The Delta's Daughter Chapter 335

MIKE

"Alright. Then discuss them. Starting with, what the fuck was that I walked in on?" I gestured with my head to move back down the corridor. We followed Hunji into one of the conference rooms, finding Morgan, Hunji's mate already in there waiting for us.

With a huff, I pulled out a chair and flopped down into it. I could seriously use a drink right now or a bottle. Hell, a few bottles. Anything to make me forget tonight. "Make it quick Hunji I'm about done with tonight."

"You and me both." Hunji grunts. He takes a seat next to Morgan but then pulls her onto his lap, burying his nose into her hair and taking deep gulps of her scent. My stomach tightened and coiled at the sweet display of affection. My wolf whimpered in loss and anger that Jonda and my murdering thief of a mate had evoked.

"Rhett is already aware, and I have reported to Queen Lamia, but as you also know the Kodiak Kingdom was attacked a month ago. Before that Alpha Xander's convoy was hit on the way to Riocht." I shake my head and lift my hands in a gesture of 'So what'.

This wasn't news to me. Since we had begun monthly reports and sharing them across the five kingdoms, we had all been in a better position to keep up to date and informed about what was going on throughout the continent.

"What you don't know is what Lamia and King found when they visited Cambiador." I raise an eyebrow at Hunji, hoping he will enlighten me some more.

I look to Rhett who looks just as puzzled as I am. "We didn't get any information from the prisoners when I was in Kodiak. Did one of them talk?" Rhett asks Hunji.

Hunji replies with a stern "No." accompanied by a low growl from his wolf.

"I had a vision. It had to do with Kolby Crimson and Queen Tala's crown." Morgan's admission caught my attention and my eyes turned to her. "This is why Kian, sorry Hunji, didn't want to let him go."

"Where are Tawny and Crimson now?" I ask. I hadn't given the pair of werecats a second thought since I barged into the room earlier. "I have other things on my mind than to babysit Tawny's mate." I gruff.

"They left. She, Crimson, and Mason are heading back to the werecat kingdom. But not before telling us about his trip to see Abner Brooks." Hunji says.

A little guilt seeped into me, but not enough to quell that simmering annoyance of anger. I need to hit something or someone. I need to work out all this frustration and vexation. Though I did feel guilty that I completely ignored my friend and her problems. Leaving it to Hunji and his mate to deal with.

Tawny didn't deserve my ignorance. Though I knew if she had any semblance of what I was going through right now, she would wave off her own problems and either hug it out with me or slap me for being a pussy.

"What was your vision, Morgan? What did Crimson say Hunji?" Rhett asks the questions.

"Hunji and I saw Crimson's crash. By the time we made it down the mountain and waited for a backup patrol, Crimson was no longer at the scene. Crimson confirmed he was run off the road, but once backup came…" Morgan looked to Hunji to finish the story.

Hunji picks up where Morgan left off. "By the time I got down there, there was no sign of Crimson. We searched through the night and the next day which was why I was late arriving in New Moon. New Moon border patrol reported Crimson crossing over and I had him detained because I wanted to question him. Crimson thinks someone stole his blood and insists he woke up at the scene of the crash and headed straight for New Moon to find Tawny."

"Okay. Where's this going and what does it have to do with Tala's crown?" I was growing impatient and wished they would just cut to the chase. But that was never Hunji's way when he was piecing information together.

"Crimson had been to see Abner Brooks. He took a folder they found in Cambiador that described or gave hints to where four magical stones had been hidden. Stones that could open the doors to the realm of the gods. Information that Abner knew was hidden in the Cambiador palace." I lift my brow at Hunji with skepticism.

I rub a hand down my face, pulling the skin taught. "What stones, what fucking door to another realm?" I question with ire.

"When Lamia visited Cambiador, they also traveled to a place called Tolba. A lost pack of pride Lions. There, they were shown a library that contained information since the dawn of this realm. It also contained a mirror, a portal between realms." Hunji paused for a breath and looked to Morgan to carry on with the story.

"It is said that long ago the doors between realms were forever shut. Sealed with magic. Four stones were created to seal the doors to keep the gods out after the death of Tiamat and Apsu. It would take those four stones and a source of energy that could rival Zeus' bolt to reopen them." Morgan looked at me and then at Rhett. "Although, I believe there are other ways to open a passage between realms."

Rhett scooted in his seat, shifting around uneasily. "You said you had a vision?" his voice thick with anticipation.

Morgan smiles, tucking a wayward strand of her white-blonde hair behind her ear. "I did. When I first saw Crimson, it came to me. I saw a man with dark skin, like the bark on the trees. He was smiling down, a needle in his hand. He looked like Kolby Crimson but darker and it left me with a feeling of evil.

"The man in my vision was powerful… a witch. In that same vision flashes of a ruby-red stone appeared to me. The dark man held it like he was happy to possess it, plucking it from a gold crown."

I shoved my chair back, the feet scraping along the floor as I did so. "And you think the stone you saw in the vision is one of the magic ones?"

Morgan nods her head at me, standing from Hunji's lap, "I do and after Rhett told us the crown was stolen, I'm thinking they are one and the same."

"Kellen needs to be here to hear this." I declare. Knowing he is busy welcoming his son into the world.

"He does." Hunji agreed. "Crimson also told me his father was believed to be alive. A Blood Alchemist. He also thinks his father, Senko may be the one to have stolen his blood if that's the case."

"The man from my vision…" Morgan mumbles seemingly mulling over the information.

"What did the crown look like Mike?" I peer at Rhett hearing his question and hesitate to answer.

I begin to pace and describe Tala's crown, "The stone was yay big, perfectly oval shaped with a smooth cut." I show her using my hands the size of the centered red stone. Knowing before it would ever be confirmed that the stone Morgan saw in her vision was indeed the exact same one I was describing.

"Maybe our suspect has a few answers. After all, it was her scent you discovered in the inner vault." Rhett supplies and suggests.

"Then let's go ask my murdering bitch of a mate some questions." I cracked my knuckles, ready to interrogate her. Focused on answers, I didn't notice the room had stilled and Hunji and Morgan's eyes were on me. "What?" I ask wondering what the fuck else they could hit me with.

"The suspect is your mate?" Morgan gasps. Shit, I had forgotten Rhett was the only one that knew.

"She sure the fuck is. But not for long." I tell them, looking them all in the eye with a pointed expression.

Morgan eyes me skeptically, lips pursing like she sees something about me that I don't. She doesn't say anything, but rather takes Hunji's hand and leads the way out of the conference room.

"Why don't you let us interview the female. Go take a shower. We will let you know what is said." Rhett suggests, a friendly heavy hand on my back. "Go see Jonda, see your nephew. Then you can come back."

It's a good suggestion. If I'm honest with myself, I don't even want to be in the vicinity of that wretched female. My supposed mate. My wolf disagrees with me, giving me a warning snarl to not talk about her that way.

'You need to make up your mind.' I tell Duke.

'Mate is a gift. Our love betrayed our trust.' Duke comes back, his feelings as mixed up as mine.

'Less than twenty-four hours ago you agreed we would reject the mate and still take Jonda as our chosen.' I remind him.

'The goddess gave us a mate.' There was something in the way my wolf said that. Like he was in awe. As if he never expected to have a mate.

I didn't go home, Instead, I found myself outside the hospital. Tala had given birth. The next king of New Moon had been born.

*****

RHETT

I watched Mike leave, worried about him. I don't think I have ever seen the Beta as broken looking as he does. His dejected and angry persona couldn't just be because of the mate he discovered last night. There was something else eating away at him. Something else was hanging over his head. Whatever it was had his aura out of balance.

"You noticed too?" I look down at Morgan and nod. She was a perceptive little thing. She suited Hunji well. "His heart and mind aren't meeting." She furrows her brows with concern as she speaks the words, violet eyes trained on the door Mike walked out of.

I gesture to Hunji as I turn to head back down the corridor to the last holding cell. "You want to watch?" He gives me a curt dip of his head and follows me with Morgan. I come to the door that holds the female suspect.

Morgan and Hunji enter the open door next to the interrogation room so they can watch through the two-way glass wall. As I enter the room that holds Mike's mate. Our only suspect for the murder of two men and the theft of the crown.

A slight slip of a female sits chained to the metal table, silver cuffs still around her wrists and still wearing my shirt. Not as small as Tawny or Morgan but shorter than Tala and Lamia.

Closing the door, I took a few moments to take her in and assess her. Her long brown hair flows and falls like a waterfall around her. She doesn't move, doesn't glance up to see who has come into the room. She looks almost too comfortable for my liking. Especially for the position she has found herself in.

I clear my throat, cross the room, and pull out the chair that sits opposite her. "Let's have a chat," I say sitting and crossing an ankle over my knee in a casual form.

Finally, the female looks up. And as blank as the expression on her face is, I don't miss the misty eyes or the frightened animal hiding behind them.

"Let's start simple. What's your name?" I ask. "What is your pack?" I ask something else when she says nothing.

Silence engulfs the room as I wait for her to answer. Her head dips low, her hair curtaining around her and shielding her face.

"I asked you a question. I expect an answer." I say harsher hoping to jar a response from her.

I get nothing.

"Listen, lady, let me be straight with you. Answer my questions or don't. Either way, come next week you will be tried for the murder of Alpha Jacobson Summers from the Red Claw pack's son, the unknown male we have in the morgue, and for the theft of the Queen's crown." Her head slightly cocks when I mention murder, but that's all. "We already know it was you who broke into the inner vault, your scent was all over the room. The Royal Beta was able to track you because his wolf could smell you."

The female shivers at the mention of Mike. An obvious reaction to the mere thought of her mate. Still, she says nothing.

*Either this female has pair of balls on her or she's mute.* Hunji sends me a mental message *Ask her why she stole the crown.*

I sigh, only because if she won't even give her name, why would he expect the female to answer that question? "Why did you steal the crown and where is it?"

Nothing. It was starting to grate on my nerves. "Answer don't answer. Maybe a trip to the dungeon will help you find your voice. I don't generally like to torture females, but I could make an exception for you. For a murderer."

*DO. NOT. HURT HER!* Hunji's voice fills my mind loud and abruptly. I turn to the two-way mirror where I know he and Morgan are watching and scowl. *You hurt her; Mike will feel it.* He states the obvious.

*No shit!* I reply. I may not know much about mates, being mostly human. Or at least I was until a year ago. But I know enough to know that once you meet your mate the bond will click into place and there are certain things you can feel through the bond.

I had no intention of hurting her. Not that I would tell her that.

I sit there staring at her for a few good long minutes until she raises her head and looks me square in the eyes. "What time is it?" she asks.

"Oh sweetheart," I chuckle crossing my arms. "That's not how this works. I ask the questions. You answer them. Besides you no longer have anywhere to be. Ever again. Time is no longer a friend of yours."

I see her eyes flash with emotion too quick to grasp. The female pulls her lips into a tight line, thinking. Then- "I will only speak to the Royal Beta." And she puts her head back down. Her hair fell back around her face.

"You realize you are making this more difficult for yourself than it has to be?" I study her body language hoping and looking for any kind of reaction.

I receive none.

I stand suddenly, my open palms slamming onto the metal table only inches away from her as I loom over asserting my dominance. She jumps back, her head snapping up and eyes casting a glare at me. Even with the silver cuffs on and her wolf at bay, she snarls her defiance. Looking more vexed than scared.

"You want to know who paid me to steal the crown? Then get me the fucking Beta. I will talk to him and no one else." She almost spits at me.

"The Beta wants nothing to do with you. Mate." I snarl back at her, shoving her attitude back in her face. For a moment I see a fleeting look of hurt cross her eyes before it's gone, and she is glaring at me again. "Talk to me or no one." I give no option, "Stay silent and I doubt they will even have a funeral for you."

With those last words, I walk out of the interrogation room, leaving her to hopefully stew and think over what I said.

At least now I know she will react to the thought and presence of Mike. But I wasn't sure if was a good idea to put him in the same room as her. If she thought Mike was going to take pity on her and fall to his knees in front of her… She had another thing coming.

That was if Mike would even step foot in the same room as her. And if he did could he resist killing her?