Chapter 4

NORMAN'S POV

"She is wolfless," Dr. Walker, an exceptional Pack doctor, handed the results of the tests carried on Riley to me.

Now, that explains it. My wolf had the feeling something was off about this listener.

"Was she able to perform her first tasks?" Dr. Walker tossed the pen in his hand on his desk, waiting for my reply.

"I don't think so."

Chadwick imagined it was from stress but I knew otherwise.

"Her DNA is a match to that of Goro Wyel, the most gifted Listener the Lycan territories could ever have, she's from the bloodline but not everyone in this bloodline has that gift. She's clearly one of them."

Riley wasn't the last and only surviving from this tribe. I had gone through a whole lot to find her just to realize she was point-blank useless to me. I just didn't know how to deal with disappointments.

"I send her back to her people?" In a body bag.

"We can induce her. There's a fifty-fifty chance of whipping something out."

"How long is that going to take?"

"Eight months."

A pretty long time to wait, the throne couldn't wait for eight straight months. I had adversaries who fought to get the throne. Adversaries that I needed Riley's gift to crack up.

This girl was useless to me.

"Anything else you would like to know?" Dr. Walker asked, seeing my restlessness, his face eager to enlighten me on whatever he knew about Riley.

"Yes there is," I caught my breath and fought the urge to slam my hand on his oak desk. The anger and frustration in me was one I'd never felt before, "I need to understand why the goddess would make a wolfless girl my mate."

I instantly regretted it the second the words left my mouth because Rex Walker abruptly switched from professional mode to friends mode.

"What the fuck!" His jaws sagged, "There's no way you'd wait this long to finally get to meet her then she comes in a paw-less form. Savage!" He chuckled annoyingly.

My face clamped, the moon goddess had to be kidding me.

"Now I want to meet this listener, is she Gyatt?"

"For fuck sake, Rex," I got to my feet, sick of this office.

I started towards the exit. Things were already complicated. Why add more?

I trusted Rex to keep this realization a secret from the entire kingdom until I figured something out.

My mind dwelt on the girl. Did she know I was her mate?

I doubted. Big time. Nothing about her the previous day when we met suggested she had the slightest idea. She didn't have a wolf. That's why.

The chauffeur drove straight to the mansion, with my mind on the pecan-haired girl, I took gallant strides towards the wing where I offered her to stay. Her floral scent thick in the air.

She opened the door at first knock, her eyes widening as she realized who it was by the door.

I peered into the room above her shoulder at the sheets on the nightstand. What was she up to?

"I was coloring the piranhas in the sea." She spoke quietly. "Chadwick gave them to me."

I pushed past her into the room to confirm if she was lying. She was. Absolutely.

Nothing on the sheets of paper was close to being the sketch of the sea or fishes. She wrote something down. Big and bold handwriting. She couldn't be dyslexic.

She gathered the sheets before I could read them. Did she have an idea that lies had no room to thrive in this pack?

"You lied, Riley," I muttered, disapproval in my tone.

No, I wasn't talking about the sheets, she lied when she told me she could handle her first task.

Every anger in me simmered when I caught a glimpse of fear in her honey-brown eyes. A very protective part of me didn't want her to be afraid of me. She was harmless and beautiful. She was my mate.

She turned the backside of the sheets to reveal the sketch work on the paper. She didn't lie about the sea and the Piranhas.

"Chadwick told me to color, it'll help with my memory."

She sounded so innocent.

I took a step closer to her, but she backed away until the nightstand restrained further movements trapping her between my frame. Her heartbeats were all I heard in the room.

"I'm not going to hurt you if you're honest with me, Riley." My tone grew softer than I intended, hoping to break through her walls of defense, "You didn't color the picture because you know there's nothing up there."

Her confused gaze fused with mine. She looked more like a skittish fawn caught in the garden. Helpless.

"Did you know you're wolfless?"

She nodded too quickly, her gaze on her feet.

"Did you know you're not a Listener?"

"My grandpa Goro was rumored to be." She sounded genuine, "People said I was until I wasn't."

I watched her closely for a while before I asked the next question spinning around in my head.

"Do you know deceit is punishable by death here in the Northern territories?"

Her eyes snapped at me. "I didn't deceive you, I just thought the goddess would help me perform the great task."

"Did the Commanders of the Eastern Pack know you're wolfless?"

She hesitated to respond to this partly because my tone grew harder. Nate and his commanders tricked me.

"I can leave and they'll make refunds," she sobbed her fingers trembling, "I can go far away where no one will find me. That way I don't keep messing people's lives up."

I bet this girl had no idea just how long I'd waited to finally meet her and she talked about disappearing?

I took another step, closing the gap between our bodies. My palms cupped her quivering jaws tilting her head so our gazes could meet. Mentally groaning at how defenseless she was.

I needed to be certain she wasn't lying, not to this particular question.

"Riley Cooper, did you know I'm your fated mate?"