Accidental Surrogate for Alpha novel Chapter 117

Ella

When Sinclair and Hugo finally leave for the pack headquarters, Henry and I move into our favorite sitting room, returning to the puzzle we began solving together earlier this week. Seated across from the older wolf, I pretend to scan the scattered puzzle pieces for matches, while really sneaking peeks up at him. “So what do you make of all this?” I ask curiously. “Lydia and the Prince?”

Henry grimaces, “I never liked that woman. But trying to argue with headstrong young Alphas’ convinced they’ve found their mate is like beating your head against a wall.” He offers me a tender smile. “You’ll see soon enough. You can do everything in your power to try and teach your pups the important lessons and prepare them for the real world – but at the end of the day you have to let them make their own mistakes – it’s the only way they learn.”

“Does it ever hurt any less? Or get any easier to watch them go down the wrong path?” I inquire softly.

“Not a damn bit.” Henry shares grimly. However despite his grim look, his eyes sparkle when he looks over at me. “Luckily, that doesn’t seem to be a problem for me anymore. Lydia is out of the picture, my boys are friends again for the first time since losing their mother, and Dominic is on his way to being King.”

“Dominic just told me how his mother died this morning.” I confess, reaching for the old wolf’s gnarled hand. “I’m so sorry you went through that. It must have been terrible for you to be left alone with a pack to rule and two young boys to raise on your own, in the midst of all your grief.”

He nods, “looking back I don’t have the first idea how I survived it. The grief almost destroyed me… and I’m ashamed to say I let it destroy Dominic and Roger’s relationship.” Henry sighs. “I haven’t always been the best father, but I can tell you right now that it was a hell of a lot easier to be one when I had my mate.”

I know what he means. When I thought I was going to be bringing this baby into the world alone, I’d been terrified. Very few people who plan for children expect to end up alone with the responsibility, and though I’d been one of the rare few – it certainly hadn’t been by choice. I was thrilled to finally succeed, but the stakes seemed a thousand times higher without a partner. I’m still afraid of course, but it feels so much better to be part of a team. I know that as long as Sinclair is alive, I will always have someone to lean on and my pup will have two loving parents to guide him through the world.

“I never would have believed I could do it without her, and I’m proud that I managed…” Henry continues, his mouth a quavering line. “but I will never stop being haunted by the knowledge that the wrong parent died… they would have been so much better off if Juliet had been here instead of me.”

“Please don’t say that.” I beg, feeling tears in my eyes for the second time in as many hours.

“Why not? It’s true.” Henry shrugs, his dark eyes shining. “There’s no use denying it or letting ego get in the way. You’ll see that too - nothing humbles you like being a parent.”

My mind scrambles for an argument, not because I want to invalidate his feelings, but because I know in my heart that losing any parent is never the answer. “Has Dominic ever told you about his last conversation with Juliet?” I finally ask, “before the fire started, before everything went wrong?”

Henry thinks for a moment, “No, not that I can recall.”

Slowly, careful to get the details right, I repeat the story Sinclair shared with me this morning. “Dominic’s mother gave him permission to ignore what society dictated,” I summarize at the end. “But he already had the example you provided to guide him. He was only six, and he might always have remembered those words because they were her last, but he lived them because of you. He is the Alpha he is today because of you. Because you showed him every day how to walk the walk.”

“You know that all happened right here?” Henry inquires thoughtfully, his expression far off as he looks around the room. “I moved the boys to a new home after the fire. But when Dominic grew up and made his fortune, he rebuilt the original manor in her honor.”

“I didn’t know,” I admit, looking around the huge mansion. “Was it always this grand?”

Henry chuckles. “It was even grander in my day – Dominic isn’t the only one who did well for himself, you know.”

“I know.” I laugh, snatching up a distinctive puzzle piece belonging to my current focus area. “But I think I got us distracted. I was asking you about Lydia.”

“Darling, when you have all day, diversions are a blessing, not a curse.” Henry advises warmly, patting the arms of his wheelchair. “The first year I was in this chair, I would have begged for a lovely young she-wolf to distract me from the monotony.”

“And now I feel like you might be distracting me intentionally.” I remark slyly. Henry chuckles again, but it’s the defeated laugh of a man who knows the game is up. “Oh Ella, you are too clever for your own good, you know that?”