Page 7 of Rejected by My Shadow Alpha (Mate to the Fallen #1)

Ruby

The buzzing neon sign outside the motel window flickered like a dying firefly.

Cheap, gaudy light seeped through the torn blinds, casting fractured shadows on the cracked wall.

The bed beneath me creaked with every movement, and the air reeked of coffee and cigarette smoke.

It wasn't home. It wasn't even a place I should've been, but it was all I had and all I could afford, with my face plastered across every news outlet and gossip site in the state.

Newburgh wasn't home. It wasn't even a hiding place.

It was a temporary gasp of air while I figured out how to stay alive—how we could stay alive.

The media frenzy following my disappearance had escalated.

My face was on every pack network and every supernatural gossip blog.

Daughter of Alpha Alfred Alfonso missing, suspected abduction or rebellion?

My father made it seem like I was a fragile jewel, stolen from under his watch.

Lies. All of it. I hadn't been stolen. I had run.

He was the monster I was running from.

I couldn't help it anymore. My body shook with quiet sobs.

My baby, Drew's baby, did not deserve this life of shadows.

I sighed and pressed my hand tighter against my belly, as if I could shield the baby from my thoughts and fears.

It hadn't always been like this. I wasn't running just to save myself.

I was running to protect the only innocent piece of me left—my child.

My father's lies wouldn't touch us. His darkness wouldn't poison this life growing inside me.

I would not let hatred raise my baby the way it raised Drew—the way it killed him.

One Week Ago…

I stood barefoot in my ensuite bathroom, the white stick trembling between my fingers like it had electrocuted me. My heart pounded so violently I could hear the blood in my ears.

Two lines. Positive.

The floor felt like it tilted beneath me.

I grabbed the edge of the sink, my breath shallow.

I felt like I was watching someone else live this moment, someone else facing a future that didn't belong to her.

But it was me, and it was real. I hadn't seen my period for over a month now.

The nausea, the fatigue, the overwhelming sensitivity to smells—everything pointed to this.

"Oh Goddess," I whispered, a tear slipping down my cheek.

Footsteps approached. I snapped to attention.

The knob twisted.

Panic shot through me.

I scrambled around the bathroom, yanked open the cabinet beneath the sink, and shoved the test behind the cleaning supplies. The door creaked open just as I flushed the toilet and stepped back into the room, my face blank.

My father stood in the doorway to my bedroom, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He didn't say anything at first. He just stared like he was trying to read past my blank expression.

"Still keeping me locked up like a criminal?" I asked coldly, folding my arms. "How long do you plan to hold your daughter hostage?"

He had kept me locked up in the Cornerstone mansion for two weeks after I confronted him in his study. He had left me there to spend the night all alone in my anger.

My father's jaw ticked. "You need time to cool off."

"I'm a doctor," I snapped. "I have patients. People rely on me for treatment, or did you forget I'm not one of your guards you can cage on a whim?"

"I've spoken to the hospital," he said without a flicker of remorse. "You'll be working with me for the time being."

A bitter laugh escaped me. "Of course. You've hijacked my life, why not my career too?"

"Ruby," came my father's deep voice, calm and composed. He stepped in and stared at me squarely in the face. "I've fixed the mess you made at the gala. The media won't mention that filth's name in connection with you. I've put the right pressure on the right people."

My blood turned to ice. "What mess?"

"Your little affair with Drew. It's been handled."

I swallowed hard. "What do you mean, handled?"

He gave me a look of disdain as though I should be thanking him. "You were reckless. I managed to keep it from leaking. The press doesn't know anything, and my campaign remains untouched."

Of course, his political campaign is more important than my emotional state.

"So, what happens now?" I asked, I knew he had something up his sleeve. He wouldn't be here telling me what he had handled if he didn't want me to give something in return, maybe to give him my word never to bring up the discussion about Drew or the Lunaris Pack anymore.

"You marry Mark Wren. The alliance between the Cornerstone and Silvercrest Packs is critical. His father and I were discussing this some weeks back, and I think now is a good time."

I stepped back, revulsion and disbelief warring in my throat. "No. Absolutely not."

His brows twitched with the first sign of displeasure. "You don't get to defy me. You're my daughter. You owe this family."

"I owe myself more," I snapped, my voice shaking. "I won't marry him."

His voice dropped to a low growl. "You will do as I say. Don't make me remind you of what happens when someone crosses me."

"I am marked already by…"

"I don't bloody care!" He retorted, "Whatever you had with that urchin never happened. You will obey me as your father and as your alpha."

He left before I could scream, shutting the door behind him and locking it again. The click of the bolt was louder than his footsteps. It was a sentence without a trial.

Tears blurred my vision, but I didn't let them fall. My throat was dry, like I had swallowed smoke. The world felt distant, muffled, and disconnected, like I was drifting through a nightmare I couldn't wake from..

I paced the room, the walls closing in tighter with each step.

Mark Wren. He wanted me to marry Mark, the spoiled, fat heir of the Silvercrest Pack.

I had barely tolerated him as a family friend.

I recalled with disgust the last time we met at their mansion.

I had accompanied my father to visit him.

His lustful eyes had followed me everywhere, undressing me with a leery look that repulsed me.

I would rather run away than marry that pervert. I grabbed my phone from the desk and tried to dial the police.

Nothing.

I checked again. No signal. Another call-failed.

A sharp breath cut through my teeth. "You really thought of everything, didn't you?" I muttered to no one, my phone still in hand. My father had disconnected my lines, trapped me in a room, and cut me off from the world.

I stared at the screen for a long moment before tossing the phone aside. The test result swam in my mind again. A life was growing inside me. It was a child I hadn't planned for, hadn't asked for, but couldn't ignore.

There was only one way out of this mess. I needed to outsmart my father to escape, and I would not achieve that if I stayed angry with him.

The moonlight spilled faintly through the barred windows, casting long shadows across the room like prison bars drawn on the walls.

I lay on the bed waiting. The next time he came to talk to me, I would listen and agree to everything he said.

Once he let me out, I would escape from here, never to return.

Then came the soft click, the lock sliding back.

I stopped and sat up. The door creaked open, and Marek, my father's most loyal dog, walked in with a tray of food in his hands. He was the man who'd guarded my room in silence since the day my father put me in here.

I crossed my arms, disappointed it was him. "Come to chain me to the bedposts next?"

He said nothing at first, only glanced behind him before stepping in and closing the door quietly. He dropped the tray on the table and faced me, his eyes soft.

"You shouldn't talk like that," he said at last, his voice low. "You know he's just trying to protect you."

"From what?" I hissed. "The world? Myself? Or his dark secrets?"

Marek flinched and clasped his hands.

This could work in my favor if I use the right words. I stepped forward, dropping the sarcasm. "Please. Let me speak to him."

"Ruby…"

"I'm not asking to escape," I whispered urgently. "Just give me five minutes. Let me talk to him. He trusts you. You can stand right there and listen to every word, but I need to make him see reason."

He frowned, uncertainty in his eyes.

"Look, at this point I don't care what he wants to do," I said, the words sticking like thorns in my throat. "I just want to go back to my patients and do the one thing I love to do, being a doctor."

His jaw tightened. He wasn't a heartless man, just a bound one. "I'll walk you there," he said finally. "But I stay close. One wrong move, and we go back."

"Deal."

The corridor felt like the longest stretch of space I'd ever walked, sterile, echoing, and oppressive. My pulse beat like thunder in my ears. Marek walked half a step behind me, silent.

Then I heard it.

A voice.

My father's.

I halted. Marek did too.

The door to his study was ajar. His voice carried, low but unmistakably sharp like a blade hidden in velvet.

"You assured me we destroyed everyone in that pack."

My breath caught.

Marek looked confused and wanted to walk in, but I raised a hand to keep him quiet, my heart hammering.

"Who the hell is this Drew, and how come you are just knowing he was alive and had escaped then?"

My knees nearly gave way.

Drew?

"No, I don't have the time to wait for you to do your findings. I've already taken him out. Yes, he's the one in the news. Burnt beyond ashes and dead for good. My sources confirmed it. He is dead."

The hallway spun.

A scream clawed its way up my throat, but I swallowed it. My hand flew to my mouth as I stumbled back, my chest heaving.

No, no, no, no.

He did it.

He really did it.

My body moved on its own, staggering forward. My palm slammed against the door and pushed it open with a bang.

"You killed him!" I screamed.

Alpha Alfred looked up, startled, not with guilt, but with the fury of being caught.

"Ruby." He stood up, surprised to see me.

"Don't you dare call my name!" I shrieked, backing away from Marek, too. "Don't you dare come near me!"

My father's face twisted. "You weren't supposed to hear that."

"Supposed to?" My voice cracked. "You murdered him?"

Marek froze in place, visibly shaken now.

"He was dangerous," Alpha Alfred said coldly, as if that could erase the flames from my mind. "He was part of a threat."

"He was my mate," I sobbed, each word laced with venom."Why did you kill him?"

"Ruby, listen to me."

"No! You listen to me! I am done with you!"

It poured out of me like blood from an open wound. I had nothing left to lose. I was shaking, broken, and cracked open in front of the man who'd called himself my protector but had played God with my life.

"What is wrong with you?" I whispered. "How could you be so heartless?"

He stepped forward, but the room tilted as I felt my wolf howling in pain. I turned to leave, and the floor dropped from under me. The last thing I saw was Marek calling out my name, the horror on his face frozen mid-syllable as the darkness swallowed everything.

Now, in the cold filth of a rundown motel miles from everything I knew, I held the last piece of Drew that the world didn't know existed, except my father.

I curled into myself at the edge of the bed, my heart pounding, but my face dry.

My mind was clear on what to do. I was determined to go far away from everything, from Alpha Alfred and from the memories of Drew.

Drew…he had rejected me.

I clenched my jaw. He had his reasons, maybe, but I was done making excuses for men who thought pain was a way to project their anger.

Trust had been a delicate thread between us, and he had cut it without flinching.

He was gone, and I was alone. I had his seed growing inside me, but I would never raise this pup to be like him.

"I'll protect you. No matter what." I whispered, the tears stinging my eyes.

My baby. My secret. My vow. Fate wasn't done with us yet.