The Hidden Alpha (Alma Venus Shifter Brides 2)

“Blake, I know you’re almost completely healed. You can’t hide in here for the rest of your life.”

“Why not? I spent most of my life in this room.”

“Sooner or later, you’ll have to face them. They want to ban us all. You need to get over yourself and confront them. You’re still the Inari of this clan.”

“Am I, Seth?”

He sighed and rubbed his temples. Not this again…

“I’m a joke.”

“Blake…”

“I was stupid enough to think the truth would never come to light. I was so sure no one would ever catch me unprepared. If I hadn’t been so badly injured last night, I could have run, found some clothes… They would have never known.”

“What you’re doing now is useless. You have to focus on the future. Your future, Amelia’s future… my son’s future.”

“There is no future.”

He couldn’t get anything else out of her, so he left the room and plopped in one of the armchairs on the corridor. All he wanted was to go to his mate, slip next to her, and wrap his arms around her warm, soft body, maybe take Marcus from his crib and put him between them. But there was no one else he could trust to guard Blake as she moped in her room. If the Sylfur brothers had been involved in the attack, then Blake wasn’t safe.

***

The yelling and curses coming from the living room woke Amelia up. She tried to sit up, but winced at the sharp pain that traveled through all her muscles. The nurse rearranged her pillow.

“You need to rest, Mrs. Sylfur.”

“What’s happening? Where’s my baby?”

“Shh… he’s right here.”

She took the boy from his crib and brought him to her. Amelia took the small bundle into her arms and smiled at the child’s big, purple eyes, and round face.

“Oh my God, you’re perfect, aren’t you?”

“Here, let me show you how to feed him. He should be hungry by now.”

Amelia allowed the nurse to help her. Marcus’s small mouth immediately latched onto her nipple, and she watched him mesmerized. She had never felt so happy in her life. The spell was broken when more curses came from downstairs. She could recognize Sebastian’s voice.

“What’s happening? Can’t they leave us alone for a couple of hours? What do they want?”

The nurse didn’t know what to tell her. She was rather clueless. She was a fox-shifter, just as the doctor, but she didn’t know any details about what the Sylfur brothers were up to now that they knew Blake was a woman and Amelia had just had Seth’s child. She was a kind, honest woman and she genuinely cared about the young mother’s well-being. She shrugged and told Amelia all she had to do was rest and take care of her son.

“I need to know what’s happening,” Amelia insisted. “Just go down there and see.”

“I can’t leave you alone.”

“For crying out loud…”

Her questions were answered when Seth barged into the room, a big smile on his face, and blurted out the news without stopping to catch his breath.

“Sebastian, Julian, and Charles have just been taken in by the Council for interrogation. Damon has already been found guilty and arrested, and so has Jonathan Redfur.”

“Are you kiddin’ me?!”

“No!” Seth was almost jumping with excitement. He tried to act normally, seeing as the nurse was still there, and it wasn’t appropriate for a Beta to behave like that. “The Council has been suspecting Jonathan for a while, even before Blake took his position. When you called Max Blackmane yesterday, an investigation was immediately set into motion and they discovered the ex-councilor and Damon Sylfur hired the Tricksters to kill Blake. They aren’t sure about Sebastian, Julian, and Charles, but they’ll get to the bottom of this.” He sat on the edge of the bed and gave Amelia and Marcus a bear hug. “It’s over. It’s finally over.”

Amelia thought for a moment.