004 The Alpha's Reward

The dark living room falls into silence. Silence except Orion’s stressed heavy breath.

The Lady gazes at her son gently. His face half hidden in the darkness, but he looks just like his father. Wide back. Black eyes. Almost six feet tall. All he got from her was the brown hair, the rest all his Alpha father.

The father she chose for him.

The moment she met the Alpha, she could feel their souls matching more than anyone. The Alpha must have felt it too, otherwise why would he even allow her to get him drunk? Sure, she knew the Alpha was married, but she also knew being only a waitress, she would never get a man of high rank no matter how well their souls would have matched.

So she got the Alpha to make the mistake that all men would make.

Everything went exactly how she planned except the Alpha didn’t want to keep a mistress. He flipped out the next morning, and he fed her the after pill, threw grab of hundred dollar bills on her face and left.

She wasn’t after a few thousand bucks. She wanted an Alpha as her man.

Beth Hawthorne, well, Beth Beckett back then, fingered her throat to throw out the pill and escaped as soon as the Alpha left. She knew she needed a child, and she knew she couldn’t appear in front of the Alpha until the child was too old to “extinguish”.

Her plan worked again.

Three years ago, she got the Alpha’s fierce Luna to sniff out the existence of Orion. That woman made a huge fuss, almost breaking her mate bond with the Alpha. When the dust settled, that woman’s son was stripped of the title of the Alpha heir, and Orion got his birthright, the last name of “Hawthorne”.

She raised Orion to be the prince he is, so it’s understandable that he has his pride.

“I know you feel wronged at the moment,” The Lady softens her tone to soothe Orion. Touching his face, a satisfied sigh escapes her lips as if observing her life’s work. “Lilith should have waited for you instead of coming to the pack unannounced, I know. But it’s not all bad, is it? Her blood heals you better than anything, remember? A temporary mark from her also makes you stronger, no?”

Orion rolls his eyes with a huff, not answering.

“Do you remember how you complained to me that the young wolves wouldn’t show you respect on the training ground, after EVERY training session?” The Lady chuckles gently, not noticing Orion’s face getting darker and darker, “You haven’t been complaining these past few months, have you? Because Lilith came, and with her mark--”

“Mother!” Orion cuts off the Lady’s nagging with an icy cold tone, “I’m tired. I need some sleep before training tomorrow.”

Lilith is his mate, so the power “from her mark” is just part of what his power is supposed to be, just like everyone else. It’s not like he is not grateful for her help, but every wolf makes their mates stronger with their mark so long as their souls match. So why does that make Lilith special? Why does that give her the right to stalk him to the pack, and all the way to even a club night?! He just needs some breathing room!

But mother wouldn’t understand. She would only nag him about how important Lilith is. How great she is. How fitting she is!

He wasn’t lying about getting for the blessing with Hannah from the pack witch. Their blessing got a high score of 90, way above the average standard of 80. Hannah’s mark would make him just as strong as Lilith could, AND it doesn’t come with a needy “tail” that always follows him around!

***

Orion’s duty starts at eight, so Lilith got up around six to avoid seeing him. Well, got up as in, changed out of the clothes she sat through the night in.

She heard Orion’s outburst last night, and she knew he would come and apologize. But what would that apologize do? He got the blessing with another girl. He is someone else’s mate now. No amount of apology could turn around facts.

She is only sad that Orion couldn’t tell her when he made his decision, otherwise they could still be a family, and she would still have a home in this pack, but now...

“Lilith? You can go in and see the Alpha now,” Says Alfred, the gamma that personally serves the Alpha.

Three months ago when the Alpha was injured in a battle, it was Alfred who carried him to her little clinic for help. She did, and that’s why Alfred is more friendly to her than others.

The Lady told her to keep her healing power a secret, but she had to make a living somehow, and she has no skills, so she opened a “clinic”, selling “herb potions” which are just boiled weed water with her blood in it.

When she healed the Alpha, he offered to take her into his pack. She would have refused, until she realized his pack was Orion’s pack. She thought Orion never sent for her because it wasn’t easy to persuade the Alpha to take in a rogue, so she agreed to come to the pack with the Alpha, thinking it would be a pleasant surprise for Orion.

She should have known when there was all surprise and none pleasant on his face the day she came.

To think back on it, Lilith is impressed that he didn’t flip out right there, when he must have already been in love with Hannah back then, otherwise, he wouldn’t have gotten the blessing with Hannah so soon.

Must have been exhausting for him, pretending that he still loves her for three months.

“I told you I would grant you a wish as your reward,” The Alpha pulls a parchment out in front, “Are you ready to claim it?”

The parchment in his hand has some irregular stains of color in the middle, as if some watercolor had splattered on it, but the owner wrote on it anyway.

“Yes, Alpha,” Lilith bows at him, “I want to leave the pack”.