Page 15 of Alpha's Baby Girl
“Yes, but one can reject the mating bond and choose another she-wolf.”
I swallowed, looking away. Wasn’t that exactly what I had done with Thalia?
“I was ruthless during my Games,” my mother told me, a gleam in her eye. “I won two out of three trials, and I only lost the third because the other she-wolves all grouped together to stop me.” My mother looked smug as she retold her Games. “I offered him a ring at my introduction banquet. A simple gold band, and told him he could wear it forever, if he so wished. We both felt the bond immediately. My move was bold, I admit, but it worked.”
“Well, nobody’s offered me a ring,” I muttered.
“No, but there has been someone, hasn’t there?”
“The first winner, Shiba. She spent the night in my room,” I lied.
“And anyone else?”
“No.” The lie tasted sour, but justthinkingabout Thalia made my heart race. “No one else.”
“So the white-haired wolf that sounds familiar to me is of no concern?”
“No,” I said again through gritted teeth. “Drop it, Mother.”
“Okay. I’m sure Thalia will be disappointed that she isn’t a favored mate.”
My voice was all too defensive when I asked, “Who said she was my mate?”
I revealed too much with that one defense, and my mother’s grin was predatory. Then, her face fully softened, having picked out the information she wanted. “Tell me, what’s next for the trial? I assume they’ve changed it quite a fair amount since I was Luna.”
I took a deep swig of my beer. My mother’s mouth pinched at the speed at which I drank but I just rolled my eyes. “The she-wolves are required to spend twenty-four hours in the woods. It’s a test of survival. All will be alone, but I’m required to go between them and help wherever possible. They need to hunt and navigate their way to safety, encountering any potential enemies.”
“Enemies?” My mother’s voice was sharp, but I waved her off.
“It’s purely set-up for the trial. I think my pack has been asked to play pretend foes and instructed not to hurt anyone.”
That was something I’d at least taken note of in the handbook.
“Fenrys.” Her voice was serious again as her hands found mine, clasping them. “Your father and I had wonderful memories from our Mating Games. Cherish this time. No matter who your future Luna is, this time will be something to look back upon in years to come. Get to know the women you’re surrounded with. Learn who they are, where they come from, what they think of our town. All of this is important. I played dirty, but I still had your father’s heart whether I won or not. You can overrule any trial decision if there is a woman in the group you want but does not prevail each time.”
“But then, doesn’t that defeat the Games’ purpose?”
“It assesses the strongest, yes, but if you have a bond with any of them, you can’t deny yourself it if you feel for her.”
DidI feel for Thalia? I’d felt a windstorm pick up in me when we’d kissed, a furious spiral of lust and desire, oflonging, for her. And as soon as she’d pulled away, it felt like she’d taken a piece of me with her. My wolf demanded her, wanted her, craved her wolf alongside him. The human part of me simplyneededher.
“Trust your heart, Fenrys, that’s all I’m saying.”
I had never told my mother about rejecting Thalia all those years ago, that she was the same white-haired she-wolf that was in the Games now. Whether she had her own sources that had reported it, I didn’t know and was content to not find out.
But whatwasmy heart saying? Did it want Thalia? Did it trust she might want me again, after all these years, and after I rejected her?
“Will you stay for dinner? I was being honest when I said I’d love to hear about each woman you’ve met. Future Luna aside, they must all come from various places and be interesting.”
And, as any dutiful son would, I stayed.
However, when I left, a part of me felt guilty. My mother seemed like a lonely queen in such a big house with nobody to rule. She tried to organize my pack, of course, but she had lost her alpha. My father had died in a fight, his wolf not healing him quickly enough before he shifted back into a human, passing out from the blood loss. Even when we rushed him to hospital, they hadn’t been able to save him. Another shifter from a pack that had its eyes on the town had punctured a lung and major artery. My father hadn’t lasted even two hours in the ICU.
It had been devastating, but none would have felt the loss as much as my mother, committed and mated to him.
For me, when I’d rejected Thalia, it had hurt to deny that mating bond, but I hadn’t been in the right place to begin what she wanted at the time. My father had not long passed, I was dealing with the new weight of the pack on my shoulders, and I needed to be there for my mother as we both grieved. I wasn’t cut out to be a partner—certainly not a proper alpha as she wanted.
So I’d played up the cocky man act, rejected her like it was nothing. I had thought of the doe-eyed girl who had held her textbooks to her chest the day we had met, the girl who had stopped the world around me, never letting herself get too close until one day shehad, the day of my football game. And I’d rejected her.
