Chapter Twenty-Two

Alexander

I felt it, like a jolt of electricity when she was welcomed into the pack. I was aware of the ceremony for a rogue pup. It was rare, but not unheard of.

I knew Clayton wouldn’t expect me there. I hardly ever left the mountain these days. That’s how I liked it.

Clayton and his Beta used to visit occasionally, but after a few trips, my frosty reception made it clear I wanted to be alone.

It was over thirty-five years ago that my mate left. She knew what was coming. She was a white witch and a seer.

She foresaw the purge, the death of every human or hybrid in our pack’s territory. I didn’t want to believe her, but I had no reason to doubt her gift.

I tried to convince the king to let his mate go. He would have, but she refused. She knew Eleonora was telling the truth. Despite that, she couldn’t bear to leave her mate.

King Francis was terrified. Not just for her, but for the baby she was carrying. Eleonora was pregnant with my child too.

The war was still raging, but she didn’t want to leave, not until after the baby was born.

I was concerned about the children. They would be hybrids. I knew the council was against anything but a purebred wolf. I hoped they wouldn’t kill innocents. I was wrong.

I also didn’t know about Eleonora’s plan for the children. Both children. Queen Phoebe’s and my own.

The queen refused to leave her mate, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of the risk. The purge had started in the east, and was slowly moving towards us.

She thought she and Francis might be safe in the mountain palace. She wanted to ensure her child would survive, if the worst happened.

When Eleonora left, she took both children with her. She said she had secured their safety.

I kept asking her how, I needed to know. Finally, on the day she left, the day of the truce when any humans could cross the border if they chose to, she told me what she had done.

She’d cast a charm, on both the children while they were still in their mother’s wombs. A charm that was too close to dark magic to be without a price.

The charm caused the unborn children’s wolves to be reabsorbed. They would still have the hybrid genes, but the lack of a wolf would stunt their growth, and they would heal like normal humans.

No human would know of their true heritage. Only Eleonora would know, and when they were old enough she would tell them. The cost to her was immense.

A bit of her life force was spent in creating the charm or curse, whatever you chose to call it.

While we couldn’t be together, I would know she still lived. I would sense when she passed, but if I could survive the separation I would likely be able to survive her loss.

Ten years ago, I felt the bond break. I knew she had died. That’s when I became a virtual hermit, keeping to myself in the mountain retreat, just outside the palace walls.

I never knew what happened to my child. Sensing my granddaughter, I knew my own child was likely dead.

As soon as I felt it, I knew. The rogue pup was the offspring of my own child. I could feel her wolf, feel its strength.

Clayton must have known that this pup, this rogue was unusual. Surely he had put two and two together. A hybrid could only have come from the human side of the border.

No hybrid existed on our side after the purge. Why didn’t he contact me? The worst thought crossed my mind that he was considering going back under council control. Even after what they had done?

That’s how I found myself, demanding that my nephew, the Alpha of the Blood River pack, take me to see my granddaughter, and quite possibly the only hybrid left on earth.

He tried to apologize.

“Don’t,” I hissed, “Don’t give me your weak excuses and apologies. Take me to my granddaughter,” I growled, struggling to control my wolf.

I watched as he squirmed, his beta too.

I may have had the title of Beta, but I was Alpha through and through. I’d chosen to be Beta to the king, rather than Alpha of the Blood River pack.

My younger brother had done a good job, then he’d passed the title on to my nephew. So far he’d done a good job, but I hadn’t really spoken to him in a while.

“I will take you to her, Uncle, but she… she’s not in a good way, she’s in the hospital,” he blurted.

I narrowed my eyes, then without answering him, or waiting for him to lead the way, I pushed past him.

I knew the pack-house. I had visited several times when my brother had been Alpha. I knew exactly where the Hospital was.

I heard Clayton’s voice behind me.

“Wait...Uncle...”

I ignored him. My main priority, my only priority, was to see my granddaughter. It pleased me that they had named her after her grandmother. Even if they had shortened it to Ellie.

I burst through the doors and froze.

She was lying on one of the hospital beds. Tubes coming out of her arm, and a monitor beeping away.

She looked so small and so thin.

“Who the hell are you?” A woman in a white coat yelled.

I narrowed my eyes,

“I am this pup’s grandfather. Who are you?” I asked her calmly.

She glared at me.

“It’s a shame you weren’t around when she needed you. I’m her doctor,” she hissed.

I held out my hand.

“Beta Alexander,” I stated.

She paled slightly.

“The...Beta Alexander?” she asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

I nodded, “the same.”

She cleared her throat.

“Veronica.”

She looked over at the pup.

“She’s stable, that’s the best I can say,” she whispered.

I looked at the pup and shook my head.

“What the hell happened?”

Veronica sighed, “She shifted, her wolf ran, then she shifted back. It was too much for her tiny body to handle.”

I walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of it. I gently brushed a stray hair from her face.

“How can that be? She doesn’t look a day over nine or ten.”

Veronica moved to the bed, adjusting the drip connected to the young girl.

“Shouldn’t be, but there’s a lot about Ellie that defies explanation,” Veronica said with a smile. “She’s a mystery, but with you as her grandpa, we shouldn’t be shocked.”

I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or a jab, so I decided to let it slide.

I turned my gaze back to Ellie.

Her hospital gown, too big for her small frame, had slipped off her shoulders, revealing the scars that marred her skin. I knew they likely continued across her back.

I recognized the marks; I just didn’t know who had inflicted them. Some were fresh, others were old. Her face bore the remnants of bruises that were almost healed.

“What the hell happened to her?” I demanded. “Before?”

“She was a prisoner of the blood fang pack.”

The voice was Clayton’s. I was so absorbed in Ellie, I hadn’t noticed him and Seth enter the room.

I whipped my head around.

“We also had a council spy among us. A traitor. He tried to kill her,” Clayton added.

My eyes narrowed.

“Where is he now?” I growled.

If he was still breathing, I’d make sure he wasn’t for long.

“Dead,” Clayton said simply. “But he might not be the only one.”

I nodded, satisfied that justice had been served.

I looked back at Ellie, tracing one of the older scars with my finger.

“How long... How long did he have her?” I asked, my eyes never leaving her.

“Two years, we think. Before that, she was with Alpha Gabriel of the blood moon pack, and before that, she lived on the human side of the border.

“I’m guessing that’s where she got the older scars. Maybe from her parents, maybe after they gave her away,” Clayton finished.

I whipped my head around.

“That can’t be. Her parents... her mother, would never have given her away. Her mother was my daughter,” I growled.

Clayton shook his head.

“That’s just what she told me.”

I sighed and gently stroked her hair. It was as black as a raven’s wing, just like my Eleonora’s. She was the spitting image of her.

“What happened to you, my little angel?” I whispered.

I closed my eyes and sent a silent prayer to the moon-goddess.

Clayton came up behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“I’ll get a room ready for you,” he murmured.

I shook my head.

“No need, I’ll stay here with her.”

He nodded, and he and Seth left the room.

There wasn’t much I could do, but I could be there when she woke up.

I’d always believed that Eleonora was saving the pups when she took them over the border. Seeing what had happened to my little granddaughter, I was starting to question that.

I still couldn’t accept that her parents would have abandoned her. It wasn’t the werewolf way. Even if they weren’t wolves, I couldn’t believe they would harm her.

Veronica was a good doctor, and kind. Over the three days I sat with Ellie, she regularly brought me food and drink.

She also convinced me to take a shower, joking that my granddaughter wouldn’t want to wake up to a smelly old man.

Half of it was in jest, but I did leave Ellie’s side for about fifteen minutes to freshen up.

I managed to catch a bit of sleep, too. Sitting in the chair by the bed, but mostly I just sat there, talking to her. Hoping she could hear me.

Hoping she would finally realize she was home.

“There’s something I don’t understand, Beta Alexander,” Veronica began.

It was early morning and she had brought me a cup of coffee.

“According to her DNA, she’s half werewolf, half human.”

I nodded, not quite sure where she was going with this.

“Well, if your daughter was her mother, that would mean her mother was a hybrid, so her father would have to be a hybrid too. There were no records of any hybrids escaping the purge.”

I smiled and nodded. I had learned from Veronica that Ellie could resist an Alpha command. It could only mean one thing. The only other hybrid to escape the purge was King Francis’s son.

Both children appeared completely human. My Eleonora’s gift to them. This could only mean one thing.

Ellie, in addition to being my granddaughter, was the granddaughter of the Werewolf King and the Royal Princess. If anyone could unite the werewolves and the humans, it would be her.

But first, we would have to deal with the council.