CONNOR SHELBY.
“Oh my God,” I exhaled in my mind at how it all played out before my eyes.
I wanted to go after her, grab her hands and launch into a tirade of explanation.
But it felt as though my feet grew roots and suddenly pinned me to the spot. I couldn’t move a bloody inch.
It unsettled me to see the crushed look on her face as she ran out of the café.
But it wasn’t my feet’s fault, I sensed the firm grip of Marcus’s hand on my arm holding me back. And when he realized that I had noticed his hands on mine, he took two steps backward, stood at attention and bowed to me.
“I’m sorry Alpha.” he apologized with his eyes still facing the ground. “I just felt it was best not to go after her at this point. With the reporters around us and all. I believe we can handle this better without creating a scene.”
I ignored Marcus and dashed out of the café to where our car was waiting, remembering I took a dark sunshade on my way out. I fished it out of my trouser pocket and put it on, hoping it would help a bit to ward off the pests called paparazzis.
“Keep the change.” I heard Marcus tell the counter girl before stepping into the warm sunshine.
Marcus was almost always right. He was perceptive and logical, and most importantly, had my best interest at heart. The core reason I trusted him than anyone else, anyway.
I knew he also felt the woman needed space at that moment, and going after her was going to make the situation worse.
But how could I meet her this way? I wondered, as the driver rushed to open the door and I slid into the car.
After seven years. After searching for her like a lost sibling, after spending money on private investigators. And at a point, I thought she had disappeared from this planet. I didn’t even have much leads on her, come to think of it.
All I knew was she was a final year student of Arizona College with a startlingly enchanting china-blue eyes and a beautiful dark hair, and that she preferred beer to wine. I had searched for her to the point where I felt like she was intentionally running away from me.
But that couldn’t be the case. We fell in love that night, had the most blissful sex ever, and to salt to the injury, I realized that night that I was her first.
How could I abandon her after that? Who in their right mind would?
After finding the spark and connection I had been looking for all my life. But now, it seems to her that I actually did dump and forget all about her.
But I didn’t.
For these past seven years after meeting her, my life had never remained the same. The same in a sense that I could not grow any serious feeling for any other woman after her. I tried so hard for years, but none of them were the blue eyed damsel that loved beer more than wine.
None of them had her mind-numbing smile and heart squeezing dimples.
Marcus got into the car from the other door breaking my reverie. Then a thought struck me.
“Marcus, how old did you say her child was again?” I brought out my phone and began looking up on the web if I could find her by typing ‘Grace Jones’ into the search box.
Marcus was looking down on his tablet, looking for the information I requested. We could access information that even the international intelligence couldn’t. And that was the power of money.
“She’s six years old, Alpha.” he replied still staring down at his screen.
“Look her up,” I instructed, impatiently, then noticed we were still in the rowdy street close to the Dior’s Diner.
This driver is totally clueless, I scoffed angrily.
“Let’s head to the office.” I said to him.
He started the engine of the car and zipped out of the street.
“I got it.” Marcus chimed after a few minutes. “Here” he handed the tablet over to me, gaping at the screen and then at me with open perplexity.
I could sense his curiosity, but I also knew that he was never going to ask until I told him.
I took the tablet and was startled by the piecing gaze of the sea-blue eyed little girl on the screen. It was just a picture but her eyes held so much words. Her thick brown hair was neatly trimmed to her neck with her beautiful bang falling over her forehead, just few inches from her eyes. A red ribbon sat comfortably at the top of the left side of her hair, matching the color of her top.
It was a middle shot picture so I couldn’t see the rest of her body. I stared at her striking eyes once again and it was as though I knew her for a long time, as though she was not a stranger, as though this wasn’t the first time I was seeing her.
Anxiety formed a huge lump in my throat and my heart skipped a bit. Maybe I was simply being too presumptuous. Come to think of it, such assumption was extremely preposterous.
It couldn’t be. I convinced myself over and over again, suddenly feeling the scarcity of oxygen even though the air condition was totally working fine.
“Wind down the windows,” I breathed
“Are you okay, Alpha?” Marcus worried.
“Its okay, Marcus.” I replied, clutching to the tablet like it was the oxygen I was starting to lack.
As soon as we got to the company, I rushed out of the car without waiting for anyone to open the door, breezing through the ground floor, ignoring workers who stopped what they were doing to greet me with a bow.
Marcus who was literally running after me joined me in the office, few seconds after I paced inside. I took of my jacket and paced around the office, raking my hand through my hair over and over again.
“I think I have a child, Marcus.” I exhaled so deeply, I couldn’t breathe for a minute. “No, I think I have had a child for over six years I knew absolutely nothing about!”
I growled, feeling all my self-restraint drain out from me. I could feel a rubble in my chest, my wolf, Max, felt my pain as well.
“That may be a far-fetched assumption, Alpha,” Marcus said hurriedly. “It hasn’t been verified yet, so I suggest you calm down please. You’re still recuperating.”
“I cannot wait anymore,” I uttered, ignoring his psychological jargon. “I have to go meet, Grace. I need to see and explain to her.”
I finalized and stormed out of the office. An indication that I wanted to go alone.
We wanted our mate.
We needed to see our mate
And that was the only thing that made sense at this very moment.