The Cursed Alpha's Secret Pup

The Paternity Test

They put us in the Luna suite.

The Luna suite on the third floor of the packhouse - the one with the huge windows overlooking the forest, the fireplace that had never been lit for anyone because Vale had refused to take a Luna for five years.

The door locked from the outside.

I paced.

Leo was sitting on the massive bed that could fit four people, kicking his little legs, looking around with wide eyes. He had never seen a room this big. In Detroit, our whole apartment was smaller than this closet.

"Mama, is this my father's house?" he asked.

"Yes," I said flatly.

"Is he rich?"

"Yes."

"Is he going to be my dad now?"

I stopped pacing.

That question - so simple, so hopeful - made my throat close. I sat next to him and pulled him into my lap. He smelled like my shampoo and like Vale now, because Vale had touched him.

"I don't know, baby," I whispered. "Do you want him to be?"

Leo thought about it seriously, his little brow furrowed. "He felt sad when he touched me. Like his chest hurt. Like you when you miss Grandma. I want to make it not hurt."

My white wolf whimpered inside me.

My healer instinct. The Pup is a healer too.

A knock. Then the door opened.

Vale walked in with the pack doctor - Dr. Ellis, who delivered me. Behind them, Sorphim, arms crossed, face like stone.

Ellis wouldn't look at me. "Aston, I need to take a cheek swab from the boy. And blood from you and the Alpha King. Standard paternity. Ten minutes."

"No," I said instantly, holding Leo tighter. "You are not taking blood from my son."

"It's just a cheek swab, Aston," Ellis said gently.

"It's not just a swab," I snapped. "It's you telling this entire pack that my son is a bastard that needs to be proven. He doesn't need to be proven to anyone."

Vale flinched at the word bastard.

"Do it to me, then," he said quietly. He rolled up his sleeve. The curse veins were ugly up close - raised, black, pulsing like worms under his skin. "Take mine and hers. White wolf blood plus Varog blood - if he's ours, the blood will react."

Sorphim laughed, sharp. "Oh, please. You really believe this - this human-raised child is a Varog heir? Vale, she's been gone five years, living with human men -"

She didn't finish.

Leo, who had been quiet, suddenly looked at her and growled.

It was not a four-year-old's growl. It was low, rumbling, and his eyes flashed gold so bright the room lit.

Sorphim actually stepped back.

"Don't talk about my mama like that," Leo said, his little voice shaking.

Vale stared at his son like he was seeing a miracle.

Ellis quickly took blood from Vale - blackish at first, then red - and from me - my blood came out oddly bright, almost silver-white in the tube. He mixed a drop of each in a glass dish.

We all watched.

For three seconds, nothing.

Then the two drops moved toward each other on their own and fused with a soft pop of white light. The dish glowed. A small white wolf pup and a small black wolf pup appeared in the light, circling each other, then curling together.

Blessed and cursed. Mate blood. Pup blood.

The room went dead silent.

Ellis whispered, "100% fated heir. Goddess..."

Sorphim's face went paper-white.

Vale was looking at me, tears finally spilling over his golden eyes.

"He's mine," he said, like a prayer. "He's mine. I have a son."

I stood up, putting Leo behind me. "You have a blood test. You don't have a son. You rejected me, Vale. You rejected us before he even had a heartbeat."

"I know," he said, voice breaking. "Aston, I know. Your mother - Kade told me - your mother said you would die if I claimed you because of the curse. That your white wolf would burn. I thought - I thought if I made you hate me, you would run and live -"

So it was true. My mother had told him.

"You should have asked me," I hissed. "You should have asked me if I wanted to live without you! You decided for me! You let me believe I was nothing!"

Leo started crying because I was yelling. That made Vale move.

He knelt again, right there, in front of both of us - An Alpha King on his knees in his own packhouse. He held his hands out to Leo.

"Can I hug him? Just once? Please, Aston?"

I wanted to say no. I wanted to be cruel the way he was cruel to me.

But Leo was already leaning forward, arms open.

Vale pulled him into his chest and buried his face in Leo's black hair and sobbed, his shoulders were shaking, a sound so broken I felt my white wolf try to push out to heal him.

Leo patted his back. "It's okay. My mama fixes hurts. She will fix yours too."

Sorphim watched this and her hands fisted so tight her nails bled.

Vale stood up with Leo in his arms - and Leo, traitor, wrapped his legs around him like he belonged there.

Vale looked at me over Leo's head, his face wet, his curse veins still pulsing but slower now, calmer.

"You will stay in this suite," he said, not a request. "Both of you. The funeral is tomorrow. After that, we talk. I am not letting my Luna and my heir go back to a human apartment where a human can yell at him in a grocery store."

How did he know that?

"Dr. Ellis told you about the eye flash?" I asked.

"No," Vale said softly. "My wolf felt his Alpha flare two years ago from 400 miles away. I've known I had a son for two years, Aston. I just didn't know it was you."

My blood went cold.

Two years.

He had known for two years and never came for us.

Sorphim smiled then, a small, victorious smile at me.

And I realized Arc 1 was over.

The revenge hadn't even started.