The King's Wife Is The Alpha's Mate

Lucas was silent for a while and realized that Leland had been gone too long. Max and the others had been back since last week. If it wasn't a big deal, Leland should have been back.

He wondered in his mind whether he should make a team and go to Armeria to catch up with Leland.

"We'll wait three more days," he said after a long silence.

"Okay, three more days." Alpha Rad nodded in agreement. He didn't say anything else but his gaze made Lucas understand that his father-in-law was not too happy with the development.

Lucas nodded respectfully. "If after three days Alpha Leland still hasn't returned, I'll make a team and follow him to Armeria."

"What?" Alpha Rad was surprised because what he thought was different from what Lucas thought. He wanted to protest but Lucas had left. The beta wanted to meet with Max and tell him his plan to go to Armeria if Leland still hadn't returned in three days, and he wanted Max to go with him. When Max heard of the plan, he agreed and said he would go too.

***

Sophie was exhausted from crying silently when her children were not around. It was too hard for her to handle on her own. While Leland was away, she never slept well and she couldn't eat properly. It had made her weak too.

The situation recently made everything worse. At this moment, when her babies were very sick, she badly needed her mate to share the burden. The fact that Leland didn't let her know what he was up to truly pained her.

She wanted to get angry, but she couldn't channel her anger to anyone. Leland was not there. Night fell and she was finally asleep after pacing in her room for hours, trying to think of a plan to find Eloise and beg her to try and save her babies.

She finally wrote a letter to Katherine and explained to her what happened and asked if she could give her clues on how she could get to the grand witch.

After she finished writing the letter and put it on the table, Sophie closed her eyes and fell asleep on the chair. She would ask one of the lycans to find Katherine in Hastings and give her the letter when morning came.

Currently, under the moonless night, in the small forest behind the manor, Leland was standing on a rock. He was looking sadly at the manor. His white hair swayed in the wind.

Weeks ago, when he thought about home, in his mind he imagined how he would immediately hug Sophie and the kids because he missed them so much. He missed her kisses and her soft touch on his skin. However, now that he was so close to home, he could only feel pain and anger from her.

He understood why she was feeling that way. It was all his fault. That made things worse for him.

"Did you change your mind? It doesn't matter," said Eloise who was currently disguised as Katherine. She was standing beside Leland and looking in the same direction as him.

Leland glanced at her sharply but Eloise smiled as she handed him a bottle of potion which they used to remove their scents. She said, "The faster you do it, the faster you will get Jack's soul stone back."

Eloise told Leland that he could make sure that Eloise really did steal his children's souls when she was disguising herself as Katherine, because she left her marks when she did it. She told him she marked both of them under one of their front paws.

If he could see those marks, he would believe Eloise that she did have their souls as hostages and that would mean one thing... he had no choice but to comply with her demands.

Leland didn't say anything. He quickly opened the lid and drank the potion. A warm feeling filled his whole body and that's when he knew that the potion had worked. Nobody could smell his presence and he could go in and out of the manor easily.

He tossed the bottle to the ground and then jumped down from the rock, carefully and without a sound.

"Wait!" Eloise suddenly jumped down from the rock too and chased Leland. She grabbed his arm and stopped him. "They are very sick now. I only touched them a little. I didn't expect them to be so weak and fragile. So, I'll be kind and give you some medicine which you can give them."

Leland gritted his teeth, holding himself back so as not to choke Eloise. He looked at her like a beast when Eloise quickly took out a small bottle from her robe pocket.

"This is the medicine. They will get better, and Jack will even recover one hundred percent after you feed him his soul stone." Eloise looked at Leland with a smile. "I have promised you to return Jack's soul stone after you break your mate bond with Sophie. The sooner you do it, the faster Jack will recover one hundred percent."

Leland threw Eloise a murderous glare. He snatched the potion and resumed his walk home. The night was a bit dark because there was no moon in the sky. Eloise stood where she was, watching Leland enter the manor secretly. None of the guards were aware of his presence.

Leland sneaked into the place where Sophie and her children were. His movements were light and without a sound. He was stunned when he found Sophie sleeping in the chair leaning her head on the edge of the baby crib. His eyes started to tear up at the thought that he would soon leave Sophie.

He walked slowly without making a sound at all. As he stood beside Sophie, he saw both Jack and Anne sleeping. Very carefully, Leland touched the babies' front paws and checked the marks that Eloise mentioned.

His heart felt so heavy when he did see them. It was a faint dark spot under their right paws. So, Eloise did manage to get close to his family and take advantage of Sophie's relationship with Katherine to target their babies.

At that moment, Leland felt so sad. He wanted to cry and wake up Sophie, hugged her and the babies. However, he clenched his fists and stepped back from her.

"Aaarghh..."

Leland was surprised to hear Anne's voice. She opened her eyes and raised her head shakily while letting out a low growl.

With a feeling of sadness raging, Leland touched and rubbed little Anne's head gently.

He picked up Anne and cradled her lovingly. The wolf pup's body was shivering with cold and felt as light as cotton. Leland then kissed her head and nose and cried silently.

His heart ached to see his children like this. When he remembered Eloise's words that his children were sick because of her, he became very angry. His face was red and his head felt like it was burned with fire. That was how mad he was.

After a while, Anne closed her eyes and purred. She seemed better after Leland hugged her in his arms. The Alpha put Anne back into the baby crib and then turned to rub Jack's head, who was sleeping softly beside Anne.

Leland turned around and saw Sophie. Softly, he crouched down and stared at the woman's face in silence while repeatedly wiping his tears.

"Please don't get sick, take good care of yourself for the sake of the children, because from now on I won't be by your side to take care of you and protect you," Leland could only say those words in his heart.

He felt suffocated. The worst feeling in the world was the feeling of helplessness. When you saw the person you loved suffer, and there was nothing you could do to make them feel better.

For a few moments, Leland remained in that position, staring at Sophie's face hungrily, as if he wanted to keep that image forever in his memory.

After a while, Leland rubbed his face roughly and contained his emotions. He got up, intending to leave. However, Anne let out a low growl and attracted his attention.

He turned his head to find Anne raising her head with difficulty. She was staring at him and crying despondently. Three seconds later Jack woke up and did the same thing. They both seemed to beg their father not to leave.

This caused Leland's legs to feel very heavy. Meanwhile, Sophie's lashes began to flutter. The sounds that the babies were making interrupted her sleep. She finally woke up hearing the cries of her children.

"Anne, Jack, what happened to–" Sophie was startled when she realized the babies were crying and instantly stood up to check on the children's condition.

However, she was immediately stunned and turned around when she realized Leland was standing next to her. She was frozen in her place. She thought this was a dream. Was it really her husband? Did Leland finally return?