The Alpha's Surrogate

Chapter 9

Ivan's POV

Ragaz left that same night. The moment he left, it was as if he had blessed me with insomnia except that it wasn't a blessing. I couldn't sleep no matter how hard I tried. As I appeared for my morning coffee, I could see the look of shock on Vanessa's face. She was literally bewildered.

“Are you okay, master?” Vanessa managed to ask. I nodded and proceeded to drown a cup of coffee. I sighed right after.

“I'll skip breakfast!” I told her.

“That will make it twice in a row, master,” Vanessa muttered. “Perhaps, am I doing something wrong with breakfast? If I am, I will make changes immediately.”

“Don't be clingy!” I shunned her. “I will be having dinner with Luke at the office. You know Luke, don't you?”

Vanessa nodded, “I met him at the party.”

“And you even danced with him,” I added. I walked out of the dining room and went to prepare for work. I had to battle sleepiness on my way to work. I drove so that made it worse. Thankfully, there was no traffic this morning. It would have been bad if I got into an accident due to my physical condition. I had called Luke earlier to meet me at the cafeteria in the company building. He was already there when I got there

“Didn't you sleep all night?” Luke asked the moment he saw me.

“Kind of…” I muttered.

“A girl must have kept you up all night. Who is she?” Luke asked immediately. He was blushing like wildfire. I sighed the moment I heard this. Luke had always been like this. I was used to his teasing so I wasn't disturbed by it. Anyway, I told him about the visitor I received yesterday. Luke was a werewolf like me. He served as my bodyguard when I was an Alpha and he was the only one who followed me to the human world when I was banished.

“How dare they!” Luke's tone changed immediately. The last time I saw him like this was seven years ago.

“Easy. There are people here with us,” I told him.

“What are you going to do?” Luke asked, concealing his furiousness.

“I already accepted his offer. I plan to go back to my position. That is the only way I will be able to punish Kyle and Selena,” I told him firmly.

“That will be hard. If Kyle already has control of the northern part of the pack, it will be nearly impossible to get it back without talking of punishing him…” Luke told me. “Also, you have no mate. How do you plan to have an heir? It is imposi…”

“I thought about it all night and I have found a solution!” I told Kyle carefully. “A surrogate is the answer!”

**

“Don't be dramatic…” I told Luke as he paced back and forth in the room. The moment I told Luke about how a surrogate would help me, he had put up an anonymous offer on the online market for a surrogate. Since the reward was huge, there were a lot of applications. He had picked ten of them for the interview. I could neither use my office nor my home for it so Luke offered to use his own place.

“The first person will be here soon!” He told me. As if it had been planned earlier, there was a knock on the door at that same moment. Luke let the person in. It was the first applicant.

Luke was the one who did the pleasantries. I busied myself with evaluating each of them as they entered. They were ten of them and the first section I screened them in was beauty.

I showed Luke the scores privately and he opened his mouth out of shock.

“Is this really necessary?” He ended up asking.

“It will be my son, Luke,” I replied. “His mother needs to be beautiful so he can take after her good looks. It is very necessary.”

From this section, I disqualified three of them. As for the remaining seven, I did a brief test for their intelligence. I once heard that a child's intelligence depended heavily on the mother's genes. God forbid my heir is dumb.

Four of them failed this test. I had only three of them left and now, I talked to them, one at a time.

“All I have to do is give birth to the child, right?” The first lady asked.

“I believe you have the answer to that already,” I replied coldly.

She nodded.

“You won't need to nurse the baby at all. I will have people in place to do that. Give birth and leave with the money, that will be all,” I explained to her. “And erm… you would have to follow me to my hometown during the period of your pregnancy.”

“Your hometown? Where is it?” The lady asked.

Silently, I dreaded that question. I couldn't tell her I was a werewolf and I would be taking her to my pack. If I did, she would freak out immediately.

“About that…” I tried. “You will know when you get there. Don't worry though, you will be treated well.”

“I won't get to know the place beforehand?” She asked again, fright on her face.

“You don't but I promise you will be safe!” I assured her.

She stood up, “I am sorry but I am not interested in your offer anymore.”

I took the first ‘No’ with no bad feeling. I still had two to go. On the second, I didn't fare better.

“Did I just walk into a human trafficking site?” The second lady asked, her voice shaking. She got on her knees immediately, “Please let me go. I am the only child of my parents. My mother will grieve if anything happens to me.”

I was taken aback immediately. I had to let her leave quickly before this would get out of hand. How could she think I was going to hurt her?

As for the last, she was more composed than the second. Still, she rejected the offer.

“I knew it! The payment sounded too good to be true!” She exclaimed the moment she heard my condition. All of them had refused the offer. By now, I already had a headache.

“How about you remove the clause about going to your hometown with you?” Luke asked calmly.

“My pack members need me right now, not nine months after the baby is born. Also, my child will be a great wolf. I won't have him being born into human territory!” I told him firmly.

“But all of them rejected you…” Luke muttered.

“Just find others!” I barked at him. “That's your job, isn't it? Stop whining and do your f*****g job!”

I wasn't especially angry at Luke. I was simply annoyed that my plans had failed woefully. Luke seemed to understand that as well and he gave me space.

I had to vent and I had to do it alone.

**

I was completely worn out and without an appetite when I got home in the evening. I refused dinner and this time, Vanessa stood in front of me.

“Will you keep rejecting my meals? What did I do that was so wrong?” She asked. She wasn't the reason why I kept skipping my meals but she didn't know that. I had no energy to push her away so I yielded.

“Alright, I'll have dinner. Get a bottle of my favorite red wine from the cellar,” I ordered. I went to the dining room but could only pick at my food. When Vanessa arrived, she seemed concerned.

“Are you okay, master?” She asked. I looked into her eyes and she seemed to care about me.

“I'm fine,” I muttered.

“No, you're not and it is unlike you,” Vanessa told me. “You look weary. It's been since this morning. Was it about that strange man from yesterday night?”

“I can handle it…” I told her.

“Can I help you?” Vanessa asked me calmly.

“You can't help me…” I muttered only for an idea to strike me. I looked at her eagerly now, “Actually, you can help me.”

Vanessa's face lit up, “Just tell me how.”

I took a deep breath, “I need a baby. I mean one of my own. However, I am not ready to get married.”

Vanessa looked confused, “I don't know how I can help in that regard.”

“You can be a surrogate for me!” I told her sharply.

“What!” She exclaimed.

“I will compensate you properly…” I replied. “How does ten million dollars sound?”