AGAIN MY HEART: Her Alphas Regret

XENYRE

LEILANI



I am all but a panicked mess as I rush out of the staff room. My mind was riddled with the worst possible scenarios of what could have happened to my son as I rushed out of the room to find him.

“Have you seen Avi?” I asked Steph, who was behind the counter, currently ringing up customers.

She turned to me briefly, her brows set in a frown as she shook her head. I

I thought you were with him in the staff room; weren’t you feeding him? I was. He was the reason I took a break, because the moment he started clinging to my leg, I knew it wouldn’t take him a few minutes more to start crying out of hunger.

I had been in the staff room feeding him. He was done eating and playing on my lap. I knew when he crawled down, but I didn’t think he would leave my sight.

“I was,” I replied absentmindedly as I looked around the space behind the counter, checking the fridge and every space I knew he could crawl into.

“Are you sure you didn’t see him crawl out?” I asked Steph again, just to be sure, and she shook her head.

“No.”

I muttered a curse as I hurried back in the direction of the staff room, calling out Avi’s name as I checked the room again because there was a possibility I had totally lost sight of him in my state of panic. There was no sign of him yet, so I continued to the storage room, knowing those tiny legs of his could literally take him anywhere. He’s been the reason I wake up at night in cold sweats ever since he learned how to wobble on those legs. He’s barely eight months old, and he has already figured out how to walk.

Every night, I dream of him wobbling out of my sight and into danger somewhere. I am convinced that Alpha King Aesir might’ve realised I didn’t terminate the pregnancy even though he paid me to, and he has sent trackers after me so they can do the one thing he paid me to do.

Was it an irrational fear and totally unreasonable? Yes. I was very well aware of how irrational it was to think of such stupid possibilities, but my brain wasn’t on board with that, and it wouldn’t stop showing me scenarios of my son getting abducted. And just worst-case scenarios of what could happen to him.

Rationally, I knew he had to be somewhere within the shop. Just because I couldn’t find him in the storage room, the staff room or the restrooms, and the pantry cold room didn’t mean he was abducted. There is no way King Aesir could’ve figured out that I was in Xenyre. How would he? He didn’t care enough to even ask for a DNA test, so what would he care if I decided to keep the baby? He wanted me gone, and that was what I gave him. There is no way he’d have people looking for me to kill my son.

No.

I shook that thought out of my head as I walked back to the café. Avi had to be somewhere in the shop, probably bothering the clients. He is too sharp and too energetic for his age. I barely made it past the first table when Avi’s chirpy, almost inaudible voice rang through the café. “Ma–ma.”

I pivot, my gaze immediately snapping in his direction as his giggles fill the expanse of the café. 'Mama' is the only word he could say so far, and it is his favourite word to say, alongside the occasional gibberish when I am cooing at him.

The weight on my chest lifted as I approached the table, and I finally saw the faces of the customers who had him. I couldn’t help but sigh in relief upon seeing the familiar faces of the couple who had become regulars ever since I opened the café. They were one of my very first customers and have been coming to the café almost every day for the past two months.

It’s been a year and a month since I left that god-forsaken kingdom and all its bad memories behind me. It's been approximately four months since I arrived in Xenyre and three months since I opened the café. Why Xenyre? I couldn’t tell for sure. After leaving Eitbjorn, there wasn’t exactly a destination in mind.

Despite being 50 million Lykos richer after walking out of King Aesir’s office, I still felt like I didn’t belong anywhere because I didn’t. There was so much money in my name that I had no idea what to do with it. Even cashing the cheque had proved difficult because I had none of the identification I needed, nor could I even enter Eitbjorn's capital city.

I had to travel two cities further from Eitbjorn, and thankfully, their bureau was kind enough to help me with an identity card after I told them my ordeal. At least enough to earn their pity.

After that, it was easy to open a bank account in my name, and even easier to deposit the huge amount Aesir had paid for me to disappear, and I did. Travelling from one town to another, I barely stayed two months in any province, and before I knew it, I was halfway across the continent. Something kept tugging at me to keep going. No matter where I stayed, there was always that pull to leave. Always that feeling of being an outsider, and being heavily pregnant didn’t make it easy.

I had Avitaj in a kingdom populated with witches and creatures I didn’t care to know about. Thankfully, they were welcoming and nice, and I might’ve stayed there longer if that tug in my heart wasn’t persistent. Still, I waited until Avi was four months old before leaving, and I ended up here in Xenyre.

And the minute I set foot in Xenyre, something about the kingdom, the surrounding air, made me feel like I was finally home, even though I didn’t know anyone here.

I stopped at the table Avi was currently disrupting. “I’m so sorry for this. I didn’t know when he left my bosom. Disrupting your evening like this…”

The woman was quick to wave me off as she smiled at Avi, who was currently settled on her lap. “Oh, please, no need to be sorry. Avi is a delight to have around. Besides, he didn’t disrupt anything.”

I felt bad they were regular, but that didn’t mean it was okay for my son to intrude on their private time. “Still, it’s unprofessional on my end to let him roam. And I feel responsible and also very apologetic, so please, whatever you have tonight is on me.” I reached out to take Avi from her with an apologetic smile.

"Leila, right? That’s your name?" the woman inquired.

“Leilani.” I corrected her. “But you can call me Leila,” I responded, even though the nickname brought back horrible memories of my aunt. At least there were good memories with my foster parents, too.

“Leilani, it means royal child. Did you know that?” Her husband asked from beside her.

I shook my head. “Not really, it never occurred to me to ask my foster parents what it meant.”

“Oh, you were adopted?” The woman, whose voice had taken a very noticeable, weird edge, asked with a hint of curiosity behind her eyes.

“Not really, my foster dad found me in the woods and saved me from rogue wolves. I was three at the time.” She turned to look at her husband, and they seemed to be communicating through their mind link for a minute there. I knew they were werewolves, so that wasn’t a surprise.

Her gaze found me again, and she smiled. “Sorry to hear about that. Must’ve been hard on you.”

I shrugged. “I don’t really remember anything about my birth parents, besides my foster parents treated me like I was their own.” I wasn’t really sure why I was divulging so much to this couple and should’ve shut down this conversation the minute he pivoted from Avi disturbing them to my origin, but something about them felt… comfortable.

“Ah, that’s…” she cleared her throat. “That’s a good thing then.” She seemed to struggle with what to say, but her husband continued before I could wrap up the conversation and excuse myself.

“Your foster parents must be from here then?” he asked.

“Oh no. They’re from Eitbjorn. I’m from Eitbjorn. Well, I’m not a native, if I were, I wouldn’t have been cast out…” I shook my head, clamping my lips shut before I could give them further information they didn’t ask for.

“You…”

“My foster parents died a while back, and there was nothing really keeping me in Eitbjorn anymore, so I moved until I settled here. Well, something about this kingdom feels like home, so I stayed. Anyway, I’ve taken too much of your time, which, again, is not very professional of me.”

They laughed and waved it off, then asked before I could continue. “We would like to invite you over for dinner. If you don’t mind…” They both announced out of nowhere.

I stared dumbfounded for a moment. I don’t know these people aside from the fact that they’re regulars at the café. What could prompt them to invite me for dinner? Are they one of those couples who do that swapping thing with a third party? They look too old for that, but… You never know.

“I…”

“Our anniversary is next week, and we were planning a little party with friends and family. Since you’re new here, and we’ve been regulars at the café, we thought perhaps you’d like to meet more people. So it doesn’t feel too lonely,” the woman immediately added before I could respond.

“And you can bring Avi too. He’s such a good kid. We would love to have you both.”

I stared at them for more than a minute. The logical answer would’ve been a quick no, but somehow, I ended up nodding. “Okay, that sounds alright. I'd, uh, get your address before you leave. Do enjoy the rest of your evening, and please, don’t worry about paying tonight.” I mumbled another apology for Avi having disrupted their evening before slipping away with my babbling son and a chorus of ‘what the f**k did I agree to?’ going through my head.