Alpha Reaper's Point Of View
"I need to find Leyla." Alexander gasped as he sat upright in his bed.
My face was riddled with confusion. How did he know about Leyla? Did he know she was here? Why was he so desperate to find her. I could feel our bond begin to deepen. The threats were being wove as we sat together in the cabin. I could feel his relief at being alive. There was also this slither of hope that bubbling on the surface.
I had never felt something like this before, I had heard people speak of the mate bond forming but nothing could prepare me for what it was really like. It was like nothing I had ever imagined. There was this innate need to be close, to bask in his presence. I could feel my soul anchor to his, it was reeling me in. I could feel my wolf howl with joy that her mate was alive. Her relief and happiness at feeling the missing part of her joy, I could sense that she felt complete. For the first time in my life there was peace that overwhelmed my soul.
"Alexander, you need to take it easy. You've lost a lot of blood. You need to rest." I explained softly. I could sense my whole demeanour change. I didn't like it, I felt weak as the bond raced through my blood. I was clenching my fist. I didn't want to feel like this. I didn't want the attachment to grow. I could sense my wolf pushing for me to care for her broken mate.
I sighed knowing that it was too late, that I had made a decision to tether myself to Alexander. I knew that rejecting the bond now would only cause me pain and weaken me. I had made a decision and I knew it wasn't out of love but out of desperation to save the Kingdom from Lamia's clutches.
"Lily, you don't understand. We need to find Leyla, quickly. She's in danger." He exasperated. The worry that was laced through his voice mirrored his facial expression.
"Alexander stop please!" I begged. "Who is this Leyla? Why are you wanting her?" There was a small slither of jealous that creeped across my skin. Why was my mate calling for another wolf? Especially for Leyla. How did he know about her? How did he know she was in danger.
"Leyla.." he whispered as a tear escaped his eye. "She's a girl from my pack, she ran away. Nona saved her. She saved my daughter." He whispered.
My shoulders hitched when he said daughter. My heart immediately broke. The pain became overwhelming as I learned that my mate had fathered a daughter. A child who was not mine. The betrayal started to build and it was like my heart was breaking for a second time but this time it was worst because of the mark that I had laid on my mate.
His child was the one that I had sworn to protect, the one that I promised no harm would come to on my lands. It was then that a part of me wanted to rip her apart. Questions buzzed through my mind, wondering who her mother was, when did she conceive the bastard child?
"What do you mean Leyla is your daughter Alexander?" I gritted my teeth.
He looked at me with his big eyes, they were welled with tears, there was an overwhelming sense of hope and love as he stared at me. "Lily, Leyla is our daughter. She is alive, she didn't die." He cries tears of joy. Their rolling down his face while he grins like a madman.
My face reddens at his words, the anger boils within me. The rage begins to consume me. How dare he lie to me! How dare he try to tell me our child is alive! I feel my fingers puncture my skin as I tighten my fingers into a fist. "How dare you Alexander." I whisper with rage. "How dare you say that my child is alive! Why would you tell me such a lie! You already have my mark, why are you trying to me so cruel! Our child is dead Alexander. Dead!" I shout at him.
"Lily, listen to me. You have to believe me, our child is alive! Our child! We have a daughter! My parents told me! You have to listen to what I am saying! We can be a family!" He exasperates.
"How can we be a family if our child is dead Alexander!" I spat. "This Leyla is not our daughter! She can't be! The Moon Goddess sacrificed our child!" I shouted as tears streamed down my cheeks.
"No she's not dead! I watched her grow, she is beautiful! She looks just like you Lily! How could I not recognise her, she has all your features except for her eyes, her eyes are like mine! She is a perfect mixture of us. All those years, I felt a connection to her. I remember Nona bringing her in from the orphanage. Even as a baby she was the most beautiful thing I laid eyes on!" He sobbed. "All those years where I watched over her, I can't believe my daughter was within my grasp. How could she believe she was an orphan! How did Nona find her?"
The anger was brimming in me. A small part of me wanted to believe what he said, maybe it was possible she was alive but why would the Moon Goddess tell me she was dead? Why did I have to sacrifice my child if they were going to live? How was any of this fair. If Leyla truly was my daughter, why did Alexander silently get to watch in the background as she aged. Why did I have be away from her? The more I thought about it, the easier it was to believe that she was dead.
If what Alexander was saying was true then I missed so much of my daughter's life. I missed her first steps, her first words. I never had the opportunity to hold her. When I think of the Leyla who is residing in my pack, I search for the possibility that she is my dead child. I mean I did feel some type of connection to her, but I just passed it off as my wolf recognising a kindred spirit. She reminded me of when I was her age, rejected and loss. I could sense her power that overflowing, she had no direction, no goal that could save her.
I closed my eyes and prayed that my wolf knew something, anything that would confirm what Alexander was saying. The overwhelming sense of dread overflowed, what if she hated me? She must of thought that I abandoned her. The person she viewed as a mother was dead thanks to her father's bitch of a wife. What pain would she feel if this was the truth.
Please tell me what he is saying isn't true. I begged my wolf.
I'm sorry, but she is ours. I didn't realise. How could I not recognise my own child? My wolf whimpered.
The tears were flowing down my face as I fell to my knees. The heartache I felt was consuming. I had missed my baby grow up. I had no idea she even existed. The Moon Goddess told me she was taking my child, why did she separate me from my baby. I would have loved and cherished her.
Why is the Moon Goddess so cruel to us. Why? I sobbed to my wolf.
The Moon Goddess has her reasons. I don't know why she was ripped away from us. I don't know why we had to suffer. We mourned for our pup all these years and for the last week she has been under our nose. My wolf replied. Her heartbreak lingered, it was like a slow puncture that was bleeding endlessly.
A part of me wanted to run out of this cabin and hunt down my daughter, hold her close to me and never let her go. The large part of me was scared to even get close to her, my eyes closed thinking about the danger she was in. She was the saviour and I knew that her path held danger. I closed my eyes tightly, would she even believe that I was her mother? That Alexander was the father?
My stomach sunk at the thought of her rejecting me. I couldn't bare it. It was then that I looked at Alexander who was sobbing happily at the fact that our child was alive. Yet as I observed him all I could feel was this overwhelming sense of anger coarse through my bones.
"You." I whispered angrily.
"What do you mean? You? Don't you get it our daughter is alive!" He exclaimed.
"You, this is all your fault! My daughter is alive and I was robbed of her childhood! You robbed a mother of those precious years!" I angrily said.
"Lily, listen to me. I'm sorry-" Alexander started to speak.
"Sorry?" I manically laughed. "Does sorry give me those years back? While you were there in the background with your fake family! My daughter was robbed of her mother! She was robbed of her family!" I shouted.
"Lily, I know it doesn't mean much, but Nona loved Leyla. She loved her like her own. She was well cared for." Alexander finished.
I couldn't help but allow the jealously to overflow. I didn't hate Nona for she taught my daughter the right path, she educated her well and raised her to be a good wolf. I just couldn't stop the envy I felt at the bond they shared. I couldn't help but dislike the thought of another woman raising my daughter. I was kept away from her for years. Alexander was able to create small moments with his own daughter. He was able to watch her from afar, despite not knowing her true parentage.
"I don't care Alexander. This is all your fault. You don't deserve our daughter." I spat. "You are the reason for me missing my child's life. You are the reason I was deprived of being a mother. For that you will suffer. I will never let you lay your eyes on her again. You don't deserve the privilege." The anger bubbled in my voice.
I pushed myself from the bed he was sleeping on. My wolf was trying to calm me down, but the human in me couldn't forgive him for the years that I had been robbed of my daughter's life. He would rot in here if I could help it. I strode out of the cabin without glancing back. I could hear Alexander scream for me, scream for the daughter that we shared. All I could think about was protecting my daughter from the man who had ruined our lives. He wasn't worthy to be called her father.
"Lock up the cabin. I want double the patrol. He is to not escape." I ordered. "And make sure Leyla does not come within a mile of this place. I don't want her to know about his existence on my pack land." I commanded the guard.
Despite the bond pulling me towards my mate, I pushed myself away from his screams, his scent, his touch. My only thought was on the daughter I had accidentally stumbled across. The daughter who I thought had died. The daughter I had mourned but was alive and living. I closed my eyes as a small smile perched on my face as a tear escaped my eye.