Page 6 of The Alpha's Baby Girl

Rowan was thirty-three years old and he had not yet found his mate. He attended every coming-of-age ceremony, although he had given up on the idea of ever finding a mate. As alpha of the pack, it was his duty to be there for the ceremony, a task that for years on end had left him feeling unsatisfied and lonely every time a new wolf found their mate.

As usual, Rowan sat and watched as the wolves were presented and happy mates paired themselves. He was feeling dejected when all of a sudden he felt a connection with someone in the crowd, deep in his chest.

He jolted as his eyes quickly darted around the crowd trying to pinpoint where it was that the connection had come from. Just as quickly as he had jolted, he relaxed himself, careful to not draw the attention of people in the crowd.

‘Mine,’ his wolf, Hanlon, growled inside of him.

‘Where?’ Rowan questioned as his eyes continued to dart around the crowd. He felt his heart beat faster in his chest as his hope began to renew once again.

Rowan struggled to control himself. He didn’t want to hope and then be disappointed, even though he knew his wolf would never joke about something as serious as their mate.

He couldn’t help but think about how crazy all of this was. He was already thirty-three years old and everyone at the coming-of-age ceremony were either eighteen years old, or people who were older but had been around him for years and as such they could not be his mate.

His mate had to be eighteen years old. The age gap was such a huge one. Still, Rowan was excited to meet them. Try as he might, he couldn’t curb his excitement. Not even the fear of disappointment could stop him from hoping.

‘Come on, Hanlon. Where is she?’ he questioned through their link, impatient to see the mate he had waited many hard, long years for.

His eyes fell on a lone girl standing in the corner at the back, a little ways off from the group of young eighteen-year-olds excitedly showing off their wolf.

She was wearing the simplest shift dress. Her dark hair fell down to her waist and her dark eyes stood out from her pale skin. He regarded her curiously as her eyes flitted from one wolf to another. She seemed almost hesitant to be there. However, everyone was instructed to attend the ceremony so she had no choice.

‘Wait, what?’ He knew who she was.

‘Mine,’ his wolf growled angrily, clearly not liking the direction of his thoughts.

Suddenly, Rowan felt his feelings increase exponentially. All he could feel was warmth, love, and joy.

‘The deathbringer?!’ She was the witch who lived with the widowed border-guard’s wife. As she was the only witch in his community, it would be difficult not to know who she was. How was it possible that his mate was the witch?

‘Yes. Mine,’ Hanlon said.

‘How can we be mated to a witch? You must be making a mistake,’ Rowan tried to reason with his wolf, but he could sense Hanlon’s adamance.

‘No. Mine,’ Hanlon repeated with a growl once again.

Despite his reservations, Rowan could not take his eyes off her. She began to look in his direction, sensing his gaze on her, and he waited with bated breath as she looked up at him. Their eyes met, and this time his connection to her was instant. It was so strong that it felt like a sucker punch to the gut.

Rowan felt the connection so strongly that he had to fight the smile that was threatening to show on his face. He gripped the sides of his ceremonial seat desperately because his wolf was threatening to come out at the happiness of finally finding their mate.

‘Not now, Hanlon,’ he growled back at his wolf, pressing him down until he subsided.

Rowan ran a hand down his face as he looked around the group of eighteen-year-olds, rejoicing at finally having their wolves and some showing the extra joy of finding their mates. Yet all he could think was that he couldn’t wait for all of it to be over so that he could finally get out of here so he could react to this properly.

He stifled the shocked laughter threatening to escape him at how crazy everything was. Not only had he found his mate such a long time after his own ceremony, to a woman much younger than him, but she also happened to be entirely different from him.

Rowan grimaced. Of all the people he could have been mated to, it was the deathbringer.

The witch had been a member of their pack for eighteen years now. They had found her while she was just a baby and Rowan’s father had forced one of the town guards and his family to take her in and watch her.

Over the years, she had grown up to be something of an outcast since she was the only one who was not a wolf. Not to mention that she had been involved in the tragedy that had occurred thirteen years ago… So many people had died… including his parents. When word came from the border guard’s family that she had been involved, everyone began to call her the deathbringer and things became much worse.

Rowan did not think much of it before. He knew she had not really caused the attack, but her involvement and her difference as an outcast, made her an easy target. He was too old at the time to blame a five-year old girl for the death of his parents even when he heard the story.

‘How will the pack take it if news gets out that I am mated to the witch?’ he asked Hanlon, but his wolf remained silent.

Rowan sighed silently. He knew that Hanlon was annoyed with him for stopping him from going after their mate and for his obvious reluctance. If it was anyone else but her, they would have been in front of her right now, trying to bond, and the pack would have been happy to finally be granted a Luna. However, things were complicated and Hanlon had to understand that.

***