Chapter 5

Joanna's POV

I stood at the side, watching Alpha Caramel walk out of the house once more today. My heart was pounding in my chest, and for a moment, my throat was dry. For years, I have been scared of this day—the day in which he would come to take my little princess from me.

I did this, which I was well aware of, but it broke my heart. Lavender was not aware of any of this, and I did not know how she was going to react. For years, I have allowed her to live like a normal human. She has no clue about herself, and neither does Axel.

“What is the meaning of this, Joanna?” Axel’s voice made me turn to him.

He looked visibly upset and shaking with anger. Why not? A man he did not know came into his house with his daughter and told him something I had hidden from him since the moment it happened.

“That man…” he paused, his anger getting the better of him.

“Let's take Lavender upstairs to her room,” I told him, trying to dodge the question he wanted to ask.

I watched as Axel walked over to where Lavender was lying in an uncomfortable position on the couch and carried her, heading for her room. It warmed my heart, knowing how much Axel loved Lavender, even though he knew she was not his biological child.

He cherished and loved her like his own, and it was something I loved about him. Lavender’s father did not want her, but Axel made sure not to allow Lavender to feel the absence of her father or even question her relationship with him. He was that good of a father to Lavender.

He always protected Lavender since she was little. I had feared he would not love her since she was not his. After all, I was told of how humans could be when a child was not theirs. I had thought about it day and night, but when Lavender came into the world, what I had expected was completely different.

Axel would stay up with me. He would play with her, buy her toys, and would always compliment her. He would speak about her and tell me all the plans he had for her after college, but now those plans cannot be carried out.

“I will be calling the police,” I heard Axel say as he walked down the stairs, taking out his phone.

I rushed over to him, shaking my head with my eyes wide. “No, don’t,” I told him.

He looked at me in disbelief. “We need to protect our daughter from that man. Those plans of his cannot hold,” he said.

I shook my head. “But he will. He was serious.”

Axel smiled, waving his phone. “The police will stop him, I guarantee you.”

“Please don’t,” I held his hand before he could click on the call button.

“Why? Do you want to see her go to a man we do not know?”

Axel’s voice was laced with disbelief, and I did not blame him. Unfortunately, I was finding it hard to say the words. The words that could simply explain everything. “Please let’s sit,” I told him.

“I will protect Lavender,” he said instead, which I nodded to.

“I know, but there is something I need to tell you,” I told him.

He stared at me for a couple of minutes, his forehead filled with wrinkles. He was finding it hard to do what I asked of him. For a moment, he was hesitant to sit down. Eventually, he did, and I exhaled before taking a seat beside him.

For the longest time, I could only look at him, wondering where I should begin. It was a lot to tell all at once. “It better be a good reason for you to stop me from calling the police on that man,” he said.

“The police cannot stop him,” I broke the news.

“You doubt the power of the police. That man would not be able to stand them. Moreover, we are her parents, if we say we do not consent to him taking her away, then he cannot do it,” he boasted.

“He is not a man that can easily be shaken by mere police. He has allies that are bigger and more influential than the police. I am one hundred percent sure that if they see him, they will not be able to do anything,” I said.

“So you don’t want to fight for our daughter?” He questioned, his gaze already revealing disappointment.

“I will fight for her, but this is not the fight that we can do for her. Fighting him will only make things difficult for our daughter.”

He shook his head. “I cannot accept this. That man cannot take Lavender to who knows where.”

Axel was stubborn, which was good to have if it were something ordinary we were handling. Alpha Caramel was the alpha of a strong pack. Standing against him was standing against his entire pack. It would kill us even before we started.

“I consented to it,” I informed him, my eyes on the floor.

I heard him hum in confusion, his eyes on me. I lifted my gaze and took it to him. “Years ago, I promised to give Lavender to him if he helped me.”

Axel went quiet at the revelation. His eyes only remained on me without saying a word. For a brief moment, I could already tell what was going through his mind. He was questioning everything I was saying, but he could not say the words.

I breathed in to gather the strength to continue. “He helped me. If not for his help, I would not have been able to come here,” I explained further.

“Why did you not tell me all this while?” He found his voice. “Why wait until this moment to tell me about this?”

“I’m sorry for doing that. I thought he was never going to come. I wished he didn’t.”

“Then let’s stop him,” he placed a hand on my lap, trying to convince me, but I shook my head.

“We can’t,” I informed him, and he took his hand back.

“He is a good man,” I added.

“If he was, he would not be trying to take away our child forcefully. And what help did he render that you had to use Lavender as a tool to get it?”

“I needed to leave the country for this, and he helped me do it,” was the simple answer I gave.

He turned quiet, and just by looking at him, I knew he was deep in thought. “The law can protect her,” he muttered to himself.

“He is too influential. It would not be hard to get out of it quickly. He might choose to come after us if we do that. Either way, it was best we hand over Lavender to him peacefully instead of him taking her without us knowing. She will be safe, I promise.”

“Have you told her?”

I sighed. “I will. I just need time to do that.”

Axel went back to being silent, with his eyes on me. I could see he really wanted to help. He wanted to stop his daughter from being sold out to a man who just popped out of nowhere. “I want to protect my family,” he said with a nod, looking away from me.

“But you don’t want me to. You want her to go just like that, and there is only little I can do,” he stood up, despair in his eyes.

“You aren’t making things easier for me. The law can protect her. She is young and should not be married off so quickly. Are you sure you want to do this?” He threw a question at me, to which I quickly gave an affirmative answer.

He sighed. “Since you have chosen not to fight for what is right, I’ll let it be,” he said before turning around and leaving the room.

I opened my mouth to call him back, but I had to stop myself from doing so. Calling him back only meant I would have to tell him who Lavender truly was. She was not a normal child, so she cannot live the life of a normal teenage human who would have the free will of getting married to who they wanted.

The moon goddess has paired them up through this means, and we cannot fight it. I wish there was another way to tell him this. This white lie is the only thing I had, and it was best as of now. This was the only way to protect all of us.

If Lavender did not go with him, we would not survive the defiance. No one dares to go against the alpha. I sighed; now the issue lies in whether Lavender will agree to go with him peacefully.