Alpha's Abandoned Daughter is the Secret Heiress novel Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Fall In Love

(Amelia's POV)

My hands stilled on the herbs. I turned to face him slowly, certain I must have misheard. "You? My fiancé?"

The audacity of it. Ten minutes ago, I'd had a mate-however unworthy he'd turned out to be. Now I had an ex-mate and apparently a fiancé I'd never met before today.

Theodore's expression softened slightly, though not much. "I understand your skepticism. Let me explain further."

He shifted in his wheelchair, and I caught a flash of pain cross his face before he could hide it. The healer in me immediately wanted to help, to ease that pain, but I held myself back. I needed to hear what he had to say first.

"Last month, I was attacked by rogue wolves," Theodore continued, his voice carefully neutral. "My wolf form's hind legs were severely damaged. I can barely shift now, and my wolf Logan spends most days sleeping."

I noticed how his hands gripped the armrests when he mentioned his wolf, knuckles white with tension. Whatever had happened to him, it had been bad. Really bad. The kind of injury that could cripple a wolf permanently, take away everything that made them whole.

"I was engaged to Celine Stone," he said, and something in his tone made me pay closer attention. "The girl who replaced you. When she learned of my... condition, she rejected the match. Called me damaged goods."

His matter-of-fact tone couldn't quite hide the bitterness underneath, and I felt an unexpected flash of anger on his behalf. Whoever this Celine was, she sounded like a piece of work.

But wait-the girl who replaced me?

"Stone River Pack doesn't want to lose their alliance with the Crimson Moon Pack," I said slowly, piecing it together. "So they've suddenly remembered they had a true daughter somewhere and decided to bring me back to replace Celine in the marriage."

The words left a sour taste in my mouth. Used. I was being used. Just like Damien had tried to use me as his mistress, my biological parents-parents I'd never even met-wanted to use me as a replacement bride for a daughter who'd rejected her engagement.

Something dark and bitter twisted in my chest. "So they knew about me all along? They only want me now because I'm useful as a replacement bride?"

Theodore nodded, his golden eyes never leaving mine. "Your assessment is accurate."

At least he was honest. That was something, I supposed. More than Damien had been, with his talk of arrangements and status and keeping me as a lover on the side.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, studying his face. "Why come in person?"

Most people in his position would have just gone along with whatever arrangement their families had made. They certainly wouldn't have come to find their prospective bride personally, wouldn't have laid out the truth so starkly.

"I'll be honest with you." His golden eyes met mine directly, unflinching. "I've investigated you. You're a renowned healer among wandering wolves and small packs. You've cured conditions others deemed hopeless."

Understanding dawned on me, clear and sharp. "You want me to heal your legs."

"I've consulted countless healers," Theodore confirmed, leaning forward slightly. "None could help." He paused, then added, "I came to assess whether marrying you would be beneficial to me. Blunt, perhaps, but true."

I should have been offended. After Damien's rejection, after learning my biological parents only wanted me as a replacement, this should have felt like yet another person seeing me as useful rather than wanted. But instead, I found myself... appreciating his honesty.

He wasn't pretending to care. He wasn't making false promises or wrapping his intentions in pretty lies. He was laying out the facts, giving me the information I needed to make an informed choice. After Damien's betrayal, there was something refreshing about that brutal honesty.

"Show me your legs," I said.

Theodore hesitated only briefly before rolling up his pant legs. The scars that crisscrossed his skin made me draw in a sharp breath. Jagged, vicious, clearly made by something more than ordinary wolf claws. The muscle beneath was damaged in a way that made my healer's instincts scream.

"I'll go back with you," I decided, turning to face him. "I want to meet these people who suddenly remembered my existence. I can mate with you."

A smile tugged at Theodore's lips, the first genuine expression of pleasure I'd seen from him. "So what do I need to pay?"

I smiled slightly, feeling something in my chest loosen for the first time since Damien's call. "There's nothing you need to give. Marrying a handsome man like you-if I can heal your wounds, I think I'm the one who wins in this deal."

It was true enough. He was handsome, he was honest, and he needed something I could provide. That was more than Damien had ever offered me.

But there was another reason, one I kept locked away in my heart where Theodore couldn't hear it. One I barely dared acknowledge even to myself, though Ava was currently preening with satisfaction in my mind.

Because from the moment Theodore Crimson had rolled into my clinic, from the moment his golden eyes had met mine, I had felt it. That pull. That recognition. That sense of rightness that I had tried so hard to feel with Damien and never quite managed.

The mate bond. Real this time. Undeniable. Strong.

Theodore Crimson was my fated mate.

I didn't say it aloud. The bond was too new, too fresh, and after what had just happened with Damien, I wasn't ready to speak those words out loud. But I felt it thrumming beneath my skin, warm and certain in a way the bond with Damien had never been.

'See?' Ava murmured contentedly in my mind. 'I told you that weakling wasn't worthy. The Moon Goddess knew what she was doing all along. She was saving us for this.'

Maybe she was right. Maybe this-all of it, the betrayal, the pain, the sudden upheaval of everything I thought I knew-maybe it had all been leading to this moment. To this man.

"Of course, the most important reason," I said silently in my heart, letting myself smile for real this time, "is because you are my fated mate."