Alpha Nocturne’s Contracted Mate by A E Randell
Chapter 255 Similarities
As soon as Lexi reached her father’s quarters, she didn’t bother knocking. She flung the doors wide open as she called out for him.
“Papa? Are you here?” she called frantically as she tried her best to hold back the tears that threatened to fall.
Lord Brarthoroz’s head appeared around the edge of the doorframe and his frown deepened as soon as he realized the state that Lexi was in.
“My daughter,” He greeted her with a soft smile as he threw the book he had been reading onto the bed and made his way over to her, “Tell me what troubles you.”
The combination of his soft, coaxing voice and the way he looked at her with such concern, seemed to open the floodgates as her grief poured forth with tears streaming from her eyes as she choked back a sob.
“Papa it’s Aoife! She… she’s dead. She was in the room right next door and I didn’t hear a thing…I should have stopped it, I should have…”
“Hush child, that’s enough,” Lord Brarthoroz soothed her as he wrapped his arms around her, cradling her head to his chest as he had done when she was a child, letting her sob noisily for as long as she needed, “I am sure that had there been anything that you could do, then you would have acted immediately.”
Lexi sniffled miserably as she pushed back from him and looked up at him with the eyes of a daughter that was desperately seeking reassurance from her father.
“Papa, her room, it looked… well, it’s so similar to Mama’s disappearance…” she whispered hesitantly
“What?” her father snapped a little harsher than he had meant to, making her flinch slightly.
He sighed lightly at Lexi’s reaction. He hadn’t meant to make her jump, but the memory of losing his beloved was still so fresh and raw in his mind, that he wasn’t sure he would ever get over it.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you…”
“I know Papa, it’s fine, don’t worry,” she said as she smiled up at him weakly. “But, you said there were similarities …?” He asked as he c****d his head curiously.
Lexi nodded slowly.
“Tell me.” Her father said seriously as he gestured for her to sit down and offered her a drink, which she declined with a shake of her head.
“Felix is adamant that Aoife was dead when he entered the room, her throat cut, with no chance of revival. He was distraught enough and covered in enough blood for that to be true.” Lexi explained carefully as she watched her father down a large glass of whisky as if it were water,
“Yet when we got there, there was no body… just the horrific aftermath of a clearly violent crime scene.” she continued morosely.
“Any weapons?” Lord Brarthoroz grunted as he swirled another double shot of whisky around in the glass.
“A knife, and, I know it’s not a weapon, but there was the pungent odor of sulfur tainting everything when we arrived. The damn shifters are so lucky not to be able to smell that,” she grumbled.
Lexi looked at her father as he grunted again before downing the contents of his glass in one gulp, and placing his glass firmly on the counter as he stared at Lexi.
After a moment’s pause, he nodded, sighing heavily.
“Okay, show me,” he said simply gesturing towards his door.
Lexi stood and once they were out of his room, she began to lead the way to the infirmary. She could feel the tension rolling off him in waves and understood completely how difficult this would be for him to face. Yet he was still willing to come to their aid and offer any assistance that he could.
Lexi smiled to herself and slipped her arm through her father’s as they entered the infirmary and hurried through the corridors to the room where Felix waited in.
The security detail waved them through and tried his best to hide his shock at Lord Brarthoroz’s colossal size in comparison to him. Shifters weren’t small by any means, on average, they were frequently taller than 6ft and built like they spent their lives in the gym, but Lord Brarthoroz made them look like scrawny teenagers in comparison.
The envious looks and sheer shock often brought a smile to Lexi’s face whenever she accompanied her father anywhere.
In minutes they were pushing through the door of the innocuous-looking room, and her father stopped in his tracks as he took in the gruesome scene before him.
Unlike his daughter, he didn’t cover his nose, instead, he inhaled deeply, as if scenting the air around them, and walked straight past Felix to the corner of the room without so much as a word.
“Sorry,” Lexi apologized quietly with a grimace, “That’s my Papa, Lord Brarthoroz, but I think you’ve already met.”
Felix nodded dumbly as he stared at her father.
“He doesn’t get any smaller does he…” Felix breathed almost enviously.
“What are you talking about? This IS small for him, he’s much larger in his own realm. Reducing his height to this is just a courtesy. Wouldn’t want you shifters getting all shifty on us now would we?” Lexi smiled gently.
The ghost of a smile played on Felix’s lips but he was too preoccupied with his wife’s fate to see any humor in the situation without feeling too guilty. He watched Lord Brarthoroz like a hawk as he seemed to inhale deeply at various points in the corner before narrowing his eyes at the point where the two walls met.
“There.” He said with certainty as Lexi and Felix rushed to his side, squinting hopelessly at the corner.
“I don’t see anything…” Felix muttered, the disappointment in his words cutting Lexi’s heart like a knife.
“You won’t be able to, shifter. It’s the faintest traces of what remains of a portal.” Lord Brarthoroz grunted as he turned to face the bed.
A flicker of pain crossed his eyes for the briefest moment as he took in the all too familiar scene before him.
The blood-soaked sheets, the congealed blood on the floor… but there was something else that was here that hadn’t been at the gruesome scene that was all he had left of his beloved mate’s final moments… a dagger.
He snarled as he reached for it, his face contorting in a mask of fury.
“Papa?” Lexi asked quietly, her voice trembling slightly with fear at the raw unadulterated anger in his face.
“f*****g Eromaug…” He hissed furiously, his irises blazing red as a terrifying aura rippled outwards from his massive frame.
Lexi gasped in horror as Felix looked between the two of them in confusion.
“You know who did it? Who the f**k is Eromaug?” he questioned urgently.
“Are you sure papa?” Lexi breathed as her father chuckled darkly.
“Oh, I’m sure all right.” Lord
Brarthoroz hissed as he spun the dagger in the light, studying it carefully, “Whilst I don’t think he was the one who killed your wife, I am certain that Eromaug, my bastard of a little brother, had a hand in your wife’s fate, Felix, and by the looks of it, most likely in my own mate’s fate too.”
“How can you be so sure?” Felix scowled as Lord Brarthoroz’s steely glare turned to meet his doubtful gaze.
“Because this dagger is my brother’s, and it still carries the stench of another on its handle.”