Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>
There had been an increase in reports of petty violence and raging outbursts among the shifters in our pack recently.
There was no doubt in my mind that it was because of Xander’s sour mood.
His mother was growing impatient with him for refusing to pull himself out of his funk, and impatient with me for being too deep in my own to force him out myself.
She kept reassuring us that once the baby was born, spirits would lift once more.
And if they didn’t, she warned what would happen: “The pack will start turning on you. The Council will question your positions as Alpha and Beta.”
Once upon a time that threat would’ve rocked us, but now it rolled off our backs like nothing.
A sudden wail echoed in my ears.
Alice, probably going into labor.
It sounded like she was in excruciating pain.
Xander turned around to face me.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” he said.
“You will, though,” I told him. “You want to be there for her.”
I knew this was true, I could sense it as deeply as I could my own emotions.
She was in pain, going through so much. And we had truly loved her once.
I still couldn’t recall why we’d ever stopped.
We rushed upstairs together.
“She’s not doing well,” Gabriela said somberly.
If it wasn’t obvious enough by her wailing, the way she looked would’ve been a dead giveaway.
Her face was ashen and glistening with sweat.
Her usually bright blue eyes had dulled to a foggy gray.
Her chest was rising and falling much too quickly, and she grasped at the sheets beneath her, writhing against the pain as she pushed.
Xander and I went and stood on either side of her bed.
We locked eyes, and I saw my own mix of pain and fear reflected in his gaze.
I wanted to feel some glimmer of something as I looked down at our mate: hope for our future pup, excitement for new life to come, but there was only that same nagging emptiness that had been plaguing us both for months.
Xander leaned down, brushing her blonde hair off her sticky forehead.
“We’re here,” he said to her softly.
He grabbed one of her hands, and I grabbed the other, but it went limp as soon as I touched it.
She groaned “I don’t want you,” she whispered with great difficulty.
“Alice, it’s us,” I said, squeezing her hand gently.
She shook her head wildly and turned to Xander, a desperate look in her eyes.
I want…your father.”
Xander
I dropped Alice’s hand like I’d been burned.
“Did she just say what I think she said?” I asked Zane “Sure f ucking did.”
“Xander…” Alice croaked. “Please get your father.”
The midwife attending to Alice glanced uncomfortably between me and my mother.
“Alice.” Gabriela’s voice was stern but even. “He isn’t here.”
I walked over to my mother, glancing back over my shoulder at Alice still muttering desperately. “Why the f u ck is she asking for him?” I demanded in an angry whisper.
Zane and I had our suspicions about what Alice and my father had been doing the night they were out together, and this all but confirmed our worst fears.
This baby wasn’t ours. It was my father’s.
“I honestly don’t know.” My mother cast her eyes around the room like she was looking for an answer I was s so used to her lying to me, but this time she seemed to be telling the truth.
Did she have the same suspicions Zane and I had about the baby’s real dad?
“Alice was with Father the night she was out,” I said, not meeting my mother’s gaze..
She was silent for long enough that I finally looked up at her.
She was breathing heavily, her wolf flashing in her eyes.
I so rarely saw her get angry like this.
It scared me.
She pointed her finger at me, her voice icy with rage. “Don’t you dare go there.”
Zane walked up carefully behind me.
“Do you know what they were doing that night?” he asked my mother.
Alow warning growl tumbled from her lips.
“Your mate is dying,” she snarled. “There’s no time for these stu pid questions.”
“Gabriela, I need you to assist,” the midwife called in a shaky voice. “Her condition is unstable. We need to get the pup out now.” 1/2
“F uck. She’s already losing too much blood.
“She s to push harder,” the midwife said. “She’ll be too weak soon enough.”
Zane and I rushed back to Alice’s side.
Her eyelids were starting to flutter closed and a long, continuous moan of pain fell from her slightly parted lips.
Usually, they were bright pink, full of life.
But right now they looked like the lips of a corpse.
A jolt of fear pierced straight through my heart.
We were losing her.
And we would lose the babies soon, I dropped my voice lower and tried to add a gravelly edge to it.
“Alice, it’s me, Orion,” I said.
She gasped weakly but didn’t open her eyes.
“What the hell are you doing?” Zane demanded.
I didn’t dare look at my mother.
Go ds knew what she’d think of this.
“She needs to hold on,” I told Zane. If she wants my father, I’ll give her my father.”
“Alice, you need to push,” I said, doing the best impression of my father I could.
Alice squeezed her eyes tight, and a screaming roar of pain sounded from deep inside her chest. Then there was a much weaker, higher-pitched cry.
“The head is out!” the midwife yelled.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?