Last Chance At Redemption

Alpha Michael

Alpha Michael

I'm sitting at my desk while I am going over some treaties with the other nearby packs. All of these small packs depend on us for protection and crops as we have the largest farms in the country. There is only one pack that does not depend on us, and it belongs to the arrogant Ethan Corvell. I really hate that guy. He thinks he’s so great because of his family’s legacy, but he’s just little more than a cocky hot head. I review a document I received from him days ago and it’s a treaty asking for us to provide them with grain for his army. He proposes a deal where he will compensate with payment below the value of my crops and protection. Who does this guy think he is? I don’t need his protection. If anything, he needs protection from me.

I remember the last time we met as if it were yesterday.

He showed up at my doorstep with Anna, his wife and the daughter of the love of my life, Tabitha. They came demanding that I hand over a part of my territory claiming it belonged to Anna's parents. Tabitha had been a part of my pack and we had grown up together. I grew up always believing that we would be mates when we both turned of age. We did everything together since we were toddlers. She had even been trained for the luna position by my mother. Tabitha had been my first friend, my first love, my first kiss, my first time, everything!  You can imagine my disappointment when I turned 18 and my wolf (Demetri) surfaced claiming another to be mine. I rejected my mate on sight and had my guards remove her from my pack.

Tabitha and I had promised each other that if we were not fated to each other, we would both reject our mates and still be together. I did exactly as she asked and waited for her to turn 18 so I could mark her as mine.

Can you guess what happened next on her 18th birthday? It turns out Tabitha was fated to my best friend Robert and came to me with the truth. She apologized to me for having me reject my mate. She claimed that she loved Robert and wanted to be with him for the rest of her life. She chose him over me. Over an Alpha! Over her Alpha!

I was hurt for a few days, but that pain turned into anger and that anger turned into hate. Demetri didn’t talk to me for weeks after rejecting our mate, but the only person he hated more than me was Tabitha. He wanted to make her pay for causing us pain and playing with our hearts.

First, I got rid of Robert. I killed him myself and blamed the attack on rogues. Of course, Tabitha did not believe me. She knew I had been the one to do it but could not prove it. I imprisoned her in my room and wanted to keep her for myself forever, where she had promised for so many years that she would remain. I figured that she would forgive me over time and that she would realize that I was the man that she was meant to be with.

I was wrong. As the days passed, her distaste towards me grew more and more as she changed into a different person. It was as if the woman I had fallen in love with had also died with Robert that day. Her parents begged me to allow them to take her to their home, claiming they would not let her leave and that she would get better with them as they were her parents.

I reluctantly agreed after 3 months of holding her captive. She was getting sick and would throw up her food. She had gotten pale and began to look thin and sickly, refusing to eat.

It turns out that they had been hiding a secret. Tabitha had allowed that dirty mutt Robert to impregnate her! The entire thing was an act by her so that I would allow her to go with her parents and I wouldn’t know of her pregnancy. She thought I was a monster and would kill her unborn child. Could you believe it? Me, a monster? the man that had always loved her and rejected his mate for her! Of course, that is exactly what I would have done but I never showed her any reason to believe that.

I only found out about her pregnancy when the pack doctor notified me that the luna was about to give birth. He did not know that I was oblivious to the situation. I ran to her parent’s house as fast as I could and when I got there, I found Tabitha on her bed, bleeding and covered in sweat, holding a small child in her arms.

I felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest by the betrayal. I could not blame her for keeping her secret, but I blamed her parents for waiting until it was too late to get help. The doctor could not stop the hemorrhaging and Tabitha died within minutes. I was going crazy and throwing things everywhere, cursing the moon goddess for hurting me. “Michael, I am sorry for not telling you, please don’t hurt my baby. She is innocent in all of this.” She pleaded with her last breaths and tears running down her face.

I was beyond livid. I looked at the baby girl in her hands and cried, knowing that she should have been mine. When I looked back at Tabitha, she was gone before I could respond. Her lifeless eyes just stared at me, burning a hole through my existence.

Then and there, I promised myself I wouldn’t hurt the child because of the mistake of her parents. I named her Anna even though I could not bare to look at her. She had her father’s eyes, which served as a constant reminder of their betrayal. I never mistreated her. She was raised by a family in the pack as one of them until she met alpha Ethan during one of his father’s visits and left with him to become the Luna of his pack. I had killed Tabitha’s parents the day of her death so they never had the pleasure of raising her.

I had kept tabs on her every so often and knew she was a good person and excelled in school. She never caused me any trouble, so I had no reason to ever have her punished..

I did not know that Anna's adoptive parents had also gone against my word and had told her the truth that she was not theirs until she showed up with Ethan.

She seemed upset with me for withholding information, but she knew the same story everyone else did. Robert died from a rogue attack and Tabitha died giving birth.

I explained that I wouldn’t be turning over any of my land but that she could still consider it her home if she ever decided to come and visit or return to her pack.

Anna accepted my decision ultimately upon realizing i was not going to change my mind. I assume she didn't want any trouble and had only come because Etha had convinced her that it was the right thing to do. However, I know that he didn't even care about that. Giving him that piece of land would have made his territory the same size as mine and, as it was one of our top farming sectors, he would have stolen millions of dollars of revenue from us.

Ethan became upset and threatened me. Even daring to hint to me that he suspected I had something to do with her parents’ death but did not have any proof to make an accusation.

He said he would go to the king and bring this matter up in front of the council.

I could not let that happen as the council is said to have the ability to know when someone is lying. I had my beta set up a meeting with a large group of local rogues to remove Ethan from the equation before he would dig his nose too deep into my past.

Unfortunately, not only did those stupid rogues not do their job in killing Ethan, but they also killed Anna in the process. I had never meant for that to happen, but considered the story of Tabithas' betrayal closed completely. On the bright side, he never suspected I had sent them and dropped the effort to retrieve her property. The only issue left is that I still must deal with him and him always wanting to come out on top as the best alpha in front of the king and queen.