Page 27 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate
As expected, I harshly told him off, and I thought that did it, but two minutes into the walk home, Mia spoke, saying, “Mommy, Alexis is following us home.”
I turned around, shocked, and he was there. Ten feet away, Alexis trailed us home.
Then, he showed up the next day with another bag of gifts and a different type of flower. Just like the previous day, there was one for me and one for Mia. Mia had insisted on bringing the pink board game from the last bag of gifts to the shop with her that day, and Alexis must have learned that she preferred the color because for the next three weeks, Alexis came to my herbal shop with a multitude of pink gifts for Mia.
Every other day, when we closed the shop at seven, Alexis would walk us home. I thought he was going to tire at first, but he was relentless. From ten feet away, it reduced to seven, five, and before I knew it, Alexis walked side by side with us home every day.
The thing I feared and tried to avoid was what exactly was happening. Mia was falling in love with Alexis within this short time.
And Tom’s words from his last visit to my shop kept replaying in my head when he said that an alpha couldn’t be away from his pack for too long. Knowing how possessive alphas were and having experiencedit firsthand with Alexis, I knew that it was only a matter of time before Alexis would want his daughter to return home with him.
The thought of going back to Nightwing Pack, or Alexis’s Shadow Moon Pack, a life I had put behind me long ago, was chilling to my bones, to say the least.
I admitted. I was terrified.
Chapter 12
Alexis
I ignored the scowl on the distracting green eyes directed at me from behind the shop counter and also the way my heart erratically thrashed against my ribcage from being so close to her, and without waiting for Selina to ask me why I was here like she did the customer who left before me, I spoke. “I have had trouble sleeping lately. Can you help me with that?”
Selina’s flowing hair stilled as she paused to study me for a few seconds, features tensed. “Is that the story you’ve managed to come up with this time, Alexis?”
The frost in her tone stung, and my heart squeezed in its chambers, but that was okay. Selina was on the receiving end of it once, and it was all my fault. She had to leave her pack behind and raise our child alone because of me, putting an emotional and otherwise weight on her that I couldn’t bear to imagine, so I was going to work ten times as hard to get in their graces, no matter what or how long it took.
“I’m not lying, Selina,” I said, offering her part of the truth and watching her eyes scan my face coldly. The other part of the truth was that I had taken the first chance I got to see Selina and Mia today, but I still went on. “I haven’t been sleeping properly, and even if it’s notthat bad, I don’t think I should suffer myself when there’s a talented herbalist here in Matsuna.”
Unaffected by my words, Selina swung her very blonde hair over her shoulder, causing her natural scent, doused in years of communion with herbs and flowers, to waft across the counter and up my nostrils, and my once immovable heart lurched. Without another word, she turned her attention to her herbs, her movements as rigid as her eyes, just the way she had been cold to me for the weeks leading up to this. I let myself savor her rich scent before my eyes wandered around her herbal shop, which was only now lessening with customers since I entered it this afternoon, and from the see-through window behind Selina, I caught sight of Mia chasing a butterfly in the backyard of the shop.
For as far back as when my parents died, the only family I knew was my pack. My responsibility has always been to them, and my joy came from seeing them safe and prosperous. Never in a hundred years could I have thought that this empty heart of mine that had been so blinded by hurt and rage would be blessed with people like Mia and Selina. Mine.
I still couldn’t believe that I had a daughter as bright as her, and whenever I was fortunate to witness something that caused her to laugh, emotions tumbled their way to my throat. Mia was contagious like that.
Selina retrieved a small bottle, pressed it in front of me with a little too much force, and she folded her hands under her chest with that glass skin and shiny propped-up hair, causing blood to rush down south of my body.
“That should do it,” she said, dismissing me as quickly as she gave me audience. I fought the reaction off, opening my mouth to speak again, but she beat me to it. “There are other customers that I have to attend to, Alexis. So I’ll appreciate it if you take a step back.”
I hated how formal Selina was with me, and I wanted nothing less than to leave her presence, but I chewed the emotions down by biting my tongue as I did what she asked. As the next customer, a bulky male with red hair, most likely from Blood Moon Pack, side-stepped me,Selina’s attention peeled from me and to him, and a genuine, eye-reaching smile graced her face.
The customer also smiled at Selina, offering her his greetings, and jealousy hit me like a ton of bricks, tying my already burning stomach into knots. A growl rumbled from within my chest, and I hardly bit it down, my jaw already hurting from clenching too tightly.
I had been trying my hardest for weeks, but it seemed as though any little gesture from me pushed Selina more away than toward me. The case was different when it came to the faces I now recognized as those who did business with her, but it didn’t stop my wolf from wanting to tear them down.
Selina was a ray of sunshine. Her gentle demeanor and captivating grace from five years ago hadn’t dimmed even after what she had been through. She became a whole lot better after that, and it was pronounced in the ways her customers adored and admired her.
Why was she still different with me?
I needed Selina’s forgiveness. I needed to know what I was doing wrong and fix it as soon as possible because it was only a matter of time before one of these men made a move on my Selina.
With the unnerving thought of Selina being by another man’s side, choosing another man to fill the shoes that I should for her and Mia as her mate and Mia’s daddy, bile speedingly rose to my throat, threatening to undo me. I shook my head, clutching the bottle she gave me tighter in my hand, and I turned.
I had no idea where I was going or who I was going to ask for help, and I also knew that if I didn’t calm down, I was likely going to do something rash, but that didn’t stop my feet from stomping out of Selina’s shop.
“Alpha Alexis,” a voice called just when I stepped out of the herbal shop, and I turned my body that felt like lead to see none other than the witch, Lyvia, who helped free me from Marissa’s hold weeks ago. Seeing her caused my face to lose some of its tightness. “I thought it was you who I saw there. Is something the matter?” She asked composedly, but something told me that she had already seen beneath my tough mask.
Approaching her, I took in the black pile of hair on her petiteframe, as well as amber eyes that assessed me keenly. In her hands, she cradled a large packaged box, and her eyes briefly scanned Selina’s shop behind before settling back on me.
“Lyvia,” I greeted, regarding the woman I held in high esteem for not just her rare talents but, as I had come to find out, her support of Selina and Mia over the years. After the time I’d spent with Mia, I knew that the witch was largely responsible for helping my daughter with her condition of Warring Wolves, an illness largely brought on by my absence. Together, Lyvia and Selina had concocted a medicine that managed Mia’s symptoms. But, yet again, it was another thing to add to the long list of things I knew I had to make up for.
