Page 18 of Fated Alpha Baby

“Eight years, four months, and…” His voice tapers off into an audible gulp, and I notice the way his eyes soften as he turns his face to the side and coughs into a fist. “What are you doing here?”

I try not to linger on what I just heard—like he’d been counting the seconds since I was banished from the pack. “I live here. With my daughter.”

Conan nods slowly. “So, are you one of them? A witch?”

“That’s none—” I stop myself for Clarissa’s sake, tossing her a smile while discreetly taking a sniff of her scent.

No trace of wolf on her.

Good.

As I’m trying to find a more polite way of telling him off, Molly comes jogging forward and steals Clarissa into a big hug and spin.

“Little bug!” she whistles through the air, and Clarissa loses the tension and giggles freely. “Hey, Hannah! I see you’ve met the alpha I was telling you about.”

My eyes widen with horror.

He’s the scrumptious young alpha with a dark, brooding presence and “big dick energy?”

My jaw drops.

“I’m sorry,” she drawls as she casually ghosts her fingers across his exposed forearm, batting her eyelids at him and tilting her head to one side. “I didn’t get your name, Alpha.”

“Conan,” we both say at the same time, and I inhale sharply just as Milly frowns at me.

“Milly, would you mind taking Clarissa to the market and watching her for a while?”

Milly, still shocked and confused, nods hesitantly, mumbling incoherently under her breath.

“Mommy…are you okay?”

I reach out and cradle her cheek, then press a kiss to her forehead. “Yes, Bug. I’m fine. I just need to catch up with an old friend. I will tell you all about it when I find you later.” I glance at Milly and mouth a “thank you” to her before she sets Clarissa down and the two walk off toward the village’s main center.

I don’t turn to Conan until they’re far ahead, and Clarissa stops glancing over her shoulder every few steps.

“What are you doing here, Conan?”

“I was invited to Augusta, to the conference.”

Realization dawns, and I nod slowly. The fourth werewolf pack is Iron Breath.

Is that why Amalia spoke in riddles?

She knows…

“Cool. Well, I live here now.”

Conan doesn’t bat an eyelid. Instead, he nods thoughtfully. “That is pretty cool. And what about the girl?”

I frown, internally dreading this conversation but maintaining my composure, my defenses. “What about her?”

Conan gulps. “H-how—I mean, who’s the—”

“Her father?” I chuckle lightly to hide my nervousness as I cross my arms. “Well, you wouldn’t know him.”

Another white lie, but it’s only to protect myself and my daughter. It’s hardly untrue. The man I lost my virginity to and conceived a child with was not the same man who left me a letter the next morning and then sent his troops to banish me from the pack.

The man I was in love with, the man I created a child with, is not the man standing in front of me right now.