Their Clueless Alpha Princess Chapter 08

Their Clueless Alpha Princess Chapter 08

Thea’s POV

Ash said he liked the deal. He said I was interesting, which I suspected was his word for anyone who didn’t immediately fall for his smile.

“But Soren’s a different story,” he added. “He’s not as easygoing as me.”

“I didn’t ask if he was easygoing. I asked for cooperation.” I adjusted my bag on my shoulder. “Tell him I expect to see him in class next time. If he wants the names on my list, he shows up.”

Ash gave a lazy salute. “I’ll pass the message.”

I left him on the bleachers and walked back toward the school building. My pulse was still fast. I wasn’t entirely sure I could deliver on the deal I’d just made. Finding a lost billionaire’s granddaughter wasn’t exactly in my skill set. But the twins didn’t know that. And all I really needed was for them to sit in a classroom and rehearse a French play with me until the end of the semester.

One problem at a time.

Soren’s POV

The investigation was going nowhere.

I sat in the kitchen of the house I’d rented near the school. A two-story standalone, modest by any standard, humiliating by mine. Back home, I lived in a stone manor on the eastern ridge of Solvane territory. Twelve bedrooms. A training yard. A lake. Here, I had a countertop with a chip in the corner and a refrigerator that hummed too loudly.

Eighteen years. That was how long ago Alpha Prince Wolfhart had been killed. His mate was human. That much the seer had confirmed. He’d hidden her identity from everyone, including his own father. No names in the royal archives. No birth records. No photographs.

The prince had been careful. Too careful. He’d buried his family so deep that even his father couldn’t find them, and the king had been searching for almost two decades.

I’d reviewed the school enrollment records. Cross-referenced birthdates with the year of the prince’s death. Checked for girls who were adopted, fostered, or raised by non-biological parents. I’d found six possible matches in the first week and eliminated all of them by scent alone.

None of them were wolves. None of them carried the crescent birthmark. And the girl who did have the birthmark, the one with the necklace, smelled human.

In my world, I could have had answers in a day. My pack controlled more territory than some human nations. We had resources, networks, influence. But none of that translated here. Wolves couldn’t use their abilities in the human world. Couldn’t shift, couldn’t compel, couldn’t reveal what they were. The treaty between species, wolves and vampires and demons and witches, existed for a reason, and breaking it would bring worse consequences than a failed search.

To the humans, Solvane was just a name attached to money. Useful for buying a house near a high school. Useless for everything else.

The front door opened and closed. I didn’t look up.

Ash dropped onto the couch, picked up the remote, and turned on the television. He kicked his shoes off and stretched out like a man who’d spent the day working instead of flirting with human girls in the sun.

The king had promised that whoever found the princess first would be named her betrothed. For Ash, this assignment was a vacation. For me, it was the path to the throne. Finding the princess meant becoming the next Alpha King of the wolf kingdom. Every hour I wasted was an hour the opportunity slipped further away.

“Find anything?” I asked.

“Depends on your definition.” He flipped through channels. “I talked to some of the female students. Very informative.”

“About the princess.”

“About the school. The social dynamics. Who’s dating who, who transferred in, who’s adopted.” He settled on a sports channel. “And I talked to your friend.”

I looked up. “What friend?”

“Thea Voss.” He said her name like he was tasting it. “The one who slapped you at the party.”

My jaw tightened. “She’s not my friend.”

“She’s interesting, though.” Ash propped his feet on the armrest. “She wants to make a deal. She’ll help us find the princess — says she knows the area, works at a local diner, hears things. In exchange, we show up to some French class and help with a group project.”

I stared at him.

“A group project,” I repeated.

“A drama performance. Something about a trip to Paris.” Ash shrugged. “She was very passionate about it. Grabbed me by the collar and everything.”

“You’re considering this.”

“I already said yes.” Ash grinned. “She’s different from the other girls here. She doesn’t care about our money or our names. She just wants to go to Paris. I find that refreshing.”

“Refreshing,” I said flatly.

“You should have seen her face. She looked ready to fight me if I said no.” He turned back to the television and kept talking. Thea this, Thea that. The way she’d walked right up to him across the field. The way she’d grabbed his shirt without flinching. How she wasn’t afraid, not even a little. How she’d stood there in her old hoodie and hand-me-down jeans and bargained with a Solvane like she had every right to.

He wouldn’t stop talking about her.

Something tight and unfamiliar settled behind my ribs.

“Fine,” I said.

Ash’s head turned. “What?”

“The deal. I’ll do it.” I pushed my chair back from the table. “Let’s see what she can do.”

Ash blinked. Then laughed. “I was about to suggest I just handle it solo since you’d never agree. What changed your mind?”

Nothing changed my mind. The deal made tactical sense. A local informant with community connections was more useful than anything I’d found on my own. That was all.

But my thoughts drifted to the necklace.

Wolves had a tradition. When an alpha found his mate, he would remove one of his own canine teeth, the fang that marked him as a predator, and give it to the person he loved. The tooth was worn on a cord around the neck. It was a promise. A claim. The wolf equivalent of a human engagement ring.

Thea’s necklace was a wolf fang on a leather cord, and she said she’d found it in the trash.

I didn’t believe in coincidences. My instincts had carried me through battles, negotiations, and ambushes that would have killed a less disciplined wolf. They had never been wrong.

You’ve been thinking about her for three days, Nox said.

I wasn’t thinking about her. I was thinking about the unknown wolf from the party. The scent I’d tracked to the restroom and lost.

Nox was quiet for a moment. Then: Sure you are.

I didn’t respond. Outside the kitchen window, the sun was going down behind the rooftops of this small, ordinary town where a lost princess was hiding somewhere. I was no closer to finding her than I’d been on the first day.

But I had a lead now. Or at least, someone who thought she could give me one.

Tomorrow, I’d see if Thea Voss was worth the deal she’d made.