Chapter 77
Chapter 77
Roman
“Remember what I said, Alpha Waylon,” I growl, my warning very clear.
“I’m not going to say anything. I promised you I wouldn’t unless she asks. Who is the man she is calling her grandfather?” he asks, watching Sloane introduce Scarlet to Alpha William.
“Why don’t I go get Aria while the four of you talk,” my mother says, walking up. ‘Do you want me to get your father?‘ she asks me in the mind
link.
‘Not yet,’ I tell her.
“Slade is with Luna Jasmine, of course,” I tell her out loud. I’m still amazed that he’s attached himself to her so easily.
“Alpha Waylon, Judith, follow me,” I tell them.
I notice the two haven’t taken their eyes off Sloane. If they do anything to disrupt the peace that she’s just starting to find, I’ll tear them to shreds.
Once we’re in my office, I gesture for them to sit, pulling Samara onto the couch beside me.
“You asked who Sloane was talking to. That is Alpha William. He’s the man who adopted me when I was on the run after my family was murdered,” Samara tells them.
“Alpha William, from the southern packs?” he asks.
“That’s correct,” I say.
He looks at Samara. “You ran all the way from here to Alpha William’s pack?”
“Fear can drive you to do incredible things,” she says.
I pull Samara closer to me, kissing the side of her head. “My mate is incredible. She was about Sloane’s age when she ran.”
“You didn’t have your wolf? How did you survive?” Judith asks her.
Samara shrugs. “I got lucky.”
It still makes my stomach twist to know how close I was to losing her forever.
“I remember you searching for her. You caused quite a bit of unrest in the packs with your insistence,” Alpha Waylon says.
“I remember you being one of the ones that gave me some push back,” I say, keeping my gaze level with his.
“I did. A seventeen–year–old Alpha shows up at my borders and demands access to my entire pack, I’m going to have something to say about it. In the end, I believe we compromised.”
“We did. You walked around with me, but you let me have access to everything,” I say remembering that he didn’t have anything to hide, except apparently, his illegitimate son. “At the risk of sounding rude, what’s going on here?” I say, gesturing to the two of them.
Alpha Waylon sighs. “I’ve made many, many mistakes in my life. One of the biggest was not accepting Judith as my mate when I should have. She is not an Alpha and when I was younger, I stupidly thought that taking her as my mate would make me weak. I had already decided on an Alpha female who I was determined to take as my chosen mate. However, that didn’t stop me and my wolf from acting on the mate bond and
mating with hadith. Derrick was the result of our time together. I hid Judith and Derrick away like a dirty little secret. Judith was always honest with Dentick, so he knew I was his father.”
He sighs and leans back, reaching over to take Judith’s hand. “I thought I did a good job of hiding them well, but my mate found out about
them. I didn’t realize that I could still love Judith even after I’d marked another, but I did. The draw to return to her was nearly impossible to
resist, and there have been many, many times over the past three decades when I did return to her bed. I’d spend time with Derrick when we
were together, but those moments were fleeting. As I said, I’ve made many mistakes over the years,”
He closes his eyes and the pain that I expected to see begins to make its way onto his face.
“If I’d been a better man, I would have accepted Judith immediately. If I’d been a better man, I wouldn’t have hidden my true Alpha heir from the world. If I’d been a better man, my son would still be alive. It took losing him and nearly losing my fated mate for me to finally see what a blind, stupid man I’ve been.”
“What does this have to do with Sloane?” Samara asks. I can feel Ayla forward, assessing the intentions of Alpha Waylon. Pierce has more
comfort with Judith than Alpha Waylon. Ayla seems to as well.
“When you finally face the fact that you aren’t a good person and you want to become a better person, you want to start making changes right away. I never handed the pack to my son with my chosen mate. I’m not sure if that’s why he and his mother decide stealing from me, or if they were always that way. For nine years, I was hoping that Derrick had somehow gotten out of that park a he’d come to me. I wanted to make amends for the way that I’d treated him, for hiding him all those years. But I was too late. I’m making amends with Judith. I rejected my chosen mate and exiled her and my son when I realized what they were doing. But even before that, I knew I had to do right by Judith. She hasn’t agreed to accepting me has her mate. I don’t blame her. I didn’t immediately reject my chosen mate, not wanting to cause chaos in the pack. But when everything came to light, it didn’t matter that the pack wouldn’t have a Luna, I could no longer tolerate my chosen mate. Judith still hasn’t accepted me as her mate. That’s why she isn’t wearing my mark, but there will never be anyone else for me.”
“That doesn’t answer my mate’s question about Sloane,” I say.
“I didn’t do right by Derrick, but I will do right by Sloane. She is my only heir. She’s eight. In ten years, I’ll leave my pack to her.”
“What if she’s not Derrick’s daughter?” I ask.
“She is. Like I said, she looks just like me when I was her age,” Judith says. She pulls out her phone and begins scrolling through it. “Here, I’m a bit older in this picture, ten, maybe eleven, but you can see that she looks just like me,” she says, holding out her phone.
Samara takes her phone and leans back against me, so we can look at the picture together. She’s right. Sloane looks close enough that they could almost be twins. There are subtle differences, like Sloane’s eye color being the same as Althea’s, not Judith’s, but overall, this young image of Judith looks very similar to Sloane.
Samara hands the phone back to her. “How do you intend to leave a pack to an heir who doesn’t know she’s an heir. I know Roman told you that we won’t force her to take a DNA test. We can do one, just to prove that she’s your granddaughter, without her knowing. But we won’t push her to find out. She’s been through enough,” Samara says.
“Let us get to know her and let her get to know us. I don’t want to lie to her. If she asks me who I am, I’d like to tell her that we’re Derrick’s parents. She may put the pieces together…”
“She will,” Samara says confidently. “She’s extremely intelligent. She’ll know why you’re interested in her. But we will not force her and if you try to, my mate and I will make sure you regret it.”
“As I said, I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life. I kept my son hidden. If I have to make amends for that by remaining hidden to my granddaughter until she turns eighteen, so be it. I’d like to see her, spend time with her. We can come here if needed. Or if she ever decides
that she wants to learn who her father is, and she wants to get to know us, then we’d be happy to have her at our pack.”
Samara turns and looks at me. ‘We have to tell them,‘ she says in the mind link.
‘I’ll trust your judgement on this one,‘ I say.
She turns back to them. “What do you know about white wolves?” she asks them.
“They’re very powerful, they’re very rare, they bring unheard of strength to their mate and packs, and loyalty unlike anything that any other pack has ever experienced,” Alpha Waylon says.
Judith has continued to watch Samara. She hasn’t said much, but I can tell she’s assessing everything that is being said.
“You’re a white wolf, aren’t you? Isn’t it your family line that has the white wolf?” Judith asks Samara.
*That is correct. My sister and I were white wolves. Althea lost her white wolf because of her betrayal of Derrick and our family. We don’t know yet if Sloane will have a white wolf or not. But if she does, Alphas from all the packs will want her.”
“We would protect her,” Alpha Waylon growls. “And for the record, she is my chosen heir, whether or not she has a white wolf. I refuse to leave the pack to my son, Kaelin.”
“If she decides to learn who her true father is, we’ll tell her about you. We can make arrangements for you to visit us as often as you’d like, but we won’t allow her to be pressured into anything,” Samara says.
“And if you’re serious…” I begin.
“I am. I want her to take over my pack. I know it will be difficult as an Alpha female, but she’s the only heir l’have.”
“Then, I will train her to be a strong and powerful warrior. If she has a white wolf, it won’t matter. But if she doesn’t, she may have to fight to prove her ability to run a pack,” I say.
“Thank you. Since your pack is the strongest in the country, knowing you will be training her makes me feel better already.”
I look at Samara to make sure she doesn’t have any more questions for them. When she doesn’t, I turn back to the two of them.
“Would you like to go meet your granddaughter?”
