Denying The Alpha
Chapter 86

"Is she coming" I pounce on David the moment his eyes return to their normal colour.

"Yes," he replies as he shuffles his feet. It's unusual to see David so uncomfortable. It felt like a bad sign. Why should he be nervous if he had nothing to hide?

His mate is changing him.... I don't like it! Duke huffs.

Yeah, I agree. I reply to my wolf as I glare at David.

"Alpha Kyle", Ingrid appears in front of me.

"Kyle is that a witch," James growls as he jumps towards her claws out. I was impressed by his speed. He was moving towards her before even her hair had the chance to settle. James has come a long way since I last saw him. "Stop, James," I order my brother.

James's reaction came as no surprise. Witches were not to be trusted. Everyone and their pet knew that. I probably should have warned him about her, but then I would have missed this.

"She's my mate." David tries to shield Ingrid from my brother's dangerous gaze.

"She's a threat." my brother looms over the pair of them. He wasn't wrong.

"Ingrid. Where have you been this past week?" I ignore them as I shove David aside. For a split second, I thought he might challenge me. His lips twitched as his teeth threatened to poke through his thinly pursed lips, and a low growl rumbled softly deep in his chest, but he impressively reigned it in and stepped aside. Good, I didn't want to have to get physical with him, just yet anyway.

"Why would you care? I wasn't at your precious get together of the wolves, so why should it matter?" Ingrid pouted pathetically. She was an old lady, for crying out loud.

"Cut the sh!t witch and answer the question." James spits at her with pure unadulterated venom.

"And who is this pup?" she glared hatefully at my brother. If looks could kill, James would be dead already.

"You are in no position to be asking any questions here. I don't care who your mate is, keep deflecting, and you'll meet the same fate every other suspect does!" I promise her. I'd like to see how quickly she gives up on her snide remarks as we torture her. Woah, Kyle, that's dark, my man. I like it. Woah, Duke drawls with satisfaction.

"No, Kyle, I beg you, just go easy on her, please. She is my mate. At least until your sure she's involved. But I don't think she is." David defends her.

Who the fuck does he think he's talking to? I can feel dukes agitation, but I ignore him.

"Which is why she has been allowed to stay! But we know absolutely nothing about her, David. This Witch shows up, and all of a sudden, Faith and her scent disappear without a trace. Not to mention she had you convinced to renounce your position as my beta. Why was she so desperate to leave? Would a good make ask you to give up something you fought so hard for? You were going to throw it all away just to be with her, but what was she giving you in return? And then there's the fact that she knew faith was pregnant, and she kept it from us. Even had you do the same," I cut him off.

"She has earned no trust from me. No friendship, and Definitely no mercy," I remind him.

"She's my mate." David tries again pitifully. "If faith asked you to step down, wouldn't you do it for her?"

My Faith would never be so selfish. She knew that the pack counted on me.

"Faith wouldn't. Not even after her history with Alphas. She cares too much for others. And she loves me for who I am. She would never ask me to change. Ingrid has been lording the mate bond over you since she got here. It's making you weak, brother. That's not what a good mate does to her partner."

David grits his teeth, I can see how his jaw clenched, but he isn't foolish enough to argue any further.

"I have been here, waiting for my David's return!" Ingrid calmly interjects.

She is even a little too composed if you ask me.

"Can anyone vouch for that?" I hope to catch her in a lie. That excuse is all I need to haul her out of here.

"You know perfectly well that I am without friends here. Whom could vouch for me?" She remains collected, poised even. I was expecting her usual aggressive self. She is usually so cagey. It just made me even more suspicious of her.

"So you spent almost a whole week in David's house. You never opened a curtain and took a peek, seen someone out and about who may have happened to make eye contact with you? Never went to the kitchen for food and bumped into a cook? No one came knocking on your door for anything? You didn't take a walk in the crisp evening air and stumble across anybody at all?" I found it impossible to believe that she could have been here all this time and have seen no one at all.

"Witches aren't exactly welcome around here. I doubt a wolf would have failed to notice you had you been around?" I say.

"No, I left the house here and there. For food, or to read a book by the water. And I did happen upon more than a few souls in my travels, but I can't tell you who to ask. I don't know the names of the wolves that live here, and they did not attempt to speak to me nor I them. You'll have to go ask around for yourself." She replied like it's no big deal.

That's when I realised....... She hasn't asked me why she's here. She already knows.

"Are you not curious as to why I'm asking you these questions?" To me, it was highly suspicious that she hadn't. If someone were roasting me, my first question would be, why?

"I am sure you are getting to it?" she frowned.

"Tell me what you are hiding, and I will spare your life." I grab her by the throat and lift her into the air.

I see David flinch as if to run for her, but his feet remain rooted to the ground. Did he save his mate? Or attack his Alpha, either option was messy, but I don't care how torn he feels. Ingrid is lucky I haven't called Gabriel in for some help investigating already. But I will.

"No, stay, David. I'm quite alright." Ingrid's strangled voice whimpers. When she spoke, I could feel the vibrations of her vocal cords beneath my palms. Her life was quite literally in my hands, and believe me, I wanted to take it, but if I did, any answers she had, died with her, possibly faith too.

"Where is Faith?" I ask. I loosen my grip around her neck, but only enough to keep her from dying.

"Have you checked your room?" Her snarky replies make me want to snap her her neck.

I smack her into the wall so hard that her head bounces off harshly and leaves a significant dent, but still, I'm not satisfied. There is no fear in her eyes.

"I'm going to ask again. Where is Faith" I smack her Into the wall once more.

"How should I know?" Ingrid groans.

"Please, Ingrid. I know you are upset. I should have stuck up for you. It must have hurt to see me turn my back on you like that. You should have been with us at that pack meeting. But don't let your pride make you stupid. Kyle thinks that your hostility makes you a threat. Faith is missing, now isn't the time to be snarky or stand-offish. If you know anything about where Faith is, then please tell us. If you don't, then drop the act. If you are transparent, we can forget about you and look for bigger suspects. All Kyle wants is Faith back, prove to him that you don't have her, and then everything can go back to how it was." David quickly interjects.

"Oh please, David. Who cares if some low life wolves don't like me!" Ingrid rolled her eyes. "I had nothing to do with hurting Faith or taking her or whatever this bullshit is about. I may hate wolves, but that doesn't make me evil. I just want to take my mate and leave this place."

"Is that what you think I am, Ingrid? Just a low life?" The pain in David's broken expression is real. I feel bad for him. I couldn't fathom hearing Faith say such things about me.

"Not you, David. You are different from the rest of your kind. If I didn't believe that, I would have rejected you, but you aren't. You were happy to leave with me. We can still do that, you know. We can start fresh somewhere new, just the two of us." Ingrid implores my beta.

"And if I'm not different?" He asks her. " Because I don't feel different. I'm a werewolf, and what if we have kids? They, too, will be werewolves. Will you think they're trash?" I feel like he should have asked her these questions long before he agreed to run away with her. Had the mate bond made him completely stupid? I wondered not for the first time.

Why are we entertaining this? Smash her head again. Maybe you can hit her hard enough that the truth just falls out. Duke snarls.

Because an emotional wound hits differently, it hurts more than anything physical I can do. David may make her so angry that she starts to make mistakes. She may confess we don't know. I say we let this play out.

"David, it's not like that. Please can we talk about this later." She implores him.

"Depends, is Kyle right, did you have anything to do with Faith's disappearance?" David's asks her again.

I still doubted him, and he had his moments where I considered him weak but I admit, I was impressed.

"No. I didn't. Kyle I knew Faith was pregnant yes, I should have told you, I should have said something to you both, but I didn't. I was concerned that you would run off with the dangerous idea of killing yourself to break the curse. It was stupid of me because of course you would replace out eventually but I couldn't be the one to bring that kind of stress to Faith, not when she is already facing the possibility of loosing her child. I know what that's like."

I don't trust her, duke growls. Honestly I didn't either, but without any proof what could I do.

"I'm going to ask each and every single member of my pack one by one if they have seen you around here at all this week, your not to leave David's house for any reason what so ever until I have. And if you have lied to me I'll kill you!" I threaten her. "Okay. Well when your done with that, come to me. I think I have found a way to break the curse after all. And you don't have to die to do it." Ingrid says smugly.

I blink at her in shock.

"And why should I trust you?" It was a little to Convenient if you ask me.

"If you don't trust me then don't, but my offer to help stands." she shrugged.

"David take her back to your house. I will have guards surrounding your place, neither of you are allowed to leave. In the meantime, I will have food and supplies sent to you. You may go." I dismiss them with a wave of my hand.

David reaches out for Ingrid but drops his hand before she can take it.

"Come on." He huffs as he storms out of the room.

Once the door slams shut behind him, I turn to my brother.

"Right time to call a pack meeting." there was no time to waste.

"You don't plan on trusting the witch do you?" James asks me Sceptically.

"No." I deadpan. But what if she could save Faith and my baby.