Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“You, Warrick, do the same with Alyssa’s contact and my phone number.” Dietrich instructed him.
“Yes, Sir.” Warrick responded like he was answering a drill sergeant.
“OK, now that this is done, you need to head back to the dorms. Act like nothing happened, you seem to be good at pretending. If you learn anything, tell us about it. Report to us on the movements of the others. And we need to know who all of these men are. I know that this one is Claud, and Talia said he was the leader. And one other is named Fritz, that name was in Talia’s vision, but the others need to be identified.”
“This one is Fritz.” Clovio pointed to one with blond hair and dark yellow eyes. “These are Patrik, Jonathon, and Adrian. They are not enrolled at the school, but there are others of us that are there.”
“Names.” Vincent ordered him with a single word.
“Aloisius, Gunnar, Armina, Lovisa, Hede, and Hedi. With me and Warrick, there were eight of us. Armina is like us though, she is against the family and lives in fear on a daily basis. The others are perfect little Jaegan drones that do what they were told to do.”
“OK, we will look into them. Find out everything that you can, Clovio, and report back to me. If I get word that you tipped these people off, I will kill you. I will show you and your family no mercy. I am putting my faith and trust into you, do you hear me? Do not blow this.”
“I..I understand, Queen Riviana. I will not go against you. I don’t want to die, and I know that my family will kill me almost immediately if they were to find out about this. I trust you, and I want to help you.”
“Good. Do not make me regret this decision.”
“We won’t, Queen Riviana.” Warrick nodded at me. “We will prove that we are not the bad men that others think that we are.” I knew that he was talking about Rika and Alyssa. They would need to prove themselves before those two even looked at them again. I felt bad for them for a moment, but I wasn’t going to let it get to me. My main goal here was going to be putting an end to all of these murders. And that started with stopping the ones that were predicted today.
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Riviana
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Lucas and Westin drove Clovio and Warrick away from the castle. They weren’t to take them all the way back to the campus, but they were going to drop them close to it and let them walk the rest of the way. This would make it look like there was no cooperation going on between us and them. They would just say that they lied their way out of things and made it so that they were not in as much trouble. The story was also going to be that they were taken to Joaquin’s office in the city and not at the house. That would make it more believable that the king of the shifters wouldn’t be able to do anything to them at the time.
We spent a little bit of time coming up with a cover story that the two of them were going to tell their friends and family about what had happened. They couldn’t go in there and tell the others that they had gotten out of there with just a slap on the wrist. And they couldn’t tell them that they sang like canaries and wanted to take down the entire family with us. Neither of those options were viable for them, and that is why they spent some time coming up with a cover story.
They were going to tell them that they were grilled about their intentions with Rika and Alyssa. They weren’t suspected about being involved with the murders at all. This was all about a father being overly protective of his daughter and niece. And if they knew anything about Joaquin, then they would know that it was completely possible. In fact, I know that the entire reason that Westin wanted to bring those two back to the castle was because they were with the girls and they knew that Joaquin would not approve. So, in truth, it wasn’t that far off from what had happened. Things just took a turn in a different direction when we discovered who they really were.
After the boys were gone though, I felt like almost all of the strength had been sapped from my body. I almost collapsed and needed Joaquin to catch me before I hit the floor. He wasn’t the only one that moved toward me though. Vincent, Gabriel, Shawn and Dietrich all moved to catch me as well, but Joaquin was the first to get to me. He was, of course, my mate and husband, so it only made sense that he was the closest to me when I was starting to feel tired. It only made sense that he was the one to catch me.
…..
“Are you OK, Little Bunny?” Joaquin asked me in a worried tone when he swung me up into his arms.
“I am fine. I am just exhausted. I have had one hell of a day, and it’s not even over yet.” I laughed a little because I was able to understand the absurdity of the situation that I was in. I was tired, but it was all mental and emotional.
“It has been a tiring day for you, Riviana, hasn’t it?” Gabriel sounded just as worried as Joaquin did when he spoke just then. “I am sorry that I have not been able to take this stress away from you. I feel as if I am failing you.”
“You’re not failing me at all, Gabriel. I am the one that is responsible for all of this. As the queen, I can’t let people handle everything for me. That may be the way that others run their kingdoms, but that isn’t me at all. And we have all been through a lot. I am sure that I will have all the rest and relief that I need once this is all over. Until then though, we’re all going to be stressed.”
“Hey, at least we have a break in the case.” Shawn sounded a little relieved about that.
“Yeah, and we got it from your future son-in-law.” Vincent was clearly joking with him. We were all still coming to terms with this, and I knew that Shawn and Dietrich were having a hard time of all things.
“Shut up.” Shawn covered his ears and snapped at him. “He is not my future son-in-law. I refuse to accept that. Alyssa has no idea what she is talking about. Sh..sh..she is just confused.”
“I don’t think so, Liebe. I think that she is right. I am loath to admit it as well, but that boy is truly Lyssa’s mate. Now, whether she forgives him for lying to her is another story. For the time being, she is angry at him and we don’t need to worry about him putting his filthy little hands on her. In the future though, none of us can predict what will happen then.” Dietrich didn’t sound at all happy to be making that observation.
“We all need to face the fact that the kids are growing up. They are going to get their mates and they are going to move on. We may not like it, but it is the truth.”
“Riviana is right.” Vincent agreed with me. “As you all know, my oldest two kids are already mated. It was hard for me and Heather, but it is the way that things happen.” He had a bittersweet smile on his face when he spoke. “What’s funny is I still look like I am in my late twenties, but I am going to be a grandfather soon.” He laughed and rubbed the back of his head.
“WHAT?!” The rest of us all shouted in surprise at his revelation.
“Yeah, I found out when we got back. Conner and his wife Ginny are expecting, and Renea is getting married this spring. Let’s hope they can keep their hands to themselves so that they don’t have any pups on the way during the wedding.”
I was not expecting this reveal from Vincent right now. Then again, I guess it was to be expected. Conner was already in his mid twenties. It was about time for him to be moving on with his life. And Renea had met her mate last year. It was hard on Vincent at that time since it was his first little girl. I feel like it was harder on him when she mated than when Conner did. It was like he was feeling that loss of her innocence or something. I could just imagine what it was that he was going through. I was dreading when it was going to happen to me and Joaquin. Regardless of this whole thing though, we needed to be supportive of Vincent and his family. And perhaps I should go see Heather as well. She might need some girl time to talk with all of this happening.
“Congratulations Vincent, this is wonderful news.” I smiled and supported him. “I know that Conner will make a great dad, and Ginny is a sweet girl.” I had been at their wedding a couple of years ago, so I know how they were with each other. They were very much in love and have had a perpetual honeymoon phase for these last two years.
“Thanks.” He looked happy, despite the nerves that he was feeling. That was to be expected as well.
“This is great news, Vincent.” Joaquin offered his words of support. He couldn’t do anything else though, since he was still holding me in his arms.
“Congratulations, my brother.” Gabriel hugged him. They had become like family over the last two decades.
“I am happy for you, Vincent.” Dietrich shook his hand.
“I might need to get emotional support advice from you later.” Shawn laughed and hugged him. “You’ve been through this already, but it’s all new to me.”
“Ha ha ha. No problem. I will be there with the liquor.” That made them all start laughing.