Chapter 64 Chapter 0064
•MASON•
When I left the hospital before midnight, I went to a guesthouse and booked a room for a few days.
It belonged to a pack I had a standing arrangement with, far enough from Silvercrest that no one would ask questions, but close enough that I could reach Alena within minutes if something changed.
I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the floor for a long time after arriving. I couldn't believe she was mine.
It frustrated me that it took me so long to know about her.
I knew there was something about the scent of the pup I started smelling a few weeks ago, but I never paid attention to it.
All this time, it was my little girl.
My phone buzzed on the nightstand. I already knew it was Noah before I picked it up.
"Alpha," he said after answering. "I've been trying to reach you for hours."
"I know," I replied.
"Where are you?"
"Handling something personal," I answered. "What is it?"
He cleared his throat. "The elders want to speak with Liam and Jane in the morning. They aren't satisfied with how things were left, and they believe the investigation into the poisoning should continue regardless of your decision to drop the matter."
I rubbed the back of my neck and exhaled. "Handle it, Noah."
"Alpha, the elders won't be easy to manage without your presence. They will push back if I try to—"
"Then push back harder," I replied. "You are my Beta. Act like it. No one touches Liam or Jane. Make that clear."
"And if they insist on a formal hearing?"
"Tell them the Alpha has spoken and the matter is closed," I answered. "I will deal with the politics when I return. Right now, I need you to hold things together without me having to walk you through every step."
He went quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was tighter. "Understood, Alpha."
I ended the call and set the phone down.
I had barely settled back against the headboard when the phone buzzed again.
Nadia.
I stared at her name on the screen for a moment before answering.
"Mason." Her voice was calm.
"Nadia," I replied.
"I've been thinking," she began. "About us. About everything that has been said between us lately." She paused. "Perhaps we should consider a divorce. We aren't getting along, and I don't think forcing this is doing either of us any good."
I closed my eyes and sighed. "I will be home soon. Please give me three days."
"That isn't an answer."
"That is the only answer I have right now," I replied. "When I get back, we will talk properly. Not like this."
"Fine," she scoffed before the line went dead.
I set the phone face down on the nightstand and stared at the ceiling.
My life had fractured into too many pieces over too short a time, and every piece demanded my attention at once. Rowan. Nadia. The pack. The poisoning. The elders.
And now Alena.
A daughter I hadn't known existed until Ranger had felt her heartbeat and told me something was wrong with her.
I had believed it was instinct at first. A feeling with no name. But the moment Cassandra reached through the mate bond and told me our daughter was dying, everything changed.
I sat up and reached for my phone again.
My lawyer answered on the second ring.
"I need a custody report drafted," I said. "For a child. My child. I will send you the details in the morning."
He didn't ask unnecessary questions. That was why I paid him well.
"I'll have a preliminary draft ready by tomorrow evening," he replied.
"Good."
I ended the call and finally slept.
By late afternoon I was back at the hospital.
The nurses at the front desk recognized me from earlier and didn't stop me this time when I walked toward the pediatric wing.
When I pushed open the door to her ward room, I stopped.
Cassandra was sitting beside Alena's bed, braiding a small section of the girl's hair while Alena was telling her something.
For a moment, neither of them noticed me.
I stood in the doorway and watched.
Cassandra laughed softly at something Alena said, and the sound of it was so unguarded and warm that it caught me off guard.
I didn't realize how much I had missed the sound of her laugh until that moment.
Then Alena's eyes found me over Cassandra's shoulder.
"He's here again," Alena said.
Cassandra turned and looked at me.
The warmth disappeared from her face the moment our eyes met. She set down the section of hair she had been braiding and stood up.
"I will be back in a moment, baby," she said to Alena before she walked toward me and pulled me to the corridor. She closed the door and turned to me.
"Whatever you're planning," she sneered. "It won't work. Alena has been registered under my name alone, and Dante has been her primary guardian since the day she was born. You showing up now changes nothing."
"I wasn't absent by choice," I replied. "I didn't know she existed."
"Because I made sure of that," she answered. "Your pack accused me of treason while I was carrying her. They chanted for my banishment while she was still growing inside me. What exactly did you expect me to do, Mason? Send you a letter?"
"I expected you to tell me I had a daughter," I said.
"And I expected you to protect me," she replied without missing a beat. "We both expected things that never happened."
"You should've given me a chance to know about her, instead of depriving her of a father."
"Dante raised her," she continued, her voice dropping lower. "He was there the night she was born. You don't get to arrive now and claim something you were never present to build."
"I'm not trying to erase what Dante did," I answered. "But I am her father. And I will be in her life whether you agree with that or not."
"You have a wife," she scoffed. "You have Rowan and a pack and a Luna who made my life a misery. You want to bring Alena into that world? The same world that threw me out while I was pregnant?"
"I will protect her," I replied. "I will make sure no one touches her."
She laughed. "You said something like that to me once as well."
"I am her father, Cassandra."
"Dante is her father," she snarled. "He should be the one deciding if you should be here."
"And I am her biological father," I replied. "Both things can exist at once. But that doesn't change what I am going to do."
She looked back at me. "What do you mean?"
I held her gaze and answered without hesitation. "I'll see you in court.”