Page 142 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

“I see.” I couldn’t blame Samuel’s parents for being reclusive.

It was good that Bryn was taking the lead on this.

On my own, I’d probably come off as intimidating.

Her gentle nature was more suited for these kinds of conversations.

Still, I wanted to be there with her, both to find answers and make sure nothing dangerous happened.

The council had told me the Granby cabin was on the southern side of the compound, with a door painted to look like the sky. Whoever had painted it had talent—the clouds were shaded very realistically.

I knocked a few times. In moments, Adam and Cathy Granby, both petite and gray-haired, answered the door.

Their eyes widened when they saw me, and the male wolf shifted slightly in front of his wife.

His reaction didn’t offend me; it showed he was the kind of man who put his family first. I’d be a fool not to respect that.

“Uh, yes?” he asked. “Can I help you? Oh—” He saw Bryn step out from around me, and his eyebrows raised. “Alpha Hunter?”

“We’re sorry to come here unannounced,” she said with a kind smile. “We were hoping to speak with your son.”

The Granbys shifted from side to side. Cathy placed her hand on Adam’s shoulder and squeezed.

“My son…isn’t well,” he said. “What could you possibly want to speak to him about?”

“We want to ask him about what he saw that day,” she replied gently. We had no reason to lie to them. “Night and I are looking into the disappearances.”

“Oh, but Samuel is…he’s such a delicate boy,” Cathy blurted, her fingers digging deeper into her husband’s shirt. “He could get hurt.” She paused, her eyes narrowing at me. “You could hurt him.”

Her words didn’t offend me—I’d expected this pushback. I glanced at Bryn, and she nodded for me to speak.

“I promise I won’t touch your son or make him talk if he doesn’t want to. All we want is to try to get to the bottom of what happened all those years ago. As far as we know, he’s the only witness.”

“Forgive me for asking, but why do you care about missing King pups?” Adam asked. “They’re not part of your pack.”

“I care because the disappearances are strange.” I saw no reason to lie, but I wouldn’t give them every detail, either.

They didn’t need to know the disappearances might be related to Troy.

“So many pups went missing in those four years, and it devastated your pack. Maybe in some ways, this pack is still dealing with the fallout of those disappearances.”

Bryn nodded. “We just want to find some answers. Even if we can’t get much, we’ll be happy if you let us into your home.”

The parents turned to look at each other, speaking with only their eyes. After a minute, they stepped aside. Wringing her hands, Cathy went into another room as Adam led us upstairs.

“Did Samuel paint the front door?” I asked.

“Yes, he did.” Adam kept the answer short.

Shit. I must have overstepped.

“It’s beautiful,” Bryn said, saving the moment. “He’s very talented.”

“Yes,” he replied, his voice softening. When we reached the landing on the second floor, he turned to us. “Listen, the minute Samuel has had enough of your questions, you must leave,” he said. “Is that clear?”

“Absolutely,” Bryn said. “We won’t make him talk if he doesn’t want to.”

“Alright.” Still, he was hesitant. “He can be pretty excitable, so whatever you do, don’t spook him.”

He led us to a door painted to look like the sky at sunset, with pastel-pink and purple melding together. The clouds looked similar to those painted on the front door, only less puffy.

Adam knocked on the door, then opened it. I stepped inside, and my eyes widened. It wasn’t really what I was expecting from an artist.

The room was so dark, it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust. The curtains were nailed down over the window.

Samuel was taller than either of his parents but wiry and thin.

He was seventeen, but he had the haunted face of a kid who had seen too much too early in life.

He paced back and forth in the middle of his room, mumbling to himself. Sketches covered his walls.

Bryn took a few steps inside while I stood near Adam by the door, trying to make myself look less large in the small room.

“Hey there, Samuel,” Bryn said. “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

He didn’t respond and continued to pace.

“Samuel?” She took another cautious step forward. Though she was careful, her body language was relaxed. She looked like she knew what she was doing. “My name is Bryn. Do you remember ever seeing me around the compound? Back then, I was the only human in the village.”

Samuel’s mumbling quieted as he looked at Bryn. He still paced back and forth, but his eyes were riveted to her face. After a few seconds, he looked away again.

“Yeah, I thought you might recognize me.” She smiled. “I like your art. You’re obviously very talented.”

He didn’t visibly react to that, though I had no idea what he was thinking.

“Samuel, I’m going to ask you a few difficult questions, and I don’t want to alarm you. We’re trying to figure out what happened to you ten years ago. Could you tell me a bit about what you saw that night in the woods?”

Samuel stopped pacing and mumbling. He stood in the middle of the room, partially turned away from us.

“If you’re afraid to speak, please don’t worry. I brought my mate Night Shepherd with me.”

“Hello, Samuel,” I said. He turned his head toward me, and I felt rooted to the spot. There was so much behind that gaze, but nothing I could read.

“Night is strong enough to protect you, your parents, and the entire pack from what you saw that night,” Bryn said. “If you feel comfortable, could you tell me what took you and your friend—”

Before she could finish, he rushed toward his wall, grabbed one of the sketches from it, and ripped it off.

Then he stormed toward Bryn. My instincts pushed me to defend her, but she threw her hand back, stopping me before I could move.

In my mind, I knew Samuel wasn’t a threat to Bryn—and even if he was, his body language didn’t show any bad intent—but my wolf and I were uncomfortable at his proximity to my pregnant mate.

He pushed the paper into her chest and quickly drew away, pointing at them.

“Th-the shadows,” he said, his voice wobbling and eyes watering. “Took him. Hurt him.”

Bryn glanced at the sketch, then handed it to me. The page was covered in charcoal marks, menacing shapes, and hulking figures. But other than how ominous they appeared, I couldn’t tell what the drawing was supposed to be.

“The shadows?” she asked. “Was it a monster?”

He shook his head, and his long thin hair flew around his head. “Don’t talk about it. Don’t. It’ll come back and get me, too.” He went to his bed and crawled into the far corner of it. He trembled as he pulled the blankets up to cover him.

“Samuel?” Bryn asked.

“No!” He shouted so loud the entire cabin seemed to shake. “No, no, no!” He repeated this, winding the blankets tighter around himself. His shoulders trembled under the covers, and small sobs filled the room.

Footsteps stomped up the stairs seconds before Cathy shoved the door open.

She gasped when she saw Samuel’s state. “Look what you’ve done to my boy!” She rushed inside and climbed onto the bed with him, pulling him into her arms and rocking back and forth. “Oh, get out, get out! Leave us be!”

“Let us help you, Cathy,” Bryn said evenly. “I put him in this state. I want to help make it right.”

Cathy seemed hesitant, but seeing the concern on Bryn’s face made her ease her order.

“Fine. You can stay, Alpha. But that one”—she jabbed a finger toward me—“get out of his room. I don’t want anyone like you near my boy.”

Bryn turned her worried gaze my way. She wanted to know what I was going to say, wanted to know that I wouldn’t be hurt if she stayed to look after the boy.

My heart pounded. Cathy’s words stung. Her distrust of me came from the fact that I was the alpha of the Wargs, but Bryn’s worry helped smooth things over for me.

“Of course.” I inclined my head.

Adam gently touched my shoulder and guided me out of the room. “When he gets like this, there’s hardly anything we can do to get him out of it.”

“I’m sure Bryn will do everything she can.” I folded the sketch in half carefully. Poor kid was even more traumatized than I’d thought.

Adam and I went outside while Bryn and Cathy calmed Samuel. He took out his pipe and lit the tobacco with a match. He took a few somber puffs and blew out the smoke.

“I’m impressed,” Adam said to me. “Alpha Hunter was very good with him, and you were patient. The males of this pack treated him poorly, even when he was just seven. They asked him so many questions that he started to scream and cry. When they didn’t stop forcing him to talk, he hit himself to get them to leave him alone. ”

It made me incredibly sad to hear that Samuel ending up in tears was the best-case scenario, and we wouldn’t be able to get more information out of him because whatever he’d seen had affected him so terribly. I looked down at the pictures and tried to arrange them into a neat stack.

“I’m sorry they put him through that. It couldn’t have been easy for him, or you and Cathy,” I said.

“It was torture. I mean, we tried to do right by our son. We let him go out and play with his friends, disciplined him when he was naughty, and gave him all the attention he could want. But even when you do everything as best you can, things still happen that are totally out of your control.” Adam clenched his hands at his sides.

“You never think anything bad will happen to your child, but when it does, all you can do is hope they come back to you in one piece.”

My heart broke for this small family and all they’d suffered, and it broke for the families who’d lost children and who would probably never know how or why they’d died.

“What do you think happened, Adam?” I asked.

He puffed from the pipe again before answering.

“Well, when the investigation happened, and they couldn’t get much out of my son, the official story was that the boys were scared by an animal or something and were separated.

I think that’s bull. Animals fascinated Samuel, and we taught him how to identify the ones he would likely see.

To this day, he can look through a picture book and recognize each creature without being afraid.

“No…I think we had a child killer in our pack. I think someone waited until those poor boys were in the woods by themselves, then grabbed them and killed them. Fates know what he did with their bodies. Honestly, I don’t even like to think about it.”

“I don’t blame you.” That was what the council had said, too—that a killer had been hanging around the Kings’ pack. “Why do you think the kidnappings stopped?”

“I’m hoping it’s because someone killed the bastard,” he said.

“But in my heart, I know it’s never that simple.

In my head, the monster got what he needed from our pack, and either went to another pack to do the same thing or stuck around.

He could still be in this pack somewhere, biding his time, waiting to do it again.

Or at least, that’s what my paranoia tells me.

I don’t know, but no one in this damn pack seems to care. ”

“I care,” I said. “And so does Bryn. We want to figure out what happened and bring justice to the families who suffered.”

“I can see that you’re being honest. Like I said, you two were good with my son.

When he walked up to Alpha Hunter with the sketch, I was worried you would push him or hurt him, but you didn’t even touch him.

I appreciate that.” The expression he wore wasn’t a smile or a frown, but it was open and friendly.

“I know you’re going to compete in the alpha challenge with the others.

For what it’s worth, I hope you win. This pack could use a leader who doesn’t jump to a violent solution at every turn. ”

I winced inwardly, remembering the hurt and anger radiating from Bryn during our argument. I needed to talk to her as soon as possible. “I appreciate that, Adam.”

He nodded. There were another few moments of silence, and then he said, “You know, Night, I heard a rumor in the pack that our current alpha is pregnant.”

Shock coursed through me, causing me to straighten. “Who’s saying that?”

“I don’t know who started it, but not everyone believes it.

It doesn’t matter one way or another to me, but if it is true…

congratulations. There’s no greater gift than a child.

It’s hard with Samuel sometimes, but I thank the Fates every day that he is still with me because I know not every father is lucky enough to say that.

It’s important to always put your kids first and cherish every moment you have with them because they go so fast.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, whether I ought to acknowledge it as the truth or play it off.

It bothered me that there were rumors about Bryn spreading around the pack, but I knew Adam didn’t mean any harm by it.

And I appreciated what he had to say. So, instead of answering, I just stayed in the moment with him and mulled over his words.