Page 48 of The Alpha's Stolen Mate

To my surprise, my aunt shook her head.

“No, you should go talk with Grayson. You should ask him what he thinks about all this,” my aunt said.

Of course.

Why hadn’t I considered speaking with my son? I had spent all this time preaching about how no one asked what I’d wanted to do six years ago, and here I was, doing the same thing to my son, repeating the cycle.

“Thank you, Aunt Mia,” I said. “I’ll help you clean up, then talk with him.”

“Nah, you go ahead.” She waved me off. “I’ll clean up. You go talk to Grayson.”

After I thanked her again, I walked toward my son and his dog, thinking about my aunt.

She had grown up in the WaterLock Pack like my dad, but when she met a boy named Edward visiting from Shadow Pass, she had fallen head over heels, married him, and moved to his farm.

One year later, Edward died from a Rogue wolf attack. He had been visiting his parents, who lived in the Tideridge Kingdom.

My aunt had never remarried. Honestly, I’d never heard her talk about being interested in dating. She focused all of her energy on keeping her late husband’s farm thriving.

Did my aunt’s tragedy make her wiser? Did she have to mature faster than many people? Had I done the same thing?

Grayson and Goose were lying in the grass. My son was watching the clouds drift lazily by, and he had his little hands splayed out on his stomach.

I plopped down beside them and smoothed my son’s hair away from his eyes.

“Can I talk to you, honey? It’s about something…important.”

My son took his eyes off the sky and gave me his full attention.

“What would, um…” I trailed off and cleared my throat. “Would you want to meet your father? If you could?” My voice was unusually high.

Grayson sat up so quickly. He almost knocked into me.

“Slow down, there,” I said and let out a shaky chuckle.

“Yeah,” Grayson said without hesitation. “I would want to meet him.”

“Oh, really?” I rubbed my hands on my jeans.

Just tell him it’s Gabriel. It’s better if it comes from you.

“Is Gabriel my father?” my son asked before I could tell him.

My mouth dropped open.

“H-how did you know?”

Grayson shrugged and lay back down.

“Gabriel and I have the same color hair and the same freckles.” My son paused, his face screwed up in thought. “Also, he’s letting us stay here while Grandpa’s sick, and he brought me Goose. Aren’t those things a dad would do?” he said, like it was obvious.

And maybe it was.

I lay beside Grayson, took his hand, and we watched the clouds float by.

Chapter Sixteen: A Flicker

Gabriel POV

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