Filed to story: Claimed by My Ex’s Alpha Brother
I knew I wasn’t being fair to Liam. He had been charitable with his wealth and had not only used it to help WaterLock, but the rest of the kingdom, and the surrounding kingdoms, too.
But every time I thought about my former Mate, my heart-the place where our Mating bond had been-panged with remembered agony. It was like I was being slowly stabbed to death.
I sighed and set down my fork.
“Do you want to talk about what’s bothering you, sweetie?” Aunt Mia said and wiped her mouth with a napkin.
Her hair was swept back into a low ponytail, and there was a weariness to her eyes that had been there since my father’s attack.
“It’s…nothing,” I replied and looked over at Grayson and Goose instead of at my aunt.
“I’ve lived with you for the past six years, Ella. I know when something is wrong.”
I scrubbed my hand down my face. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk to my aunt. But my problems seemed so trivial compared to my dad fighting for his life in the hospital and the threat of Noah and the Rogues. Liam’s words from the hospital kept running through my head.
I don’t believe Noah will stop there. I think that once he joins the Rogues, he is going to share all of WaterLock’s secrets to help them take over our pack.
The first night at Liam’s house, I truly considered grabbing my son and going back to Aunt Mia’s farm, since Liam thought that there would be a full-scale attack on WaterLock. But then I thought of being ten hours away from my father, who was lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by machines that were breathing for him. Also, I considered the fact that Noah could be tracking our movements now. Would it be safe for Grayson and me to stay somewhere alone? Wouldn’t Liam’s secure compound be the safest place for us? When I talked to my aunt and mom about all of this, they agreed with me.
“Does your mood have anything to do with Liam?” my aunt prompted.
I nodded.
“I haven’t told Grayson that Liam is his dad,” I admitted and bit my lip.
My aunt’s eyebrows raised.
“I know, I know,” I said, raising my hands and leaning back in my chair. “I should tell my son. It’s the right thing to do.”
“That’s not what I was going to say.”
“It wasn’t?” I asked.
“No, I was going to say that it’s a big decision. I don’t know exactly what happened with you guys, but I do know that each time your father would give us updates about the pack and he would mention Liam’s name, you would flinch,” my aunt said.
I swallowed.
“I would?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “I know that allowing Liam to have a relationship with Grayson would mean that he has to be in your life too, and that’s going to be extremely hard for you, but wouldn’t it be harder on Grayson if he never gets the chance to know his father?”
I sighed.
“You’re right. So, I have to go talk to Liam now?”
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.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?