Chapter 62 Nora - Aleksandr’s POV
'Call Elder,' Skoll urged, slightly calmer but no less desperate. 'Nora will help. Nora knows mate wouldn't leave.'
It was a futile hope, but I found myself reaching for the phone anyway, dialing Nora's extension with numb fingers. She answered on the second ring.
"I need you in my office," I said without preamble. "Now."
I hung up before she could respond, knowing she would come regardless. Nora had served four Alpha Kings before me; she understood the weight of such a summons.
While I waited, I paced the length of my office, the photos still clutched in my hand. Each step fueled my self-loathing. I had known the curse was growing stronger. I had known what I was becoming. And yet I had selfishly kept Amelia close, telling myself we could break the curse together, that we were each other's salvation.
Instead, I had driven her away with the very darkness I had tried to hide from her.
A sharp knock interrupted my spiral of self-recrimination. "Enter," I called, my voice hollow.
Nora stepped in, her ancient eyes taking in my disheveled appearance and wild expression with a single sweep. "Aleksandr," she said, dispensing with titles in a way only she could get away with. "What's happened?"
Wordlessly, I thrust the crumpled photos at her. She took them, smoothing them carefully before examining each one. Her expression revealed nothing, decades of political survival having taught her to mask her reactions.
"Where did you get these?" she asked, her tone carefully neutral.
"Amelia's floor," I said, the words like ashes in my mouth. "Her room has been torn apart. And she's gone, Nora. Security footage shows her leaving the castle two hours ago."
Nora's eyes sharpened at this, her head tilting slightly. "Leaving how, exactly?"
"Walking out the front gate," I replied bitterly. "With a bag. Alone."
I moved to my computer, pulling up the security footage Thorne had shown me. Nora watched in silence as Amelia made her way through the castle and out into the city.
"This is... concerning," she said finally, her voice measured in a way that made me look at her more closely.
"Concerning?" I echoed. "It's devastating. She saw these photos, Nora. She saw what I did to Marcus. What I'm capable of. And she ran."
Nora's silver-streaked braid swung as she shook her head. "We shouldn't jump to conclusions. This doesn't track with what I know of Amelia. She's faced worse than photos of justified Alpha punishment and stayed standing."
"Then what?" I demanded, frustration sharpening my tone. "She clearly packed a bag and left. The evidence is right there."
Nora studied the photos again, her ancient eyes narrowing. "Who took these, Aleksandr? You had only Kane and the executioner present for Marcus's punishment, yes?" When I nodded, she continued. "Then either one of them violated your trust, or someone else was there unseen. Either way, someone wanted Amelia to see these. To drive her away."
The thought had occurred to me as well, but it changed nothing. "It doesn't matter who took them. What matters is that they worked. She's gone."
"I'm not convinced," Nora said stubbornly. "The timing is too convenient, the scene too perfect. Her room destroyed, incriminating photos conveniently scattered, clear footage of her leaving alone... it's almost theatrical in its completeness."
I wanted to believe her. Goddess help me, I wanted to cling to any hope that Amelia hadn't left me willingly. But the alternative—that she had been taken, that she was in danger because of her connection to me—was almost worse.
"Investigate if you wish," I said, turning away to stare out the window at the city sprawling below. Somewhere out there, Amelia was making her way further from me with every passing minute. "But do it quietly. If she has chosen to leave, I won't have her hunted down like a fugitive."
"As you wish, Your Highness," Nora said formally, the shift in address signaling her acknowledgment of my decision. "But I strongly advise against making any assumptions until we have more information."
I nodded once, a dismissal she recognized instantly. The door closed softly behind her, leaving me alone with my thoughts and Skoll's growing distress.
'Wrong,' he insisted, pacing in our shared consciousness. 'All wrong. Mate wouldn't leave. Mate in danger.'
"Or maybe she finally saw us clearly," I whispered, pressing my forehead against the cool glass of the window. "Maybe she finally realised what we truly are."
The truth was, I had always known this moment might come. From the first day Amelia arrived, frightened and defiant, I had recognized the possibility that she would eventually see through my careful façade to the monster beneath. The curse was growing stronger every day, my control slipping in small ways that she couldn't help but notice. The incident in the garden had been the first major breach, but there would have been others, more severe, as my hundredth birthday approached.
Perhaps it was better this way. Better she leave now, while she could still walk away, than stay until the curse consumed me completely and I destroyed her along with myself.
Eight weeks until my hundredth birthday. Eight weeks that now stretched before me like an eternity of emptiness, the brief hope Amelia had kindled extinguished as thoroughly as if it had never existed at all.
I turned from the window, my decision made. If Amelia had chosen to leave, I would respect that choice, no matter what it cost me. And if Nora's suspicions proved correct, if there was any indication that her departure wasn't voluntary... I would rain down hell on whoever had taken her from me.
But until then, I would do what I had always done: endure. Rule. Prepare for the inevitable end that awaited me. Alone, as perhaps I was always meant to be.