Alpha Nocurne's Contracted Mate

Chapter 255 Similarities

As soon as Lexi reached her father’s quarters, she didn’t bother knocking. She flung the doors wide open as she called out for him.

“Papa? Are you here?” she called frantically as she tried her best to hold back the tears that threatened to fall.

Lord Brarthoroz’s head appeared around the edge of the doorframe and his frown deepened as soon as he realized the state that Lexi was in.

“My daughter,” He greeted her with a soft smile as he threw the book he had been reading onto the bed and made his way over to her, “Tell me what troubles you.”

The combination of his soft, coaxing voice and the way he looked at her with such concern, seemed to open the floodgates as her grief poured forth with tears streaming from her eyes as she choked back a sob.

“Papa it’s Aoife! She… she’s dead. She was in the room right next door and I didn’t hear a thing…I should have stopped it, I should have…”

“Hush child, that’s enough,” Lord Brarthoroz soothed her as he wrapped his arms around her, cradling her head to his chest as he had done when she was a child, letting her sob noisily for as long as she needed, “I am sure that had there been anything that you could do, then you would have acted immediately.”

Lexi sniffled miserably as she pushed back from him and looked up at him with the eyes of a daughter that was desperately seeking reassurance from her father.

“Papa, her room, it looked… well, it’s so similar to Mama’s disappearance…” she whispered hesitantly

“What?” her father snapped a little harsher than he had meant to, making her flinch slightly.

He sighed lightly at Lexi’s reaction. He hadn’t meant to make her jump, but the memory of losing his beloved was still so fresh and raw in his mind, that he wasn’t sure he would ever get over it.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you…”

Papa, it’s fine, don’t worry,” she said as she smiled up at him weakly. “But, you said there were similarities …?” He asked

Lexi nodded slowly.

down and offered her a drink, which she declined

enough and covered in enough blood for that to be true.” Lexi explained carefully as she watched her father down a large glass of

when we got there, there was no body… just the horrific aftermath of a clearly

another double shot of whisky

not a weapon, but there was the pungent odor of sulfur tainting everything when we arrived. The damn shifters are

he grunted again before downing the contents of his glass in one

pause,

he said simply

and once they were out of his room, she began to lead the way to the infirmary. She could feel the tension rolling off him in waves and understood completely how difficult

her arm through her father’s as they entered the infirmary and hurried

detail waved them through and tried his best to hide his shock at Lord Brarthoroz’s colossal size in comparison to him. Shifters weren’t small by any means, on average,

often brought a smile

the door of the innocuous-looking room, and her father stopped in

instead, he inhaled deeply, as if scenting the air around them, and walked straight past Felix to the corner of the room without so much as a

grimace, “That’s my Papa, Lord Brarthoroz, but I think you’ve already

nodded dumbly as he

doesn’t get any smaller does he…”

in his own realm. Reducing his height to

humor in the situation without feeling too guilty. He watched Lord Brarthoroz

and Felix rushed to his side, squinting