Page 80 of The Alpha's Fated Bond

Just two days with Drew shows me how much he has gone downhill in the past couple of weeks. If I thought that he became a shell of a man after Katie’s death, he’s far worse now. He barely sleeps, and he nibbles at his food. He’s wasting away before my very eyes. When we stop to take a break from running, he’s quiet, just staring at his hands. My heart breaks for him. I don’t know what to do. How do you comfort somebody who has lost everything?

The only time he shows emotion is when he asks me how I am adjusting in the new pack and how Alex and I are doing. He seems satisfied at my constant assurance that I’m happy with Alex. I haven’t told him what I was doing in the forest fighting off zombie wolves, nor has he asked. His lack of focus doesn’t surprise me. He’s not all there. Having to give up his son has shattered him.

I’ve tried to bring up the Tim situation, but Drew shuts down the topic, not wanting to discuss it.

“So, you have no idea what Noah is planning?” I ask instead as I watch Drew slice at the shrubs in our path. We’ve entered the former Black Alder territory, and Drew is being very careful since the forest is extremely dense and poisonous plants are growing everywhere. I wrap the cloak he gave me around myself, being careful not to get scratched.

“No, I’m not sure,” Drew admits. “And I don’t understand why he was planning to take you as his mate. I never understood it at the time, either.”

“What do you mean?” I glance at him curiously.

He grunts. “Sophia, Noah already has a fated mate. He found her years ago.”

I freeze where I’m standing, shocked by this new development. “He has a fated mate?! Who?”

My companion shakes his head. “I don’t know. Not a lot of people know about her because he hid the fact. He was afraid she would be used against him. I think—” Drew avoids a branch as it’s about to fall on him— “I think it was around the same time he found out about your mother. Yes. Because I was at the old house when I heard Noah fighting with his father. Robert threatened his mate.”

I stare at Drew’s back. If Noah already had a fated mate when he was actively trying to pursue me, was he intending to leave her for me? He must have cared about her. After all, he’d known her for a long time. Was it that easy for him to turn his back on her?

My silence has Drew looking over his shoulder at me. “Why do you think I was so against you and Noah to begin with? It wasn’t out of some misplaced loyalty toward Robert, who wanted you for himself. I knew Noah was leading you on. The whole situation was messed up. I don’t actually know if he rejected his mate or not.”

“Have you ever seen her?”

He hesitates before admitting, reluctantly, “Once. The same night I overheard Robert and Noah arguing. I saw Noah in the forest with her later. I just caught a glimpse of her face. She was quite young. Almost childlike features. But I could tell he cared about her. It was obvious from the way he was holding her.”

He cared about her, yet he was willing to leave her for me, I muse.

Unless he never intended to leave her.

Unless he simply intended to use me.

That would be more in line with Noah’s personality.

My head is beginning to hurt as I think of all the possible scenarios.

“Don’t worry about it, Sophia,” Drew tells me firmly as he continues to break trail for us. “You’re with Alex. Now that you’re wearing his mating mark, Noah can’t force himself on you.”

My fingers automatically touch the side of my neck, and I bite my lip. Drew hasn’t noticed that I don’t have any mating mark.

But still, I refuse to worry about Noah. There are more important things on my mind. Once we find my mother, I will bring her back to the rest of the pack, and then Alex and I will figure out how to go after Karina. Once everything is settled, nobody will ever hurt my mother again. I’ll give her a good life. But what about…

“Do you know anything about my father, Drew?”

My friend is quiet for a moment, and when he speaks, his voice is low. “Robert killed him. The two of them were friends, and yourfather had asked Robert for sanctuary. When Robert realized that your father’s mate was the Silver Wolf, he killed your father and took your mother. That very night, Robert also killed his own mate.”

“Why did my father need sanctuary?” I can’t even focus on the other parts right now; my stomach is churning.

Drew has crouched down to sniff a rock, and he looks up at me. “I can smell Robert. He passed by here at some point. And as for the answer to your question, your mother was born and raised in the Central Alliance, Sophia. I don’t know how she met your father, but he must’ve convinced her to leave there for him. The Central Alliance is very strict about mating outsiders. There’s no way they would’ve accepted your father. Especially when the female wolf in question was the Silver Wolf. So, my best guess is that your mother fled with him, and they sought sanctuary within the Red Rock Wolf Pack.”

This is a lot of information to process, and my silence has Drew backtracking hastily. “I was quite young back then, Sophia. I don’t know exactly what happened. Everything I’m telling you, I’ve heard from Robert’s right-hand people.”

“You’re lying,” I reply, giving Drew a small smile. “Robert wouldn’t have trusted anyone else with that information. You found all of it out directly from him.”

He sighs and looks away, not denying my words. After a while, he murmurs, “Yes, Robert told me he killed your father. I’m sorry.”

I’ve always known I was an orphan. In shifter communities, when a child’s father dies, even if the mother is alive, the child is said to be orphaned. I always accepted that about myself. But theknowledge that my mother might be alive filled me with hope. If she were still living, then perhaps my father…

I follow after Drew, wondering about the man who sired me, the person my mother loved so deeply that she left the safety of her own home to be with him.

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