The Alpha’s Secret Child

Chapter 2 - The Alpha’s Empty Throne

(Cole's point of view)

The Bentley purred to a halt in front of the prison gates. I sat in the back seat, motionless as a rock, my eyes closed, listening to the rhythm of my own heartbeat.

“Sir, we've arrived at Blackmoore Institution for Women,” my Beta told me.

I looked at my watch. The seconds seemed to drag on forever.

“Why isn't she out yet?” I muttered in a low, broken voice.

“The release paperwork may be taking longer than expected, Alpha,” my Beta, Finn, replied quickly, his eyes fixed on the road. After a nervous pause, he added, “Don't worry, sir. It's Luna Elara's release day. She'll be... delighted to see that you've come to pick her up yourself.”

A humorless sound escaped me. “Oh, really?”

My wolf growled restlessly beneath the surface. She had betrayed us.

“She conspired with the Croft family,” I said dryly, a flash of coldness in my eyes.

“She sold my company's confidential files. She could have continued to live comfortably as my wife and Luna, but no. She chose to be a traitor.”

Even saying it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

“She brought this on herself,” I said, though the words didn't burn with the same intensity as before. “I'm only here to see if she dares to look me in the eye.”

The air inside the car became thick and stifling. Finn, my beta, didn't respond.

He rolled down the window to let in some air and suddenly froze.

“Wait a minute...” he whispered. “Is that... Luna Elara?”

I turned my head sharply. “What?”

He pointed across the parking lot to a bus that had just pulled away. “I thought I saw her, Alpha... but...”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, exhausted after a night of meetings. “Speak clearly.”

“She was carrying... a baby,” he said quietly. “It must have been a mistake on my part.”

My hands froze. A baby?

“Look over there,” Finn pointed.

On the bus, by the window, was a woman with a baby in her arms. She rocked it absentmindedly, with the unconscious calm of someone who doesn't know they're being watched. Her hair covered half her face, but the curve of her jaw was firm, clean. And the way she lowered her eyes to the child...

I stood still.

“Alpha?” Finn murmured.

“Shut up.”

I didn't say it angrily. I said it because I needed silence to understand what was happening to me. Something had stirred inside me, quickly and without permission, like an old instinct I thought was dead.

My wolf stirred.

“Sir...” Finn insisted cautiously.

“You heard what I said.”

The bus pulled away. The woman disappeared with it, oblivious to everything, the child clinging to her chest.

I shook off that feeling and forced logic to take control. “Impossible,” I said dryly.

“He was twenty-two when he went to prison. There was no child.”

That scene brought back memories from eighteen months ago.

That night I had come home drunk, my grandmother's words echoing in my head:

“You must have heirs, Cole. It is your responsibility as head of this family to give us that legacy,” she had said.

The weight of it all had driven me back to the bottle.

Elara had been waiting for me, silent as always.

“I'll help you,” was all she said, looking at me with concern in her eyes.

She had tucked me in and was about to leave when I grabbed her wrist roughly. My temper had already exploded long before my hands touched her. She was so small in

my embrace, trembling, looking at me with those big eyes that always made me feel... exposed.

“You didn't like talking to my grandmother about children? Well, you'll get what you've always wanted,” I said, feeling anger cloud everything around me.

When she whispered, “Cole, not like this...” her voice was barely a whisper. I heard her, but I knew exactly what it meant.

“You won't play with me like the others do, Elara. You're just trying to control me like everyone else has.”

The rage exploded again, hot and blinding, as I moved on top of her. My wolf roared inside me, feeding on my fury, and I let it.

“Elara,” I growled, “you asked for this.”

I pinned her wrists above her head with a sharp movement, and my kisses became brutal and energetic as I did what I wanted with her.

When I finally got up and looked at her, she was... motionless, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“You deserve everything that just happened, you went too far.”

I emphasized it again so she wouldn't forget who was to blame for all this.

The next morning, I got dressed in silence. I buttoned my shirt and avoided looking at her huddled figure under the sheets. Her sobs were faint, but they followed me, tormenting me and clinging to the confines of my mind. I went outside; I needed air, I needed distance.

I was in the courtyard, trying to calm the pounding in my head, when I heard it: the sound of boots, the murmur of voices.

It was the enforcers.

“Alpha Cole,” they said, "we have found evidence that Luna Elara sold company

secrets. She is under arrest.“

I clenched my jaw and narrowed my eyes. ”Do what you must do. No one betrays the

Alpha and gets away with it.“

”Cole, I didn't...“ I heard her as I refused to see her through her tears of guilt.

”Sir, should we continue waiting?" My Beta's voice interrupted the memory.

I blinked, realizing I had been staring at the prison gates for over an hour. They were firmly closed.

“No,” I said, clenching my jaw. “If she wants to go home, let her.”

I had postponed an international board meeting for this, for her, and I couldn't even

look her in the eye.

“Yes, Alpha.”

The engine roared to life and the Bentley pulled away from the prison. I looked out

the window, watching the gray stone walls shrink behind us.

In the mirror, I saw the driver looking back, his gaze fixed on the empty door. “That's strange,” he muttered. “She should have been out by now.”

“I need to focus on the reports, don't bother me,” I said, filling my mind with graphs

and figures to distract myself safely.

Several hours later, at my home in Vance Villa, the moon had risen, full and silvery.

I left my study and headed to my bedroom to get some rest.

At that moment, I noticed the glow filtering under Elara's bedroom door.

“Who turned on the light?” was the first thing I wondered. Could it be her?

I immediately quickened my pace, my heart pounding in my chest.