Page 18 of Pregnant By the Alpha Wolf

Was my mother evil? Her last act was to sacrifice herself to save me, leaving me at the orphanage and leading the hunters away. My father was already dead, her heart broken. No, she wasn’t evil.

Once the vampires appeared to be extinct, the elimination of thehalflingswas an ongoing horror. I’ve seen enough death and destruction for all ten lifetimes and dished out enough of my own as I grew stronger. But after centuries of bloodshed, one thing became undeniably clear—you cannot stop hate. My pack is formed of thosehalflingsand their descendants who wanted to find some peace. That has been my goal.

The hunters and the Order, and by extension, the other shifter packs I’ve come to know, all threaten that peace. Even Willow threatens it, even though she doesn’t know what she’s looking for when she pores over our DNA, puzzled as to why it’s different from our fellow shifters.

This was always the danger, but the Völva magic, the alliance, and any new information to destroy the Order had to be worth the risk. My pack’s vampire DNA is no doubt diluted through centuries of new matings, meaning the risk of detection is reduced. Only my own DNA will raise questions, being the purest hybrid—my beta Griffen follows by the smallest margin, as his mother was a pure hybrid.

However, despite the diminishing risks of detection, my pack has every right to be cautious. History bears witness to what happens when vampire hybrids have been discovered. Our alliance with the shifter packs is strong, but new. I’ve come to care for my fellow alphas and their packs, but can I trust them not to turn on us?

Can I trust Willow not to reject me?

An alert on my cabin security announces Griffen’s arrival, and I see him give a brief wave on the screen as I let him in. Willow has long since entered the lab, and I turn away from the window, stoking the fire as my beta walks in and shakes the fallen snow from his coat onto the floor.

I roll my eyes. “Really, Grif?” I scold lightly.

He flashes me one of his annoyingly charming smiles that ceased to work on me over five hundred years ago and flops into one of my worn leather chairs.

“It’s snowing,” he replies with the slightest shrug of his enormous shoulders.

I sigh, resigned to my old friend’s ways. Although I haven’t known him all my life, it’s been long enough. Griffen and I met when we were barely ninety, both on the run. Both outcasts. He understands what is at stake more than anyone else here; he lived it, too, and I haven’t forgotten his sacrifices.

“So,” he says, stretching like a cat in front of the fire and shrugging off his coat, a smirk teasing his lips. “How goes things with your little mate? Worth waiting for?”

He won’t be expecting a direct response; he just likes to push my buttons, so his face is a picture of surprise when I say, “Yes, it is. She’s more than I ever expected.”

Although startled for the briefest of moments, he quickly recovers and barks with laughter. “Wow, she must be something special to capture your attention. I never thought one woman could hold your eye.”

My wolf feels restless and bristles at his tone, but I temper my emotions, as I usually do where Griffen is concerned. “She is special. And you will talk about her as such,” I growl.

Griffen chuckles, looking into the fire. “Fair enough, alpha,” he nods. “And the research? She’s not just a pretty face.”

I shoot him a warning look but ignore his teasing. “If you’re asking whether she’s making progress, she is. You’ve met with Sara about the Völva in our pack. More than we assumed?”

“Yes, some families went to great lengths to hide females that didn’t have their wolves. You’d think that our pack would understand differences more, yet it appears we were not immune from discriminating,” Griffen replies thoughtfully.

“Was it not more pity they feared?” I reply, knowing how much pride shifters take in their connection to their wolves. I am no different myself.

“And who wants to be pitied in our world?” he mutters, not taking his eyes off the fire. I wince slightly as I consider how much I do pity my old friend. His mate is lost to time, and I never realized the depth of that sacrifice until I found my own.

I roll my shoulders, not wanting to open that can of worms. “Questions have been raised about some of the DNA results, but it’s nothing we weren’t expecting. Most of the pack have majority shifter DNA, so I don’t think it will be an issue. Rian did his job ensuring he reviewed the data first so there were no unexpected surprises.”

Griffen silently listens, but I can feel his mood shift. I pause and wait for him to speak his mind. Glancing up, he sighs. “Don’t you think that’s a little optimistic?”

The slightest lilt to his accent betrays his origins and mine, reminding me that he knows me all too well.

“I will make it so,” I say firmly, “She cannot identify vampire DNA because she has no reference point. We are, ironically, safe because of our very extinction. I will control the narrative, and Willow will find the other answers she seeks. The alliance will stand, and the hunters will be destroyed.”

“And if the Order already knows about us?” Griffen asks, and not for the first time. With so little known about the Order, one has to consider how much more they know about us.

“The Order will be destroyed for many reasons. If they know about us, that will simply be one more reason,” I say in an attempt to brush off his concerns.

Griffen nods, “You know that I am with you, Rowan. Always have been. But there is real fear here, and I’d be lying if I said everyone in the pack is comfortable with how closely Willow studies us. Rian is quick to tell people how meticulous she is about our data.”

“She’s studying all the packs, Grif. She’s not focused on us, and the whole point of building the lab here was so we could have some control over the situation. Rian knows that,” I say, though I already have my own concerns about how much young Rian is on board with the plan. He became beta as a favor to his father, who died fighting the hunters. He comes from a long line of good shifter hybrids, but is young, reckless, and outspoken. He’s also educated and the perfect fit for the lab. I greatly respected his father, and I’m willing to extend that to his son. For now.

“Aye,” Griffen laughs, bringing me back to the moment. “Some control over the situation in your bed.”

Suddenly seeing red, I fling my glass at him. It narrowly misses and smashes against the wall. He holds his hands up in mock surrender. “At ease,” he laughs. I’ll only say it in these four walls. And I know your mind is on what’s best for the pack, too.”

---