Page 20 of A Secret Baby By the Alpha

“I wanted to,” she chirped. “Here, come eat with us.”

I grabbed the plate, put her recommended toppings on my serving, and followed her back to the living room to sit in my recliner. The TV was playing a popular show about a single mother raising her daughter alone in a small town. I felt a familiar pang of regret, but since I didn’t want to put a damper on Jenny’s good mood, I ignored it, choosing to eat my dinner in silence while the girls quoted their favorite lines to each other from the couch.

I had just gotten up to take my plate to the sink when someone knocked on the door.

“Are you expecting anyone?” I asked Christa.

She shook her head, so I answered the door. Reagan stood on the front porch, looking slightly disheveled but otherwise unharmed.

“Sorry, Alpha,” he apologized profusely. “I know you wanted me back within the day, but it took me longer than I expected to find out about—”

“That’s okay,” I said, cutting him off before Christa could hear the end of his sentence. “Come inside. We can talk in the other room.”

I led Reagan through the living room, where Christa gave us a perplexed look, to the small sitting area in my bedroom. Two chairs sat facing a small fireplace, sectioned away from the part of the room where my bed was housed by a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf.

It was my refuge within the refuge of my home—a place only a few select people had ever seen. Reagan had been working as my personal secretary for a long time, and this wasn’t the first time he had been in this room. He sat down on his customary chair and leaned forward to tell me about the news from Sparkle Hollow.

“We don’t have anything to worry about from them,” he began. “At least, not right now. They don’t have a clue who participated in the ambush of their supply caravan, but it looks like their suspicions are prejudiced toward a pack that is outside of our territory. They think the packs within this area are all safe and under their influence.”

I smirked. It was just like Lex to think that just because he didn’t know of a threat, there wasn’t one. He was so focused on the borders of the region that he didn’t think to look our way—surprising, considering the upheaval of alphas and lunas that had occurred since he came to power. He must think all the threats had been dealt with.

“And what of Christa? Are they looking for her?” I asked.

Reagan nodded. “They are, but she isn’t a priority for them right now.”

“Not a priority?” I asked, surprised. “Even with her daughter being missing as well?”

“I thought it was strange, too. That’s why it took me longer to come back. I thought there might be more to the story, and it turns out there is,” Reagan explained.

“Tell me.”

“I went to the town bar and got into a conversation with one of the more inebriated pack members,” Reagan said. “I mentioned I thought it was a little weird that finding her wasn’t more of a priority for the pack. He told me that she’s considered one of the lowest members in the pack. She lives on the outskirts of town in a tiny, rundown house with only one bedroom.”

The thought of her and Jenny living in such conditions infuriated me. When I had known her, she had been a well-regarded member of the community. It seemed unconscionable that Sparkle Hollow reduced her to those circumstances.

“Did he say why?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“Years ago, before her daughter was born, there was an interloper in Sparkle Hollow who caused some sort of scuffle,” Reagan explained. “He didn’t go into details, but I gathered that she had some sort of relationship with the guy. When the old alpha, Lex’s father, wanted to hunt him down and destroy him, Christa stepped in. She defended him, and when Sparkle Hollow kept moving forward with their plans, she set up a distraction—a fire—so he could escape before he was killed.”

“She set a fire in their own town?” I asked, baffled by the revelation.

“If it weren’t for that, the guy wouldn’t have been able to get away. That’s what my source said, anyway,” Reagan said with a shrug.

“So, she was punished for treason with a demotion,” I summarized.

“That’s what I was told,” Reagan said.

“And when the old alpha died his decision remained?” I asked. I had always heard that Alpha Lex was more level-headedthan his father was, and that he cared more for his people. It seemed strange to think that he wouldn’t forgive Christa’s wrongdoing in light of her circumstances. “What kind of alpha would allow a single mother to live in poverty and isolation?”

“He might have, if she hadn’t disappeared with the equipment she was supposed to be protecting. The wolf I spoke to said she had agreed to take on this mission, along with her daughter, to prove her loyalty to Alpha Lex and make up for the past. Everyone in Sparkle Hollow assumed that she had betrayed them again, which is why their priority is on locating the missing hardware,” Reagan explained.

Guilt flooded me as I realized everything about her current predicament was my fault. She had defended me, put herself on the line, and saved my life. They had punished her for it, and I imagined that in her mind, she thought it would be worth it. She had believed me when I said I wanted to spend my life with her, but instead, I had completely disappeared.

At the time, I thought I was doing her a favor. I didn’t want her to have to choose between me and her pack. What I didn’t realize was that she already had—and she had chosen me.

I couldn’t even imagine the pain she must have felt when she realized I was gone—and that she was left alone with our child in a pack she had betrayed on my behalf. And now, my reappearance in her life had solidified her status as the lowest member of the pack—if they even let her back in.

“Did you need anything else from me?” Reagan asked, bringing me back to the current moment.

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