The Alpha King's Reluctant Bride (Ava and Grayson) novel Chapter 199

hapter 199

-Ava’s POV-

“So the Beta is the one responsible for all of this? So he can take the throne?” My mother asked.noveldrama

I kept my gaze locked on the window, watching the blur of buildings and trees flash past as the car sped down the road. I hoped my silence would give her the hint to stop talking to me, but, as always, she didn’t know when to let things go.

I clenched my fists trying to contain the anger simmering just beneath the surface. Yes, I had gone back to her. Yes, I had asked her for the pack’s help in finding Grayson. But that didn’t erase years of pain or make it easier to sit in the same car

with her.

“Ava, you’re asking me to use the pack,” she pressed, her voice sharper now. “The least you can do is answer my question.”

“I don’t HAVE to do anything.” I snapped, finally turning to glare at her. “You already agreed to let them help. If you’re just going to use this to guilt-trip me or hold it over my head, then tell the driver to stop the car and you can take them and leave. I’m not in the mood for this today-or any other day, for that matter.”

She sighed heavily, but to my relief, she didn’t say anything else. I turned my attention back to the window, the cold glass against my temple doing little to cool the heat rising in my chest. Still, just being near her brought the anger bubbling back to the surface, no matter how hard I tried to shove it down.

“Did you have to come with me?” I asked, unable to hold back the venom in my voice. “Or ride in the same car as me? Shouldn’t you be doing something else—like, I don’t know, being a terrible mother?”

“That’s enough, Ava,” she said tightly. “Now you’re just being cruel.”

“I’m being cruel?” I scoffed, turning to face her fully now. “I’m the one who’s cruel? What do you call the way you and Father treated me my entire life? I never did anything wrong. I never asked to be some child of prophecy. And yet you two ruined my childhood. You ruined every year after because you thought I was the wrong choice.”

Her expression hardened, but there was a flicker of something in her eyes-guilt, maybe? Regret? It was hard to tell, and I wasn’t in the mood to care.

“That’s not true,” she said quietly. “Everything we did, we did for your benefit. We tried to make you strong.” “But you made me miserable instead,” I shot back, my voice trembling with barely contained fury. I sucked in a sharp breath, trying to steady myself. “That’s why I left, you know. That’s why I wanted to escape everything- to pretend, even for a little while, that I wasn’t Ava Pierce. Because being your daughter is nothing but anger and pain and questions that never get answered.”

The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating. I stared out the window, willing myself to stay calm, but the question that I had asked but didn’t allow myself to get the answer and I’d been avoiding for weeks clawed its way to the surface. I couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“Do you know where she is? Or if she’s alive?”

My mother’s silence stretched on for what felt like an eternity. When she finally spoke, her voice was softer than I’d ever heard it. “I don’t know where or who she is. Your father and I could never find her-or the person who took her. But I know she’s alive. I’ve never stopped feeling it.”

“Way to be maternal,” I muttered under my breath, rolling my eyes and turning away from her again.

I let my thoughts drift, trying to process what she’d said. A sister. I had a sister. I hadn’t let myself think about it too much

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before now, but the realization was sinking in like a stone in my chest. Somewhere out there, there was someone who was supposed to be my other half.

Was she like me? Did we look alike? Were we identical or fraternal? It was almost funny-the idea that there could be someone walking around who looked exactly like me. But the thought was bittersweet, too,

Did she even know I existed? Or had she been lied to her entire life, the way I had been?

Was she happy?

Safe?

The car jolted to a sudden stop, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“What’s going on?” My mother asked sharply.

The driver’s voice was calm but apologetic. “Luna, we’ve reached the end of the road.”

I opened the door and stepped out, glancing around. My surroundings offered nothing but dead ends and empty streets. Frustration bubbled up in my chest as I reached out through my mental link to Isabella. ‘We’ve hit another dead end, I told her, trying to keep the bitterness out of my tone.

Her reply came almost instantly. I’m still pissed at you, she began, as she had every time we’d spoken since I reached out to her to ask if Rickon had made progress in the hours I refused to help. ‘But we haven’t found anything either.

Rickon’s wolves had been searching alongside my mother’s pack, combing through the city for any trace of Grayson. His scent had been faint at best in the places we’d checked, and the phones-his and Elaine’s-had been found abandoned in a bar. It was like they’d vanished into thin air.

I clenched my fists, my nails biting into my palms as the weight of it all threatened to crush me. I had dragged everyone into this, and for what? We were no closer to finding them than we had been when this started.

“This is pointless,” I said aloud, my voice hard and clipped. “We’ve been running around in circles, chasing shadows. We’re wasting time, and Grayson-” My voice caught, and I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to continue. “Grayson doesn’t have time for us to keep screwing around.”

My mother stepped closer, her expression softening just enough to make me uneasy. “Ava-❞

“No,” I snapped, cutting her off. “Don’t. Don’t pretend to care now. You don’t get to play the concerned parent when you’ve spent my entire life being anything but.”

She flinched, just slightly, but didn’t argue.

I turned away from her, my eyes scanning the empty streets once more. The scent of Grayson had been faint-too faint to follow-but I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were missing something.

The driver’s voice broke through my thoughts. “Luna, what are your orders?”

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