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“Thanks.”
“A deal is a deal.” He leaned against the edge of the billiards table, dropping his cue on top. “Go ahead and ask away.”
I clutched my cue still in my hands, fists twisting around it as if I was trying to strangle it to death. I knew what question I wanted to ask, but a part of me held back. Was it too intrusive? Was I overstepping? He had told me I could ask anything, but it seemed like a trap.
Well, there was only one way to find out.
“Why is this case so personal to you?”
He nodded, as if expecting this to be my first question. “Do you remember the death counts of each species from the Elliot case?”
Odd question. “Forty-two humans, twenty-three Shrivs, thirty-one Vargs, and one Brido.”
He reached for the chain at his neck, yanking it up to reveal the pendant on the end. Except it wasn’t a pendant at all—it was a sparkling gold ring with a round cut diamond nested in the center.
“That one Brido was my fiancée. Her name was Cleo.”
“Oh, Goddess.” My breath rushed out of me, my mind blanking for a few moments as I stared at the ring still dangling from his fingers, processing what he’d just said. “So, you didn’t just transfer here because there was an open position, you took the job because you wanted to catch the killer who…” I couldn’t even finish the sentence.
“Correct.” He nodded, letting the chain fall from his fingertips to rest against his heart, above his steel blue shirt. He walked away from the billiards table and over to a pair of leather chairs in one of the corners. “I had been consulting whenever I could over the past four years, trying to be a part of the investigation.”
I followed him over, taking the seat opposite him. With the way his posture sank into the chair, his shoulders sagging, it seems this was something he had wanted to talk about for a while. Of course, it was only now that he felt safe to, once the strain of hidden facts finally came to light over the past few days.
“She was the Alpha of our Faction, and we had met as Deltas both transferring to Xoblar at the same time.” He twisted his fingers in the chain, a tick I had picked up on whenever we were talking about Elliot or the case. “We hadn’t set a date for our Mating Ceremony, we were both getting so wrapped up in the Elliot investigation. We kept saying that once we caught him, we would know that time was right. But that day never came.”
“I’m so sorry, Nolan,” I whispered, a part of me wanting to reach out and do something, anything, to show how much I truly felt his sorrow and hurt. My chest was aching, my eyes misting over.
“Thank you.” He gave me a weak smile. “I had been offered her position as Alpha, but I turned it down…it just didn’t feel right to take it. So, I continued on as Beta of the Faction, grieving and learning to move on in some ways and holding on to the past in others.”
“That makes sense.” I nodded. “Grief isn’t linear, we can’t just follow steps no matter how hard we try. We can’t force the process, we just have to pass through it no matter how long it takes.”
“When I heard about the Alpha opening at first, I didn’t consider taking it.” He looked me up and down. “I liked my team and I was comfortable there. But when I heard that the first Elliot case had officially been confirmed in Seathra, I realized I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I applied that day. I thought it was a long shot, since they already had a Beta eligible for the promotion, but they put in my transfer almost immediately.”
I snorted at that, but it wasn’t for his actions—it was the High Faction’s. Now I understood, and although I still wanted his job, I could no longer fault him for his choice, for the simple fact that I would have done exactly the same if I were him.
“You made the right decision coming here.” The words felt natural coming from me, even though his wide eyes told me he was not expecting that. “You deserve to get Cleo justice. I can’t fault you for that, especially now that I know how much information you were actually given about all of us.”
He chuckled, fingers brushing over the smooth top of the diamond. “Yeah, that’s a whole mess we can save for another day.”
“Agreed.”
“It’s not just bringing him to justice, although that is a part of it,” he added, his gaze starting to linger elsewhere. “Really, I just want to know what happened that night. There are so many questions that we can’t figure out. How did he get her alone? How did he get his hands on our Ogdala Blade? Why was she even in a position to be facing him? No one knew how she got there, not even me. And the only person with an answer is…”
“Elliot,” I finished for him, my mouth going dry.
“They’re questions I may never get answered because I have no idea how this whole chaotic hunt will play out.” He leaned forward, staring at the wall for a brief moment before softly looking over to me. “But I won’t stop. Not until I catch him or we find his body.”
His words struck a chord in me, an ache settling deep into my body, reminding me of a fact I had been ignoring for the past few days. The bitter taste of eating my own words and accepting my unplaced grievances were hard to swallow, but after tonight I couldn’t pretend.
Nolan deserved to be Alpha.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lea was already back to her old routine two days later, flitting around the kitchen making breakfast, dressed in her work clothes and ready to start her first day back.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay home for another day?” I asked, sitting at the counter, sipping the coffee she had woken me up with. “I can stay with you.”
“I’m sick of sitting around here.” She shook her head, dropping a plate of breakfast-sausage gravy and biscuits in front of me. “I need to get moving, and the forge is the best place for that.”
