Alpha Dom and His Human Surrogate by Caroline Above Story

Chapter 352 – Duke

Ella

“D-duke?” I stutter out, completely overwhelmed by the information, my eyes going wide. “There are dukes? And I had I have an uncle!?”

“I’m sorry,” Henry says, and I can see the guilt written all over his face. “I overlooked this – honestly, no one has heard from him in years – and, considering what we think he was actually getting up to, it makes a great deal of sense that he wanted everyone to believe that.”

“Who,” I say, frantic now, looking between Henry, and Sinclair, and Roger – Cora, I see, looking at me with worried eyes, but I know she doesn’t have any answers – “who is he?”

“Relax, Ella,” Sinclair murmurs to me, leaning close. “It’s all right -”

“It is absolutely not all right -“I snap, not wanting to be mean but completely panicked right now. “My father is dead but I have an uncle? Seriously? And no one told me?”

Henry continues to hang his head, shaking a little, and I instantly feel guilty. It’s not his fault – it’s so complicated, the politics, and why would he tell me about an uncle if he hadn’t spoken to the man in 30 years had genuinely a*sumed he was dead –

“I’m sorry, Henry,” I say quickly, leaning forward to put a hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry – I’m behaving so poorly – ”

up to me. “Your reaction is absolutely correct. I

have anything to apologize for. We all know this is a lot. So, can we please?” he says, pausing now to look around the table. “Can we

grateful for him every day. At least, I hope he gets all that from a squeeze, but the little smile he sends me suggests

irritated at the disruption and wanting all of the information on the table now so that we can decide to do something, instead of just talking about it. I smile at him a little, loving my

biological father. Either way, Xander was recognized, but he was never the favored son. That is why Xavier – stronger, faster, smarter, better-liked – took the throne instead of

clever,” Roger quips, and I’m shocked to find a smile on my mouth as he delicately raises his

the stomach to get him to stop, I grin at my brother-in-law, grateful for

very much the King’s sullen brother rather than a

“was perhaps… the mistake. That

what?” I ask,

point, is that…well, that Xander put this in motion. That he knew he was never a contender for the throne when his brother died but he coveted it anyway 1 that Xander wanted it, perhaps his whole life, and certainly after his brother died, but when no one mentioned him as a potential heir he started to devise a new

whisper, sitting back against my chair. “To

my eyes drift back to Rafe now, cooing gently in his father’s arms. My baby, the grandson of a King.

The man who intends to kidnap him and put him on the

in quiet obscurity. He’s taken great pains, I think, to ensure that everyone a*sumed that he did. He is playing the long game – we’re not total idiots for falling into the traps he’s taken twenty years to lay. We’re simply

details. “Can you – I mean -” I exhale quickly, closing my eyes and gathering my thoughts, “is the a*sumption that we’re making

know that Reina told Xavier about you on his deathbed he must have found a way, somehow, to communicate your existence to his brother before, or directly after, his death – I don’t know.

come for me?”