Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 260: The Northern Sector

*Braden*

I head outside. The air is crisp, and the sky above is clear, the kind of night I love. But my head really is a mess, though it did seem to clear a bit once Daphne’s scent faded. I’m not usually one to react to a woman like that. I like to have fun, of course, but I never go ga-ga over someone.

What the hell is a ga-ga?

I must still be in a bit of a fog.

“Braden?” Andrew asks from behind me.

“Damn, I forgot you were in there.” I rub my temples.

“You forgot your Beta.” It’s a statement, not a question. “Are you feeling okay? It’s not like you were even drinking.”

I look at him, and he seems to read something in my eyes, which he’s annoyingly very good at doing.

“That woman.” It’s another statement. “What was she, your mate or something?”

I shake my head. “No, she couldn’t be. I mean, I caught her scent, felt her pull, but there was something stopping that, like it was only half there.”

“Well, I didn’t get a good look at her, but she may not have her wolf yet,” he says. “That would make it half a bond, wouldn’t it?”

I shrug. “The hell if I know. She seemed to feel something too, though. If she didn’t have her wolf, how would she feel anything?”

“I have no clue.” He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Maybe she’s the Princess of Sheba or something.”

“Where the hell is Sheba?”

“Wherever your head’s at right now.” He laughs. “Look, we’d better go find her.”

“Who?”

“Your mate, Alpha Braden,” he says. “Honestly, do I have to do all the thinking for you?”

“Daphne can’t be my mate.” I frown. Just saying the sentence feels so wrong.

“Oh, for the love of the Goddess, of course, she is,” he says. “I’ve seen you with women from the east shore to the northern tundra, and you’ve never once rubbed your temple over one.”

“What? There are no women up north.”

“I was just—” He stops. “Never mind. Braden, what were you doing outside?”

“Oh, I need to go talk to Damon and Alessandro,” I explained. “They’re at the pub on North Second Street.”

“Alessandro’s back?”

I nod. “Just got in this morning, I think. You’d better come along, unless that blonde in the hotel bar has you enthralled.”

“Not enough to leave my confused Alpha wandering Oceanside City.” He opens the door of my SUV, which my driver just brought around. I don’t remember mind-linking him, so Andrew must have taken care of that himself.

It’s only a few blocks to Damon’s favorite pub. I try to get my head in the game and forget about Daphne for now. Alessandro just got back from Dark Forest and probably has some intel we can use to keep Damon’s father from making an ass out of all of us by attacking the place. As an Alpha, I need to put my people above every other distraction, no matter how beautiful she looks, or if she smells like wildflowers.

My tactic doesn’t work well, though, because the moment I walk in and see Damon, I’m greeted with a phrase that almost knocks me to the floor.

“I think that Daphne might be my mate.”

* * *

*Trisha*

The whole world is rocking, and I realize I’m on a ship, but it looks different than the one I took to Green Mountain. I get up from my bed and open a door, and suddenly, I’m in a room with a bunch of men playing cards. I try to look at them closer, but they have no faces. One has dark, straight hair and the other two are blond. I open my mouth to speak to them, but they’re gone just as quickly as they showed up.

I turn around, and I’m in a forest. There’s a little boy calling. He needs help. I start running, but the more I run, the further away he sounds. But then, he’s right in front of me, in a village, and there’s snow everywhere.

“Help us,” he says.

I inhale sharply as I sit up in bed, my heart pounding. The dreams are getting downright strange. I grab my notebook and try to write down everything I remember before I forget. I remember being on a ship, and watching a poker game, but I can’t remember who was playing at all anymore. I remember a little boy out in the cold in a village.

He must be who I’m meant to save. I need to find a way to get to him.

I stare up at my ceiling for a while, stewing about how Damon put my room on his tab, and then how Braden swooped in and started paying for food for me. I couldn’t believe it when the hotel staff brought a full meal for me to my room last night and wouldn’t let me pay for it. I didn’t blame them since they had Alpha’s orders, but it annoyed me. If I wanted to be waited on hand and foot and not have to pay for anything, I could have stayed back at the castle in Dark Forest.

I get up and take another shower, not sure how long I’ll be traveling if I’m going to ever find the little boy and his snowy village, so I figure I might as well enjoy the comforts of home while I’ve got a chance. Then I notice that while the hotel shampoo smells like apples, the conditioner smells like strawberries.

Great.

I get dressed and make my way downstairs to the hotel diner. This time, I pay for my own meal of pancakes, eggs, and toast. It’s more than I usually eat, but again, I’m not sure what’s ahead for me. The buttermilk pancakes are good enough that the Goddess herself could eat them.

I turn in my keycard and thank the guy at the desk, heading out into the city streets. This is a nice town, or at least, this seems to be a nice part of town. I’m not going to get anywhere here, but I don’t want to get lost, so I figure my first stop is buying a map.

Looking around, I’m really not sure where they sell them, so I head back into the hotel and inquire at the desk.

“What sector do you want, miss?” the man says.

“Sector?”

“Yes.” I can see he’s trying hard to be patient with me, but since this is a port city, he must be used to strangers asking silly questions. “The west sector has Greenhaven and several of the college towns. The south sector has Seaview and most of the resort locations. We’re in the east sector, with the port city here, and of course, the open ocean in front.”

“Which sector has snow?” I ask.

He furrows his brow. “Snow?”

“Yes, which one is cold, where it snows?”

“Miss, I’m afraid it only snows in the north sector, but there’s nothing there to map out, so I don’t have one of those,” he says.

I frown. “No villages or towns at all?”

He shrugs. “I suppose that’s possible, but I’ve never heard of one. No one ever goes there.”

“How would I get there to see for myself?” I ask.

“Oh, miss, you don’t want to go there,” he insists. “It’s very dangerous. I hear there are criminals there because no one dares travel that way, except of course, for the unsavory characters from Northside.”

“What’s Northside?” I ask.

He looks a little shaky and adjusts his tie. “Oh, that’s nothing,” he says. “Don’t worry about that place. You should stay as far away from there as possible, miss.”

I get the feeling he’s done telling me anything, so I buy the three maps he’s offered and head outside again, hailing a cab. If there’s anyone who can tell me about this place, it’s going to be a cab driver.

The yellow taxi pulls up, and I step inside.

“Where to, miss?” the man asks. He looks older than my parents, so he probably knows the place well.

“I need to get to Northside,” I explain.

He has sort of the same response as the hotel clerk, as if he’s instantly nervous. “Why would a single, young gal like you want to go there?”

I know for sure I need to get there now. It’s the only way I know of to get to this mysterious north sector, which has to be where the little boy and his village are located. I worry that the cab driver won’t take me if I have no reason to go there, so I make up something.

“My father is there,” I lie. “I’m supposed to meet him.”

“Oh, well, that’s different,” he says. “But my route doesn’t go that far out of Oceanside City. There’s a bus station on the north side of the port, though. I can take you there if you’d like.”

“Yes, please,” I say. I’ve never ridden on a bus before. Some of my friends did growing up, but I always had an escorted ride to school. “Do you know how much a ticket there will cost?”

“Can’t say for sure, miss,” he says. “But the fares are pretty reasonable.”

I nod as he drives through the city. I recognize some of the streets as ones where I first started to explore and go shopping. Apparently, the bus depot is close to the shopping district.

When he drops me off, I give him the fare and a good tip and head inside. The terminal is crowded, and it reminds me of the stories my parents will never let me forget—how they stopped and searched all the trains for me and my siblings, only to have me be the one baby they couldn’t find for a long time.

I know that was a horrible time for Mom. I can see it in her face whenever she tells me the story, which is often. I feel a twinge of guilt because I’m currently missing again, and I don’t have a way to tell her I’m okay. I have a feeling that if I write a letter, they’ll send the whole kingdom’s army after me.

I stand in line for a while before I get to the window where I grab a postcard, just in case I feel like sending it. “One-way ticket to Northside, please.”