He’s My Alpha by Cassandra M (Jake & Clair)
Chapter 88
Jake.
“I came here not to tell you to forgive me. I have already accepted that you won’t. I came here to tell you that I never stopped thinking about you. I never stopped caring. I always had my eyes on you.”
He threw a manila envelope on the desk but didn’t say anything. My curiosity got the best of me as I grabbed and opened the envelope.
There were pictures. All of me – from my childhood until my union ceremony a week ago.
I flipped the pictures that I had in my hands, and there were dates on them, and I knew it was my father’s handwriting. It had a detailed description of the event and where the photos were taken.
“I wasn’t here, but those photos — I watched you grow up in those. I had people within the pack who would send me those, and if they forgot, I would bother them non-stop.” He chuckled at his own words.
“You made me proud, son. This pack loves you. They worship you, and I know that leaving you here was a good choice I made. So I don’t regret it. I took an Alpha away from them when I left, but I gave them a perfect Alpha. Better than I could ever have been. I guess that was my redemption. My absolution.”
“Why?” I asked.
The crease on his brow told me he didn’t understand my question.
“How come you didn’t come back after grandfather told you that you could bring your mate here?”
“I was hoping you would never ask that. I know you had a perfect image of your grandfather, and I don’t want to ruin that.”
“What do you mean?”
“He wanted me back. Just me, Jacob. He wanted nothing to do with my mate. He still believed that if I took her as my Luna, she would be the downfall of this pack. He made me choose that day. I chose her, and I know I would choose her over and over again. As I know you would choose Clair above all this.”
My hands coiled into fists. I hated him, but he was right. I would always choose my mate.
But was he telling the truth? My grandfather was no longer here to defend himself.
‘Alpha, we have an intruder.1 My Gamma sent me a mindlink that snapped me out of my thoughts.
‘Where? Alive? Rouge?’
‘Forest line near the pack house. Alive and not rouge. I think it’s a lone wolf. This does not smell like rouge.’
‘Bring him here. I’ll be waiting outside. Make sure he doesn’t run.’ I cut off the mindlink and looked at my father.
“My Gamma told me we have an intruder. I’m meeting him outside.” I saw him nod his head as I swung to the door. I stopped before I turned the knob. “You can come if you want to,” I told him before I left the room. Soon enough, I heard his footsteps following me outside.
‘Clair? Where are you? We have an intruder. If you’ re nearby, come to the entrance of the pack house. Be careful. Otherwise, tell me where you are and stay there. I’ll come for you.’ My mind was reeling at the idea that the intruder might be planning to take my mate away.
‘I’m just in the kitchen. I’ll meet you at the entrance then,’ she replied, putting my heart at ease.
GAMMA AARON.
I just came from the south border and let Ark run me back to the pack house. I knew Jake’s father had come, and Clair wanted me to be there in case something went wrong, but I couldn’t leave the patrollers immediately without the debriefing they needed.
As I turned to my left, an unfamiliar scent caught my nose. My instinct automatically shifted my wolf to run in that direction.
And then I saw her. She was crouching on the ground with her back to me.
Ark stopped running and approached the female slowly, but he was prepared to attack her if she lunged at us.
She slowly turned her head when she heard movements behind her. Her eyes widened as she fell back on her a*s*s and scrambled backward.
I shifted back to my human form, picked up the shorts I had been carrying in my mouth while I ran, and put them on.
Her green eyes were bigger now, and her lips started to quiver. She looked scared, but she must be one hell of an actress because I almost believed the fear in her eyes.
“Who are you?” I stepped forward and hovered over her.
She scrambled backward again until her back hit a tree. I could hear her heartbeat from where I stood, but she refused to say anything.
She didn’t smell like a rogue, and she wasn’t carrying any pack smell on her either. She must be a lone wolf.
It was only then that I was able to look at her closely. F*uc*k. Did I just lay my eyes on the most beautiful woman I’ve seen?
Some of her brown hair cascaded over her face, making her look too innocent. Her thick lips were naturally red, and they looked f*uc*king soft. I
suddenly felt a twitch in my pants. She somehow looked familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I was snapped out of my thoughts when her little sobs filled the air.
What the f*uc*k was she doing?
“Answer me, what are you doing here? Who sent you?”
Her silence, along with the fact that she was giving me a boner by just sitting there on the ground, was annoying me.
“Answer me!” I shouted at her.
Her body jolted up when I roared at her. “My father! “ she answered back.
Some f*uc*king man had sent his daughter to spy on us. F*uc*king cowards! I sent a mindlink to the Alpha and let him know that I found an intruder. He a*s*sumed it was a man, but I didn’t have time to explain since he cut off the link immediately.
I picked up my shirt from the ground and tore a portion of it as I moved forward to where she was. I grabbed her wrists and tied them together with the cloth in my hand while she tried her hardest to kick me.
I smirked and looked at her. “Listen, baby, cooperate, and you won’t get anything other than this cloth on your hand.” I then coiled my hands around her waist and hoisted her up to my shoulder, her head on my back.
“Let me go!” She shrieked and drummed her fists at my back, but I couldn’t feel anything aside from the fact that her privates were just inches away from my nose.
F*uc*king werewolf senses!
I carried her towards the packhouse, hoping my boner would be gone by the time I reached there.
Clair.
I hurriedly told Jessica that we needed to go and
meet Jake at the entrance because there was an intruder in the territory. I was worried because Janna, Jake’s half-sister was nowhere around us. She had requested permission to go outside in the garden and check the flowers.
Now I had to tell Jake that we needed to find her because we had no idea how many intruders were able to get inside the territory. She might not be safe roaming around.
I ran towards my mate when I stepped out of the pack house. He was standing in front of the steps, and beside him was his father. I saw Matteo approaching as well.
“Jake, we need to find your sister, she…” My words were cut off when I heard Jessica scream from the top of the steps.
“Janna!” Jessica shrieked. Her hands were over her mouth, and my heart sank. Did something happen to her? I followed Jessica’s gaze, and my eyes widened at the sight in front of me.
Aaron had a female over his shoulder trying to wriggle out of his grip.
I hurriedly approached them, shrieking at my brother. “What the f*uc*k, Aaron? Put her down!”
Aaron’s scowl turned to confusion at my words as he lowered Janna from his shoulder, and bursts of laughter erupted in the air. Jake and his father were laughing their a*s*ses off while Janna scrambled to her feet and ran to her mother.
I turned my attention back to my brother and pushed his chest with my palm. “What was that?
What did you do to her?” I glared at him.
I felt a presence on my back and knew it was my mate. An arm coiled around my body and drew me in, pressing my back against his chest. “Is she the intruder, Gamma?” I could sense mockery in his tone.
My brother’s face darkened as he threw a glance at Janna behind us. “I gave her time to talk, but she didn’t. When I asked who the f*uc*k sent her here, she said it was her father.” He tugged his hair in frustration before scrubbing his face with his palm. “How am I supposed to know who her father was when she doesn’t want to talk? I was doing my job, in case you missed that!” He spat angrily.
Jake tapped his shoulder, a smug grin on his face. “Well done, Gamma. At least I know I’ve got the right man for the job.” He snickered as he pulled me in his arms and turned us around.
“Come inside, Aaron. Lunch is almost ready,” my mate told him while we walked towards the pack house but stopped in front of Janna and her mother.
Jake took a deep breath before he opened his mouth, looking at his sister. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head and raised her wrists. They were still tied up.
Jake smiled and took his arm away from my waist and carefully untied the cloth on his sister’s wrists. “He was just doing his job, but he’s a good man. Don ’t let him scare you. There,” he said softly, and my heart warmed at the soft way he talked with his sister.
But his next action caught me off guard.
He ruffled his sister’s hair and pulled her head into his chest, holding her close. He closed his eyes, and I knew he was fighting off the tears from falling.
But I didn’t fight mine. Tears trickled down my face as I looked at my mate holding his sister in his arms.
Maybe this was all he needed. A closure. An acceptance.
So he could move on from the pain.