The Beta’s Ugly Daughter

Chapter 26

The grove had always felt like a place of answers. Tonight, it only echoed with questions I didn’t know how to ask.

The Whispering Grove felt different without the blood moon's crimson light transforming everything into something magical and otherworldly. Tonight, under the pale glow of an ordinary moon, it was just a clearing in the forest, beautiful, peaceful, but achingly empty.

I stood in the center of the grove, staring at the spot where Red had appeared so many times before, where we'd talked and walked and finally given in to the pull that had been building between us for weeks. But there was no blood moon tonight, and she never came unless the moon was crimson. I knew that, always had.

So why had I come here?

I pressed a hand over my heart, trying to understand why the ache there wouldn't fade. The pull I'd felt toward Red had been electric, undeniable, like a compass needle pointing toward true north. But lately, that same pull had begun pointing in a different direction entirely, toward Gail.

At first, I'd convinced myself the attraction was just to Red, the mysterious woman who appeared under moonlight and spoke in riddles that somehow made perfect sense. She was the one who'd awakened this restless need in my chest, who'd made me question everything I thought I knew about duty and desire.

But the feeling I got when Gail looked at me with those dark, perceptive eyes... it was identical. That same recognition, that same sense of rightness, that same overwhelming certainty that I was in the presence of something precious.

When she'd explained the mapping discrepancy this afternoon, her voice soft and certain as she traced boundaries on ancient parchment, I'd found myself staring at her hands. The graceful way her fingers moved, the careful precision of her touch, it had felt familiar in a way that made no sense. Everything about her felt familiar now.

Her quiet observations that cut straight to the heart of complex problems. Her presence, steady and calming in ways I hadn't known I needed. The way she grounded me without even trying, made me feel like myself instead of the carefully constructed heir everyone expected me to see.

I thought about her more than I wanted to admit. The way she'd looked when I'd made her laugh at my terrible joke about invisible ink, surprised and pleased, like she wasn't used to being the cause of joy. The way she'd flinched when I'd brushed off her question about the ceremony, as if my casual dismissal had hurt her more than she wanted to show. The way she never asked for more than I was willing to give, but somehow made me want to give her everything anyway.

"I'm losing my mind," I said aloud to the empty clearing. But was I? Or was I finally starting to see clearly?

The similarities between Red and Gail weren't just coincidental. The timing of Red's appearances, always after I'd spent intense time with Gail in the archives. The way both women made me feel, not just attracted, but understood, and seen. The identical pull in my chest whenever either of them was near.

My wolf had been trying to tell me something for weeks, stirring restlessly every time Gail was close, recognizing something my human mind had been too stubborn to accept. What if they were the same person?

The thought should have seemed impossible. Red was stunning, powerful, magical. Gail was quiet, overlooked, unremarkable by conventional standards. But magic could explain the transformation. A curse, maybe, or some kind of spell that hid her true nature during daylight hours.

It would explain everything, why Red always disappeared before dawn. Why she never told me her real name. Why she always seemed to be carrying some terrible secret that made her eyes sad even when she was smiling. Why every conversation I'd had with either of them felt like coming home.

I turned to leave the grove, but something kept me rooted in place. Not hope of seeing Red, I knew she wouldn't come tonight. Just the overwhelming certainty that I was running out of time to figure out what I really wanted.

In seven days, I would stand at the altar under the blood moon and pledge my life to Mira. The ceremony was planned, the contracts signed, the political alliance secured. Everyone expected me to go through with it.

But the ache in my chest wasn't for my intended bride. It was for someone else, someone who might be two different women or might be one woman hiding behind transformation magic. Someone who'd been right beside me all along while I'd been chasing shadows in moonlit groves. The realization terrified me.

What if I was wrong? What if Gail and Red were different people, and I was just projecting my confusion onto an innocent archivist who'd never done anything but her job? What if my suspicions were just wishful thinking, a desperate attempt to make sense of feelings that didn't fit into neat, acceptable categories?

But what if I was right? What if the mate bond I'd felt so strongly with Red was the same bond that pulled at me every time Gail was near? What if the woman I was meant to spend my life with had been sitting across from me in the archives every day, hiding behind magic and fear and the assumption that she could never be enough?

I forced myself to leave the grove, my footsteps heavy on the forest path. I had seven days left to figure out the truth. Seven days to understand what was happening to me, to decide whether I'd go through with the ceremony or find the courage to choose differently. Seven days to discover if the woman I'd been falling for in two different forms was real, or if I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life by choosing duty over the possibility of love.

Either way, the blood moon ceremony would bring answers. I just had to be brave enough to seek the truth while I still had the chance.