Page 16 of The Alpha's Runaway Bride

Noah took the note into his room. Josiah Warren – 505-555-7296. Even if Josiah hadn’t told Benny who he was, Benny would likely have figured it out. Benny didn’t approve of Noah digging into Angie’s life.

“I did some digging and found the information you were looking for,” Josiah said.

“Let’s hear it,” Noah said.

“Angie Dewitt was adopted when she was a couple days old. Her mother was a human, named Erica Collins. Her boyfriend took off when he found out she was pregnant and her parents disowned her. It was about the time that Naomi and Clarence Dewitt moved to Angel’s Creek. They befriended Erica. When she died in childbirth, the Dewitts adopted Erica’s baby girl.”

Noah slumped in the chair and closed his eyes. She declined the mating ceremony because she wouldn’t be accepted when her secret was discovered.

“The lawyer for the case was Victor Franks. I have his information here. I’ll send it to you. I’ll also take pictures of the documents that were signed and send those to you as well.”

“Please do. Anything else?”

“You can talk to a man named Ryan Jamison. He is an old friend of the family. I’ll send you that information as well.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Noah said. “What do I owe you?”

“Nothing. What you paid was enough to cover everything,” Josiah said.

Checking his watch, Noah figured it wasn’t too late to call Ryan.

When the old man answered, Noah said, “My name is Noah Parr. I’m the alpha for the Silent Paw Wolf Shifter Pack from the shifter world.”

“I know who you are,” Ryan said. “What do you want?”

“Straight to the point. Okay. Angie Dewitt and I were supposed to go through the mating ceremony. However, she declined without giving me a reason. I did some research and discovered that not only was she adopted, but she is a mundane human.”

“And?” Ryan asked.

Noah’s heart sank because with that one word, Ryan verified the truth.

“I was making sure that my information was accurate.”

“It is,” Ryan said. “Naomi and Clarence loved the shifter world, but they raised Angie in the human world for her protection. When she declined to go through the mating ceremony, she was trying to do the right thing. She didn’t tell you to honor her parents and to keep their name from being tarnished. You had no business digging into her past. You should have let it go.”

“I needed the truth. Thank you,” Noah said and hung up before the old man could come through the phone and strangle him.

Angie had a lot of people who loved her and wanted to protect her. That was fine for the human world, but as her alpha, Angie’s business was his.

Anger coursed through Noah. He clenched his jaw and made tight fists.

“Why in the hell wasn’t she honest with me to begin with?” he growled. “I wouldn’t have wasted all of this time pursuing her. A week and a half in this damned world.”

Even as he said the words, he had to admit that he had enjoyed hanging out with Angie. She was a lot of fun and had opened his eyes to a need in society he never knew existed. If he was perfectly honest with himself, he would have to admit that he had started to care about her.

“Everything about her is incredible and she would have made the perfect luna, damn it.”

Noah was restless all night long. His mind wouldn’t shut down long enough for him to sleep. He tried meditating and listening to podcasts, but nothing worked. As soon as the sun came up, he packed his bags, checked out of the hotel, and headed to a local diner for breakfast. It was killing him to wait until seven to bang on Angie’s door.

Betsy threw open the door when she saw that it was Noah making all the racket. “What in the world do you think you’re doing, banging on the door like that?”

“I need to talk to Angie right now,” Noah growled.

“You just hold your horses, Buster. You don’t get to come here with that attitude, I don’t give a damn if you’re the alpha,” Betsy said. “I’ll see if she’s downstairs yet.”

She shut the door in his face. Noah was shocked. No one had ever slammed a door in his face before.

He leaned against the wall, wondering how long he was going to give her until he just walked through the door. Noah was on the verge of losing his patience when Angie opened the door.

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