lphas Second Choice novel Chapter 49

Chapter 6

I dreamed of Zevius.

He looked exactly as I remembered: standing by the lake at dawn, frost glittering on the surface, his

breath a white mist in the cold air as he stretched.

When he noticed me, he tilted his head and grinned

“Well, if it isn’t our beloved Paige. Spacing out again?”

The scar across his cheek made him look a little fierce, but his eyes were full of warmth.

I tugged at the hem of my dress.

“Alpha, I… I’ve run out of money. No one wants to hire a pregnant she–wolf. Could I maybe postpone rent for a few months?”

He burst out laughing.

“Is that all? I thought you were going to tell me the world was ending. We’ve got plenty of empty houses in the pack.

“It’s about time someone brought a little life back into them. Stay as long as you want.”

At first, he was just my landlord, the Alpha who gave a home to a disgraced she–wolf and her

unborn child.

Later, he became my brother.

A brother nothing like Cassian.

Zevius was loud, open, and endlessly kind.

Beneath that rough exterior, he was more thoughtful than anyone I’d ever met.

Whenever someone in the Obsidian Pack was struggling, he was always the first to help.

Back then, I was fragile and anxious.

He didn’t have to take care of me, yet somehow, he noticed everything like the hollow look in my

eyes, the signs of depression.

He did whatever he could to make me smile.

“Paige, look! Your paper boat’s made it halfway across the lake.”

“Paige, have you eaten? I made too many sandwiches again, help me out here.”

At first, I thought he was an idiot, too nosy, too kind But slowly, I came to love his meddling.

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Unlike Cassian, who only knew how to throw money at problems, Zevius corrected my bad habits

with quiet patience.

When I found my first job, he celebrated like a child, drank too much beer, and got scolded by me until he ran off covering his ears.

He taught me how to stand on my own, how to trust myself, how to live for myself.

“Paige,” he’d told me once, “there’s no kind of life you can’t get through.”

I’d wandered into his pack as a broken stranger, but he gave me a real home.

The Obsidian Pack sat deep in the northern snows, the whole territory swallowed by winter.

I still remembered that day, the wind howled like beasts, and snow slashed the sky like knives.

He saved me and Hope from the blizzard… and then turned back.

“Please, Zevius, don’t go!”

I clung to his hand, sobbing through the storm.

But he only looked down at me, his eyes steady and gentle.

“Paige, I’m the Alpha. I can’t abandon my pack when they’re trapped. I’ll come back. I promise.”

He’d always kept his promises.

Except that time. He rescued a dozen pack members, but when he went back for more, he never came out again.

I didn’t even have a single photo with him.

He’d always said his scar looked bad, refused pictures, but he’d taken so many of me and Hope instead.

I didn’t want to wake up. I wanted to stay with him just a little longer.

But voices dragged me out of the dream.

“We’ve been searching for her for four years,” someone snapped. “And now that you’ve found her, you hide it from me? What’s that supposed to mean?!”

That voice was Lucien’s.

Then Jaxon’s voice, sharp and mocking, “You think you have any right to see her?”

Lucien shot back, furious.

“We have a daughter! That alone gives me more rights than either of you!”

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“Four years, Lucien. Did you even know that child existed? Did you ever spare a thought for either

of them?”

Cassian’s tone was ice–cold.

“You’re engaged to Skyla now. She’s your future Luna. My sister is not a prize for you to choose.”

Lucien’s voice rose, filled with rage.

“Cassian, do you really think you can control everything? If you hadn’t insisted on punishing Paige and turned the entire pack against her, she never would’ve had to leave!

“And why do you think I’m engaged to Skyla? Because you and Jaxon told me Paige pushed her! You made me believe she was a monster! You made me reject her!”

“I was devastated, Cassian! You made me choose someone else!”

Cassian’s reply was a quiet, bitter laugh.

“Is that what you tell yourself, Lucien? That all this happened because of us?”

Chapter 6