The Forbidden Alpha

Odis

The door opens with a creak and I mentally curse at the noise. I freeze and listen to see if there’s any noise in the house that would alert me to a waking child. Ethel, the sitter I’ve had working double time since Liv disappeared, has been putting Paul to sleep for me.

I don’t like to leave him all day with her but on occasion when I’ve needed to work late she handles it. She has been amazing and I need to remember to give her a pay raise.

I grab the towel by the door and dry my body off quietly. Despite the fact that Paul is still young, his ears are sharper than a few wolves I know. I grab a pair of black shorts from the top of my ‘for naked’ bin and swipe at the water dripping down the back of my neck.

Looking up the stairway, the light in the hallway is on and I decide to make my way upstairs. The need to see Paul and make sure he’s okay pulls me to his room. His doorway has a bright red and blue Superman emblem and it’s cracked just an inch.

I peer inside and see his small form laying in his green kryptonite twin-sized bed. The top of his head was a small ruffled mess. I let out a breath of relief and can physically feel my body relax.

Something tugs on my heart and yells for me to go over and pull him into a hug so I know he’s safe but I ignore it. I slowly and quietly make my way down the hall and ignore the pictures on the wall.

Opening the door to my room, I’m faced with my California king-sized bed and throw myself down on top of the comforter. I can’t stop the what-ifs that make their way into my mind.

What if I hadn’t messed up.

What if I hadn’t screwed her.

What if I hadn’t ruined things between us.

What if …

I throw a mental barrier up and ignore them. It wouldn’t have made a difference. Even if I hadn’t cheated on her and hadn’t ruined things if I had stayed by her side like I was supposed to she still would have met Gabe.

What if I had stayed by her side anyway?

“She wouldn’t have been kidnapped if we stayed by her side,” Troy murmured.

Liv has Gabe now.

“If she has Gabe then how did she get kidnapped? How did she disappear?” Troy growled. “We wouldn’t have let this happen to her!”

“Enough!” I roar.

Silence.

I won’t do this again tonight. I do this every night and tonight… I just want to sleep. Maybe when we wake up… she’ll be back. I wouldn’t care if she went home to Gabe every night, I wouldn’t care if she ignored me or hated me for the rest of my life.

As long as she was home. I wouldn’t be selfish anymore. I wouldn’t want for anything else. Thoughts of Liv safe at home lull me to sleep.

Ethan POV

I haven’t seen my mate in one too many days. I haven’t seen her since the night before I had an emergency council meeting. If it wasn’t important I wouldn’t have left her in bed without a word but this was and I had.

Regret fills my chest daily as I think of her alone at home. If it weren’t for Odis, I highly doubt I would have left her there. Rogues have been making their way further south and it’s making the other Alpha’s nervous.

We’ve been trying to track this new pack of rogues and trying to figure out who is leading them. We still haven’t been able to see any patterns in their movements and it’s beyond frustrating.

Elijah has been begging to go back despite our obligation to figure out the rogue attacks. He’s almost like an adolescent teen. When I heard from Odis about Olivia, I was torn. Elijah told me we had more reason to go back now but we couldn’t leave without making sure whatever threat was making its way onto packs was eliminated.

I don’t know where she could have gone or who could have kidnapped my Gamma but I did know that I could trust Odis to handle the situation in the best way possible. That the Goddess for him because I couldn’t do all of this without him. If I didn’t have him there I’m sure Elijah would have fought for control and dragged me back.

“We should send two Deltas from each pack to head southeast to make sure the smaller packs are safe from rogues. If we send them together they’ll be stronger in numbers and if they come across rogues they could defend and protect each other. If anything happens they can choose two Deltas to send back to keep us updated,” I said during one of the meetings.

“This is a waste of time!” Dante growled as he slammed his fists against his table. Dante was a fairly young Alpha of a decent-sized pack in the West. I believe his pack is called… The Lagoon pack.

“I don’t see why you think you can call the shots around here. We are all Alpha’s and we should all be discussing this together!” He yelled.

Elijah pushed forward and I knew my eyes were glowing as I glared down at this pup who thought he could challenge me during a meeting in front of the other Alphas. The room went deadly silent as I stared down at him.

“Is that a challenge?” Elijah seethed through me. My teeth grew into canines as Elijah’s need to silence the pup grew. I needed to put this child in his place. Dante straightened his back as he stood and cocked his head to the side.

No one moved, I don’t even think anyone breathed. I bared my shoulders and flexed as I waited for his answer. He cracked his knuckles as he smiled at me. “You’ve gotten on my last nerve since you got here,” Dante growled.

“Is that a challenge?” I asked this time.

Dante bared his teeth and growled as his body started to shift.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”