Chapter 4

AUSTIN. 

I stared at the sleeping pup in the middle of my bed while thinking about all the actions I had taken in the last two weeks. 

Everything happened so fast after I got a message from the tracker Jace told me to use to locate Lexi. The tracker said he found her in Orleans.

I didn’t waste time and took the first flight to that city. 

She was already having a contraction when I arrived, and they had just finished giving her an epidural because she was having massive pain. 

Lexi didn’t have a wolf, and they said she was carrying a big baby, so I could only imagine the pain she was going through.

They let me in when I told them I was the father of her baby, but I was quickly ushered out again when Lexi started screaming at me. I never felt so little and humiliated all my life until she threw those words at me. But I swallowed all of it, including my pride.

I asked her if I could see her delivery, and I wouldn’t even make a noise. She flatly said no. She told me I wasn’t there for the last nine months when she bore all her pains alone, so I didn’t have any right to be there to celebrate her child’s birth. 

Her child. That was a dagger that struck directly into my heart. 

I no longer cared about how the people around us in her room saw me. Some looked at me with pity, but most with disgust. Of course, Lexi made sure everyone knew I bailed out on her and our pup. 

I was the bad guy. I swallowed that, too. I didn’t even defend myself because, in the state she was in, I knew she would never listen.

But I was also desperate. I needed to bring David home. 

While on the way to Orleans, I got excited and called my parents, who were outside of the country, and told them to come home as I had someone I wanted them to meet.

Mom and Dad thought I had found my mate. So in the end, I told them they would meet their first grandpup. 

Many questions came after that, especially from Mom, including if I had found my mate. 

Not that they would be upset if I had chosen one, because we all knew that even before my parents found out they were fated mates, they were already set on choosing each other.

I didn’t want to lie, but I didn’t want to tell the truth either, at least not over the phone. So I told them that it was only the pup that they would get to meet first. 

There was silence after that, but it didn’t take a while before Mom spoke and told me that no matter what situation I was in, she and Dad were excited to meet their grandpup and that they already loved him or her. 

I knew I had the best mom, but at that moment, I silently thanked Selene because I didn’t get the scolding that I was expecting. 

Instead, they shifted their attention to my pup, which was the most important factor in all this. They already loved him without any question. Something I wish I had done when Lexi told me about her pregnancy. 

But it was too late for any regrets, and with Lexi’s refusal to even let me see our son, I was left with no choice. My parents were set to arrive, and she was still flatly rejecting me. 

Lexi went into labor for almost a day and was sent to surgery immediately in the next hour after giving birth, as she had a big laceration. She had a hard time pushing David.

At that point, I was willing to beg and compromise until I saw someone visiting her, and I knew I never hated anyone as much as I hated the blond male who came in with flowers and balloons for her. 

I couldn’t accept that she treated him nicely and totally differently from how she was with me. And it terrified me. He was taking my place in Lexi’s life. Or worse, from David’s life. 

So I went to her room while she was still groggy from her medication and asked her to sign a waiver allowing me to take David home while she would remain in the hospital for another week or two so she could recuperate from her blood loss and make sure she would be back in shape before they let her go. 

I paid the hospital bill in full and left a deposit for other things she might need. But I felt guilty, and I wanted to make sure she would never pay a single dime for this, so I left my card open so they could charge it if the deposit was not enough.

It was my way of apologizing because that same day, I took David home with me without letting her know.

“Say that again, Austin?” Davina, my fifteen-year-old sister, asked after she helped me change David’s diaper. Her eyes widened as if she couldn’t believe what I just said.

Of course, I just admitted that I lured Lexi into signing the authority form to discharge David while she remained in the hospital.

I had been home for a week, and so had my parents. But they had no idea I stole my own pup and that Lexi was the female in question. The only ones who knew who David’s mother was were Jace, Amara, Tyler, and Davina. All of them wanted me to tell my parents already, but I kept putting it off. 

But today, I decided to tell Davina that I took David home without permission. I needed to tell someone to get it off my chest. 

“Lexi will kill you.” She added.

“I know, but at least before I die, I get to spend time with David.”

“You should tell Mom and Dad.”

“No, I won’t. Not yet. Let them enjoy David for now before Lexi comes here and takes him away.”

“I don’t know where you are learning all these things, Austin. Mom will be so upset with you. First, you got Lexi pregnant. Of all the females you run around with, you chose Lexi. And then you abandoned her. And then you steal her pup.”

“It’s my pup too!” My voice went slightly higher, and Davina’s eyes widened as she placed a finger on her lips to quiet me down because David got startled.

“What I’m just saying is, you keep making mistakes after mistakes instead of correcting the first one.”

“You will never understand.”

“Of course, you will say that! Everyone around me keeps saying I will never understand, and it’s annoying already. I might be just fifteen, but I know what you did was wrong. What will you do if she arrives here?”

“Put you in between us.” I chuckled as I picked up David from my bed and began rocking him. “She loves you. She can’t be angry at you.”

“Dream on, Austin, but I will never defend you. Instead, I might help Lexi smash a pan on your head. Now go up there and tell Mom who David’s mother is and how you got him here.” Davina said with raised brows and a finger pointing to the door.

“Nice try, kiddo. But my life, my rules.”

“Karma hits bad, Austin.” She shook her head before she ran her finger on the bridge of David’s nose. “Daddy is such a bad boy, isn’t he? I hope your mommy doesn’t throw a fit and a knife at him when she sees him. But don’t worry baby, I will hold you, and we can watch them together until they figure out what to do with their lives.” 

I chuckled, but I knew Davina was right. I was just waiting until my karma, with the name Lexi, would come and hit me. 

But I guess I didn’t need to wait long because not even a week after I took David home, she returned to the Black Shadow Pack territory. 

She came hurling like a tornado, ready to wreak havoc on everyone standing in her way.