Oops… I Went Into Heat and My Alpha Daddies Claimed Me

Author’s POV

By seven in the evening, Becca came looking for Nadia and Keisha for dinner. She found them upstairs and waited while they finished whatever they were doing before following them toward the dining room. The mansion had been quiet all day, mostly because so much of Callum’s attention had been taken by the war preparations and the visitors from Ashveil.

As they entered the dining room, Keisha looked toward Becca. "Has Callum eaten yet?"

Becca nodded. "He has. He’s still in the hall with the Ashveil guests. He has been there since morning, so I took his dinner to him myself."

Keisha’s expression changed slightly. She had known Callum would be busy, especially with the war getting closer, but hearing that he had been in the hall all day made her feel worse than she expected. She looked toward the empty seat where he usually sat and sighed under her breath.

Surely he had been checking up on her, but she felt bad with the amount of responsibilities on his shoulders right now.

Nadia noticed her expression and picked up her fork. "You should eat. If you keep staring at his chair, the food isn’t going to disappear any faster."

Keisha gave her a small smile. "I know. I was just thinking about how everything has changed so suddenly again."

"Hm, yeah, I think about that sometimes too." Nadia looked around the table before taking a bite. "It feels like everything changed so quickly."

They continued eating, and after a while, the conversation changed into something better. Nadia asked Keisha what she planned to do after dinner, and Keisha told her she would probably go to her room and sleep early. Keisha then asked Nadia the same question, and Nadia gave her the exact same answer.

"I’m tired," Nadia said, leaning back slightly. "I’m going straight to bed."

Keisha nodded. "Then we both need the sleep."

Neither of them said anything else about their plans.

After dinner, they returned upstairs and went into their separate rooms. The mansion gradually became near silent as the servants finished their work and the guards continued their rounds outside.

Keisha stayed in her room for almost an hour but she didn’t sleep.

She sat on the edge of her bed for a while, looking toward the door, then stood and walked around the room before sitting again.

Her mind kept returning to the financial records Klein had sent her and the transaction connected to Elder Osric’s family name. She needed to know what it meant and she had spent an awful amount of time trying to talk herself out of her plan.

Eventually, Keisha stood and walked toward the clothes she had prepared earlier. They had been folded neatly and placed where she could reach them without making much noise. She picked them up and looked at them for a moment before changing.

She wore dark clothing from head to toe, choosing loose pieces that covered most of her body and hid the shape of her pregnancy better than the clothes she normally wore around the mansion. She pulled a dark cloak over herself and checked her reflection briefly.

She wasn’t planning to tell anyone where she was going but her destination was Elder Osric’s house.

The transaction in the financial records had been too strange to ignore. She wanted to know whether Osric had any connection to Vera’s spending, the Heat Incident, or Dr. Fenn’s death.

No one would have to know that she was there, she wasn’t even going to confront him. She simply wanted to look around and see if there was anything that could give her another piece of the puzzle.

Keisha opened her door and stepped into the hallway.

The upper floor was quiet as she made her way downstairs carefully and avoided the areas where she knew the guards were most likely to notice her. Because everyone was focused on the war and the arrival of Ashveil’s warriors, the estate was busier than usual outside, but that also meant people were paying less attention to one person moving through the mansion.

She reached the side entrance and waited until the guards moved farther down the path before slipping through.

No one stopped her as she kept her head lowered as she moved away from the estate, making sure she was far enough from the gates before finally allowing herself to breathe normally.

Finally, she was outside and nobody knew where she had gone.

At almost the same time, Orin reached the mansion.

He had waited until evening before making his way back onto the estate. He had spent much of the day thinking about what he had seen earlier and had decided that he could not waste another opportunity. He needed to find Keisha before Callum or anyone else realized he was there.

The guards outside the mansion were his first problem.

Orin found a way to draw their attention away from the entrance long enough for him to slip past them. Once he was inside, he kept his head lowered and moved quickly, dressed in dark clothing that made him less noticeable in the dim areas of the mansion.

He reached the stairs and began moving upward. Halfway there, he heard footsteps.

Orin immediately stepped into the nearest shadow and waited. Someone was coming down the hallway.

He stayed completely still until the person came into view.

It was Nadia.

But what caught his attention wasn’t simply the fact that she was there. She was dressed differently from earlier, wearing dark clothes and a cloak that hid her identity all too perfectly.

Orin watched her carefully but Nadia didn’t notice him. She moved toward the stairs, looking around before continuing downward.

His curiosity grew.

Why was Nadia sneaking around the mansion at night?

Orin waited until she had gone far enough that he could no longer hear her footsteps. A slow smile appeared on his face when he realized what her presence meant.

She was leaving and that was good for him. If Nadia was outside, then there would be fewer people upstairs while he searched for Keisha.

Orin remained hidden for several more minutes to make sure she was gone before stepping out.

He began checking the rooms but the first room was empty.

He opened another door and looked inside before moving farther down the corridor. He checked the rooms one after another, growing more frustrated each time he found nothing.

Keisha wasn’t in any of them.

He checked the room where he believed she had been staying.

Empty.

He searched the nearby rooms again, refusing to accept what he was seeing. Still nothing.

Orin stood in the hallway and looked around. The entire upstairs seemed deserted. He had expected to find Keisha waiting somewhere inside, but there was no sign of her.

He didn’t know that she had already left the estate.

And he certainly didn’t know that Nadia had been following a plan of her own.

All Orin knew was that he had come looking for Keisha and somehow missed her.

So where had Keisha gone?