THE ALPHA'S UNWANTED MATE

Chapter 12: The King Return

One year.

For 365 days, Aria thought she was safe.

The small apartment was quiet tonight. Leo was asleep in his room, clutching the teddy bear Damien once gave her that night. She never told Leo who his father was.

Her phone buzzed. It was a photo from Leo’s teacher. "Leo won first place in the science fair!"

Aria smiled. Her son was smart. Brave. Just like his father.

She hated that thought.

After cleaning up, she walked home from her night shift. The streets were empty. But she felt it. That familiar prickle on the back of her neck. The feeling of being watched.

She picked up her pace.

When she reached her door, her hands were shaking. She fumbled with the keys.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Loud. Demanding. Royal.

Aria froze.

A deep voice came from the other side. A voice she had tried to forget for five years.

"Aria."

Her blood ran cold.

"Open the door. We need to talk about our son."

Damien was here. Her heart pounded so hard she thought it would break her ribs.

Five years. She had spent five years running, hiding, and building a new life. And now he was standing outside her door like he owned the world.

Because he did.

“Mommy?”

A small voice came from behind her. Leo. He was standing in the hallway in his dinosaur pajamas, rubbing his sleepy eyes.

Aria quickly turned and forced a smile. “Go back to bed, baby. It’s just... a delivery.”

Leo frowned. “But deliveries don’t knock like that.”

Before she could answer, the knocking came again. Harder this time.

“Aria! I know you’re in there. Don’t make me break the door down.”

Damien’s voice was low, but it carried power. The kind of power that made werewolves bow.

Aria’s hands trembled as she opened the door, but only a crack. She didn’t want Leo to see him. Not yet.

There he stood.

Damien Blackwood.

He was even more dangerous than she remembered. His black suit was perfect, but his eyes... his gold eyes were wild. Tired. Angry.

For a second, neither of them spoke.

Then Damien’s gaze dropped. Past her. To Leo standing behind her.

The air in the hallway went still.

Leo had Damien’s eyes. The same gold. The same shape.

Damien’s jaw clenched. When he spoke again, his voice was barely a whisper.

“That’s... my son.”

It wasn’t a question.

Aria swallowed hard. “You have no right to be here.”

“I have every right,” Damien stepped forward, and Aria instinctively blocked the doorway. “That boy is a Blackwood. He’s my heir.”

Leo peeked from behind Aria’s legs. “Mommy, who is he?”

Aria looked down at her son, then back up at the Alpha King.

She was out of time. Out of lies.

“Go inside, Leo,” she said softly. “Mommy needs to talk to this man.”

As the door closed, Aria looked up at Damien.

“What do you want?”

Damien’s eyes burned. “I want what’s mine.”

Aria took a shaky step back. The hallway suddenly felt too small. Too dangerous.

“I’m not an object you can claim, Damien,” she whispered. “Leo is a person. My son.”

“OUR son,” Damien corrected, his voice dropping. He looked past her, into the apartment.

His nostrils flared. He could smell it. The scent of a pup. His pup.

The door behind Aria creaked open a little more.

“Mommy?” Leo’s voice was small and curious. “Is everything okay?”

Damien’s entire body stilled.

For the first time since Aria met him, the Alpha King looked... vulnerable.

His gold eyes, usually cold and sharp, softened as they landed on the little boy.

A boy with his hair. His eyes. His jaw.

Leo was holding a stuffed wolf. The same wolf Damien had once given Aria as a joke, the night they met.

Aria wanted to cry. Five years of secrets, gone in one look.

“Leo, go back to your room,” Aria said, but her voice cracked.

Leo didn’t move. He was staring at Damien. “You have the same eyes as me,” he said innocently.

The words hit Damien like a punch to the gut.

He clenched his fists to stop himself from reaching out.

“May I come in?” Damien asked, but it didn’t sound like a question. It sounded like a command he was trying very hard to make polite.

Aria’s heart was racing. If she let him in, everything would change.

If she didn’t, he would just break the door down. He was an Alpha.

With trembling hands, she stepped aside.

Damien walked in. The apartment seemed to shrink around him.

He stopped two feet away from Leo and crouched down, so he was eye level with his son.

“Hi,” Damien said softly. So softly it hurt. “I’m... Damien.”

Leo tilted his head. “Are you Mommy’s friend?”

Damien looked up at Aria. The pain in his eyes was real.

“No, Leo,” he said. “I’m your father.”

The air left Aria’s lungs.

Outside, the moon was rising. And with it, all the trouble she had been running from for five years.

Aria swallowed hard. She could feel Damien’s eyes on her, burning, searching.

“Why now?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “Why did you come back now?”

Damien stood up slowly. He was so tall, so powerful, but right now he just looked tired.

“Because I finally know,” he said. “And I’m not letting you run again.”

From the bedroom, Leo coughed.

Both adults turned instantly.

The moment was broken.

Aria rushed past Damien to check on her son, but she could feel him watching her every step.

The King had returned.

And nothing would ever be the same.

**THE END OF CHAPTER 12**

**TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 13...**