The Hidden Alpha

by Cara Wylde

  And that was when Jonathan cursed himself for having been so naïve. Blake was exactly like his father, if not worse. The Sylfur Inari didn’t choose him because they had the same views, but because he wanted to keep him under control. “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,” he thought, bitterly.

  Jonathan and Jane were the only ones who left the conference room sulking. All the other councilors and advisers were more than pleased with their new colleagues, Blake and Amelia Sylfur.

  ***

  Amelia, Blake, and Seth were among the last ones to leave the conference room. Just as they were walking out the door, Councilor Harington asked Blake to stop for a second and made it clear to his bride and his Beta that he wanted to have a word with their Alpha alone. Amelia’s stomach twisted and she forced down the bile that had risen in her throat. How could she possibly leave Blake alone? It only took one mistake, just one, and this whole business could end really badly. However, Blake nodded towards her, letting her know it was okay. Seth followed Amelia down the corridor.

  “It’s all right,” he reassured her. “It’s only Councilor Harington. He’s human, he won’t catch her real scent. Let’s just make sure no shape-shifter enters the conference room while they’re in there.”

  Amelia sighed and stared at the closed door.

  “What do you think he wants with her?” She bit her tongue when she realized she had just referred to Blake as “her”. On second thought, Seth had done the same earlier. Even though they were whispering, the building was full of shape-shifters. “Him…”

  “Shit,” Seth cursed under his breath. “I don’t know. I’m sure he’ll tell us.”

  Amelia looked up at him and smiled. He was watching the door intently, and the image of a Greek sphinx flashed before her eyes. She chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing.” She kept staring at his handsome profile. God, he was gorgeous! Those full lips, that square jaw, the disheveled hair and bright purple eyes… She suddenly felt hot, and it had nothing to do with the heaters in the building, which were working on full power. They hadn’t done anything in such a long time. With all that had happened in the past month, it had felt terribly inappropriate. “Do you know the legend of the sphinx?”

  Seth didn’t have time to answer her. When he saw Max and Karl Blackmane walk towards them, he tensed. As any fox-shifter, Seth had never liked werewolves, but that wasn’t it. If they stopped to talk to him and Amelia, they would be very close to Blake, who was still in the conference room with Councilor Harington.

  “Amelia Sylfur, what a pleasure to meet you!” Max offered Amelia a bright smile and a respectful bow.

  “The pleasure is mine, Mr. Blackmane.” She couldn’t believe she was talking to Avelyn’s husband. She couldn’t believe Avelyn’s husband knew who she was.

  Karl stopped behind his brother and nodded towards Amelia and Seth. Seth greeted them as nicely as he could.

  “Please call me Max. When I told Avelyn that I was going to meet the new fox councilor today, she really wanted to come. As usual, she knew more than me. I had no idea Blake had taken an Alma Venus bride, but she had found out from her friends when we… visited the boarding school in September.” He hesitated at the word “visited”, as everyone present knew that had been anything but a visit.

  “How is she?”

  “Oh, she’s fine! Our son is keeping her busy. He’s growing fast.” His whole face lip up when he started talking about his wife and son. “Once your husband moves to London, you two should definitely meet. I told her you weren’t staying and there would be plenty of opportunities after everything settles down. Maybe you’ll even visit Schloss Blackmane.”

  Max sounded so enthusiastic, and Amelia hated it that she couldn’t accept his invitation. The fact that Blake was now a councilor meant that Amelia couldn’t leave her side. Ever. And she doubted her friend would want to spend even an hour in the middle of a clan of werewolves.

  “Sure, we’ll see.” She offered him a shy smile. “I’ll have to talk to my husband, you understand…”

  “Of course, of course…” He was silent for a moment, unsure of what else to say. He had to come up with something, though, as Avelyn would be all over him the second he set foot at the Schloss. His gaze stopped on Amelia’s baby bump. “Oh, congratulations! Boy or girl?”

  Amelia blushed and stole a glance at Seth. She knew how difficult it was for him when she received congratulations for becoming a mother and he had to simply stand there and mask his feelings. He was proud. Ecstatic. But no one could know.

  “Thank you. We don’t know yet. My husband and I decided we’d like it to be a surprise, so we asked the doctor to keep it secret.”

  Melancholy shimmered in Max’s green eyes. “It must be an Alma Venus thing. Avelyn didn’t want to know either, although she was sure it would be a boy the whole time. Boy or girl, your child will be blessed. With such beautiful, bright parents, he or she will have a great future.”

  Amelia moved her weight from one leg to the other. She was the adviser of the fox councilor now, she had to get a hold of herself. It was silly to feel like a school girl every time a stranger complimented her. She cleared her throat before speaking.

  “We’ll do our best.”

  Max smiled. “I hope our children will meet and become good friends one day. The world is in need of a new, young generation that believes in the peace treaty. All we have to do is teach them well, and incidents like the one last year will never happen again.”

  “I agree.”

  They exchanged a couple more pleasantries, then Blake and Councilor Harington came out of the conference room, and Max’s and Karl’s attention was drawn to them. Amelia ran to Blake’s side and squeezed her arm. Blake smiled down at her and kissed her forehead just to offer the audience a proper show. They were supposed to be newlywed and completely in love with each other, after all.

  “Are you ready?” Blake asked her. “We have a long flight ahead of us.”

  “Sure.”

  Arthur Harington, Max, and Karl wished them a nice flight and went back to their own business. Amelia and Seth were dying to ask Blake about her secret discussion with the human councilor, but they waited until they exited the building, just to be sure.

  “He wanted to warn me about Redfur,” Blake finally explained. “I told him I am well aware of whom I am dealing with and promised I’d be careful. From what I gathered, it seems that the Council still has no idea about what actually happened with Jason Woodtail. They are very suspicious of Jonathan.”

  “Maybe you should tell them?” suggested Seth.

  “I don’t know. What good would it do? I’d rather wait and see if Jonathan has anything else up his sleeve. The guy is full of surprises.”

  “What about Jane?” asked Amelia. “She was disappointed you didn’t choose her as your adviser. I could see it in her eyes.”

  “Yeah… I’ll have to talk to her. She’s a good girl, although I’m still not comfortable knowing she betrayed Jonathan. That’s the thing: when you’re the member of a clan, you don’t betray your Alpha no matter how wrong he might be, and when you’re an adviser, you don’t betray the councilor who trusted you with his life and secrets. It’s a red flag right there, and I’ll have to keep an eye on her. She might still replace Jonathan in the future if he doesn’t behave. We’ll have to wait and see.”

  Amelia and Seth exchanged a quick glance, then they both looked at Blake in awe. Yes, she was a good Inari and an even better councilor. This thing they were doing might actually work in everyone’s favor.

  ***

  Jonathan Redfur had to wait until late in the evening, when he was finally in his personal office, in the luxurious apartment he owned in London. He had kept a straight face all day, and when he finally arrived home, his shoulders slumped and he leaned against the closed front door for a few moments. He focused his senses and sighed in relief when he realized his wife wasn’t there. She was probabl
y out with her girlfriends, nursing a glass of wine in one of the most expensive restaurants in the city. Their relationship had grown cold long ago, when he chose his career over his family. And for what?

  He forced himself to move. He dropped his coat on the sofa and went straight into his office, sat in the leather chair and took out his phone. He stared at the screen for a while, thinking of what he was going to say to the person he was just about to call. He knew what he wanted to say. The plan had taken form in his mind not long after the council meeting was over. But should he make that suggestion? Was it safe? Could he trust him? Could he trust anyone at this point? The phone rang twice before the person picked up.

  “Jonathan.”

  He had been expecting his call, Redfur could tell.

  “How did the meeting go?”

  “Not as expected,” said Jonathan. He tried to hide the exhaustion in his voice.

  “I’m sorry to say it doesn’t surprise me.”

  “I should have listened to you. You know Blake Sylfur better than I do.”

  “So, what now?”

  “He chose me as his second adviser, after his bride.”

  The person on the other end huffed. Jonathan understood his reaction. An Inari giving so much credit to his human bride… unheard of. On the other hand, maybe that was Blake’s first mistake. While the other factions might appreciate his bold move, the one faction that mattered wouldn’t. The fox-shifters were well-known for treating their human brides as they were supposed to be treated: a necessary weakness.

  “We’re not out of the game,” he said. “You can still do a lot for our cause.”

  “I’m not so sure about that. I was counting on the new councilor to be more open to our views thanks to his… well… youth. I lost all hope when he mentioned the new law has his vote. Frankly, I think we’ve stalled enough and it’s time for Plan B.”

  There was a long pause and Jonathan knew the person at the other end of the line was weighing the possibility.

  “You know very well why we waited this long,” he finally said.

  Jonathan sighed. He did, but that didn’t mean he completely agreed with the reasons.

  “Roman was loved and respected by many. Making a move while he was still alive would have been a great risk.”

  “Yes, but Roman is no more. And Blake is not like his father, even though he embraces his views. The fox-shifters barely know Blake Sylfur. He has stayed hidden in Alaska for too long. It will take him some time to gain their trust, and that’s why we have to strike now.”

  Another pause.

  “You might be right. I’ll think about it.”

  Jonathan felt the person was about to end the call, and hurried to slip in one last suggestion.

  “The Guild can make everything so much easier.”

  After a slight moment of hesitation, the call ended. Jonathan set his phone on the table and rubbed his eyes and temples with both hands. It was time to call it a day.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Hybrid

  The trip to London had taken Seth away from his investigation. Back in Ekviknuna, Blake got swamped with new responsibilities, which often involved meetings with her uncles and their Yakos, going out more often and actually being part of the community. It kept Amelia busy, as she always had to be there to cover Blake’s scent with her own. This allowed Seth to spend a lot of time at his cabin, buried in documents, declarations, birth certificates, and a huge list of phone numbers he had to call in order to track back Amelia’s parents’ steps. The bear-shifter detective had done his job well, and Seth couldn’t believe he had given up so easily. The wealth of information he had acquired on Stephen Bennet and his wife, Milla, had brought him pretty close to something… Seth didn’t know what exactly, not yet, but he was getting there himself. However, as Blake’s Yako, he had to be there for most meetings, which could keep him away from his work for hours. Amelia was a fast learner, fortunately, and it took her one week to get the hang of how the clan’s internal affairs worked. She could replace Seth any time, and when Blake realized that, she told Seth to focus on his investigation, knowing what he was doing was important. Amelia was surprised at first, but she was soon distracted by the Sylfur brothers and their attempts to influence Blake. As long as Damon and part of his earth were still in Ekviknuna, she couldn’t relax. None of them could. Damon had told Blake he couldn’t go back to Canada just yet, when the whole family seemed to be more united than ever. Roman’s death had been a huge blow to all of them, and he wanted to do everything in his power to help the clan recover. Right…

  Meetings, discussions, arguments… That was how the first two weeks after London passed. Amelia still had no idea about what Seth was doing. Sure, both Seth and Blake had promised her to look into the old case, but she never had high hopes they would actually find something. So, she had moved on and focused on the present, just like she had done many years ago.

  Seth’s breakthrough happened when he least expected it, at the end of January. He had been trying to track down the midwife who had helped Milla give birth, and when he finally got ahold of her, he nearly forgot the many questions he wanted to ask her. The phone call lasted for hours, but at the end Seth had the whole picture. All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. It made sense why it had been so difficult to find the old woman. She hadn’t only been Milla’s midwife, but also Milla’s best friend. Her only friend, in fact, if Seth didn’t count her husband, Stephen Bennet. And after Milla and Stephen were murdered and their child ended up in the social care system, the woman made her choice: she took her family and ran as far away from London as possible. She was only human, after all, and she couldn’t risk her own family’s well-being.

  It was time for Seth to come out clean and tell his lover and mate the truth. His investigation was over. He had all he needed to help Amelia discover who she really was. With Amelia’s and Blake’s help, maybe he got to make sense of some of the truth himself, because there were still some unanswered questions. So, Seth put all the files he had in order, placed them neatly on his desk, and asked Amelia and Blake to join him for dinner at his cabin. The conversation he intended to have with them couldn’t take place at the mansion, in the heart of Ekviknuna, where Roman’s four brothers seemed to have eyes and ears in every corner, no matter how dark and secluded it was.

  ***

  Confused and surprised, Amelia allowed Seth to replace the empty plate in front of her with a rather big stack of files. She threw Blake a concerned glance, but the Inari was sipping her red wine while checking her messages. Seth sat down next to her and took her hands into his. They had just finished dinner, and the only things left on the table were the bottle of wine and their glasses. Amelia couldn’t drink more than one, and she had been taking small sips to make it last.

  “What’s this?” she asked. A strange feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it had nothing to do with the clan.

  “This is what I managed to find out about your parents.”

  “Oh.” She looked at the files, but made no move to pull her hands free. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what they contained. “I don’t know what to say… I thought you two had forgotten about that. And with all that has happened lately…”

  Blake set her phone aside and poured herself more wine.

  “How could we forget?” she said. “We promised you we’d look into it.”

  Amelia bit her lower lip. Seth squeezed her hands to draw her attention back to him.

  “I told you I wouldn’t rest until I found out who murdered your parents. Unfortunately, I kind of failed because I was unable to track down the killers. I don’t even have their names. However, I know what they are and why they did what they did.”

  “What they are…?” The odd formulation confused her even more. She had honestly never thought Seth and Blake would ever find out more than the police had.

  “Amelia, my love…” Seth started. He paused for a moment to look deep into her eyes. “Your parents we
re not who you think they were, and what happened to them wasn’t just some sort of unfortunate coincidence, two psychos who happened to target them that night.”

  “What do you mean?” Her brows furrowed and she finally wanted to pull her hands free, but Seth didn’t let go. He wasn’t finished.

  “You’ll have all the time in the world to study those files. For now, just listen to me because what I’m about to tell you is going to change… everything. It might even have a huge impact on Clan Sylfur. Hell! It will probably turn the whole fox-shifter faction upside down!”

  Blake chocked on her wine. “All right, now you’re scaring me.” She had known why Seth had insisted they had dinner at his cabin and she had been curious to find out what he had managed to unravel about Amelia’s case. Even knowing that the Tricksters were involved, she still hadn’t expected anything major. Sure, Milla was a fox-shifter, which meant that Amelia couldn’t possibly be her daughter. She was probably Stephen Bennet’s daughter with another woman. For some reason, the Assassins’ Guild went after Milla, but that hardly indicated the truth, whatever it was, could concern the whole faction.

  “Yes, you’re scaring me too,” said Amelia. “Just tell me already.” She eyed the stack of files again, now dying to know what they contained.

  Seth took a deep breath. He had gone through what he had to say a dozen times, but he was still nervous that he might forget something.

  “Amelia, your mother was not human.”

  Amelia merely lifted an eyebrow, signaling she needed more details for the information to actually register.

  “Milla was a pure blood fox-shifter. She was never married to your father, and they were never able to build a real family because they were always on the run, especially after she got pregnant… with you.”