Filed to story: Claimed by My Ex’s Alpha Brother
“Seven Miss-sippi…”
“Stephen?” Lina said, her voice taut.
“Eight Miss-sippi…”
“Is Stephen here?” Lina asked, the anxiety evident in her voice even as she tried to make it even.
Betty laughed. “Not here. He’s hiding, silly.”
“Nine Miss-sippi…”
“I think I might have seen him going into the office,” Lina whispered.
“Ten Miss-sippi!” Betty exclaimed. “Here I come, ready or not!”
I heard her little steps hurrying away just as Lina’s footfalls grew louder, but the blood pounding in my ears roared.
In a moment, she pushed open the door.
“Not here,” Lina whispered, pushing my chest and shutting the utility door behind her. She stepped past me, drawing the back door open, and I stumbled out after her, clicking the door shut behind me.
The gentle dusk wrapped around us as I followed Lina into the garden, the air thick with the fragrant scent of blooming buds and the faint hum of the night awakening. We moved past a copse of trees shielding us from the house, and Lina finally turned to face me. Her long hair was darker, still damp from the shower. My pulse quickened as I took in the sight of her, the blue sweater she wore, so soft and inviting that I immediately imagined running my hands over it, feeling the curves hidden beneath.
But for once, my need for the truth was stronger than my want for Lina.
“I heard her call you Mommy, Lina,” I pressed, the fullness in my chest all I was able to feel right now and unable to let this go.
A storm brewed in her blue eyes-a mixture of defiance and vulnerability. Lina’s gaze wandered, her expression drawn tight as if she were searching for a way out of this. “Betty likes to play house. It’s her favorite game at nursery school.” She shrugged as if she could dismiss Betty’s comment so easily. “Sometimes she pretends I’m her mom while Em and Matt are her aunt and uncle…”
My jaw tightened as I realized Lina was leaning into part of the truth to wriggle out of the lie she’d been caught in-she had gotten Betty to call her Auntie when I’d first appeared like she’d made her call Emily and Matthew Mommy and Daddy.
“Her eyes, Lina,” I lowered my voice, feeling the weight of truth crashing down around me. “They’re exactly like yours, the most electric blue I’ve ever seen.”
Although Matthew’s eyes were blue, they weren’t the bright, vivid shade of Lina’s and Betty’s.
The sense of certainty grew as I remembered how obvious it had been the first night I was here. Betty had yelled out for Lina when I’d first arrived. When Betty came downstairs, Lina had been the one to nurse her, taking her temperature and giving her medicine, while Emily became absorbed in work.
Her gaze snagged on mine, and I watched as she swallowed.
“She’s mine,” she finally exhaled, her voice barely above a whisper. Her confession didn’t seem to do anything to relax her, though. Her shoulders and expression both still seemed too tight.
“I knew it,” I breathed, my chest suddenly feeling too tight. “The way I feel about her, Lina, I knew she was yours.”
Now that she had admitted it, her own gaze kept making me remember the way Betty’s eyes lighted up tonight when I’d arrived. And in an instant, a tidal wave of recognition crashed through me, filling me.
Then, that feeling that had awoken again at the sight of Betty, no-at the mere thought of her earlier, sang through me.
“When Betty was ill, I needed to be around her,” I blurted out. “It was like I couldn’t leave,” I added, remembering how I’d been utterly consumed by the need to care for the little girl. I suddenly realized the deep instinct I’d felt toward Betty had been my wolf’s need to protect his young. “And when I saw you driving back here today, I was worried she was ill again, our mate bond tugging at me.” My words spilled out in hushed excitement, both awe and anticipation fizzing through my chest.
Lina paled, and I knew I’d pieced together the last bit of the puzzle about the years she’d been absent. Memories of our time together darted through my mind, and suddenly, everything clicked into place.
“I should have known…” I murmured more to myself than to her.
I have a daughter.
“Betty’s mine,” I said, the truth finally out in the open.
The guarded intensity in Lina’s eyes flared, and she shook her head. But it was a truth I couldn’t unsee now.
“Betty is my pup, isn’t she, Lina?” Now, my own gaze locked with hers, unyielding, daring her to deny it.
Lina considered me for a moment, then swallowed thickly. She held my gaze. “She…is…yours,” Lina said, her voice strained but resolute.
Exhilaration flooded my veins, swiftly followed by that demanding pulse of protectiveness.
But before I could wrap my head around this revelation, Lina said, “I need you to understand something. We’ve been fine by ourselves. I don’t want anything from you.” The words hung in the air, sharp and cutting.
Her words laid her scars bare for me to see-the years of heartache I had thrust upon her by walking away.
“Lina-” I started, but she shook her head.
“I’ve learned to be self-reliant.” Each word dripped with a mixture of defiance and pain, reminding me of the gift I’d held and squandered.
Hurt ratcheted through me, but I knew it was exactly what I deserved. After all, all those years ago we’d been together, we’d made a kid, and then…
I’d rejected Lina.
My chest felt too full, especially as Lina’s blue stare-the exact shade as Betty’s-was fixed on me. I saw her struggling to compose herself, to keep the strong fa?ade she always did in place.
Never before had my regrets felt so heavy as all the years I’d missed out on with her and Betty seemed to accrue in the thick air around us. How was I ever going to make that up to her?
“I’m sorry,” I said. “So sorry I wasn’t there for you both.” I took a deep breath, aching to touch her, but the tightness in her shoulders and expression acted like armor against me.
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?