Page 13 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate (Secret Legacy #3)

S elina

Neither my father nor Marissa even remotely tried to reach out to me since I packed my life up and left Nightwing Pack, and I didn’t bother to contact them either.

If I thought I had gone through humiliation by being rejected in the presence of my family and pack, the news of my being pregnant while unmarried would have done me worse than humiliation.

Lyvia, Igaluk sent, took me in and treated me better than all my people combined ever did, but not even her kindness to me could waver the devastating heartbreak I passed through after Alexis’s rejection, accusation, and my departure.

The first few months were the hardest for me, starting with severe loneliness and depression that would have driven me over the edge if not for Lyvia’s intervention and her constant words of encouragement, release exercise practices, and skillfully curated potions.

The extraordinary woman helped me through my pregnancy, and on today’s humid evening, five years after Lyvia offered me shelter and comfort, I could count a handful of reasons why the hardest decision I'd ever made to leave my life behind was so worth it.

The boisterous peal of laughter coming from the four-year-old pup outside my flourishing herbal shop as she ran headfirst in my direction was one of those reasons why. My daughter filled each day with a joy I never knew I could have. My world. Mia.

"Hey, stop running, or you'll hurt your legs," I scolded playfully while preparing myself for her impact. With an eye-reaching smile, I stepped away from the two crates of supplies I was running a final check on and turned fully to the entrance door.

Right behind Mia, an energy-filled Lyvia appeared at the doorway of the herbal shop. She was no longer chasing the four-year-old with a song that usually sounded soothing, but today, held the effect of scaring my baby.

Mia didn't stop scrambling even after I wrapped my arms around her small shoulders when she collided with my frame. I carried her up to hide her face from Lyvia in the crook of my neck. Lyvia spoke first amidst Mia's contagious laughter.

"I told her it was time for her Yarrow shot, and she refused to come on her own, so I started singing the song of the Blood Moons, invoking Alpha Reginald's spirit to come to scold her for me," Lyvia explained through smiles from the doorway, and I shook my head.

"You succeeded in scaring her in here, okay, Lyv. Thank you!"

I could still hear Lyvia's gentle laughter after she closed the shop’s door behind her, leaving just me and Mia alone.

Putting Mia down, I crouched to her level, running a hand over her dark hair and locking eyes with her large green ones, the only resemblance she bore with me.

It didn’t take long for a picture of her father, Alexis, to spring into my head.

Five years had passed, and a lot had happened within that time, but the feelings that roped themselves around my neck whenever I thought of him hadn't begun to wane.

Time after time, the guilt of not being able to give Mia a complete family bore down on me so much that, sometimes, I couldn’t even look in her eyes.

Maybe if I fought harder for my bond with Alexis, he wouldn’t be married to Marissa, and we'd be together. Maybe we'd be able to better manage Mia’s lifelong condition, Warring Wolves. In the language of Igaluk, it was called Amaruq Kuk, a conflict of a child’s inner spirit because of their imbalanced bloodlines, which in Mia's case was my Nightwing heritage and Alexis’s Shadow Moon’s.

My union with Alexis created Mia's condition, while his presence as her father was essential to cure it. The first time Mia experienced symptoms of the sickness, they came out of nowhere: a burning temperature and a severe seizure that lasted minutes, flooding ice into my veins. I’d almost lost my sanity.

I cried bitterly all through that night, long after the symptoms subsided.

Thankfully, Lyvia had not only heard of the condition but also experienced it with a friend a few years back, and she educated me more on it.

With my expertise in herbal medicine and a better understanding of Mia’s sickness, I tried out different herbal concoctions until I found the one that kept her symptoms at bay.

Added to Lyvia’s infused spells, Mia could live like a normal child, only having to take small doses of the Yarrow potion every once and a while.

Bringing myself back to the present, I pressed a kiss on Mia’s cheek, letting my lips linger so I could inhale her soft scent, even though it reminded me so much of Alexis.

“Go wash your hands, baby, and come back quickly for your shot. It will only take seconds,” I urged, partially waiting for her usual grumbles of refusal. None came, only a nod, and I took that as a good sign, watching as Mia exited through the door of the shop that led to the back storerooms.

I stood, dusting the emotions off my mind as I turned my attention back to the crates filled with processed herbs for my customers from the Moonlight and the Blood Moon Packs.

Before I could run one more check to make sure that all bottles of Epazote were complete, the front door opened, and a neat pile of black hair caught my eye before Lyvia’s head popped inside again.

“They’re here, Selina.”

“Oh.”

Leaving the crates since I had already counted the stock three times, I turned to face Lyvia, who stepped inside the shop, giving room for Alpha Kyle and Luna Leah to pass through.

Through the windows where I’d earlier caught Mia and Lyvia’s movements, I could see a few of their guards line the hall before the duo walked in, hand in hand. A gracious smile stretched my lips as I closed the space between us.

“Alpha. Luna,” I greeted, taking Leah’s outstretched arms first. The lithe woman laughed, her eyes crinkling around the edges as she pulled me in for a hug.

“I’ve told you time and again to reserve the formalities for the big ceremonies, Selina,” Leah spoke once we pulled apart, her fiery red hair bobbing gently as she scanned me from head to toe.

I did the same, taking in the swell of her belly carrying her and Kyle’s second child.

“Are you well? And Mia?” She asked before I could speak, and I nodded.

“We’re fine. Thank you. How’s the baby?”

Leah sighed, bright eyes giving her mate a once over as a hand came up to rub her stomach through her response. “She’s there. It's stressful, but the formulas you gave me the last time have been doing a wonderful job in helping. I hope you have more for me?”

I nodded once before facing Alpha Kyle.

“It’s good to have you here again, Alpha,” I said with a curt bow, still unable to let myself call him by his name.

The bulky yet handsome man took a step forward from behind his mate, shaking my hand as he smiled warmly. “Always a pleasure to see you, too, Miss Selina.”

We got down to business as Lyvia appeared with two seats for Kyle and Leah before disappearing to the back of the shop.

I turned to shuffle the crates filled with their supplies forward.

It was no surprise when Kyle and Leah, as they always did whenever they came to my herbal shop, finding a semblance of privacy from the many eyes on them, took only one of the seats.

Kyle sat first, legs spread for his petite and heavily pregnant mate to settle in between, balancing herself on his lap with her arms leisurely wrapped around his neck as she faced the crates before us.

It was such a simple romantic moment between them that seemed so normal, but it didn’t stop that pain in my heart.

Not from bitterness toward them but being wistful because of the way Kyle looked at and treated his mate, Leah, like she was the key to his heart’s very function.

It was something I only ever experienced once.

On the night with Alexis.

But that ship had long sailed, so I cleared my throat and mind off thoughts of him, and I spoke .

“You said there were thirteen newborn pups. These two crates should be enough for all the moms for another month or so. They can’t waste it because this is the most we can harvest for now, but they will have to take their doses regularly.

I’d suggest keeping it with the pack’s healer while they come in for the doses every day,” I explained.

The Epazote herbs were infused with properties that were going to flush out the most stubborn toxins from a mother’s body, helping them feed their babies with the healthiest milk for them to grow into the strongest pups, but it was only by Lyvia’s witchcraft that the roots grew bigger than a thumb, hence why they were so scarce and couldn’t be found elsewhere.

Leah nodded.

“Then, this is yours,” I continued, stretching backward to retrieve the bottle I made especially for Leah’s pregnancy from the wooden counter behind me.

“Warming roots. As usual, take it before bed. I don’t have to explain the wonders it does,” I finished with a smile, handing Leah hers, which Kyle took off her hands for her.

“We’ll see to it that Maria handles the Epazote herbs. Thank you so much for these, Selina, and for the Warming roots. I don’t know why you won’t let us pay you more than what we do,” Leah said, her blue eyes sparkling.

I only laughed. “That’s because Lyvia, who is responsible for all the business I have and more than half of the herbs I’m able to grow, won’t accept any payments from me.”

Anytime I spoke about it, the witch’s words were always. 'I have all the payment I need.'

Turning to the couple, I spoke. "Well, this, and good rest, of course, should get you through any symptoms from carrying our little pup."

Kyle spoke up now, beating his mate to it.

"About that. Would you please tell Leah that rest doesn’t include paroling the borders with pack warriors?

She hasn't listened to me the twenty times I've said it, so maybe she’ll listen to you?

" Soft lines of worry etched over the Alpha's face, and I found it hard to picture the man who spearheaded the hardest takeover in Alaska for as far back as a decade now .

I could very well picture a pregnant Leah playing pack warrior, so my medical feathers rose faster than I could imagine.

"Leah, no. You shouldn't be doing any of that. At all."

Leah shrugged. "We need all the extra hands we can get to make sure that Blood Moon and Moonlight are safe. It's only a matter of time before Torin hears that Nightwing Pack has lost its protection from Alexis. When they come crawling, we have to make sure that they don't breathe near us."

Not even the mention of my home pack or the Alpha of the diabolical Black Moons sent as much shockwave through me as hearing his name did.

Alexis.

It was like an explosive detonated right beside me as every other sound blended into sharp, repetitive echoes, wildly ringing in my ears.

The rest of Leah’s words fell away as soon as she mentioned Alexis, my breath scrambling out of my lungs in a woosh.

My elastic heart, the one I built a wall of concrete around, tripped over itself, missing beats, but at least a quarter of my brain still functioned since I thought to school my features.

“Nightwing Pack built a strong alliance with the Shadow Moons,” I put in, confused, now thinking of what Leah just said. “Why would they lose Alexis’s protection when he married into the pack?”

I hoped that Leah didn’t decipher the wavering behind my voice, as well as every other subtle cue. If she did, she said nothing of it, only responding to my question with tense features.

“They had a serious fallout. Alexis and Marissa are not married.”

Many hours after Leah and Kyle returned to their pack, down to when I fell asleep that night, Leah’s last words were the only thing I could think of. A hundred questions took shape in my head, all revolving around Alexis, and there wasn’t one that I could find a suitable answer to.

My determination to not subject both myself and my daughter to my hardship-filled past life was what helped me see past the news of Alexis and focus on my life with Mia.

It wasn’t easy, but each day was less tasking than the last, and today, three weeks later, I was in turmoil for a whole different reason .

Mia wasn’t home.

Matsuna was a small town designed with log cabins surrounded by scattered protective trees and shrubs and with only a handful of locals who knew each other like family. It wasn’t difficult for me to let Mia go play with the other kids, with the promise to be home in time for dinner.

It was past time, and I had yet to see a sign of Mia anywhere.

The recollection of the savage Black Moons seeking residents out for anything tangible to claim was enough to make my blood freeze over.

Abandoning the meal, I said a silent prayer to Igaluk, asking her to keep my child safe as I prepared to search for her, hurriedly throwing on a jumper and tying my hair together.

I let the door close behind me, my heart now going in crazy circles with panic, but as soon as I turned, my heart stopped beating altogether.

Mia was skittering toward our log cabin, unharmed and happy, but it wasn’t the sight of her that froze me in place.

No. It was that of the man who was walking beside her, whose trunk-sized hand was interlocked with Mia’s tiny one as she blabbered unimportant details of her life to him while he studied her with drawn eyes.

It was her father.

Alexis.