Page 50 of Unexpected Alpha's Claim

“What?” I growled as soon as I was close. “And why didn’t you come to the meeting? You’re members of this pack too.”

“We were about to leave, when I found this under your door,” Nora said, staring at the white envelope in her hands. I saw that it had my name written in Monica’s flowing script. “We’ve been debating. Ray thinks we should read it. I don’t. It’s clearly personal.”

“Give me that thing,” I urged, snatching the letter from her grasp. As I pried the envelope open I was surprised by how thick it was. This is no simple one page note. Monica and I had seen each other only three hours ago, so what was so urgent that she had had to write such a lengthy letter?

The moment I opened its contents my heart froze in my chest.

“My dear Raul,

I wish I didn’t have to write this. I wish our situation weren’t so complicated…

I was broken when you found me. Still picking up the pieces of my broken heart, which is why I moved to the mountain in the first place, where you and I met.

I thought I was moving to a peaceful place. My God, I couldn’t have been more wrong. There are so many things I had never conceived of, never even dreamed possible.

Please, bear with me. Five weeks ago, I didn’t believe there were creatures like you. Most humans would classify you as a monster, though, according to them, there’s no such thing. Monsters are a product of somebody’s wild imagination, meant to scare children into eating their lunch or behaving properly.

I know better now. There is such a thing as monsters. Only you’re not one of them. You’re the kindest person I’ve met in my whole life. Noble. Caring. Willing to give, even when you know that you won’t get anything back. Which makes my decision unbelievably harder.

You’re an Alpha now. I know why you faced your old Alpha. I admire it, but it’s a great responsibility. You have to lead your people through everything, including battles against real monsters.

Raul, I can’t imagine how I’d feel if, one day, someone knocked on my door and said, “Raul is gone.” What would I do? How would I live without the man who showed me the meaning of care? How would I move on, knowing that the man who laughed in the face of death for me, had fallen prey to some ancient hate?

I wish that was all of it but there are other things I can’t wrap my head around. That prophecy. I can’t believe it. It’s much too difficult for me to accept that somewhere, somehow, hundreds of years ago a witch was able to foresee my future. Maybe it’s easier for you. I don’t know. At any rate, I’m not going to pretend to be okay with it.

I left the part of your ‘weakness’ for last, because maybe that’s what baffles me the most. Death by a broken heart? I’m sorry, but that’s impossible. You’re human, Raul. Maybe not entirely, but you’ve got a human heart. The only case where a human can actually die of a broken heart is when they’re in their eighties and suffer a traumatic loss. You’re far too young for that.

I’m so sorry, Raul. It breaks my heart to leave you like this. You deserved a proper ‘goodbye.’ I just can’t muster the courage to offer it to you. I’m going back to the city to see if I can get my old job back. I don’t want to stay in the Catskills anymore. I know I’m not strong enough and that running into you would throw me right back into your arms.

Take good care of yourself.

Love,

Monica”

The paper slipped through my shaking fingers. I watched it float towards the ground while my mind drifted back to a time that was etched into my memory. I dropped to my knees as I recalled the gut-wrenching sights of both my father and my grandfather on their death beds.

Skin and bone. Weak. Their voices hardly loud enough to be heard. Those once proud warriors of the Dawson pack hadbeen reduced to pathetic creatures, with only one thing left to do, perish. Both had died of broken hearts and now the same fate had come for me. The same, slow, agonizing end. The wolf howled its loss.

32

MONICA

Twice in one month. God himself must be laughing at me.

He should be. Once again, I was ringing Erica’s bell, well past midnight. Eager to get what I had done off my chest. Hoping that my dear friend would not shout at me and kick me out.

“Whoa!” she exclaimed, the skin of her face tightening. “Girl, you look like a beaten dog. What the hell happened to you?”

“Nothing to me,” I said, shoulders slumped and having a hard time keeping my head held high. “I did something. Except I don’t know whether it was the right thing or not.”

“That’s why it couldn’t wait ‘til tomorrow morning?,” She asked, gesturing me in. “Can I get you a drink?”

“Yeah. And leave the bottle,” I said, making my way towards her couch.

“Mon, you’re scaring the crap out of me,” Erica said, pausing halfway to the kitchen. “You never have anything stronger than beer, and now you, you of all people, want to get drunk?”

“Yes!” I shouted, throwing my hands up in the air and unable to hold back the tears that had been threatening for my entire drive here any longer. “Idumpedhim, Erica. With a letter. I couldn’t even look him in the eye. God I’m the worst.”

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