Page 148 of The Alpha's Cursed Queen

“I have a daughter, Lucius. Haven’t you heard the gossip? My mate and my daughter have been living here for the past week.”

Lucius looks pale. “I’m not—I really don’t leave my cottage anymore. I—I only came out tonight because I couldn’t sleep. You had a daughter with Willow? When?”

“I divorced Willow,” I tell him, getting frustrated now. “Just because the king died, it didn’t mean you had to retreat from the world.”

“There’s no use for me anymore,” Lucius mumbles, looking puzzled. “I just—If you divorced Willow, who’s your mate? Who’s your—How did you get a daughter so fast?”

“Alice Lane. My fated mate.”

He staggers, as if the information is physically taxing to him. Grabbing him by the arm, I lower him into the chair closest to us. Lucius—No, my father’s hand grips my sleeve as he demands hoarsely, “Say that again? Did you say Alice Lane?”

“Yes.”

He begins to laugh. It turns into a hysterical sound. Dropping my sleeve, he buries his face in his hands, all the while laughing so hard that I’m beginning to feel a little offended.

“What’s so funny?” I demand. “What’s wrong now?”

“Full circle.” His back is hunched as he rests his forehead in his hands. “It all comes back full circle, doesn’t it?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” The man is infuriating!

He looks up at me, and the tears in his eyes startle me. “My son and Edward’s daughter. You mated Edward’s daughter. Of all the women to choose. How did you even find her? He went to such lengths to hide her from you after what happened during the mating gathering. At least, he tried to.”

“My father hid her?” I already suspected as much, but having it confirmed is an entirely different matter.

Lucius leans back in his chair. “You don’t know anything, boy. Freya, the queen, had red hair. Nobody remembers that much about her because she was very sickly. She rarely made public appearances, and when she did, Edward had her covered from head to toe. During the mating gathering, he thought Alice looked familiar, and after he met her in the garden, he knew. He knew from her scent, and up close, he saw Freya in her. He supported your mating after that. He had initially been supporting Thomas because of the pressure from the white witches, but when he discovered Alice’s true identity, he changed his mind. He wanted you to mate with her, and then, you threw everything away.”

“I didn’t have a choice. Willow found out about Alice having the dark witch mark. Things got very complicated. I was trying to save Alice. I didn’t know Willow would bring in the white witches when she did. I had to make a deal with her to save Alice’s life.”

“Did it occur to you at any moment to reach out to either me or Edward? We would’ve dealt with that.” Lucius sounds irate.

I look away. “I was foolish. I admit it. But to be fair, the king’s behavior wasn’t exactly so generous toward me that I could approach him with a personal problem. And you weren’t particularly friendly with me, either. I didn’t think I could trust either of you.”

Lucius is silent for a few moments, his fingers interlocked as his gaze lingers on the marble floor. “He resented you for years for what you put his daughter through.”

“Alice and I spent the night together when she was here.” I can’t shake off the guilt. “She was pregnant when she left. You have a granddaughter. Mira.”

Lucius frowns and sits up straight in the chair. “That phone call. Just a few minutes before you came.”

“Phone call?”

“It was a woman named Alice. I didn’t connect the dots. She said to tell you that the witches took Mira. I thought it was a prank call, and then the line went dead.”

My blood grows cold. “What were her exact words?”

“Just that. She said, ‘It’s Alice. Tell Darian that the witches took Mira,’ and then the call ended.”

“Brian!” I roar into the empty hall. A few seconds later, Brian hurries over to me just as I’m reaching for the landline. “Where is Alice?”

“Her Majesty left.” He hands me my cell phone. “You forgot this here. She tried calling you. She was in a hurry. She told me to tell you to call her when you got back.”

“Where did she go?”

“She was going after you, Your Majesty. In the red Jaguar.”

That’s not possible. I turned the car around. I would’ve seen her.

I try to call Alice, but there’s no answer. I try to call Jimmy, then Mary, and no one picks up. My next phone call is to Katherine.

---