Chapter 12

Abigail's POV

Mommy wasn’t smiling. That’s how I knew something was wrong. Mommy always smiled, even when she was tired or when I accidentally spilled juice on her papers. But today, her lips were all flat, and her eyes looked sad, like when I broke my favorite doll and she couldn’t fix it.

I sat on the edge of my bed, swinging my legs back and forth, thinking really hard after being sent to bed. Mommy had come home upset after talking about some man named “Alpha Alexander.” I didn’t know who he was, but I did know he made Mommy sad, and I didn’t like that one bit.

I chewed on my thumb, glancing at the phone Mommy gave me. She said it was just for emergencies, but maybe this was an emergency? Mommy didn’t have to know I was using it, right?

Scooting over to my pillow fort, I tucked myself inside, clicked the search button, and typed: Alpha Alexander.

It didn’t take long for pictures to pop up—pictures of a tall, scary-looking man with sharp eyes and fancy suits. He didn’t look very nice. But then, I saw a picture that made my tummy feel funny. It was Mommy. Only, she looked different. She was wearing a pretty white dress and smiling at the scary man. And the words under the picture said:

“Alpha Alexander and his late wife, Lauren, tragically passed five years ago.”

Late wife? Passed? That didn’t make any sense! Mommy wasn’t dead. She was here, alive, and making me pancakes this morning!

And then it hit me.

My eyes went super wide, and my mouth hung open like the time I saw a real pony at the park. That man—that scary man—was my…

“Daddy?” I whispered to the empty room.

No. No way!

I jumped up, pacing in my little space, my hands clutching my phone. “Mommy didn’t die!” I said out loud, even though no one was there to hear me. “That Alpha Alexander guy is a big, fat liar! A cheater! He abandoned us! I don’t want him as my daddy!”

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. That man left Mommy and me all alone. And if he was bad, then his kid—Owen—was bad too. Mommy said Owen was sick and needed help, but I didn’t care. He was still the son of that bad man and his mean lady.

The next day, Daphne—Mommy’s friend who had hair like gold and smelled like cookies—took me to my new kindergarten. I was excited at first because I love meeting new kids, new friends! But then I saw him.

Owen.

He was sitting all quiet at a little table, scribbling in a coloring book. He didn’t even look up when I walked in. I stuck my tongue out at him, even though he wasn’t looking.

“I don’t like him,” I whispered to myself.

I decided right then and there I would stay far away from him. It wasn’t hard. He didn’t talk much.

Having made it most of the day avoiding him, I was happily coloring at free time when a few of the other kids surrounded his table.

They called him "little mute" and "little fool." And okay, maybe that was a little mean, but I wasn’t going to feel bad for him. He was part of that bad family, and I was not going to forgive him.

But they weren’t being quit abut it. They had surrounded him like a pack of wolves, pointing and laughing.

“Little mute!” one of them teased. “What’s wrong? Can’t you talk?”

“Maybe he’s a little dummy,” another kid said, shoving him lightly.

I felt something twist in my chest, like when I watched a sad movie. Even though I was mad at him, I didn’t like what they were doing. My tummy felt all yucky, and before I could think, I marched right up to them.

“Hey!” I shouted, putting my hands on my hips. “Leave him alone!”

The kids looked at me like I had just grown three heads. “Why do you care?” one of them sneered.

“I just do!” I yelled back. “I’m telling the teacher!”

That made them scatter faster than ants when you pour water on them. They ran off, muttering something about tattletales, but I didn’t care. I looked down at Owen, who was sitting on the small chair, staring at me with big, round eyes.

“You okay?” I asked, crossing my arms.

He nodded, twirling the marker in his hand in his fingers.

“Good,” I said, turning to walk away. But then I stopped, because I remembered something. “By the way, I don’t like you!”

Owen blinked at me, his brow furrowing. “Huh?”

“I hate your parents,” I added, just to make sure he knew. “My mommy says your daddy is a bad man, so I hate you too!”

For a second, he didn’t say anything. I thought maybe he was mad or scared. Then he looked at me with big, dark eyes like a rabbit and said really quietly, “I… I just want Doctor Ava to be my mom.”

His words made me freeze. My tummy did a weird flip, and I spun around to face him. “What’d you say?”

He stared down at his hands, fiddling with his fingers like he was nervous. “Doctor Ava… I want her to be my mommy too.”

Alexander's POV

My foot tapped against my will against the carpet, my hand squeezing the pen over the paper, the office feeling more like a prison then my usual escape.

The moment I saw her, the world stopped. My wolf stirred, restless and insistent.

“It’s her,” I growled in my mind. “Lauren.”

But something was wrong. She didn’t look at me the same way—her gaze was cold, detached. And yet, her every movement, every breath, called to me. I was right; I knew it in my soul. But the connection… it was off. I couldn’t feel her wolf, the bond that had once tethered us.

"It doesn’t matter," I told myself. Lauren—or Ava, as she now called herself—was alive. That was all that mattered.

A few days later, Beta returned with the information I’d asked for, information on Dr. Ava, but it left me with more questions than answers. Ava’s identity was a puzzle wrapped in shadows. The only solid lead was her connection to the Hailsing Medical Center, which she’d co-founded with some doctor named Liam shortly after Lauren was presumed dead.

Presumed dead.

The words still burned, a wound that never fully healed. I had mourned her, and cursed the heavens for taking her. Yet here she was, alive. She had hidden herself away, rebuilt her life, and walked back into my world with a new name, and no trace of the woman she’d been.

Except… she wasn’t entirely different.

She couldn’t hide everything. Not the tilt of her head or the soft lilt of her voice when she was nervous, I saw the Lauren I knew.

“If she’s alive,” I thought, turning in my chair, folding my hands infront of my lips. “Could our child be alive too?”

That thought stopped me cold.

Our child.

“Alpha,” Beta said, breaking through my thoughts. He wa one the phone, his tone clipped and professional.

When he hung up, his face was grim. “Dr. Ava has decided to terminate the collaboration with the company and is leaving early.”

The voice in me howled, furious and desperate.

"Don’t let her go!"

“I won’t let her leave me again,” I said aloud, my voice as resolute as the promise forming in my chest.

Before I could act, a sharp knock sounded at the door, and Sophia swept in without waiting for an invitation. Her voice was sharp, her long red curls trailing behind her like fire.

“The shareholders are being ridiculous!” she snapped, not bothering with a greeting. “Just because the company lost a little money, they’re ganging up on me in meetings!”

I leaned back in my chair, watching her pace. Sophia’s knack for making everything about herself was becoming harder to ignore these days. She leaned over my desk, her arms crossed in a way that suggested she expected me to fix all her problems, as usual.

Her toy company had been floundering for months—a disaster of her own making. It only stayed afloat because I allowed it to.

As she continued her tirade about how unfairly she was being treated, Beta shifted beside me, a spark of realization flashing in his eyes.

“Alpha,” he said, cutting through Sophia’s complaints, “I just remembered—Sophia’s company recently breached a contract with Hailsing’s Medical Center. They had to pay a significant penalty.”

Sophia whipped her head toward him, her tone defensive. “That wasn’t my fault! Their boss is impossible to work with. He nitpicks everything!” She threw her hands in the air, exasperated. “It’s not like I wanted to break the contract.”

I tuned her out.

Hailsing’s Medical Center.

Lauren.

The pieces clicked together in my mind, one by one.

“Beta,” I said, cutting Sophia off mid-sentence, my voice steady and decisive.

He turned to me, already anticipating my next move.

“I’m buying that hospital,” I said, my plan solidifying.

Sophia stopped mid-rant, blinking at me in surprise, but I didn’t offer her an explanation.

Let Lauren run. I’d catch her.