Page 48 of The Forbidden Alpha

“Ahem!” Beta Darius cleared his throat.

Alpha Lucas and I turned to him.

“Maybe you can let go of Celine now, Alpha,” Beta Darius said. He looked almost amused as a ghost of a smile slowly appeared on his face.

Alpha Lucas stopped and looked at my arm and then back at me. Then immediately, he withdrew his hand and looked away. He stormed off, leaving me with Beta Darius as if he was embarrassed by his gesture.

What the hell was that about?

I could feel Beta Darius watching my expression, so I looked away, feeling the heat creeping up my cheeks. “Keep up, Celine,” he said before running fast and disappearing into the forest.

I snapped back to reality and started sprinting before our Beta. Thank God for all those hours of training. I managed to keep up with the two highest officials in my pack.

That was also when I realized that only three of us were on that team. The others took a completely different route. My eyes wandered around as I scanned the green fields before us.

“If you don’t mind me asking, is this another way to Crest Moon?” I asked as I tried to walk along with them. Alpha Lucas didn’t budge, but Beta Darius did turn to me. He glanced at the Alpha, too, but when he noticed that he was in no mood to answer any question, he just shook his head and faced me.

“Yeah, kind of. This route is almost invisible to Crest Moon. It connects to a secret tunnel beneath the Alpha’s house,” he smirked.

My mouth parted a bit. “A tunnel?” I asked in disbelief.

I didn’t know that such a route existed!

Beta Darius just nodded and smiled proudly.

I couldn’t help but gasp. “How did you even know that? I wasn’t even aware that there’s a tunnel beneath the Alpha’s house,” I said, trying to remember if my father said something about it, but I couldn’t point out that he did. Or maybe I just really didn’t care back then? Or maybe, he didn’t know, either. If that’s the case, then the Blood Moon pack is not just skillful in battle. They are also the masters of strategy!

It makes me wonder how they even discovered that such a tunnel exists.

“Does Crest Moon knows about this?” I asked again.

That’s when Alpha Luca turned to me. Both hands were in his pocket. He raised a brow. “You think we would go this route if they would be expecting us at the end of the tunnel?” he chided sarcastically.

My eyes darted to the ground in shame. Well, he’s right.

I heard the Beta chuckling. Tsk.

“I was just making sure!” I defended myself because he made it look like I just asked a very dumb question. Or maybe I did? Damn it. I felt embarrassed as the Beta guffawed louder. A part of me suddenly wants to smack him or something.

I decided just to ignore him and walked quietly with them. It took us a few hours until we finally reached the entrance of the tunnel. I looked at it in amazement as we briefly paused from walking.

“Gamma mind linked that they’re already in position,” Beta Darius said. We both looked at him. Alpha Lucas nodded.

“Okay. Tell them to wait for us to get into the end of this tunnel,” Lucas instructed.

Beta Darius nodded.

My eyes flew to the Alpha, who was blankly staring at the darkened tunnel before us. He looked so serious as we quietly walked inside. Something about his expression screamed of an emotion that I couldn’t quite fathom.

Come to think of it. I already felt something strange about his whole mission thing when he ordered me to come with them. He stated his goal plainly: to rescue our allied spies from the hands of the Crest Moon pack. Yet, why do I feel like there’s something else that lies beyond our supposedly simple rescue mission?

He told me he needed me because I was more familiar with the place. But it seemed like they were already familiar with Crest Moon’s territory. They even have this secret tunnel that I didn’t even know existed! So if that’s the case, why did Lucas ask me to come with them in the first place?

Something suddenly clicked in my mind.

“Other than rescuing the captured warriors, what is it that you want in Crest Moon?” I finally asked, briefly stopping from walking as I faced Lucas.

He froze in his tracks before slowly darting his eyes on me.

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