Chapter 117: Something Special
Edrick
As I held the tooth in my hand, I instantly knew that there was something special about it. It was certainly an Alpha tooth, but it was so much more than that at the same time. I couldn’t explain it, nor could I quite put my finger on what was so special about it, but I somehow knew that there was something different about this tooth.
Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but the more I thought about all of Moana’s strange abilities, the significant delay in her wolf emerging, and now the tooth, I couldn’t help but wonder…
Was Moana the Golden Wolf?
I couldn’t be sure. All I knew was that there was something special about Moana — something that she didn’t even know yet herself. I was determined to find out, so that day, I decided that I would have to do some research on it. I would have to do it secretly, too, because Moana could be in danger if she was the Golden Wolf.
There was one thing I knew for certain, though: Moana was, without a doubt, my fated mate. I knew that now that I had fully experienced her scent. Even though I was ecstatic about this discovery, I couldn’t tell Moana. Not only was her own wolf still too weak to realize that my wolf was her fated mate, but I wasn’t planning on marking my fated mate and making her my wife. My parents are fated mates, but my father cheated again and again, and even brought Ethan home one day. My mother was mentally affected by their mate bond and had to accept everything. How could I trust a bond like this? I was unsure as to whether I could bring myself to potentially break Moana’s heart if that infidelity ran in my blood.
I couldn’t tell anyone about that yet, either. Being an Alpha mate as a human also could attract too much attention right away, and if Moana was indeed the Golden Wolf, then unwanted attention could be dangerous. A lot of people — people who hated the idea of a new age during which humans and werewolves could live in harmony — believed that the Golden Wolf should have been hunted and executed. Even though I was on the fence about my feelings toward humans up until I met Moana, I never particularly sided with those who believed that humans should be slaves, or worse, victims of g******e. In a way, I was excited at the idea of the Golden Wolf being alive; I wouldn’t particularly mind seeing more harmony between the two races.
But either way, I still couldn’t be sure about any of this. I would have to do some research of my own before I jumped to any conclusions, which was why I simply told Moana that the tooth belonged to an Alpha. That seemed to satisfy her for the time being, and now I could just let myself be happy that I had found my fated mate.
By the end of that day, however, it seemed that my happiness always needed to have some sort of caveat; and that caveat was that somehow, the paparazzi managed to get pictures of Moana and I entering the hospital the day before, covered in dirt and mud — with no masks on, of course.
I saw the photos initially start to pop up on social media with all sorts of speculative captions and comments. People wondered if Moana was my secret wife, whether she was a human surrogate and that I secretly had a different werewolf wife, and why we were covered in mud. By then, it was already too late; the damage was done, and I would just have to live with it. There was no one to pay off for the pictures, and now that it was the second time that photos were revealed of Moana and I, there was nothing I could do at this point.
And of course, lo and behold, my phone rang that night.
It was Kelly.
“I hope you’re calling to beg for forgiveness,” I said when I answered, feeling my blood already begin to boil just thinking about how Kelly nearly got the mother of my child killed for a “prank”.
“Listen, I really am sorry,” Kelly replied, although she didn’t sound all that sorry at all. “But I saw the pictures from yesterday, and your father is really angry now.”
“Yeah?” I growled. “And?”
Kelly paused. I could practically hear her licking her lips on the other side of the phone.
“And,” she continued, “I really think you should reconsider my offer to come out as your Alpha fiancee and Ella’s biological mother. We could easily play off the Moana situation by saying that she’s a family member that you’ve been caring for. Besides, no one would question you again if you have a fiancee. In fact, I could even be your real fiancee, if you’d want—”
“Oh my god, Kelly!” I shouted, not caring that I was raising my voice as I realized exactly what she had done now. “You just can’t stop, can you? You can’t even give it two days after you nearly got the mother of my child killed before you’re onto the next scheme. What, did you pay the paparazzi to take those photos? I know you did.”
“No, Edrick, I—”
“I don’t want to hear excuses anymore, Kelly,” I growled. “You’re lucky I’m not suing you for what you did to Moana. In fact, you could be in prison right now. I’m sure you’d get along really well in there with all of the other psychopaths.”
Before Kelly could answer, I abruptly hung up the phone. I sank down into my office chair and buried my head in my hands, sulking. I knew I should have sent Kelly to the police… But honestly, she might have just paid them off, anyway. I would have to figure out another way to punish her for the way she acted, but for now, I had bigger fish to fry.
I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, fuming with my head in my hands. All I knew was that my phone began to ring sometime later.
I cursed under my breath and looked at my phone, expecting it to be Kelly — but it wasn’t. It was my father.
“Of course,” I whispered under my breath as I stared at the phone screen. They were certainly working together. My father had been harassing me about marrying Kelly for years, and now they both felt the need to torture me on the same night. In fact, I wouldn’t have even been surprised at this point to find out that he conspired with Kelly to have Moana nearly killed by Rogues. It didn’t even seem like a prank at this point; it seemed like a failed murder attempt.
“What do you want?” I growled as I picked up the phone.
Of course, my father wasted no time. Of course he didn’t care that Moana nearly died. I could have died too if there had been more Rogues in that alleyway, but he probably wouldn’t have cared then, either.
“It’s time for you to make a decision, Edrick,” Michael said, his voice stony and indifferent. “Kelly is a good woman from a wealthy Alpha family. She’ll provide far more for you than that human girl ever will.”
“Kelly won’t provide me with anything except headaches,” I responded. “You only care about what she can provide for WereCorp.”
My father paused and sucked his teeth. “That is true,” he finally replied. “I don’t want to see our family business go down the drain because of your stupid mistakes. Our stocks are already in decline because you can’t seem to screw your head on straight.”
I didn’t know what to say. Of course I couldn’t correct my father and tell him yet that Moana was not only a werewolf, but possibly also the Golden Wolf; my father was one of the people who would have wanted the Golden Wolf killed. I bit the inside of my cheek, thinking, before I finally answered.
“I’ll handle it, dad,” I said, trying my best to control my temper.
“Handle it by the end of the week,” he responded coldly. “If you don’t…”
“I will,” I growled. Without another word, I hung up the phone.
I hated to be ordered to do anything, especially by my father, but I would have to find a solution as soon as I could.
