HER EXILED ALPHA; Mated To The Wrong Brother

INESSA I stopped believing in ghosts seven years ago. The day Xavier left was when I learned that ghosts were just memories dressed in old faces and unfinished promises. At least, that’s what I told myself all this time. It was easier than admitting the truth and the guilt I carried in my heart. I still dream about him all the time. Seven years haven’t been enough to make it easier on me. Easier than admitting that a part of me never truly accepted the reality that fate had forced me to now live. “Mom.” A small hand tugged on my sleeve. I looked down to find Milo staring up at me with wide green eyes. The same eyes everyone insisted he’d inherited from Rowan, but I knew better. “When will it be over?” he asked in a whisper. I forced a smile because I knew why he was whispering, and I had to too. “Soon,” I told him, even if I had no idea why we were gathered here in the first place. Rowan had told me to get dressed and be ready to stand beside him by noon and that had been all the information I got. My supposed mate and husband hadn’t explained himself to me in years, and I’d stopped asking questions when I knew what it resulted in. By the time I made it to the pack square with my son, it was packed with wolves from every family in the territory and even neighboring pack Alphas. I’d obediently taken my place beside Rowan in my good grey dress—perhaps the only dress still worthy of a gathering like this—with my son's hand in mine while my husband acted like I didn’t exist. I had heard whispers all week about something happening, about something changing, but nobody would say what it was, not even Nella. Earlier today, when I asked her what the hush in the pack was about, she’d just squeezed my hand outside the bakery and told me she’d see me in the square. The elders sat stiff-backed on the dais, dressed like they were at a funeral. Banners hung between pillars, Elm-moor colors of black and silver, snapping along with the wind. Rowan’s hand found the small of my back and I knew what it meant instantly when he squeezed. He was showing proprietary rights to anyone who was looking that he owned me, as if being his Luna wasn’t proof enough. “Smile,” he said, his eyes trained at the opening of the park square that served as the entrance. I didn’t understand why he needed me to smile or who we were expecting, who needed to see the smile on my face. But I smiled regardless, because I knew not to question why. And in almost seven years, I had gotten good at giving smiles that never reached my eyes or heart. I felt the change in the air in my bones before the square went silent as heavy footsteps vibrated along the ground. Something awoke underneath my skin, goosebumps spreading all over my body and, for whatever reason, my heart began pounding wildly. I didn’t get to question the strange reaction of my body for more than a few minutes when a face I thought I would never see again walked into the pack square. He was a ghost. It had to be, that couldn’t be Xavier. It couldn’t because I’d convinced myself the memories of him were hallucinations I made up and none of them were real. The Alpha who walked through the parted crowd of over three hundred pack members, who had commanded a hush over the entire square might look like my Xavier, but he was so vastly different from my Xavier. His face wasn’t as thin as I remembered it to be, he was taller, harder and moved like the ground owed him respect. He was nothing like the boy they’d dragged away from the pack to never return. My body had gone rigid as he stopped several feet away from the dais and his eyes found mine. Everything came crashing down on me like a merciless downpour of rain. The memories, the places we met, the night before I lost my smile. Moments I’d thought I’d forgotten for good, buried to never resurface because maybe they were never real, and I made it all up to cope. But this face right in front of me was proof of a ghost I thought only existed in my head. Whispers of confusion moved through the crowd but no one could be as convinced as me. And as the murmurs filtered through the ringing sound in my ear, I realized the pack wasn’t merely confused, they were scared. Because the exiled heir of Elm-moor was never to return and, for some reason, he was back in Elmmoor. And I couldn’t fault them because I felt it too. I understood their fear right alongside the knot in my stomach. The elders murmured amongst themselves and I felt how stiff Rowan's shoulder was beside me. Time seemed to have stopped as Xavier and I held eye contact, neither looking away. I couldn’t for the life of me decipher the look in his eyes even though they appeared blank. I could see the heavy emotions swimming behind his stormy blue eyes, yet had no idea what they meant. The spell broke loose when pain flared up my back as Rowan’s hands tightened on the small of my back and I knew I’d crossed a line. He cleared his throat, which caused Xavier’s gaze to flicker from me to his stepbrother. I don’t know if he noticed the way my shoulders had stiffened even more, or the pain I hadn’t shown on my face in years but was vivid behind my eyes, or if it was the way my hands curled around my son’s hands. But Xavier’s gaze held Rowan with contempt before they flickered back to mine. Something flashed across his face as his gaze ran through my entire frame before traveling to the small space between Rowan and me, which obviously showed the line of his hand on my back. “Mama,” Milo’s voice pulled me out of my rigid state as he tugged on my hand. “Who is that?” he asked innocently. My gaze traveled to Xavier briefly before returning to my son and all of a sudden my tongue became too heavy for me to even utter a word, partly because I knew whatever came out of my mouth would be nothing but lies. The same lies I’ve been telling myself for the past seven years. But Milo, bless my child’s heart, didn't care for my internal conflict as he let go of my hand, taking two small steps towards the man the entire pack currently saw as a threat. Xavier’s attention immediately tracked back to Milo. He stared at my son, who was gazing up at him. And then he crouched, right in front of the whole pack. Xavier went down on one knee, his eyes softening as they settled on my son. “General Xavier Lockhart,” he said, offering a hand to Milo as if he were introducing himself to a grown wolf. “And what’s your name, little Alpha?” Milo glanced back at me briefly and I nodded. His face blossomed into a small smile as he turned back to Xavier. “Emilio Lockhart, but Mama calls me Milo,” my son replied, shaking Xavier’s hand. Xavier’s gaze cast my way for a second and I saw the recognition that flashed behind his eyes. “Nice to meet you, Emilio, can I call you Milo too?” “Yes, are we family? We have the same last name.” Xavier smiled and nodded. The sight pinched my heart, almost knocking the breath out of me because I never imagined I’d see that smile ever again, even though it was no longer the sweet innocent smile he wore at eighteen, it still reminded me of the boy I’d… “Yes, we are. I am your Uncle.” “Oh, where have you been?” “Emilio, that’s enough.” Rowan’s voice was like a bucket of cold water and Milo stiffened. I didn’t need to turn around to know my husband was fuming at the sight of my Xa… of his stepbrother and Milo sharing a moment, but Rowan was a trickster and I knew he would keep whatever he felt off his face. After all, he was a master at deception, letting the pack see what he wanted them to see and not the monster I lived with. “Milo, you’ll have more time with your Uncle later, right now the adults need to talk.” I took one step forward and Rowan’s fingers dug into my back. I almost whimpered as pain shot up the base of my spine, but I bit the inside of my cheek, keeping it in. Instead, I stretched out my hand to Milo, who nodded as he came back to me. Xavier rose to his feet as Rowan crossed the distance between them in four strides, that deceptive smile on his face. “Welcome back home, Brother.” Xavier’s expression had gone back to a hollow blankness that showed nothing. "Brother," Xavier said, and the word itself sounded like a threat. “Thank you for holding the fort down for me,” he added in a simple tone that bore no hostility, but I knew without doubt everyone in the square felt the weight of each word and what Xavier had meant. Because Rowan might be the one in the Alpha seat, but the Alpha who was born for that seat was back from an exile that was meant to keep him away forever and, for the life of me, I don’t know if I am allowed to wonder what that means for my son who, in his absence, had married his stepbrother.