Page 26 of Alpha's Secret Baby
I watched my dad’s expression fall. “Then you’ve damned us all with your impulsive actions, son.” He slumped in his chair, staring into the distance as if watching the rapidly approaching doom he spoke of.
But Nuu-Chah’s presence spoke otherwise. I sensed again that deep upwelling of certainty that I was doing the right thing. I couldn’t damn my pack by claiming my mate because she was their Luna too. We all needed Cherry. And one day, my dad would see that too. I mused that he’d once been so sure of Cherry’s importance to our pack while I’d been foolishly blind to it. Now, our roles were reversed. I mused that perhaps as the time had brought my dad closer to acting as Alpha whether his insight into Nuu-Chah’s will hadn’t dimmed while my insight had increased.
Just then, my phone vibrated. I fished out my phone, clicking open a text from Bert:
Please don’t hate me for this, Dylan. I’ve been obsessing over whether to tell you something for the last few days.
I saw the … on my phone screen as he continued to type. I frowned, wondering what on earth my Beta was talking about. How could I ever hate the guy? He’d been the one who talked to me last night and got me safely home yesterday. He’d also been the one to follow my order to invite Cherry back from Berlin to attend my Alpha ceremony.
At the thought, I gripped my phone harder. Did this have something to do with Cherry? I watched the three blinking dots for a few more seconds with strained anticipation.
I promised Cherry, as her old friend, that I wouldn’t tell you this. But after yesterday and with Cherry gone again, I know I must tell you now. Cherry has a six-year-old daughter, Fern. I met her while I was in Berlin. I think Cherry conceived her while she was still in the pack.
Warmth spread through my chest as I read Bert’s message. It might be an absurd idea, but I swore the flash of the future I saw happily playing through my mind was a flicker of the future from Nuu-Chah himself. I saw Cherry and me holding hands as a little girl skipped ahead of us, smiling and laughing as she looked back at us.
Quickly, I texted Bert back:
I don’t hate you, mate. In fact, I would fucking give you a promotion if there was one. Also, get me on the next flight to Berlin.
Chapter 18 Cherry
As I exited Berlin Airport, the first thing to catch my eye was a tall, dark-haired man holding a huge bouquet of roses. When he found me in the crowd, a million-dollar smile lit up his face.Carl.I blinked, taking in how his mussed hair countered his expensive suit perfectly, giving him a roguish quality. He had texted me to ask when I got back but hadn’t mentioned coming to meet me.
As I met his emerald eyes, I couldn’t help but be dazzled by the desire in them. His lips dipped down, and he planted a lingering kiss on mine. “God, I missed you,” he whispered, eliciting a smile from me.
“I was only gone a week,” I said, taking in the massive bunch of flowers in his arms. “These must have cost a fortune. You shouldn’t have,” I told him, even as I enjoyed the heady perfume that wafted around me as he gifted them to me.
“I told you, I missed you,” he said, stealing another kiss from me before taking my trolley bag and packing it into the boot.
Opening the passenger door, he helped me in.
As he got in and pulled out, he asked, “So, how was Seattle? Was it a supplier you were meeting?”
I often went away to meet a new supplier for my design business, so it was a natural assumption for him to make. Other than the text I’d sent about when I was getting back, Carl and I hadn’t talked since he’d last called me last… My heart quickened as I remembered again what Carl had suggested over the phone then: it was time to get a hotel room together, time to take things to the next level in our relationship.
I tamped down the fluttering feeling in my stomach. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do about his suggestion. Instead, I focused on the conversation we were having now and answered as honestly as I could, “No. I went to visit my dad, actually. He lives in the city still.”
Carl and I hadn’t spoken much about our families. He knew I was from Seattle, while I knew he was originally from Brussels. We hadn’t gotten to the stage of talking about meeting parents and the like.
“Oh, that’s lovely, “Carl said. “I hope he’s well?”
“He was.” The urge to share something more meaningful with him about what had happened swept through me. I thought of how I’d closed off myself from my past lately. I didn’t want to make the same mistake with my future. Maybe I needed to share more with Carl to know whether I wanted to take the intimate step he’d suggested lately. After taking a breath, I explained, “Although I’ve not seen my dad much over the last six years. Not since I left Seattle. Not since I had Fern, to be precise. So, this was kind of the first time I’d told him about her.”
Carl’s eyes widened. “Whoa, Cherry, that’s heavy.” His gaze flicked to me as if to check I was all right. “That must have been quite a conversation.”
I nodded. Swallowing the lump in my throat. If Carl could only know how big a conversation it had been, along with everything else, like the fact that I’d had to conceal the identity of Fern’s father.
“It was. But it was surprisingly positive,” I said. “When my dad heard that he had a granddaughter, he told me that he’d been thinking about taking early retirement. He said he’s going to visit us here and, in a year, move out to be with us.”
Carl beamed at me. “That’s amazing, Cherry. I’m so happy for you and Fern. And I hope I’m not overstepping the mark when I say I’m looking forward to meeting him too.”
Surprise flitted through me. We hadn’t spoken about family or other such serious things before, so to hear Carl say that he wanted to meet my dad was unexpected. But then again, I’d always been so closed off, the learned habits of having to be secretive, perhaps ingraining themselves too much in my behavior.
As Carl drove us effortlessly through the city streets, passing the modernist buildings and its city dwellers, who wore daring European designs, I couldn’t help but feel bolder myself.
“You’re not overstepping, Carl. I’m looking forward to introducing my boyfriend to him, too,” I said sincerely.
He moved a hand from the steering wheel and laid a hand on my bare knee. “Boyfriend? So I’ve finally got you to go steady with me?” He joked, but I heard the underlying question in his voice. Was I ready to take our relationship to the next level, to commit to him fully?