FATED TO ALPHA HUNTER BY VENNEH LISAH

𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐍'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕:

As I stalked through the halls searching for Dwight, who wasn't answering the Mind-link, I felt sick knowing that Ania wasn't beside me where I could touch her and feel her warmth. Every cell in my body called out to her, telling me to go back to my mate and covet her away from the rest of the world. However, I had to remember that Ania didn't want that. I wasn't even sure if she wanted me after the heartache I caused her. One thing was becoming more evident to me, though; her instincts were growing stronger, and I knew she would soon shift. It was inevitable, and I was just waiting for it to happen.

"Where are you?" Gary rushed through the mind-link, making me halt my steps in the middle of the corridor.

"Looking for Dwight. I need to speak to him about Rina," I told him, jogging down the steps toward his room.

"He's with me. Come to the office; it's important," Gary said, cutting off the link abruptly. I growled, turning on my heel and stalking toward the front of the castle to my office.

Pushing the door open, I saw that Gary had boxes of files scattered all over the floor. Desmond was also rummaging through paperwork, and I spotted Dwight passed out drunk in a chair by the window. The smell of liquor hung heavily in the air, and it was so unlike Dwight to get himself into this sort of state. Clicking my tongue, I turned my attention to Gary and Desmond just as Desmond handed Gary what appeared to be a picture.

"Here's another one," he said.

"How the hell did we not figure this out?" Gary muttered under his breath. He suddenly swept his arm over my desk, clearing everything off it. It crashed to the floor as he and Desmond started laying out documents and pictures.

"Her name is ANIA TALIA DEVONSHIRE; you were right," Gary said, and I walked over to the table, my eyes widening at how long it took them to find out.

"The man pretending to be Ania's father, Jackson Brook's, was the gardener for King and Queen Devonshire. Ania's mother was a staff member inside the castle, but everyone assumed she was a cleaner or cook. We could never find any documentation of the position she applied for before they took Ania away," Gary explained as he slid a document over to me.

"Okay, you're talking gibberish. What are you saying?" I asked.

Desmond handed me an application form for a job and said, "Ania is the lost princess of the Devonshire kingdom. She was kidnapped by a couple who worked as staff in their castle. The couple had a fertility issue and broke away from the palace with half of another staff to start their own pack, which grew to be Brook's pack as we know it."

I glanced at the application form, noting Jackson Herald Brook's name on top of the document. "For a gardener position, didn't the king ever question that?" I asked, shaking my head, wondering what this was supposed to mean.

"Look in the notes, down the bottom, and the date. We were so busy looking at Ania's files that we never thought to check anyone else's, assuming they were killed by the hunters," Desmond replied.

My eyes scanned over the document, and I found some handwritten notes by the King or Queen. "The applicant has a partner wishing to apply for a nanny position," the note read. It then listed Mariana's name, the woman who raised Ania, and her mobile number. It was dated three days after Ania was born.

Desmond handed me another document. It was their old staff applications. Inside were her identity documents, a criminal history which was squeaky clean, but at the bottom was a section stating that the applicant admits she has a 7-year-old child and can't work weekends as her babysitter works on Saturdays and Sundays. I glanced at her records from the King and Queen and her start date.

As I scanned the page, my eyes widened in shock. A picture of a small child sitting on the Queen's lap, eating a strawberry from her mother's fingertips, was wedged between the pages. Mariana stood in the background, watching them in her uniform. "That was taken two days before the attack; look at the date. More importantly, look at the name," Gary said.

The name read: Ania Talia Devonshire, 6

years old.

"Are you absolutely sure?" I asked, wanting to be completely certain before jumping to any conclusions. Despite my instincts telling me that something was off, I couldn't believe that I had been so blind to what was right in front of me this whole time. I had suspected that she wasn't a purebred lycan.

"There's one way to be 100% sure, although I'm already positive," Gary replied, pointing to the next line in the diary. It listed Ania's meal plan, feeding times, and routine, along with identifying characteristics such as her height, weight measurements, and the mention of a birthmark. A strawberry-shaped birthmark on her inner left thigh, along the crease at the apex of her legs.

My brows furrowed as I tried to recall if I had noticed any mark on her there, but I couldn't remember. I had been too focused on enjoying the taste of her flesh and the sounds she made.

"In the back of the diary, there were some things that the Queen had listed as complaints she had voiced to her husband about Mariana," Desmond explained, flipping the diary over and opening the back page.

"Mariana was warned numerous times for calling Ania by her name instead of using her title. She was also whipped three times on separate occasions when she was caught telling Ania to call her 'mummy'," Desmond pointed out, showing the different notations made inside the diary.

"Ania is a vae-wolf. She's royalty!" I murmured, feeling horrified. Part of me hoped I was wrong, but I also wished I was right because now things just got a lot more complicated.

"That's not all, my king," Gary whispered, folding his arms and watching me before rubbing his chin. Desmond fell back in the chair he was sitting in and scrubbed both hands down his face.

"We followed up on Ania up to five years ago before she went rogue and found out that she was mated and marked by Alpha Hunter Allan Augustus," Gary said, and I nodded.

"I know that I am Hunter and that I was her former mate," I hissed. "Does Ania know all of this? And why did she keep it from me?" I roared. I saw the shock in their eyes, but none had the guts to question me.

"I have known for a while now and was giving you time to figure things out on your own," I said, and Desmond nodded, putting his head down.

"There is much we need to piece together. I don't know it all. But why did the princess hide her identity from me? I knew something was up. She seemed different from a lycan!" I yelled at them.

"I don't know! Maybe the same reason you kept it from her. Did you tell her you were her 'dead' mate?" Gary asked me, and I shook my head. "Look at the pot calling the kettle black. You are accusing her of the same thing you are guilty of. Keeping stuff from each other. Or maybe she didn't know she was a princess. All you have to do is ask?" Gary nudged me.

"She said she will hate her 'dead' mate if he were alive for leaving her in misery for all those years. Ania is never going to forgive me," my voice trailed off.

"She is just talking. I am sure if you explain that you had no choice, she will understand. She is a vae-wolf. She can go into heat any day now, Arman, and she will mark you, which will reforge the bond completely. She won't be able to help herself. You said it yourself. The bond wasn't completely severed for you, so it couldn't have been for her either. She will love you even more now that she knows you are alive," Desmond tried to reason.

"I can't take back what I did, Desmond. She must have been in agony. It's no wonder she's been distant," I said, dropping into my chair and placing my head in my hands.

"You can't undo what's been done, but you can make it up to her, Arman," he replied, trying to offer a glimmer of hope, but I couldn't see a way forward.

"She barely lets me touch her!" I snapped, feeling helpless.

"Mostly, she's acting on instinct these last few days. It's only a matter of time before she shifts," Gary said, trying to be reassuring.

"If she doesn't mark me beforehand, her shift will be excruciating since I've put stress on our bond. She'll already be weakened," I sighed, realizing how badly I had messed up. Gary and Desmond said nothing, knowing there was nothing to say other than I had screwed up. Now I could only hope she would forgive me.

"Speaking of forgiveness, did the king not find it odd that Brook formed his own pack?" I asked, changing the subject.

"No, because Brook's pack wasn't affiliated with any kingdom, and it was far from Devonshire. So my guess is that King Devonshire didn't hear about the new pack, and even if he did, how many people are named Brook? The search for a missing child could have distracted them," Gary explained, and I nodded, feeling slightly relieved.

As we were in the middle of packing everything up, I noticed something and looked over at Desmond. "Wait, you should be with Ania. She wanted to leave the room earlier," I told him, and his head snapped up.

"You could have told me, sh*t. She is probably wondering why I am not around," Desmond said, wanting to go in search of her. I shook my head.

"It's fine. I can feel she is fine. She must still be in the room," I reassured him.

"I suppose I should go see if I can find this birthmark before I tell her if she lets me touch her," I said, exhaling before walking out of my office to look for her.

Anxiety filled me as I approached our room, wondering if she had sneaked out without any of the guards. However, I was relieved to find her sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace. One of my books was open on the floor beside her, and she held a tablet in her hand. Her tongue poked out the side of her mouth as she pressed her fingers to the touch screen before holding the tablet up to listen to the words in Spanish.

After she finished writing, she set the tablet down and began the next sentence. As I approached her, my shadow blocked out the heat from the fireplace and she finally looked up. I noticed that she was shivering and had goosebumps all over her skin. I bent down to pick up my book and she let out a sigh. "I was going to put it back," she said, her teeth chattering. "It's Pride and Prejudice." I hissed and then handed it back to her, which she took.

It took a lot of effort, but I eventually convinced Ania to show me her birthmark using my persuasive skills. It took the entire night for me to catch up with Ania and understand how I transformed from Hunter to Arman, and for her to fill in the gaps in my memory. I was grateful that she forgave me, and now that we were on the same page, she called Rina to inform her of everything. Ania broke down in tears as she recounted the events to her friend. "More than life," I whispered when she finished her call.

Ania nodded, indicating that the phrase had a significant meaning. I was curious about how it originated, as they always said it to each other. "To us, 'More than life' means that nothing says 'I love you' more than the fact that my heart beats for you. We stopped living for ourselves and started living for each other. You go, I go, and we keep fighting because we can't bear the thought of leaving the other behind," Ania explained.

"Like a pact?" I asked.

"Yes. We made it three years ago," she said.

"What happened three years ago?" I asked.

"Rina went missing. She didn't come up from the cellar. She was supposed to be cleaning the mop buckets, so I looked for her. I found her in the cellar, her tunic torn, her thighs covered in blood. Rina was standing on a chair with a rope around her neck. She wouldn't tell me what happened, but I knew. She told me to leave, but I grabbed the other chair and climbed up beside her and loosened the noose, wrapping it around my neck too." Ania answered, her eyes getting a faraway expression like she was trapped in some memory. The fear through the bond made me clench my jaw. That pack had so much to answer for.

"I told her she was more than my life. Mine wasn't worth living either if she wasn't in it, that we would go together because her life was worth more than mine," her voice trailed off.

"And she got down?" I asked, the calling slipping out at her distress. She lifted her eyes to mine when it washed over her.

"Can I help?" I asked her, and she sighed but nodded.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing," I said to Ania, feeling sickened by the story. "It's obvious that Rina didn't kill herself."

"No, we both jumped, but the rope couldn't hold our weight," Ania replied, and my stomach dropped. She then turned her head to show me a faint scar on the back of her neck where the rope had cut into her. "Rina has a scar behind her left ear from the rope as well. Instead of dying, we just got headaches from our heads colliding," she chuckled. I couldn't fathom how she could laugh about something so horrific.

"And that's how it all began?" I asked. Ania shrugged.

"Afterwards, Lucy told us to cook dinner. Rina didn't want to go up, so I helped clean her up and swapped my tunic for hers. We went to cook dinner," she explained. "I received 12 lashes for the ruined tunic, but what Rina went through was worse, so I wore it for her. From then on, wherever Rina went, I went. I would endure anything she had to endure."

I knew I had to get Rina away from Alpha Kelly. Everything she had told Ania was so wrong, and she was being mistreated. I didn't want her to suffer any more trauma, but it explained why Ania and Rina were so close. They were dependent on each other. I chewed my lip, thinking about Richie, who was lucky to be alive but would never walk again after the lashes he received. Even that punishment seemed too kind. When I sent Dwight back for him, he wouldn't be left breathing. And God help the butcher when Dwight finds out his name.

The night was blissful. Ania finally shifted after becoming fully relaxed, and we let our wolves have fun as we ran through the woods, mating in the wild.