The Alpha is Mine

Episode 4

Throughout the car ride, Emila said not another word to the driver, neither did the driver say anything to her. His face looked familiar: she must have known him before she left the pack. And she guessed that he must have known her too, because he kept stealing covert glances at her through the rearview mirror, slowly drawing his eyes away when she looked in his direction.

She ignored him and focused on her three children. Jasper was jumping up and down on the plush white leather seat, and she kept shushing him and trying to calm him down. Diamond, the first of her daughters, was softly singing a nursery rhyme under her breath while tugging at her pigtails. And Ruby, her last one was sleeping, her head propped up on Miley's thigh.

She gave up on trying to control her son and instead turned to the window, where she stared at the buildings that seemed to fly past. After the heartbreaking stunt that Ray had pulled, she had moved to Chicago, Illinois to start a new life. It was as far away from him as she could get. His pack was situated in, and she knew that he wouldn't think of looking for her in a city as big as Chicago.

Emilia couldn't deny the fact that she had hoped that Ray would somehow find her. She had stayed in Chicago, secretly hoping and waiting for the day that he would appear on her doorstep with a desperate look on his face and the words "I've been looking everywhere for you" on his lips. She would have followed him if he had appeared. She'd waited and waited, but he had never come. And so she had killed that hope in her heart and continued with her life. She had made peace with the fact that he was somebody else's mate now and he would never be hers again.

And just when she was finally breaking into the single mom lifestyle, he'd come back into her life in a chauffeured car, begging her to come back home.

Suddenly she heard a loud, nasty rip and jerked her head away from the window. Jasper was looking at her with a sheepish smile and a piece of leather in his hands. "Sorry." He murmured, looking up at her.

"Jasper, no!" She berated him and forcefully collected the piece of leather in his hands. How had he done that, anyway?

She placed the piece of leather in her laps and her eyes met that of the driver through the rearview mirror. "I'm deeply sorry for that." She muttered. What would the driver think, that her kids were uncivilized?

"It's fine. Their father can pay for that anytime." He answered with a faint smile and Emilia blanched. How did the chauffeur know that the alpha was the father of her kids? How much did everyone back at the pack know?

She thought she had kept a very good secret, but it seemed she had failed at that too.

She quickly averted her eyes and stared back out of the window before the chauffeur could say another word. She was eager to see her best friend again, but was full of apprehension. She remembered how the chauffeur had said "he needs your help", and shuddered involuntarily. What if he was on his deathbed? What if something more serious was going on?

She sighed and kept staring out of the window. The sleek, high-rise buildings of Illinois were slowly receding until all she could see were lower, more homely buildings, and she knew that they were almost home.

The pack's territory was located in Princeton, a sleepy little town in the north of Illinois. It was the perfect place to run a pack without too many prying eyes. The humans living there didn't care what you did, as long as it was going against the law. And they had believed for so many years that the wolves that howled one night every month were a pack of wild dogs.

The werewolves under Alpha Raymond could live among the humans in Princeton without attracting much attention to themselves. And the big pack house located at the end of town was believed to be a resident house, occupied by one or another rich merchant for a few years, the rich merchant being whoever happened to be alpha for that period.

Emilia's children were looking out of the window on the other side of the backseat, making impressed noises at the view. She, on the other hand, had her heart gripped with sadness. She had tried so hard to run away from this town and the memories that came with it, and just like that, she was back. The journey of six years was over.

"Mommy," Diamond her daughter turned from the window to look at her. "Where are we?" She asked.

Emilia stalled. What was she going to tell her daughter?

"Ms Emilia, would you like to answer the little girl?" The driver asked, a hint of a smile in his eyes.

Emilia closed her eyes, trying to gather her thoughts. How was she going to tell her kids that this place was home, that the life they had always known was a fake one?

She opened her eyes and plastered a convincing smile on her face, then turned to her daughter. "We're here to...see an old friend." She said, hearing the chauffeur sigh in disappointment. "We'll be back home soon, I promise."

"Don't make a promise yet." Diamond said, her big brown eyes staring up into her mother's. "I like this place. Perhaps I'll stay behind with your friend."

Emilia smiled and drew her daughter to her chest. "Oh, Di." She said while the chauffeur chuckled.

"Can we stay here, mommy?" Jasper asked while Ruby nodded in support.

"We'll see." Emilia answered, trying not to let the apprehension show on her face. She hated lying to her children.

The car continued to drive through the streets of Princeton. On both sides of the road stood several closed shops, illuminated by streetlights. Very few people were walking on the street, a stark contrast to the crowded streets of Chicago.

Soon they got to the end of the town. Emilia could see the large, Victorian style house from afar, complete with grounds and a large black iron gate. Her heart jumped as she saw the familiar structure. She hadn't seen this gate in six years.

The chauffeur drove them to the gate and honked twice. A peephole opened, and wary eyes looked out.

"Philemon, you old goat. Open the gate, it's me." The chauffeur called out good-naturedly. Emilia heard a low grunt, and then she heard a lock being opened. The chauffeur turned to her in the backseat.

"Here, miss." He said with a beam. "We're home."