Page 1 of Alpha's Baby Girl
Chapter 1 - Thalia
When a town’s population was pretty small, word traveled. Stories carried on the wind, sneaked into the ears of friends, family, peers, and no matter how supportive they were, they always secretly judged.
I would know—the past few years haven’t only been my shame to bear but theirs, too.
Three years ago, not long after my twentieth birthday, mymate, I hated that word, rejected me. Publicly, mortifyingly, but most of all, in the most brutal way possible. He’d scorned me and turned me away in front of his pack.
And, well, word did travel through smaller towns fast. Those who weren’t there may as well have been, with how soon they heard the whole story.
Then there came the variations: he attacked me to reject me; I attacked him after the rejection; we both attempted to kill each other; I tried to take leadership of his pack. None of those things had happened. We were both still waiting to graduate college back then. He was the mayor’s son, and I’d been a quiet she-wolf. I had never wanted to harm him back then, only ever recover from the invisible blow he’d landed. He didn’t physically attack me, but any physical one would have been better than the one he did land.
He’d all but severed our mating bond, shunned me in front of friends, and forced me back to my family to console myself. Behind closed doors, they were as distant even as they gave me half-hearted comfort as they could be, but in front of others, I was the woman who’d been rejected. Not just by anyone but by Fenrys Randon, the mayor’s son. An alpha who took after his father, whose bloodline had long held the town’s gleaming reputation.
Sometimes, I hated pack politics. All I’d wanted was to be held after his rejection, but wolves were prideful creatures, even if our human tendencies tried to kick in at times. The anger, hurt, and betrayal had me shutting down in my room and consoling myself. I had done something to be rejected; only I could do something about that.
And I did.
While the last few years had been spent mending an unexpected broken heart, attempting to date again, and failing—every man only reminded me of who I’d been rejected by—I had a purpose.
“You’re really going through with this?” my best friend, Sasha, drawled, lounging on my bed. She was a leopard shifter. We weren’t all wolves, but most of the town’s population was.
There were two packs residing in Silverlake Valley, with its large span of woods and main crossroad where the small businesses and most of the boutiques were, along with the one college we had, and town hall. We got the best of both worlds as shifters. Those preferring their human forms could live as humans and shift when they pleased, but others chose to live as their shifted form. I preferred balance, if only because being in my wolf form only reminded me more of what I couldn’t yet have.
Wolves had mates—monogamous and lifelong. That was all I wanted.
Humans weren’t held to those rules, but I still was as a shifter.
My best friend wasn’t part of my family, but she had taken up residence in our house enough to no longer be a threat. She’d come here, starved and alone, her sights set on attacking my younger brother, but I’d gotten revenge first. I’d shared my meals with her and taught her our ways, too. Sasha had flirted her way through Silverlake Valley’s most cozy lounge, the Inferno Lounge. When she exhausted the clientele there, she searched other nearby towns.
But there was more to mine and Sasha’s friendship. After fleeing from her family, she’d seen the anguish in me after the rejection. It had prompted her to do more for me than anyone had done over my broken heart.
A year and a half ago, Sasha had handed me a business card.
“I know people,” was all she’d said, a secretive smile on her face. At that point, I’d been desperate and thought, naively, that she meant some sort of specialized therapist who dealt with rejected bonds.
We’d driven towards the town center together, where Silverlake Valley boasted small companies and municipal buildings near the outskirts of town, just past the town hall.
But when Sasha had kept going, to the college where my rejection had happened, and then went even further, we came to an abandoned warehouse. My palms sweating, I got out of the car. Inside, lights were dim, and Sasha got out with me, shrugging on a leather jacket.
“Come on,” she said, her voice bright. We walked in together, coming to an open foyer that echoed our footsteps. I trusted my best friend; I trusted her not to lead me blind into any situation. But my palms sweated. When we emerged into a long hallway, and I heard low voices booming from a steel door further down, I knew we weren’t going to some specialized therapist.
“How do you even know these people?” I asked, laughing nervously.
She threw a wink over her shoulder. “It was this pack that helped me escape my family. I owe them my life, but they never asked for anything in return, only that I would support their rise in Silverlake Valley.”
“Their rise?” I asked.
“You’ll see.”
We were in an abandoned warehouse. I’d done a project on them during college while researching the history of the town. They used to manufacture cars here, but the company had relocated to Atlanta, a more prosperous city for the business, and we’d been left with the old machinery. If I remembered, the basement was where the production had been, but the two upper levels had been offices and break rooms.
A faded red carpet led us towards a closed door that Sasha knocked on.
A gruff voice called for us to enter. My nostrils flared, scenting wolves. I felt safe among them, despite my nerves, especially when the door opened to plush furniture and a broad man relaxed behind a desk in a leather chair.
“Sasha,” he greeted, all charm and a wide smile. “Is this your friend you mentioned?”
They knew me?
