The Delta's Daughter Chapter 343

MIKE

I walked straight into the adjoining room and fell back against the wall. Listening to Lyric's story ate away at me and my wolf. I could feel every one of her emotions. Duke howled at her loss and growled at her tears. It angered him to see her in a state of grief. With each word, I felt a pang in my chest and the bond called out to me, pulling me to my mate. Each string that tethered us together kept pulling tighter and tighter until I felt like I was being suffocated by her remorse and pain.

"That was-" Rhett blew out a breath, "WOW. Was not expecting that." He said.

I looked at Kellen and something passed between us. A notion, a guess. His eyes were glassy, and I knew her story about the pup had gotten to him. He was a new father, and I could only imagine the thoughts that went through his head after his mate had only given birth a few days ago.

"I have everything on tape and documented," Tyron spoke, filling the void.

"G-good." Kellen replied, stuttering out the word.

Pushing off the wall, I said to no one in particular, "I need to run." And left the room.

I pushed the doors to the reception area open, the icy air a welcoming feel as in seconds numbness set into my face. Snow had begun to fall heavily, the ground coated in a thickening blanket of white fluff. I shredded my clothes and quickly shifted into Duke. We shook our fur out, loosening the tight muscles from bunching up and not reacting as I listened to Lyric.

She was an Alpha's daughter. I thought, as I bounded forward toward the tree line. The same way I went when chasing down my mate, our suspect at the time.

The cold snow squished between Dukes' paws, crunching under his weight.

'I know you want her Duke, but I'm not ready to give up on Jonda. I can't just turn off my love for her.' I was angry as hell at Jonda, but deep down I still loved her, and I think I still wanted her to be my chosen mate.

'I want a mate.' It was a strange reply from Duke as if he wasn't going to be picky. He wanted his mate but also, he wanted Jonda. He loved her too. I could feel it. But I could also feel his growing affection for the little thief.

Whether Jonda still felt like that was another story altogether. Especially now she knew the man she cheated on me with, Rhett, was her mate. Would she want him? It would make sense if she did. He could break the curse, give her wolf back. Why wouldn't she want him? Why would she choose me. With me, she would live the rest of her life as good as a human - disconnected from her wolf. With Rhett…

The thought trailed off. Nothing was set in stone until Jonda spoke to me or Rhett. Or both of us. That's if she ever spoke to either of us again or answered her damn phone.

I ran for hours until the sky became darker, and the snow glistened against the evergreens that were thick in our forest. Dukes fur was wet and with evening the temperature dropped, forming crystallized droplets of water to bear on Dukes fur.

I began to head back to the palace, no closer to a solution concerning my chosen mate and fated mate. I felt a push on my mind and opened it up to receive a mind link.

*Beta,* Damon's voice filtered through. *I have some footage from the ball you may want to see.*

*Be right there.* I told him and picked up the pace so I could grab a new set of clothes seeing I left mine in ruins.

*I'm at home, meet me here* He told me before cutting off the link.

I arrive at Damon's house thirty minutes later, knocking on the mansion door. Damon lived on the other side of town, where his parents had built a mansion that sat on fifteen acres of land. They may have been omega wolves, but his father owned the biggest construction company in the kingdom. He had even been hired by Lamia to renovate MacTire and consulted on the refurbishment of Riocht. Making them wealthy wolves.

The door opened and all five feet nothing of Damon stood there wearing a pair of glasses and only a pair of shorts. I quirked an eyebrow at his skinny and pale body. "Looks like we need to mandate training for all wolves," I said half joking.

"My brain is my muscle. We can't all be as buff as the Royal Beta," He joked back. "Follow me." He said waiving his hand.

I had been to Damon's house once before. Most of our interactions took place at the palace down in his 'lair' as he liked to call it. Officially it had been named the control room. I followed through to the back of the house, to a door that held a keypad off to the side. He punched in a couple of numbers and the door unlocked.

"Holy shit Damon!" I gasped when we walked into the room, lights coming on as we entered. The place was huge, like an oversized garage or an undersized warehouse.

"Welcome to my heaven." He announced holding his arms out. I quirked a brow at the use of the human term. Wolves didn't believe in heaven. An afterlife for our spirits with the moon goddess, another realm. But heaven was what humans called their afterlife.

"What it's my dream place!" He feigned hurt. "Anyway, come see what I found. I've been pouring over the tapes for the past few days trying to find something."

"And did you?" I ask him.

"Yeah, kind of." He sits down in front of a wall of monitors and starts clicking away. There's a window that spans the length of one wall and I walk over to look through it. The window looks out into the rest of the space, which sits slightly lower than the room we were in.

I cock my head to the side, trying to determine if what I'm looking at is what I think It is. "What the fuck is that, Damon?" I point to the large familiar-looking object that sits in the middle of the warehouse.

"That's Birdie 2." I side-eye him when comes to stand next to me. He's wearing a shit-eating grin looking highly pleased with himself. "She gonna be a beaut once I get her up and running."

"Are you serious! Where the fuck did you even find one of those and does Kellen know about it?"

"Yes, the King knows about it. And as for finding it, our dear Alpha friend of the Kodiak Kingdom pointed me in the right direction. She's not much to look at right now, but once I get her up and running… Yeah." I look at Damon just to see him dreamily staring at the flying death trap.

I groan and roll my eyes, "Show me what you got." I say turning around and reminding myself to have words with Alpha Xander for encouraging Damon. Those two were total tech geeks. Get them in a room together and it's like they speak a different language.

Though I had to hand it to them, they did figure out the inhibitor chips Orion was planting in shifters. I was a smart wolf, but they were on a whole different level. Electronics came easy to them. Them and Lamia.

"Alright, so," Damon began taking a seat at his desk again and bringing up a screen that had an image of the vault room displayed. "I originally missed this because it was so fast but take a look for yourself."

He hits play and I watch, eyes trained on the screen and straining so as not to miss anything. The screen blips and I see a blur cross the cameras, then I watch as a figure quickly enters, and only seconds, maybe thirty at the most, the figure quickly walks back out. Not before pausing to glance up at the camera. "Who the fuck is that?" I growl out.

"Watch again, I will walk you through it." Damon rewinds the footage and hits play again. "The reason we don't see anything else is because, some little smarty pants person hijacked our feed and had the cameras playing on a loop. It must have been timed," He pauses the footage. "Because here," he points to the blur, "This is your suspect leaving the crime scene. We just catch the tail end of her." He switches to another screen, a different camera angle. "And this right here is where you see the Alpha's son and his unknown companion coming down the hall and entering the vault area."

"Now this is the kicker." He goes back to the original screen. "Assuming the Alphas son and the unknown are in the vault room still, and your thief has left the building. Watch this. I'll slow the footage down."

It comes to the figure entering the area again and In slow motion, I watch again as he looks up to the camera. Damon pauses the image and I see the yellow eyes of the figure, shining brightly at the camera.

Damon hits play again, and the figure goes out of sight. This time when the figure comes out, I can just make out the long blade of a knife in his hand before he is out of sight of the camera. "Who is he?" I growl out.

"Shit if I know." Damon shrugs his shoulders.

"Send me a copy of the footage and a still of that mother fucker. Send it to Tyron and my father too." I start to make my way out of Damon's lair, "If this mother fucker thinks he can get away with murder in my pack. He has another thing coming." I throw over my shoulder seeing myself out.

Already plotting out how to find him.

'New information clears mate.' Duke states and he's not wrong. With that footage, it clears Lyric Swift of the murder charges but not the theft.

'She's still a thief.' I remind him.

'Only because of her pup.' He reminds me.

*****

I find Kellen on the Alpha floor, lying on his couch in the suite with baby Conner asleep on his chest, and Tala sitting at his feet watching them both with dreamy eyes and a happy satisfied smile on her face. I suddenly miss Jonda even more.

Maybe it's because I had that with her, maybe it's because I'm not over her. Where the fuck is she? "Hey," I walk over and plant a kiss on Tala's cheek "Have you heard from Jonda?"

Tala shakes her head and frowns, "No actually I haven't. I called Luna Siobhan, and she hadn't heard from her either." I frown along with Tala; this wasn't like Jonda. "Frankly I'm a little concerned. It's only been two days but…"

"But it's out of character for her." I finished her thought.

"And you haven't heard from her either I take it?" Tala quires.

"I need another phone. I lost mine out in the woods somewhere chasing down the thief." I tell her, my mind, still on where Jonda could be.

"What about Rhett? Does he know anything?" I let out a low growl at Kellen's mention of our friend. Rhett and I were still not on talking terms, only when it came to business.

I didn't hate Rhett but at the moment my wolf and I were very unhappy with him. Or the situation, maybe both. What it really came down to was he fucked my girl and I think part of me was jealous as shit that he was probably her mate that's why she couldn't resist him.

The whole situation was fucked up.

I tell Kellen and Tala what the cameras caught and how I now believe that my thief of a mate did not murder the two men. "I will have my father speak to Alpha Jacobson and let him know what we have found out. This case isn't closed by any means. I want that yellow-eyed fucker caught."

Kellen grunts his agreement, while gently stroking his son's back. Looking content and happy. "And what about your mate?"

"What about her? Nothing has changed except when she is brought before the council, she won't be facing murder charges."

Kellen shakes his head, "That's not what I mean Mike." He shifts and passes the still sleeping pup to Tala. "I mean what are you going to do about her and her pup?"

"You're the king what are you going to do with it?" I question back wondering why it should be up to me.

"You want me to decide her fate for you?" Kellen asks standing from the couch, hands on his hips scowling at me. "Fine. In light of new information and her confession, as well as who that pup's father is. She will not be brought before the council."

"Wait what?" I balk in confusion. "You are just going to let her go?"

"Oh no," He now laughs, his eyes shining a bright blue. "Tala had a great idea that we put her under house arrest. We obviously can't take her away from the pup. She's the only mother he knows, plus if what she said is true then this shadow witch will come for the boy. Once Lamia arrives tomorrow, we will hold a conference I want all kingdoms on the call. Most especially Tawny and Crimson, your mate mentioned the name, Senko. Crimsons fathers name."

I heard Kellen, but my brain stopped comprehending his words when he said Lamia would be here tomorrow. "She's going to want to see the boy." I mumble, "How will she react knowing Zane Noir fathered A child only months, maybe weeks before they mated?"

"Would someone tell me who Zane Noir is? I keep hearing his name tossed around,"

Both Kellen and I scratch the back of our necks at the same time, I'm sure my face looked just as sheepish as his. "Zane Noir was Lamia's first mate, he died at the battle of MacTire. A silver arrow pierced his heart killing him instantly. Oliver's arrow."

Tala gasped. For unknown reasons, Oliver had taken a shinning to Tala while in Bhakhil. Had saved her life twice and was the one to create a distraction by blowing up a wall. As much as we all hated him and couldn't be happier that he had been executed, I know Kellen will always be thankful that Oliver saved his mate's life from Jack the bear when he couldn't be by her side.

That was the only reason Kellen didn't rip his heart out in Bhakhil and sent him to Travis, that and because he promised Tala, he wouldn't kill him.

"And this little pup," Tala looks at me, "Your mate's pup is Zane's child?"

"Technically it's her nephew but she claims him as hers. The pup was…" I search for the right words, "Designed and the embryo implanted into Lyric's sister."

"It sounds like this Shadow witch is more like a mad scientist." Tala declares. And I can't say I disagree. Messing with DNA and cultivating children. It screams weird science to me. Anyone who clones or alters DNA with blood magic is a scary kind of crazy.

"I have had the Aunt and pup set up in a guest suite on the west wing. If your mate is willing to work with us, I will have her released under strict orders she is to be confined to the palace grounds." Kellen says.

"What's to say she won't take off?" Because I really couldn't see her sticking around if she was set free. Why would she? The only reason I could think of was because of the bond. But something told me she wasn't keen on our pairing just as I wasn't.

A grin creeps up over Kellen's face, not a nice one, but one that could be considered devious. "She will have no choice. As King, I will order her to stay." He chuckles, "Let's wait and see what happens tomorrow, I have a feeling your little thief will stay wherever her son is. And I have a feeling Lamia will have some input on the matter."

I hum in response. I would need to reject my little thief of a mate, the thought didn't sit well with my wolf, and truth be told, the thought of rejecting her made me feel slightly queasy. Again, my body was at war with my mind. And Jonda's disappearance wasn't helping, I was starting to seriously worry about her.