The Good Wolf's Alpha Mate

Chapter 2

Liam’s POV

So... the story so far:

I met a dying, pregnant vampire girl out in the middle of f*****g nowhere. And while it was supposed to be impossible for vampires even to be pregnant, this girl had just given birth to a little baby girl. With the help of yours truly…

And then she died!

Which now left me with a screaming infant on my hands, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it.

“Sorry, Peach,” I mumbled, wishing that I knew how to shut it up. “But as you may have noticed, I don’t have any motherly instincts.”

That didn’t help…

The baby kept on wailing as if her life depended on it. Hell, at any second, I more or less expected the neighbors to come knocking and tell me to quiet down. But there were no neighbors around. We were alone in the middle of the forest, and not a single soul was in sight. There were no Packs around here, and even if there were, I highly doubted that they'd help a vampire - doubly so because she was a baby. The closest vampire clan I knew of, lived hundreds of miles South of here. And they would no doubt kill me because I was a werewolf...

In short: I was f****d two ways to Sunday!

The infant let out another ear-piercing scream, interrupting my stream of consciousness.

“Oh, come on,” I sighed, exasperated, and tried to bounce her up and down like I’d seen other mothers do with their children. “Work with me here.”

Try and give her your tit, my wolf suggested with a tilt of his head, trying to block out the noise. That's what they always do in the movies!

"Are you an i***t or just love to play dumb?" I hissed back at him, wondering how anyone would be so stupid. Hell, he knew everything about human physiology and biology that I did, yet he always seemed to rebel against the notion that we were both geeky nerds...

Well, I can't really think straight with that thing wailing like a bloody siren, my wolf snappily defended himself and again scratched his ear, hoping to block out the cries.

I was just about to metaphorically ring his neck when a cold breeze had the hairs on my body stand on end. And just like that, something inside me finally snapped me out of my panic, and my mind cleared.

Shit! She must be freezing, I realized, and—on some ancient instinct that I apparently possessed anyway—I wrapped her up in my worn-out T-shirt and tugged her under my arm. Holding her close to my naked skin and letting her rest against my warmer chest had her quiet down almost immediately. Being a werewolf, I naturally ran a little hotter than other humans. And apparently, despite being rumored to be cold-blooded creatures, vampire babies liked warmth too.

Well, at least it shut up, my wolf huffed, slowly stepping forward to take a closer look at our unexpected--- Well, I wasn’t sure what she was yet, but I guess as long as she was with me, at least she had protection. And something told me she was going to need it, because...

“Is it just me, or does she smell like a wolf?” I asked, frowning as I took in her scent. Sure enough, I could barely pick up any traces of a vampire on her. There was the faintest scent of her vampire mother, and then the overwhelming scent of...

Werewolf!

My wolf took a whiff of her and let out a wolf-ish whistle.

She smells like a werewolf alright, he noted, confirming what I already suspected. And an Alpha at that,.. man. s**t! What the Hell is going on here?

I couldn’t answer him. Dumbfounded, I watched the small keep that very unexpectedly had landed in my lap. Trying to make sense of everything that had just happened was...

Impossible!

Werewolves were naturally immune to vampire venom, which meant that we couldn’t be transformed. So at some point, the pregnant girl had to have been human because she reeked of vampire.

She was definitely a vampire!

But if she was pregnant with an Alpha baby werewolf, her Mate had to have been a werewolf. Meaning that there was an Alpha werewolf somewhere out there right now, in a lot of pain. Hell, judging from the scent, he was probably dying because of the broken Mate bond.

The stronger the wolf, the stronger the bond between Mates. Only a very powerful Alpha would have given rise to the werewolf Alpha female baby currently nestled against my chest. Oh, and of course, a wolf wouldn't impregnate someone whom they hadn't claimed as their Mate.

Chosen Mates were rare, but they did happen on occasion. And the fallout of such a union was always a mess because, despite everything, fate would always bring Fated Mates together. Rejection hurt like a son of a b***h - according to the few incidents that I'd been told about - and chosen Mates never really shared the intense Mate bond as fated pairs did.

Either way, no matter the situation, the vampire girl had to have been a very powerful Alpha's Mate - by choice or design, I could only guess, but a part of me hoped by choice. At least that way, there was a small chance that the kid's father was still alive. That meant that I could find him and---

And that helps us--- Why? My wolf snarkily grumbled, shaking out his haggard red fur. I sighed and rubbed the brim of my nose. Because, of course, in my attempt to try and figure out my situation and what the Hell I was supposed to do with a werewolf-vampire baby Alpha female, I'd forgotten to factor in one very important piece of information:

I was a f*****g Rogue!

And most Packs didn't take kindly to Rogues. Hell, being killed on sight was considered a mercy compared to what some Alphas liked to do with Rogues that trespassed into their territories...

The worst of them all was the Alpha King!

Rumors said that he'd once picked a Rogue apart, limb by limb, just because he passed by his territory. Hell, the sucker hadn't even crossed into the Black Moon's Pack and he'd been tortured to death. They said that the King hated Rogues with a passion, because of something that happened to his mother. Nobody knew the real story, but most suspected that Rogues had killed the late Queen.

A favorite among her people...

And sure, most Rogues were scum, I'd consent to that. But I also found it incredibly --- unfair! Because according to the law, an Alpha could only banish a wolf to become a Rogue, if the King sanctioned it. But as the King hated Rogues, the Alphas went unchecked. They could banish anyone they didn't like and if that poor sucker wanted to come before the King, they'd be killed on sight. It was a cruel system and more often than not, targeted the wrong people.

People like me...

“Damn, what a f*****g mess,” I mumbled--- and almost bit my tongue, when my wolf suddenly hissed at me.

LANGUAGE! He growled and--- then gestured to the baby?! There are children present!

I barely stifled a snort--- but he was right.

“Ok, Peach,” I sighed with a snort, feeling utterly lost and bewildered by everything that just had happened, and looked down at the baby in my arms. “No more swearing or I’ll have to put a dollar in the swear jar, OK?”

The baby didn’t reply. Perhaps that was for the best because I didn't have a dime to my name - let alone a whole dollar! Thankfully her eyelids drooped, and by some small mercy, she closed her eyes and fell asleep in my arms.

Peace at last...

I wasn't sure why I noticed, but when she wasn't testing her lungs, she was sort of cute. So little and wrinkled. And vulnerable. Her pink skin looked delicate and smooth. As if just holding her wrong would blemish it. I wasn't sure if it was her vampire heritage or something else altogether, but she was very pale. Her raven-black hair stood in stark contrast to her mostly white skin, but it really brought out the blue in her eyes as well.

When I could see them, that was...

My wolf was studying her too. And yeah, I couldn't lie that something inside my chest stirred a little, when the small bundle slept peacefully in my arms. She looked so content - so safe, that all I wanted to do was to make sure she stayed that way. I wanted to protect her. I wanted to take care of her and make sure, that no harm ever came over her. And, what was even weirder was, that she strangely felt like...

Mine...!

She’ll be hungry when she wakes up, my wolf said, also feeling the protective surge that the little opera singer brought out in us. I nodded, having already suspected as much. This meant that I now had several problems to add to my ever-growing list of s**t on my plate...

One: a very pissed-off Alpha-Daddy that – if he wasn’t dead! – was probably tearing apart his territory and everything in between, looking for his Mate and child. Which only meant that I needed to get this child back to where she belonged sooner rather than later... And in only a matter of hours, I’d have a baby with another screaming fit. This time, I wasn’t so sure if a warm body was going to solve the problem…

Another problem was if I met another Rogue who decided to take a chunk out of me; with a baby cradled in my arm, I wouldn’t be able to shift, without also putting the little one in severe danger. And by extension, putting myself in danger...

“One problem at a time,” I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose, suddenly feeling more exhausted than I’d ever felt before. It had been a while since this feeling had come over me. I would often feel overwhelmed and frustrated when working at the Pack Clinic. I felt as if there was a never ending stream of problems and I wasn't enough to save all of them...

I felt like a failure!

But then I remembered my grandfather's words...

"You can't do everything at once," he would say, and the kindness and strength in his voice would give me comfort. "You can only do the best you can, with what you have and work the rest out from there."

Taking a deep breath, I made a mental list of everything that I needed to sort out. And then prioritize them as a matter of urgency...

“We need to find some food for the little one,” I said to no one in particular but knew that my wolf would always be there to listen. He agreed and let out a content-like chuff and wagged his tail. He then turned his attention to the baby. Hell, he didn't care that she put our life in danger. He'd happily take down any i***t that would be foolish enough to try and take us on. All that mattered to him, was to keep her safe!

He was growing attached to her...

I looked down at the sleeping baby in my arms. It was f*****g hard not to grow attached. She was so small and cute, vulnerable and...

But she wasn't mine to protect!

“And then I need to find someone to take care of you, little Peach," I sighed, hating how much it felt like a knife twisting in my chest. "Because it can't be me..."