted through the door.
She approached my table with uncharacteristic hesitation, her wolf's submission so pronounced it seemed almost theatrical. Still, my Alpha instincts responded, an old protective urge rising unbidden. After yesterday's revelations about Katherine, seeing Victoria looking vulnerable hit differently.
"Alpha King." Her voice was carefully neutral as she took the seat across from me. "Thank you for meeting me so early, especially after our... difficult discussion yesterday."
The waitress brought my usual iced moonberry tea, and I reached for it automatically. Victoria's hand shot out, stopping just short of touching mine, just as she had in her den yesterday when I'd almost touched the suspicious reports.
"Wait," she said, concern flickering across her features. "The moonberry... it might aggravate your old wound."
My hand froze. The wound she mentioned – a silver-laced scar that Katherine had given me – had been throbbing since yesterday's talk about my stepmother. Even Grace didn't know its full extent, but Victoria had been there, had helped treat it after... or had she? That memory, like so many others, felt increasingly uncertain.
I pushed the drink aside, studying her face. "You said you had more information about Katherine's movements."
"I do." She sat impossibly straight, maintaining a formal distance that felt wrong after yesterday's intense conversation in her den. "But first, I wanted to thank you properly for the guards you sent. I've arranged for my own protection detail going forward. I won't bother you again with these... personal matters."
A growl built in my chest before I could stop it. After dropping the bomb about Katherine yesterday, now she was pulling away? "You're pack Beta. Your safety isn't a 'bother.' Especially if Katherine is really back."
"Of course." Her voice wavered perfectly. "I just... with everything happening with Grace, I don't want to impose. Our friendship has caused enough complications. Yesterday in my den, I may have overstepped..."
Through our old friendship bond – weaker than a mate bond but still present – I sensed her genuine hurt. Or what seemed genuine. The same instincts that had made me doubt the security reports made me question everything now.
"Stop it," I growled. "Stop acting like a stranger. If Katherine is really gathering forces—"
"That's not why I'm pulling back, Lex." She met my eyes, her gaze heavy with unspoken meaning. "I saw your face yesterday when I mentioned the rescue. How confused you looked. I'm starting to wonder if... if making you remember is causing more harm than good."
The mention of that night sent another spike of uncertainty through me. My head throbbed, phantom pain from old wounds mixing with fresh doubts.
"What exactly are you implying?"
"Nothing. Everything." She looked away. "I just know you, Alexis. Better than almost anyone. I can feel through our friendship bond how torn you are. Yesterday's revelations about Katherine, your concerns about Grace, the weight of all these old secrets..."
I gripped the edge of the table, claws threatening to emerge. Through my mate bond with Grace, I felt a flutter of concern – she must have sensed my distress. But Victoria's presence felt equally powerful, charged with decades of shared history and pain.
She stood abruptly. "I should go. I've already said too much. Just like yesterday."
But as she turned, her face went pale. She swayed dangerously, and instinct had me moving before I could think. I caught her before she fell, her familiar scent flooding my senses – the same scent that had surrounded me in her den, triggering those confused memories.
"Victoria?" Alarm sharpened my voice as she sagged against me.
"I'm fine," she whispered. "Just... the rival pack's curse. The same ones working with Katherine. It hits sometimes when I let my guard down."
Curse? My grip tightened protectively. Through our friendship bond, I felt waves of pain and fear rolling off her. But underneath... was that satisfaction? The same satisfaction I'd glimpsed yesterday when she'd shown me those reports?
She straightened slowly, still within the circle of my arms. "Thank you. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"
"When were you cursed?" I demanded, my wolf rising with rage at the thought of another threat on top of Katherine's return.
"It doesn't matter. I'm handling it." She stepped back, but not before I felt her wolf reaching for mine through our bond, seeking comfort with an intimacy that made me uncomfortable. Just like yesterday in her den, the gesture felt both familiar and wrong.
My phone buzzed again – Grace, probably wondering why I hadn't responded. The reminder of my mate snapped me back to reality, just as thoughts of Grace had pulled me back from Victoria's manipulations yesterday. I released Victoria immediately, putting distance between us.
"Get the curse checked by our healers," I ordered, using my Alpha voice to cover my confusion. "That's not a request."
Something flashed in her eyes – triumph? – before she lowered them submissively. "Yes, Alpha King. Just like you ordered me to handle Katherine's threat through proper channels."
She left with measured steps, but I felt her lingering awareness through our friendship bond. She was reading me, gauging my emotional state with the expertise of someone who'd had years to study my every reaction.
Alone at the table, I stared at the untouched moonberry tea. First the security reports, now this. Every interaction with Victoria lately felt like a carefully choreographed dance, each step designed to draw me deeper into our shared past while pulling me away from my present with Grace.
Grace's presence in my mind felt distant, our mate bond stretched thin by recent events. In contrast, Victoria's lingering emotional imprint felt sharp and clear – too clear, as if deliberately amplified.
I pulled out my phone to finally respond to Grace, but the words wouldn't come. How could I explain being caught between Katherine's threats, Victoria's revelations, and my own fractured memories?