Page 22 of Alpha's Secret Baby
“No worries, Darling, I just wanted to hear your voice,” he answered smoothly. “Also, I’ve been thinking about my mess up with the butter and Fern. I want to make it up to you on our next date. Let me book a hotel for us.”
His request stumped me, and the fact that I was sitting at the ascension ceremony of the new Starsmoon Alpha slipped out of my head. My thoughts whipped back to Carl’s confession the last time we were together: he loved me. But… I hadn’t been able to say it back. Now he wanted to book a hotel room. Clearly, he wanted us to go to bed together. Uncertainty washed over me at the thought of him and me being alone in a hotel together. My head felt too full right now to think about it, and I said, “Carl, I’ll think about it when I get back, but I’ve got to go now. See you soon.” I hung up, my heart now working overtime.
Then, my whole pack rose from their seats, a round of applause breaking out. I stood, joining the pack in celebrating the new Alpha. As the clapping died down, the old Alpha gestured for everyone to be seated.
We all returned to our seats, and my thoughts were in danger of slipping back to thinking about Carl’s request.
I distantly heard our old Alpha’s voice ringing through the room. “After the joyful ascension of my son to Alpha, I am happy to announce that he will shortly be marrying his mate, Lucy, and the Starsmoon Pack will once more be carried into the future under the protection of an Alpha and Luna.”
My heart charged, and alertness prickled over me. My attention crept over Dylan’s tensing body, and I swore I felt his pressure in the air like a sudden storm. His brown eyes darkened as he regarded his father.
Dylan’s low voice cut through the room. “My relationship with Lucy is unstable. We need to talk about the future Luna of the pack more, Father.”
Disbelief punched through me.
Chris’s face looked like thunder as he stared down at his son. “You will do yourdutyto your pack, Dylan.”
Our new Alpha’s jaw hardened, his hands balling into fists as he stared the old Alpha down. He shook his head. “I willnotmarry Lucy.” And just as his dark eyes left the old Alpha, they foundme. Their heat was so intense that it was as if they burned our surroundings away until only Dylan and I remained.
Chapter 15 Dylan
As my father named me the new Alpha, bowing ever so slightly to honor my new position as pack leader, my wolf growled with gratification. I was theAlphaof Starsmoon.
I turned to survey my pack from the stage, and a wave of applause erupted from the crowd. The happy, smiling faces looking up at me made my beast rumble again. I felt a surge of protectiveness steal through me as I contemplated them. I would always do what was right for them. I felt that certainty sink into my bones and settle into my marrow.
My pack.
As my gaze wandered the crowd, they tracked over the faces and forms in search of what would complete my ascension to Alphahood. When my eyes eventually stopped on Cherry’s form, draped in a soft pink dress, the color of cherry blossoms, I thought with fondness, my wolf rumbled withwant. Anger bristled in me, too, as I noticed she’d positioned herself at the back of the room as if she wasn’t important. Well, soon, I resolved with renewed confidence she wouldn’t be anywhere but in the place of honor: at my side.
My father gestured to the pack, inviting them all to be seated again.
As I admired Cherry’s pale heart-shaped face, the porcelain skin of her shoulders and arms, my wolf’s hunger grew, and I knew with certainty that my love for her wasn’t something I could fight anymore. It was something that I was meant to submit to. Theonlything as Alpha that I ever intended to submit to from now on.
My father’s voice reverberated from beside me on the stage, “After the joyful ascension of my son to Alpha, I am happy to announce that he will shortly be marrying his mate, Lucy, and the Starsmoon Pack will once more be carried into the future under the protection of an Alpha and Luna.”
I felt my wolf seize control of me. Since being named Alpha, it has dominated me even more. And itknewwhat was best for me. And for the pack. On an instinctual level, it understood what we needed. Lucy might be the daughter of an Alpha, and her bloodline, the ability to produce a powerful heir, but she wasn’t mymate. The pack would only be truly strong if we followed the true will of Nuu-Chah. As Alpha, the Moon God’s guidance had cut through my uncertainty as surely as a full moon the darkness. I suddenly understood how vital it was that I sated my wolf and me. My pack and I would only be strong if I claimed the mate and Luna I’d always been destined to have.
Cherry.
My shoulders stiffened as I turned to my father. “My relationship with Lucy is unstable. We need to talk about the future Luna of the pack more, Father,” I declared, a new level of confidence coating my every word. I was theAlphaof Starsmoon. My father had to yield to my command now.
My father’s face grew livid. “You will do yourdutyto your pack, Dylan.” The temper in his tone only made my blood boil.
I tensed my jaw, balling my hands up to maintain the fury of my wolf that felt rabid at my father’s command. “I willnotmarry Lucy.”
I’d vaguely noticed Lucy in the front row, near Bert, but I couldn’t find it in myself to care about her reaction to my outburst. I knew that while Lucy found me and my status attractive, she wasn’t any more in love with me than I was with her. I’d glimpsed her self-satisfied look in the front row as my Alphahood was announced. My plain talking wouldn’t be in danger of hurting her heart, only her pride.
To my left, my mother tried to pacify me with her gentler tone, “Dylan, love–”
But I silenced her with a firm stare and then turned my gaze back to the pack. My eyes clamped onto Cherry’s silver gaze, demanding her to remain where she was, even as she stilled with alertness. The same alertness she’d shown in my mom’s workroom as I’d tried to confess my feelings to her. But I wouldn’t be subdued this time. I had waited too long to talk to my mate and to tell her how I felt. I wasn’t going to wait one damn minute longer.
That desire drove my every move as I strode down the aisle, lunging past our pack members to where Cherry now stood. Most of the pack were on their feet too, but I didn’t care about the commotion I’d caused. I only had eyes for my mate. Grasping her hand, I pulled Cherry towards the back of the room and onto the balcony. The rush of the breeze across my face was welcome after the stifling warmth and tension of the room we’d just left.
Taking Cherry in my arms, my mouth dipped to hers, and I couldn’t resist kissing her.
My wolf growled in triumph as she kissed me back. Her tongue answered mine, and I explored her delectable mouth. Her lips grazed me with a hunger that matched my own, and it was with deep regret that I finally drew back.
The look of desire in her hooded eyes and the beautiful flush across her porcelain skin almost had me plundering her mouth again. A deep satisfaction roiled through me as I anticipated what true fulfillment would feel like with my mate at my side every day and in my bed every night.