Alpha Mate Slept With His Sister-in-Law, I Left Chapter 03
Asher didn’t speak the rest of the day. He went into his room and closed the door.
That afternoon Vivienne came by to pick something up. Kael wasn’t home.
She let herself in. Asher was in the living room drawing. She walked over and looked down at his paper.
She said, “You know your daddy’s going to have a new baby soon, right? That baby is the heir of Ironridge. You…” She paused. “The pack register lists you as an orphan.”
I came out of the kitchen. Asher was sitting where she’d left him. The drawing was still on the table but the pen was down.
“Get out,” I said to Vivienne. “You are not welcome here.”
Asher walked himself back to his room. After a while I pushed his door open. He was sitting on the bed. He looked up. His eyes were red.
“Mommy. What’s an orphan?”
“Mommy. Daddy doesn’t want me anymore. Did I do something wrong?”
I pulled him into my arms. “Asher didn’t do anything wrong. This is a grown-up thing. None of it is on you.”
He leaned on my shoulder and didn’t speak. I told him about the north. About Northcrest. About a grandfather and grandmother. About an estate ten times the size of this apartment. About a lake the size of an ocean. About a yard full of pack kids his age who wrestle on the grass all day.
He listened for a long time.
Then he pulled a folded, badly creased paper out from under his pillow. The family-of-three drawing. Mommy, daddy, him. With that little tuft of hair sticking up.
“Mommy,” his voice was very small. “Can I give this to daddy myself? I want him to remember me. After that I won’t call him daddy anymore.”
I held my breath and held the tears down. I said yes.
The next morning I took Asher to the main estate. The two guards at the gate stopped us. The Alpha is in a meeting.
Asher sat down on the steps without a word. He put the drawing on his knees and held the edges down with both hands so the wind wouldn’t take it.
We waited four hours.
I called Kael. The first two times he didn’t pick up. The third time he did, in a tone he had never used on me in six years.
“Sera, I’m working out contract details with Silverfang. Don’t make a scene.”
A voice came through faintly from the other end. It was Vivienne, laughing.
Asher was less than four inches from the phone. He heard it.
He folded the family drawing in half. Folded it again. Tucked it into his shirt pocket.
“Mommy. Daddy’s busy. Let’s go home.”
He didn’t speak on the way back. As we got close to the apartment he asked,
“Mommy. Can I just call him Uncle Kael from now on? Calling him daddy makes things hard for him.”
That night my phone buzzed. A text from Kael: “Bring Asher to the main estate tomorrow morning. I have a surprise for him.”
The screen lit up. Asher launched himself across the couch into my lap. “Mommy. Daddy remembered. We’re going tomorrow!”
He couldn’t sleep that night. He got up three times to check the time.
The next morning we walked into the main estate. There were white rose arches at the doors. Petals on the floor. Rows of candles lined up in the hall. Two crossed family crests on white linen at the center of the long table.
There was no surprise. It was a rehearsal for the Marking ceremony.
That was when I understood. The text had not been from Kael. It was from Vivienne’s hand on his phone.
Asher stood in the doorway. He saw Kael bent over Vivienne’s collarbone, practicing the angle of the bite. Vivienne with her head tipped back, eyes closed.
The drawing dropped from his hand. It hit the marble with a soft sound, but the whole hall heard it.
Kael looked up and saw us. The blood went out of his face. Vivienne opened her eyes slowly, turned them on me, and the corner of her mouth pulled up.
“Sera,” she said. “Come to give us your blessing?”
Kael pushed her off and started toward Asher. Vivienne grabbed his wrist. Her voice rose sharp. “Kael. She brought the kid here to ruin this on purpose. The whole pack is here. Take a side.”
The room around us started to murmur.
Kael’s feet stopped. He looked from Vivienne’s nails to Asher’s eyes and back, three seconds. Then he lowered his voice for me alone.
“Take him home. I’ll come tonight and explain.”
He had said “I’ll come tonight and explain” too many times in six years.
“He is your son.” I looked at him. One word at a time. “Stand up for him here, today, or never again.”
Kael opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Vivienne’s face went cold. She lifted a hand at the guards. Two of them stepped forward and took my arms. They started dragging me toward the door.
Asher charged. Five years old, all of him at once, both small hands pushing at a guard’s leg. The guard swung his arm. Asher went flying. His knee hit marble and split open.
He didn’t cry.
“Enough,” Kael shouted.
He didn’t move toward us.
Asher picked himself up. He picked up the drawing from the floor. Someone had stepped on it. He walked over to Kael. He looked up once, his grey-blue eyes the same as Kael’s, and then with shaking hands he tore the drawing into pieces.
He pressed the handful of paper into Kael’s palm.
“Uncle Kael. This was for you.”
He took my hand. “Mommy. Let’s go.”
At the door, Kael’s voice came from behind us.
“Sera.”
I stopped. Asher stopped.
I heard footsteps, and they stopped two paces behind me.
“I’ll come home tonight. We’ll talk.”
I turned. I looked at him. His fist was closed around the torn paper. The edges had pressed a red line into his hand.
“Asher. Go wait outside.”
Asher glanced at Kael once and left.
I looked at Kael. “When those two guards had me by the arms, where were you?”
“Silverfang’s people were all there, I couldn’t—”
“When Asher was waiting four hours for you, where were you?”
“Sera, the northern alliance negotiation is at a critical point. I couldn’t do anything in there.”
“You said you’d come home tonight and talk. Six years, Kael. How many times have you said you’d come home tonight and talk.”
He looked down at the handful of paper.
“He called you Uncle Kael. Do you know why.”
He raised his head and looked at me and said nothing.
Back at the apartment I threw every piece of Kael into the fire. Asher stood beside me and put the small wolf totem in too. “Mommy. You forgot one.”
We watched it burn.
“Mommy,” Asher asked, “is daddy really coming home tonight?”
“I don’t know.”
“What if he does?”
“We won’t be here.”
A pause. “Will he look for us?”
“He will.”
“Should I wait for him?”
I looked down. His face was tipped up. He was waiting for an answer.
“No, baby.”
He nodded.
A little later he turned his face away from me and wiped his eye with his sleeve. He thought I didn’t see.
A wolf cub feels his mother’s emotions. He had always felt mine. He had just never said anything.
He took my hand. He didn’t speak.
Just then, I received the mind-link from my father.
“I have sent people. They will arrive tomorrow.”
Asher looked up. “Grandfather?”
“Yes.”
He thought about it. “Will he like me?”
“Yes.”
I made one last call to Kael.
He picked up on the first ring. There was the noise of ceremonial music behind him. “Sera.”
“Congratulations on your wedding.” I said. “I’m taking Asher with me—and I hope we never meet again.”
“Wait, listen to me.”
“Goodbye.”
I shut the phone off, pulled the SIM card out, snapped it in half, and threw it in the fire. The melting plastic made Asher cough. He didn’t speak. He just pressed his face into my coat.