Chapter One

“I love you.”

Alistair Kruger lightly placed a kiss on Sofia Casey’s forehead. He looked at his mate one more time and sighed.

“Alistair,” Sofia looked up to him on hearing him sigh. “Are you okay?”

“I am,” his grip around her waist tightened. “With you. As long as I’m with you I’ll be okay.”

She knew better. “You’re scared, aren’t you?”

Alistair looked away knowing his eyes were going to tell the truth if he stared at her any longer. She knew what was going on his mind no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

“What did your father say about this? About us?”

“He-” Alistair paused for a while contemplating on telling her the truth or not.

Alistair was the first son of Alpha Kruger, the leader and head of the Kruger pack. The Kruger pack were not only the strongest but the boldest and toughest. Alongside all the characteristics that made them the top, they were the sworn enemies with the Casey pack.

Naturally, Alistair was to find his mate, get married and then take over from his dad. However, things didn’t seem to want to go as planned. He found his mate but she only turned out to be the daughter of the Alpha of the Casey pack.

The two packs grudges came a long way and it seemed like neither of the the two Alphas had any intention of making things better. Not even when they found out that their wolves were fated and had mated.

“Alistair-” Sofia’s voice interrupted Alistair’s thoughts. “What did the alpha say?”

Alistair looked at her with sympathetic eyes. How could he tell her? No matter how hard he tried, the alpha was not in support of their union.

That was naturally of the characteristics of the wolves from the Kruger pack. Their ego and pride was second to none.

Alistair groaned as he recalled his conversation with his father. Alpha Kruger cared about his son but he cared about his pride more. He couldn’t have his son let go of his mate but at the same time he couldn’t allow his son be with a wolf from the Casey pack.

“But she is my mate!” Alistair said in the loudest voice he had ever used when speaking to the Alpha. “I love her and you can’t expect me to let her go just because you have a grudge against her father!”

“I don’t have a grudge against her father,” Alpha Kruger growled. “The whole Kruger pack has a grudge against the whole Casey pack. And by the whole Kruger pack, it includes you.”

“No,” Alistair growled in return. “I don’t. I don’t have a grudge against them. I love- I love Sofia.”

“Nonsense,” Alpha Kruger spat. “Suddenly? Is that how it had always been? Growing up you know we have always been enemies with the Casey pack and-”

“Why?!” Alistair’s voice only grew louder with every word. He knew his father was right. He was groomed to hate every member of the Casey pack. He hated them and not even for a split second had he had a reason to question his hatred. But suddenly, it made no sense to him. He could no longer understand why he had hated them so much when they didn’t do anything to him. “Why do we hate them? Why do we have to hate them?”

The Alpha shook his head. “I don’t have to explain anything to you. Your mind is obviously already made up. Nothing I say would seem to make sense to you.”

Alistair knew his father was right. His mind was made up. As long as Sofia was involved, nothing against her could make sense to him.

“You have to explain it to me,” he however wasn’t ready to give up. “I need to know.”

“What?” his dad turned to ask him.

“I’ll be becoming Alpha very soon,” Alistair continued, watching the Alpha’s expression change. “So I have to know everything about the pack.”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself, Alistair,” the Alpha shook his head.

“What?” It was Alistair’s turn to have a change in expression. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean,” the alpha replied him. “Do not get too ahead of yourself.”

“I heard you the first time!” Alistair yelled with almost shaky voice. “I asked what you meant by that?!”

“I meant exactly what you’re thinking!” the Alpha’s voice was just as loud. “You might not become Alpha if this foolishness continues. You are not my only son, just in case you have forgotten.”

Alistair exhaled, suddenly feeling weak in his knees. He never expected that from his dad.

“But-” Alistair was short of words. Though only older than his twin brother with few minutes, he was still the older son. He was the one to become Alpha. He had been told that all his life. He grew up knowing he was going to be taking over from his father once he was of age.

“Do you have something to say?”

He looked up at the Alpha. He had a very familiar look on his face. It was the look he had whenever he passed rulings or judgements. It was a look that said he was not going back on his words. It was a look Alistair looked up to and one day wished to emulate.

Never had he imagined the day he’d wish that look didn’t exist would come.

“Do you want me to reject my mate?” Alistair asked in a whisper with the most pitiful tone.

“Do you think you can handle the pain?” his father replied him, looking at him directly in the eye.

Alistair didn’t need to reply him. His eyes were always truthful enough.

“I won’t be the one asking you to reject her,” the Alpha finally looked away. “But I just hope you know you can never become the Alpha with a member of the Casey pack as your Luna. Never.”

“I-”

“Even if I decide to turn a blind eye, which of course is never happening,” Alpha Kruger continued. “Do you think you’ll be able to rule this pack with her by your side? Do you think the other members of the pack would just sit back and watch? With that shameless behaviour of yours?”

“What do you want me to do then?” Alistair wailed.

“That’s totally up to you,” Alpha Kruger showed no mercy to his broken son. “If you think you’ll be able to live a comfortable life with her by your side, go ahead then. Just know I won’t be by your side. Not just me though. Every member of this family and pack.”

“Alistair!”

Alistair realized how deep and lost he had been in thoughts when he saw Sofia on her feet screaming his name.

“I’m sorry,” he ran his hands through his dark hair. “I’m sorry, I got carried away for a while. Sorry.”

“I know, I noticed,” she sat next to him on the bare floor. Watching her sit, he got up and wrapped his hand around her fingers. They were both far from their packs and were staying in the little shade they built themselves to serve as a temporary hideout. It was hard to meet up and spend time together publicly thus they had their little home. “What’s on your mind? Tell me, will you?”

“It’s nothing much,” he said, knowing he couldn’t hide it from her for long. “Actually- Wait, you said you had something to tell me didn’t you?”

“Oh, about that,” Sofia said, slowly unwrapping her fingers from his hand. “About that. How can I tell you when you’re like this though?”

“I’m fine I promise,” he took her hands into his again and gave her a reassuring smile. “So tell me, what is it?”

She locked eyes with him then exhaled.

“Actually-” she slowly unwrapped her fingers again. “The thing is- Alistair, i-”

She paused again to exhale. Noticing, he pat her shoulders and smiled at her.

“It’s okay,” he whispered to her. “Just tell me. I’ll love you anyways.”

She nodded and exhaled one more time. “Alistair, I’m pregnant.”

Alistair stared at his mate absolutely short of words. He watched her look away, her brown hair falling to her face as she did. She hung her head low and wrapped her left arm around her stomach.

He couldn’t. He couldn’t do it. Whatever his dad was hoping for was never going to happen.

“Oh, Sofia,” he moved closer to hug her. “I love you so much.”

Sofia was silent and didn’t move an inch. Feeling a tear drop fall on his shoulder, Alistair moved closer to hug her even tighter.

She finally hugged him back then continued. “My parents found out and sent me out.”

Alistair pulled away and looked at her in the eye. Her eyes were already swollen and he couldn’t help but imagine how long she had been silently crying.

“It’s okay baby,” he said to her caressing her cheeks. “I love you.”

“I know,” more tears rolled down her cheeks as she spoke. “And I love you too but what are we going to do? My parents are not going to accept us and you don’t have to lie, I know it’s the same with your pack.”

“It doesn’t matter-"

“It does though,” she interrupted him. “What are we going to do? How are we going to live? And now, a child-”

“You trust me, don’t you?” he asked before she could continue. She nodded in response and he took that as a cue to continue. “Then have faith in me. I don’t know how but i will find a way. You and our baby are all that matters to me now and I’ll do everything I can to protect us, so please don’t worry and have a little faith in me.”

He leaned forward to hug her as she quickly did the same. The longer the hug lasted, the more scared Alistair became. He knew he had to do something but he couldn’t think of anything. He was ready to give up being Alpha but that wasn’t going to be enough. There was no way they were going to be accepted. Their packs had rejected them so there was no hope. He hated to admit but to make things worse, they had a child on the way.

“Alistair,” Sofia pulled away to look at him. “I…I have an idea.”

“You do?”

She nodded in response and from the look on Alistair’s face she knew he was eager to hear it. “Let’s flee, Alistair.”

“What?”

“To a place far from here. To a place very far. So far no one would know about us. You are all that matters to me and I have you with me now so I’m going to be fine. Let’s run away, Alistair. Let’s go far and then finally start a new life. Away from them. Away from all of these. Away from these packs conflicts and everything. Just me, you and our son.”

Alistair looked at the desperation in Sofia’s eyes. He knew how badly she wanted to be away from everything that troubled her. How bad she had always wanted to live normally with him.

Like she said, all that mattered to them was around so he couldn’t help but reason with her.

He caressed her face. “Where would we go though?”

“Let’s,” she paused to look at his face. “Let’s go live among normal humans.”

“What?”

“Aren’t you tired of all these? Don’t you just want relief? To be away from everything?” she continued. “Living among humans would be perfect. No one would know our true identities and we’d be able to live just normally. We’ll be able to be together. We’ll be able to see each other when we want to. We won’t have to worry about our packs. Our conflicts or arguments or grudges. We’ll live normal lives. We’ll just be happy. And our son? He’d grow up happily having the most loving parents. We’ll be able to take care of him and give him all the love in this world cause we’ll also be happy. It’ll be just perfect. Don’t you want that?"

It seemed more like an illusion that anything that could come close to reality. But she was offering it to him and he couldn’t deny how his heart leaped in joy on him imagining them happening.

He looked at her staring at him with so much hope in her eyes. It could happen. That illusion could become a reality for him.

“Alistair?” her voice was low. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

In response, he smiled widely at her and said, “Okay, my love. Let’s do this. Let’s be happy.”

“It’s a boy.”

Alistair and Sophia stared at their son that looked extremely tiny in their hands. He had fair skin, dark hair and the signature dark brown eyes every member of the Kruger family had.

With eyes closed, he stirred in his sleep and unconsciously held on to his father’s fingers.

“He looks just like you,” Sofia commented, not taking her eyes off her baby as her fingers slowly caressed him.

Alistair nodded in response. She was right. He looked just like the baby pictures of him in his father’s room back home. Even more, he looked like an extremely younger version of the Alpha.

But none of that mattered anymore. He had a new home, life and a new family.

“Ryan,” Alistair held his son and then his wife. “Ryan Kruger.”