Rebirth of the Alpha's Slave Mate (Samantha and Kade) novel Chapter 48

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Chapter 48

Kade couldn’t deny his wolf’s command. Panic shot through him like a cold dagger of ice piercing his chest. Without hesitating, Kade threw the covers off and bolted out of his room, then down the hall to the nursery.

The door was wide open.

The crib was empty.

“Where is she?!” he bellowed, bursting into the corridor. A guard was keeping post at the end of the hall, young, eyes wide like a deer in headlights.

The guard’s throat bobbed with a hard swallow. “E-Elder Priscilla took her to the wilds,” he stammered out. “Sh- She told me i-it was your command-”

Kade didn’t wait to hear the rest. He didn’t care that he was barefoot. Shirtless. That it was nearly wintertime and the mountainous air was below freezing at this time of night.

He took off into the forest, shifting halfway, following the pull toward his child-a faint silver thread that could not be unbroken.

It didn’t take Kade long to find her. Priscilla hadn’t taken her too far; she had laid her down in a clearing a quarter mile beyond the walls. But, Goddess, it was cold. Far too cold for a baby. And the child…

She wasn’t alone.

Kade smelled the rancid musk of the rogue before he saw it. When he rounded a corner in the path, he spotted the matted fur, the yellow eyes, the fangs dripping with hungry saliva and blood

In that moment, as he saw the rogue creep up to the wriggling form, Kade’s worst fears came true.

This child was the only thing that truly remained of Samantha, his one and true mate. His fated one. Regardless of what Samantha had done, nothing could change the bond they shared-and nothing, nothing, could make Kade hate that child.

He knew, in the split second that it took for the rogue to close the distance between itself and the baby, that he loved that little girl. He loved her more than he’d ever loved anything before. And the devil take him if he let anything happen to her.

Kade lost all conscious thought as he raced toward the rogue, skidding to a halt between the beast and the child. The rest was a blur. His animal instincts took over, and the next thing he knew, he was feeling the satisfying crunch of a trachea in his jaws as he clamped down on the rogue’s throat.

He didn’t let go until the rogue stopped squirming and finally went limp.

Kade returned to human form after that, gasping and covered in blood, and rushed over to the child. He dropped to his knees and brushed aside the leaves, finding her still alive, still squirming, still crying in that shrill voice. She was tucked into a patch of ivy coating the forest floor.

“I’m here,” Kade whispered, scooping her up into his arms. The blood on his skin stained her swaddle, but he didn’t care. She was alive. That was all that mattered.

He carried the baby back to the pack, where a group had gathered by the gates with torches. The firelight flickered across his blood-soaked skin, murmurs and gasps rippling through the crowd as they saw the baby in his arms.

Kade carried the baby past the gawking crowd. Past the chagrined Elder Betas. He didn’t look at any of them-only her. His daughter. His heir. He would never let go of this child, bad omen or not. He couldn’t.

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Chapter 48

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