The Alpha Captain's Secret Baby novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Not Like This

Rhys's POV

My father stood in the Hall at nine that night on his own two feet and gave Hattie Lund her name back.

Two hundred wolves heard him say it, and none of them cheered.

Hattie bowed her head, and then she went to a bench and sat with her handbag on her knees, a healer in good standing for the first time in six years.

I was proud of him, and I was too tense to say so.

Willa had slipped out before the vote, and she hadn't told me where.

I felt it at a quarter to midnight.

It came up through my ribs from the new place in my chest where the bond had woken, a cold, tight pull of fear.

I was in the car before I knew I had reached for the keys.

I followed the pull, and the pull ran straight to the Lakehead Arena.

The employee door at the loading dock stood an inch ajar.

Someone had propped it with a folded program.

I went in without a sound.

The corridor was dark, and the rink beyond it was lit by a single bank of work lights over center ice.

The boards ran white around an empty sheet of ice.

Two figures stood at the far faceoff circle.

Willa stood with her hands open and her back straight.

Pia stood six feet from her, in a white coat, with her own hands folded in front of her.

I stopped at the gap in the boards, in the shadow of the Zamboni door, and listened.

"Sign it," said Pia.

She held out a sheet of paper and a pen.

"It says you agree Emil is raised in the Alpha house under the Luna's care," she said. "It says you moved to Eau Claire of your own will, and that you were never behind the third veil. You can go home to your waitressing afterward. Hattie can keep her little title. Nobody in this pack ever has to hear the word proxy again."

← Chapter 14 · All chapters · Chapter 16 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend