Page 12 of Beyond the Grasslands

I always wondered how she got them on Catalina’s side when we first announced that we would mate. Then I remembered what Vik mentioned to me when we first realized Nika had been taken.

“That crazy old bat has spread rumors that you were already mated to her daughter before her death. Some of the pack thinks it is true, and they think that in her death, you were given the chance to rule without a mate. There’s no other reason why you managed to stave off the madness without help for so long.”

Viktor’s words were a punch to the gut as I remembered them. Apparently, Miriam had worked hard to taint many members of the pack against any potential future mate I might find.

I wished I had taken my father’s advice far sooner, I might have learned all this long before it had the potential to help ruin the bond between my moon-blessed mate and me.

Eventually, my energy started to wane as it had been more than 48-hours since I last slept. I headed back to the pack house only to be waylaid by my Beta.

“Thorin, we need to speak.” When my Beta glanced around, I knew it was something of a sensitive nature.

“My office.” He turned and we both headed to the soundproofed room. Once we were there, I turned to face him as he locked the door.

“I spoke to your mate.”

“Is she going to reject our bond?”

Warren shook his head. “I don’t think so, but we didn’t discuss that. She was telling her friend from the island about a dream she had.”

“A dream?” I crooked my brow in surprise. It didn’t make sense that my Beta would pull me into a very private conversation to discuss my “maybe” mate’s dreams.

“She dreamed of the Goddess Selene again.”

That caught my attention. We had already discovered that Nika had spoken directly with the Goddess in a dream before, as everything she was told had come to fruition. Unfortunately, that included me being a shitty choice of a mate. There was a time when I thought that title had been bestowed on me because of my choice to take Catalina as a mate. Now, I understood there was more to it than that.

“Did she tell you what they spoke about?”

“Not all of it, but she did mention something important. She wanted you and another Alpha to be able to have justice and closure, so she explained that part of her conversation with Selene.”

“Justice?”

“You did have a moon-blessed mate before according to Selene.”

I sat in the chair behind my desk as my legs refused to hold my weight. The words my Beta just spoke were too heavy, too real. I had a moon-blessed mate. “Had?”

Warren nodded. “Bethany.” Her name was a whisper on the wind as I stared my friend down.

“Bethany Winslow?”

He offered a quick nod. “Alpha Winslow’s eldest daughter was meant to be your moon-blessed.”

“My father told me she was headed to our pack because she thought her mate was here. It was only speculation on his part, as Alpha Winslow wouldn’t reveal the true nature of her travels.” I recalled the conversation we had all those years ago and the twinkle in my father’s eye made sense. He had been amused when I said I hoped she found whoever she was looking for. My moon-blessed had been on her way to me. “She never showed up,” I remembered aloud.

“No, she didn’t and no one ever found any trace of her either,” Warren confirmed. “According to Nika, Selene informed her that Miriam was behind Bethany’s disappearance. She felt that since her daughter never had the dreams of a mate, she could be a second-chance replacement for the mate that never made it to you.”

I stood and sent everything on my desk flying. I remembered Bethany. I’d met her when we were children and I remember being enthralled with her back then. She was in one of the furthest regions from my own pack. When I did my tour to seek out my mate, she was the only female that hadn’t been there. She also had another year before she would have had the mate dreams at that point.

“Miriam killed my moon-blessed mate?”

“It appears so, if Nika’s dream of Selene is to be believed.”

“You believe it, though.” It was a statement more than a question and my beta answered with a nod. I wasn’t sure how to process that I’d had a moon-blessed mate who had been taken away from me. It made me wonder if Catalina had known about everything.

I remembered the dream I had with her and couldn’t imagine that to be true. She was the one who sent me in search of Nika. I wondered why she wouldn’t warn me about her mother, thenagain, she might have never known what her own mom was capable of. I knew she was a bitter, bereaved wolf, but never would have thought her capable of killing my mate or trying to get rid of my second chance at a moon-blessed mating.

Then again, she had given me those cryptic messages about my father’s death before I left to go get my mate back.

“We need to have another chat with Miriam, and this time I won’t spare her my Alpha command. She will tell me everything I want to know.” The problem with that was that Miriam seemed to be able to resist my command somewhat unless I put a ton of force behind it. “Someone is helping her,” I mentioned.

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