The Alpha Bond She Ran From

Recognition

POV: Maya

Theo looked at the man, the stranger, the person he had never seen before and something sparked between them.

Theo’s hand dropped to his side and his mouth opened a little. His brow curled like he was trying to understand something.

And then his eyes was about to start glowing gold right there in the middle of the diner with the customers and Maggie standing in front of us.

I grabbed him quickly and pulled him behind me fast.

I stood in between Kael and Theo.

Kael did not move, he didn’t blink he was just staring at the spot where Theo was standing.

His hands were flat on the counter and he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Then he said something, so quiet like a whisper.

“Five years.”

I pulled Theo closer he was trembling against my legs. He didn’t understand what was happening he just knew something was wrong because of the way I grabbed him.

“Leave,” I said. My voice came out shaky. “you need to leave.”

Kael looked at me with pain in his eyes.

Five years of pain, Five year of searching, Five years of not knowing.

“I am not leaving.” His voice was thicker now.

“I am not leaving without you. Without my son.”

I backed up. Theo was still holding onto my shirt.

I could hear his breathing getting faster and the gold was still in his eyes. I could feel it and I could feel him already losing control.

"You do not understand," I said. "You do not know what you are asking."

Kael stood up from the stool. He was so tall. He filled up the whole room. He took one step toward me and I took one step back.

"I know everything," he said. "I know you ran. I know you were pregnant. I know you have been hiding here for five years. I know you gave me a son."

He took another step.

"And I know he is shifting. Right now. In this room."

I looked down at Theo. His little hands had started to change. The claws were coming out. I could see them pressing into my shirt.

I pulled him closer. I did not know what to do. I did not know where to go. I was trapped.

Kael stopped moving. He looked at Theo with something in his eyes that I did not expect. Not anger. Not possession.

Wonder.

"He is perfect," he said. His voice cracked on the last word. "He is so perfect."

I opened my mouth to say something. To tell him to go. To tell him to stay away. To tell him anything that would push him back.

But Theo looked up at me. His gold eyes glowing. His little claws digging into my shirt. And he asked the question I had been dreading for four years.

"Mama," he said. "Who is that man?"

I looked at Kael. At the man I ran from,the man I dreamed about, the man who held me like I was precious for one night and then let me go because I was nothing.

He was looking at me like I was everything now.

I could not breathe, I could not think, I could not run.

Five years ago, I ran from him.

Today he found me in this diner.

I didn’t give Theo an answer, I just brushed it off like I didn’t hear him ask who Kael was.

I couldn’t do this, not here and definitely not now, not with Maggie standing across the room and Frank pretending not to listen and Theo about to cry behind me.

“I am working,” I said.

“You need to order something else or leave like I said before.”

Something changed in his eyes.

He leaned forward on he stool just a little but it was enough to make my heart jump.

He was close enough that I could smell him, something that my wolf remembered even after five years.

“Do I look like I came her just to order breakfast,” he said.

His voice sounded as if he was barely holding himself together.

I took a step back and my hip hit the counter behind me.

There was no where to go.

He watched me retreat and walked towards me with anger, hunger, desperation.

Every emotion kicked in at once.

“You smell like him,” he said.

“Our son. He is every where on you.”

I pressed back against the counter.

My heart was beating fast.

I could not breathe.

I could not think.

“You have been hiding him from me,” he said.

“You had my pup and you ran, you hid him, you kept him from me for four years.”

I flinched every time he came closer.

Then he stopped and stood there looking at me, at my dear.

He took a deep breath.

“You are afraid of me,” he said.

It was not a question and I didn’t answer.

He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them back and looked calmer now, unreadable.

He sat back on the stool and picked up his coffee cup.

“I have been looking for you for five years,” he said.

“Everyday. Every night I searched every territory, Every pack, Every human town from here to the coast.”

He looked up at me.

“I dreamed about you every single night. I smelled you I crowds and followed strangers because I thought maybe. Maybe this time.”

He kept going.

“I went to your pack, they said you left. I went to every pack that owed me favors, every Alpha who owed me debts and no one knew where you were.”

“He wrapped his hands around the coffee cup again.”

“I thought you were dead,” he said.

“I thought someone took you and you were caught somewhere.”

“And you were here. Pregnant, hiding and keeping my son from me.”

I wanted to say something, I wanted to defend myself and make him understand why I ran but the words wouldn’t come because when I looked at him I did not see the cold Alpha king who married an Omega out of duty, I saw a man who had been searching for five years and thought I was dead.

And now he found us.