Rebirth of the Alpha's Slave Mate (Samantha and Kade) novel Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Kade’s POV

“The attack last night was caused by the child-I am sure of it!”

“She’s a bad omen, Alpha Kade. Her mother caused the downfall of this pack, and became a slave because of it. The child surely contains her dark and rotten blood. Get rid of her before you name her.”

The sounds of Kade’s advisors turned to a dull roar in his ears as he stood in front of the study window, overlooking the land below. The rogue attack had been subdued, but plumes of smoke still rose from buildings in the distance. From here, Kade could see the section of wall that had crumbled from the explosives the rogues somehow got their hands on.

The attack had been sudden and completely unexpected. Rogue attacks weren’t terribly uncommon-the wild forests between packs were crawling with them these days-but Crescent Hollow hadn’t faced such an attack in a very long time. Not since Kade’s parents were killed and sister raped, of course.

But now, after last night’s attack, Kade’s advisors were in a tizzy. They claimed that the attack was caused by Samantha’s child. That she was a magnet for dark energy and that more bad things would come.

“She’s just a baby,” Kade pointed out without turning away from the window.

“A baby born of an evil woman,” the Elder Beta, Alistair, retorted with a gravelly cough. Alistair was Ajax’s father, and it showed; Ajax could have been a carbon copy of his father, just younger and stronger.

Kade remembered when he and Ajax were young, and Alistair was Kade’s father’s Beta. Alistair had been healthy then. Powerful. A formidable Beta. Now, he was an old man clutching the old ways, and his lungs grew weaker every year.

The attack that had killed Kade’s parents all those years ago had filled his lungs with smoke, slowly forming a cancer there that the healers said was slow-growing but largely untreatable.

“You should get rid of her,” Alistair’s wife, Priscilla-the stern and practical female Beta, at least until Ajax married-added. “Take her to the wilds. Let fate decide whether she lives or dies.”

“You’re telling me to take a baby out to the forest for the rogues,” Kade scoffed. “They’ll eat her, or worse.”

“Wolf pups rarely survive without their mother, anyway,” Priscilla retorted. “But perhaps the rogues will take pity on her and take her in as one of their own.”

“Thereby condemning her to a life of thievery and barbarism.”

“Better than condemning all of Crescent Hollow,” Alistair coughed.

Kade sighed and exchanged glances with Ajax, who just shrugged. Truthfully, they both knew that Priscilla and Alistair were right in one regard; the child wouldn’t survive here without Samantha. None of the other women in the pack wanted to touch that baby with a ten foot pole. Not even Kade wanted to look at her.

She looked too much like Samantha. It made him uncomfortable.

But Kade wasn’t a barbarian, despite what some apparently thought. He couldn’t just leave a child alone in the wilds.

“Alpha, if I may.”

The sound of Serena’s voice caused Kade to turn. Samantha’s family was seated at the far end of the table.

1/2

Chapter 43

+25 Bonus

Margaret’s eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, and she was staring with ghost eyes at the wall. Her husband, Jack, sat beside her with his hands clasped on the table, and Serena sat on the other side of Margaret.

“What is it?” Kade asked.

Serena exchanged a look with her father before saying softly, “Samantha was my twin. The bond we shared went above physical appearance, as I’m sure you know.”

Kade’s jaw clenched. He’d felt it already-the mate bond he shared with Serena. He’d never noticed it before, but then again, they hadn’t spent any time together since they came of age. Since Samantha did what she did five

years ago.

But he felt it now.

“Anyway,” Serena went on, “with Samantha gone, your child needs a mother, and your pack needs a Luna.” She gave Kade a meaningful look.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify