The Alpha’s Fated Outcast: Rise Of The Moonsinger

Chapter 294 294: Hunting the traitor...

Nathan

I threw open Luna Vanessa's door with enough force to rattle the hinges. The sound echoed through the room like a gunshot, but she didn't even flinch. That irritated me more than if she'd screamed.

She sat in her rocking chair by the window, cradling her bastard. The sunlight streaming in cast her in an almost angelic glow, but I knew better. Vanessa was no angel—she was a conniving, manipulative bitch who'd been avoiding me for days.

"You could have walked in on me naked, Alpha Nathan," she said calmly, not bothering to look up from her child. "What do you want?"

"What do I want?" I scoffed, stalking further into the room. "I've asked to see you a million times, but it's the same excuse every time. May I know why?"

The baby gurgled, and Vanessa adjusted the blanket around his tiny form. Her movements were unhurried and deliberate—another subtle act of defiance.

"My child was sick," she replied. "You don't expect me to come running to you like an Omega, do you? Have you forgotten who I am?"

I paced the room; my boots echoed against the hardwood floor. The walls seemed to close in, stifling me with their floral wallpaper and feminine touches. This room had once been Alpha Logan's. At least I know that much. He'd invite me here several times to tutor me endlessly about taking care of the pack. Most times, he would ask me to come find an item that didn't exist so he'd sneak out with Miriam.

"I threw my father in the dungeon an hour ago for shirking my orders," I said, stopping directly in front of her. "I don't care who you are, Vanessa. Why didn't you come see me?"

Finally, she looked up, her dark eyes meeting mine without fear. "Is that supposed to frighten me? You've become predictable, Nathan. Anyone who disagrees with you ends up in a cell. Or worse."

Something hot and vicious clawed inside my chest. The voice in my head was becoming so influential, always pushing for violence, for blood. I breathed deeply, forcing it back down. I needed information from Vanessa, not her corpse.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"Who?" Vanessa's expression remained neutral, but I caught the slight acceleration of her pulse at the base of her throat.

"Don't play dumb. It doesn't suit you." I leaned closer. "Lyla. Your stepdaughter and Clarissa, your daughter. Isn't it strange that Clarissa has been missing for days and you're relaxed? First, it was the excuses that she was sick, but it's been two weeks now. I want my mate."

She stared at me blankly.

"Did you help them escape?" I asked again, not waiting for her to answer my previous question.

Her eyebrows rose slightly. "Is that what you think happened? That I helped them escape?"

"I know it happened." My voice dropped dangerously low. "My father confessed before I had him thrown in the dungeon. He told me everything—how he drove them to the border, how he gave them his truck. The only thing he wouldn't tell me was where they went."

always was a better man than people

I

no virtue, Nathan." She continued rocking, the chair's soft creak punctuating her words. "Look at what you've become. Killing the Southern Alphas.

under one rule—mine." I walked to the window, staring out at the training grounds below, where my soldiers drilled in perfect unison. "The old

a madman, we're

her. "You

always come

little boy all

me it's Lyla you're worried about, but of course, you're

accuracy of her statement sent a chill through me. For a moment, my vision blurred, and I

kill her, it voice whispered in my mind. Her

my fingers to my

"Whatever has possessed you—you're still

my hands, forcing my features into a mask of indifference. "I need to know

you can kill her too?" Vanessa's hold on

corrected. "The last of her kind. Potentially the most powerful person

powerful than the thing

Just tell me

I hoped she would

in my head. The more its influence grew within me, the more obsessed we became with finding her,

murmured. "That's what this is about, isn't

again, resting my hands on the arms of her rocking chair, trapping her in place. "Tell me where

know where she is. And even if

the voice urged. Tear out her throat. Make an example

tightened on the chair, the wood creaking in protest. "You're an Elder of this pack. Your duty is to me,

Her eyes flicked to her son, then back to me. "Something the

in the guise of family. The realization sickened me, giving me a brief moment of

the funniest thing they didn't know was that I was still Nathan. Maybe a few of my specifications had changed, but this was everything I'd dreamed of for the longest

hasn't she?" I said,

flicker of surprise crossed Vanessa's features before she could mask

none of my spies reported that Ramsey had returned to the White Mountains.