Chapter Thirty-Three

Meeting the Surrogate

Elena didn’t confront Harry as she’d planned to. She needed to meet the surrogate, and she knew of only one way to find her. She made a list of the most powerful witches in America, then narrowed it down to the witches who worked for the Callens. She smiled when she reached Celine’s name. Celine loved money. She could easily get her to reveal the name of the surrogate if she offered her a decent amount of money. Elena put on her coat and called a cab. She needed to pay Celine the witch a visit.

Fortunately for Elena, Celine wasn’t hard to find. She had a fancy office in New York, and was listed as a natural healer. Elena buzzed Celine’s office.

“Who are you?” a woman asked.

“Elena London.”

“We’ve never met before. What do you want from me?”

So she was talking to Celine, Elena concluded. “I’d like to speak to you. I’ll make it worth your while. In fact, you can name your price.”

Celine hesitated. “Tell me what you want from me.”

“I am Edgar Callen’s Luna. I want to know about the surrogate since he hasn’t said anything to me as yet about the baby I will be raising as our own,” Elena said.

The gate to Celine’s office clicked open. Elena smirked as she walked to Celine’s office. Who could deny her information concerning her Alpha? Celine let her into the office before she even pressed the buzzer.

“Hello, Celine. Thank you for seeing me at such short notice.” She smiled sweetly at the witch.

“You left me no choice.”

Elena took a seat even though the witch hadn’t offered her a seat. “Let me cut to the chase. I don’t know what’s going on with my Alpha and his surrogate but when that baby is born, it’s going to be mine. I have every right to meet the woman who is carrying my Alpha’s heir.”

“I am not the surrogate’s babysitter,” Celine said.

“I know that. I want to know about her. What’s her name? Where is she from?” Elena flashed Celine a fake, sweet smile. “So, are you going to tell me who she is or not?”

“Your threats don’t faze me, Luna.” Celine closed the small distance between them. “I have met many women like you who cheat on their Alphas, then come here acting all feisty. You need to get one thing straight: I don’t work for you. I acted on the instruction of the Elders. If you want to learn more about the surrogate, why don’t you go to them?”

This witch sure had the nerve to tell her off. Elena shot to her feet. “You haven’t seen the last of me, witch,” she said before storming out of the office.

She walked through the streets of the city for a while, trying her best to clear her head so she could come up with another plan to find out who the surrogate was and where Edgar had hidden her. She was about to hail a cab when she spotted Edgar talking to a construction guy. Elena hid behind a tree. After a few minutes, Edgar disappeared into the building. Elena put on her dark sunglasses and discreetly followed him. Was he here checking on his Luna? Her anger multiplied. Calm down, she told herself, you cannot do anything in anger if you want to get even with Edgar. She made a note of the apartment number Edgar walked into. The door was off its hinges. What had happened here? Had someone else tried to attack the surrogate?

The construction worker he’d spoken to earlier arrived with a team that replaced the doors and added a security gate. Edgar left shortly after that. Elena waited a few minutes before knocking on the surrogate’s door. She couldn’t wait to see what was so special about her that Edgar had impregnated her so easily.

The door clicked open. Elena smiled to herself. As soon as the surrogate came into view, a force field of energy flung her back. She hit the opposite hall wall hard and collapsed to the floor. The surrogate slammed the door shut. Elena groaned in pain. What the hell had just happened? Had the witch cast a spell on the apartment? No. The spell would have flung her back before she even opened the door. Had the surrogate sought magical help? Was she a witch perhaps? A dozen questions and possibilities fluttered through Elena’s mind as she rose to her feet. She needed to knock on the door again and see if the same thing happened. This time she knocked on the door three times, then stood aside. The door opened. The surrogate peeped out as far as the locked steel gates would allow. Elena recognized the girl. Wasn’t she the student who’d designed the robot for her? She’d made a generous contribution to the university as a token of appreciation. Wasn’t her name Alia?

There was no force field. Elena counted to five, then stepped into view all the while keeping her gaze fixed on the surrogate. Something flashed around the surrogate the instant they made eye contact. The force field of energy emanated from the surrogate’s huge belly. Elena ran before the force field reached her.

Someone was getting off the elevator, and she ran inside before the doors shut, gasping for air. She still couldn’t believe what she’d seen. The surrogate’s unborn child was protecting her. How could an unborn half-wolf have so much power? She rushed back to the mansion before anyone noticed she was gone. Thankfully, Edgar still wasn’t home. She didn’t bother to check on Harry.

Once inside the bedroom, she locked the door, switched on her laptop, and searched the internet for werewolf lore. She didn’t know what she was looking for yet. As she searched, she came across the legend of the seventh heir. She clicked on the link and opened the website.

According to the legend, the seventh heir of the current reigning most powerful Alpha in the werewolf kingdom would be blessed with the powers and magic of its ancestors. So if there were witches, wizards, and other magical creatures in its bloodline, the future heir would inherit all of their powers.

“How unfair is that?” Elena said to herself. She closed the website and shut down her laptop. The child should be protecting her, not Alia. Elena fumed. How could Edgar be so reckless with that amount of power? He could have used his unborn child to protect himself instead of leaving Alia the surrogate holed up in an apartment with the baby as her personal bodyguard. She needed to take the baby as soon as it was born. She had to form a deep, unbreakable bond with the child so it forgot all about the woman who had carried it for nine months. Elena’s anger slowly subsided. It was a good thing work on the Evening Club was well ahead of schedule. Once she won over the baby’s trust and used its powers to her advantage, she’d be safe inside her fortress.

Elena lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Edgar had done her a favor. She’d always wanted to have her own powerful pack of wolves. She’d grown tired of dual leadership under an Alpha and Luna. Why couldn’t she be a successful Luna without tying her identity to a man? Once she had the baby, she’d realize her dream. Edgar’s child would help her create the perfect pack inside the walls of her utopian sanctuary. She couldn’t wait!

She dozed off to sleep for about an hour or so. When she woke up, Edgar was standing beside the bed, glaring at her. “Did you try to harm my surrogate?” he demanded.

Elena yawned and stretched, deliberately taking her time before she answered him. “I didn’t try to harm anyone.”

“Celine informed me that you tried to bribe her to give you information about my surrogate.”

Elena stood up and glared at Edgar. “I have every right to meet the woman who is carrying our child, Edgar.”

Edgar shook his head. “No, you don’t. I know all about your affair with Harry, your illegal business dealings, and how you are still trying to hide this shady business deal of yours called the Evening Club. Do you honestly think I want my child around a criminal?”

Elena gasped. “How dare you, Edgar Callen?”

“How dare I what? Tell you the truth? You’ve always played me for a fool, Elena. I let you think what you wanted to keep my sanity, and kept quiet. But don’t you for one minute think that I will keep quiet when I am trying to protect my heir.”

“I have an equal right to the child, Edgar.”

“You have NO right on my child, Elena.” He took a step closer to her. “If you try to harm my child, you will see the worst of me.”

Elena laughed. “You will let me see OUR child, Edgar. If you don’t, I will go the Elders and tell them you’re going against their judgment.”

Edgar laughed. “Don’t threaten me with the Elders. They will never rule in your favor.”

“We will see about that,” Elena said, walking away from him into the en suite bathroom and shutting the door behind her.

***