Page 2 of A Secret Baby By the Alpha

Axel arrived at the doors first and yanked them open. “Well, well, well,” he said with a smile. “What have we here?”

At first, I thought he was impressed by whatever Sparkle Hollow had been shipping back from the Moonstone pack. But then I heard a female voice shouting at him.

“Stay back!” she yelled. I could hear panic in her voice alongside an obvious strength and determination. Whatever she was guarding, it was obviously worth her giving her life for it.

Fuck. It’s about to get way too messy for my taste,I complained to Orin.

He was silent, but I sensed he agreed with my assessment of the situation. So far, only Axel and I knew she was here, but there was no telling how long it would take for Gage and the other alphas to realize things hadn’t gone entirely to plan. It was best to make her death an easy one, rather than allow them to prolong her suffering.

“I got this one, Axel,” I murmured as I came around the open door of the van.

But when I peered inside the open compartment, I saw the last face I ever expected to see.

“Christa?” I asked in disbelief.

“You know her?” Axel asked suspiciously.

“She’s… I didn’t think… Christa,” I repeated with a stutter. “She’s from Sparkle Hollow.”

I had no idea how to explain to the other Dark Alphas what my connection to this woman was—Christa Lionel, my ex-girlfriend. The woman I had left behind long ago. Her ashy blond hair and gray eyes were unmistakable, even in the darkness. She was exactly the same as I remembered her.

It had been over ten years since I had seen her, but here she was. In our territory. Transporting goods between our enemies.

And cowering behind her was a smaller female. A child, with the same blond hair as her mother.

Chapter 2 - Christa

The sounds coming from outside the transport van were unmistakable. A fight had taken place, and I could only assume my traveling companions had been taken out by our attackers. If not, I doubted I would be in the precarious predicament that I now found myself in.

“Stay back!” I shouted at the shadowy figure blocking our only exit as I pulled my daughter behind me. I could feel Jenny’s body tense behind me in fear, and I promised myself that no matter what happened next, she would be safe. She had to be.

The look on the man’s face was hard to make out, but before I could come up with an escape plan, I heard another voice from out of sight.

“I got this one, Axel,” the man called.

Something about the tenor of his voice struck a familiar chord inside of me. It had been years since I had heard it. Almost a decade. But it was burned into my memories.

Those memories swirled inside of me as Colson Marsden came into view.

“Christa?”

His voice was both confused and hopeful as we locked eyes, staring each other down. His voice was the same, but his other features had seemed to harden with age. The youthful glow I had known before was gone, leaving behind a hard exterior. This was a man who had been through more than most. He held himself with an arrogance that I didn’t recognize. The only warmth left was found in his chocolate brown eyes, but I had never been one to make the same mistake twice.

I had trusted him before. Never again.

Of all the places we could have crossed paths, this was the last one I would have expected. No one was supposed to know about our mission to bring this shipment of security equipment back from the Moonstone pack. How had we been ambushed?

“You know her?” his companion asked questioningly.

“She’s… I didn’t think… Christa,” Colson stammered. The sound of my name on his lips was both jarring and familiar. “She’s from Sparkle Hollow.”

I couldn’t get a read on the dynamic between these men, but the mention of my pack brought me back to reality. This hit had been intentional—that much was clear. Somehow, I needed to convince Colson that he had made a mistake, and that he should let me and Jenny go free. Even if that meant giving up the shipment from our trade partners.

“Colson, tell them to step back. Just let us go, and you can have whatever you want from the van. Just let us go,” I entreated.

Another man had rounded the corner, and he let out a loud guffaw at my request.

“Let you go?” he laughed. “I don’t think so. Why don’t you come on out of there so we can get a good look at you?”

---