Daddy Don’t Break Mommy’s Heart: The Alpha’s Accidental Surrogate Returns.

POV: Dinah The smell of bleach and old grease is the only thing keeping me safe. I scrub the floor of the restaurant kitchen and the water turns gray and murky like my life has been for the last four years. My hands are red and raw from the chemicals but I don't care because the chemicals hide my scent. It's been four years since I ran away from the Goldenclaw pack with nothing but the clothes on my back and a broken heart that still bleeds every time I think about him. "Dinah! Faster!" the manager yells. I nod and keep scrubbing with my head down and then the air suddenly changes. It happens so fast. One second I am smelling onions and dish soap and the next second the air gets heavy and thick like right before a thunderstorm breaks. Everything goes quiet. My stomach clenches hard immediately because I know this feeling. I know this pressure that makes the hair on my arms stand up and my wolf whimper in the back of my mind even though I took my suppressants this morning. I drop the scrub brush and it splashes into the gray water. Standing up, I turn around with my legs feeling like jelly at the sight of the two men standing in the doorway of the kitchen. They are wearing black suits that probably cost more than this entire building and they take up all the space in the room with their shoulders and their grim faces. Enforcers. "Dinah." It's not a question. "You need to come with us," one of them says. I step back and bump into the metal counter. "I can't. I'm working. I— I don't know you.” "The Alpha requires your presence." The word hangs in the air like a guillotine blade. Alpha. Cade. What could he possibly want with me after the humiliation I suffered at his hands? My heart hammers against my ribs and I look for an exit but there is no way out. If I run they will hunt me. If I fight they will crush me. I am just an Omega. A reject. "Please," I whisper with a shaky voice. "I didn't do anything." "Come," the Enforcer says in a firmer tone and steps forward. I take off my apron with trembling hands and follow them out the door to the black SUV waiting in the alley. The windows are tinted so dark that nobody can see me being taken away. Nobody cares anyway. The ride is silent and terrifying. We don't go to the pack house. We go to the city center, to a building called The Citadel. It's a massive glass tower that touches the clouds and looks cold and sharp like a jagged tooth. They take me up in a private elevator and as soon as the doors slide open, the smell hits me. It’s the smell of antiseptic and sickness but underneath that is something else; rain and cedar and power. Alpha Cade. My knees almost buckle so I have to grab the wall to stay upright because the scent is so strong it makes my head spin and my dormant wolf scratches at the walls of my mind. An Enforcer opens a door at the end of the hall. "In here.” I walk in and the door clicks shut behind me. The room is an office but it looks more like a hospital room with expensive furniture. There is a doctor standing by the window holding a file, and a man sitting in the leather chair. He is sitting sideways to the door with his long legs stretched out and his fingers laced together on his lap. He doesn't look up when I come in. He doesn't have to. My breath catches in my throat at the sight of him. It really is Cade. He looks exactly the same as he did four years ago and yet, completely different. He’s bigger and his shoulders are broader. The air around him crackles with a dark energy and he looks even more dangerous. A gust of wind comes from the air vent and I shiver. Seeing him brings all the memories I had buried back like a tidal wave crashing over me. The hotel room, the rain. The way his voice was cold as steel when he rejected me. “You really thought a stray like you could be Luna?” I squeeze my eyes shut for a second to push the memory away but it burns. The doctor clears his throat, making me acknowledge his presence in the room. I turn my gaze to the doctor because looking at Cade hurts too much. "What is going on here?” I ask, my voice sounding small and pathetic. "Sit down," the doctor replies. I sit in the chair opposite Cade and I can feel the heat radiating off him. My skin prickles and my pulse is racing so fast I think I might pass out. "This is the report on the blood markers," the doctor says and he sounds tired. He hands a file to me but his eyes flick to Cade nervously. I take the file with shaking hands. "What is this?" "The compatibility results." I look at the paper but the words are swimming and I can't focus because Cade is sitting right there and he is breathing the same air as me and it’s suffocating. Suddenly a hand reaches over and takes the file from my fingers. His fingers brush against mine for a fraction of a second. A spark of electricity shoots up my arm and I gasp, pulling my hand back like I've been burned. Cade doesn't even flinch. "Not a match?" he asks and his voice is deep and rough and it vibrates in my bones. The doctor shakes his head. "No Alpha. Her wolf is too dormant. The blood isn't potent enough to stop the Fading." I look between them with confusion clouding my mind. "What are you talking about? Who is fading?" The doctor looks at me with pity in his eyes and that scares me more than Cade's anger. "Your son," the doctor says softly. "Leo is sick. Very sick." My heart stops. "My son?" I whisper. "But... I—" "He's four years old," the doctor cuts to it. "And he is dying." The words hang between us. "He has the Fading," the doctor continues and he talks fast like he wants to get it over with. "Because the mate bond was rejected at his birth his wolf spirit is unstable. It's consuming his human body. He is hollow inside. Without a cure his body will give up in a few weeks." I feel sick, like I'm going to throw up right there. My baby. The baby they had ripped from my arms before I could even hold him. The baby I tried to forget so I could survive. "You tested my blood?" I ask and I can barely hear my own voice. "We did," the doctor says. "It's not enough. We need Whole Blood." "What is that?" The doctor hesitates. He looks at Cade again and Cade finally turns his head to look at me. His eyes are gold. Bright, burning gold. They pin me to the chair, strip me bare and see every secret I have ever kept. There is no love in those eyes. Only cold, hard calculations. "Tell her," Cade commands. The doctor takes a deep breath. "The only cure for a Fading child is stem cells from a full biological sibling. A sibling conceived by the same parents." He pauses. "You need to provide a donor," he concludes. I blink in confusion. "A donor?" "Another child," Cade says. "You and I will produce another child. We will harvest the cord blood at birth and save Leo." I stare at him with my mouth agape and my mind screaming no no no because this can't be real. There’s no way he is even considering that, not after how much he made a point of our night together being the biggest mistake of his life. "You want me to..." I trail off. "I want my heir to live," Cade says. "And you are the only one who can make that happen." I feel like the walls are closing in. He wants to use me, again. He wants to use my body to grow a spare part for the son he stole from me but if the boy is sick, I can not just stand by even if I want nothing to do with Cade. He is my son. "Is there any other way?" I ask the doctor. "Please tell me there is another way." The doctor shakes his head. "This is the only viable option. And we have to hurry. Leo doesn't have much time." I stand up. I have to get out of here. The air is too thick and the smell of cedar is choking me and I feel like a trapped animal. "I need to think," I say. "I can't just... I need to go." I turn around and rush to the door with my legs shaking so bad I almost trip. Breathing is a struggle in the elevator ride and I lean my forehead against the cool metal wall, gasping for air. When I burst out of the building, It's lunchtime with people rushing everywhere and cars honking loudly, yet everything sounds muffled like I'm underwater. Have another child. With him. I reach into my pocket and pull out the only thing I have of my son. It’s a hospital bracelet I stole the day I was kicked out. A tiny plastic band with Baby Male Goldenclaw printed on it. He's sick. He’s fading away because his parents are broken. I rub my thumb over the plastic and my chest aches. I walk down the block not knowing where I'm going. I just need to move. I need to run, but I can't run. A black car pulls up to the curb beside me moving slowly on the pavement as the window rolls down. Cade is sitting in the driver's seat. He had taken off his suit jacket and his white shirt is unbuttoned at the top exposing the strong column of his throat. He looks at me, "Get in," he says flatly. I stop walking. “Alpha—" "Get in the car, Dinah." "I'm not going with you," I say but it's a lie and we both know it. Cade leans across the seat and pushes the passenger door open. "I'm not asking," he says and his voice drops an octave into that Alpha growl that vibrates beneath my feet. "Get. In.” The command hits me like a physical blow. My knees weaken and my instinct takes over. My wolf rolls over and bares her throat even though I hate him. My body betrays me. I shouldn't do this. I really shouldn't get in the car. But then, I think of the little boy I never got to hold. I think of him fading away in a hospital bed alone. I step forward and get into the car, pulling the door shut and the lock clicks instantly. Cade doesn't look at me. He just grips the steering wheel so tight his knuckles are white and presses his foot on the gas. The car shoots forward like a bullet.