Surrendering to Destiny (Allison Franklin) novel Chapter 30

Surrendering to Destiny

Chapter Thirty

Graham cracked one eye open at the sound of his phone vibrating. Catherine was laying across his chest so he could only shift his head to look at the lit up screen. The name he saw there had him shifting Catherine over to get up.

“Graham,” Catherine whined as he repositioned her on her other side.

He kissed her shoulder and tucked the blanket around her as she shifted to get comfortable without his body. “I’ll be right back, Baby,” he whispered.

Catherine continued to grumble, still half asleep until her face went slack and she began to lightly snore. Graham grabbed his phone and sent a quick text to the number saying he would call them back in one minute. He pulled some shorts on and closed the bedroom door. He walked toward his office and shut that door too, making the room soundproof, even to lycans.

Sitting at his desk he called Lucas.

“Hey, Man,” Lucas said, answering after the first ring.

“Hey, what’s up?” Graham asked, tapping his fingers nervously against the desk.

Lucas had been in Moonstone for several days now, collecting information on his mate and what may have driven her away.

“Man… I have some shit to tell you.”

“Great,” Graham sighed, dreading the conversation with every fiber of his being. “Tell me everything.”

“Right, well I got to Moonstone a few days ago. Did some digging around the orphanage and the hospital she was reportedly born… Nothing.

She wasn’t lying. Isobel covered her tracks pretty damn well. All I could find is what we already knew… Born October 9, 1998, dropped at the

orphanage doorstep on October 12. She lived at the orphanage until she was six. The current orphanage manager was a nurse during that time.

All she could remember about Catherine was that she was quiet but smart like wicked smart,” Lucas said. Graham smiled.

“What about her abilities?”

“Abilities? She was six when she left, Man,” Lucas said.

“Yeah, well, apparently she and Jensen could shift earlier than that.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“Damn… that’s awesome.”

“Yeah… and?”

“Right, other than her being brighter than kids her age, she was pretty no mal. Then she was adopted by an older couple one Martha and

Hector Bennings. So I went to them next. Real pieces of work, Man. Real ht lipped too. In fact the whole town was. They’re certainly not used to outsiders, especially since Dominic arrived. Whenever I would bring up the subject of a girl who’d gone missing some five years ago, people would clam up.”

“Afraid of Dominic?”

“That’s what I thought too. Anyway, it took me actually mentioning Catherine’s name and telling them who my alpha was for the parents of

the year to start talking.”

“Fuck, Lucas, you weren’t supposed to…”

“Hey! I needed the fucking answers as much as you do and you ordered me not to resort to torture! So shut the hell up and let me finish…”

Lucas paused to see if Graham would interrupt again. “Anyway,” Lucas sighed. “After Dominic arrived, mateless, naturally the first thing he

needed to do was find a luna.”

“Obviously, fucking wolves,” Graham spat. Heaven forbid you gain the trust of your pack, strengthen your defenses and build on your wealth. No, all wolves cared about was having someone to fuck and siphon her power,

“Right? Well, it gets worse. Have you ever heard of Achmond Rais?” Lucas asked. Graham’s stomach churned.

“You mean the mating ritual that was outlawed among Lycans centuries ago?”

“That’s the one. Well, apparently some backwater werewolf communities sill honor the law. Dominic proclaimed it which meant every mateless

female within pack lands between the ages of 16 and 25 was brought to the packhouse, willingly or not. If the female resisted, the parents had

to sign them over.”

“Even then it probably wouldn’t have stopped a fucker like Dominic,” Graham growled. His mate had been locked in a packhouse with Dominic

DeAngelo? Maybe she’d gotten out before the law was proclaimed. Maybe that was what propelled her to run. Even as he thought it, he knew it

wasn’t what happened.

“I haven’t even gotten to the bad

don’t know how familiar you are with the law but basically these girls were put through the ringer.

They had to perform, attend balls, dinners, they had to shift and go on runs together with Dominic and, from what I heard…” Lucas paused and

Graham heard him throw back a shot of some kind of liquor and slammed the glass on the table.

“Lucas…”

“Fuck… If Dominic liked them, Graham, he was legally allowed to sleep with the contestants.”

Graham’s mind went blank. It was the only thing his body could do given that he couldn’t break something for fear of waking his mate, and he

couldn’t shift for fear of breaking his house. His phone cracked slightly and he cursed.

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