All Chapters of The Alpha's Mate: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

I take Stella out of the car, strapping her to my chest so I can keep her close. Nash puts the clay jars of ashes into a backpack and puts it on, then takes my hand. “Where is this ancestral cave, anyway?” Nash asks me. “This way.” I’ll never forget the place we laid Caleb, my first mate, to rest. I lead Nash down a path through the pine forest, our footsteps muffled by the thick layer of pine needles blanketing the trail. Stella waves her little arms and babbles softly, clearly picking up on the fact that we’re about to complete our mission, or maybe connecting with the energy of the ancestral cave.My heart feels heavy as we walk. The last time I took this path, we were saying goodbye to Caleb, and I was on the razor’s edge of being banished or killed. It’s daylight now, so the trail looks different, but there’s something deeply and heartbreakingly familiar about it all.“Up there,” I say, pointing to a clearing in the trees. Nash follows me, and we arrive at the ancest

We’re standing in the ancestral cave of my former pack, having just come to return the remains of their abandoned dead, and now we’re faced with an oddly familiar girl who just appeared in the cave and was, until a few minutes ago, glowing. She also seems to know Stella, which is completely impossible given that Stella is only six months old and has never been to Arizona before. “I’m sorry,” Nash says, “but could you please tell us what’s going on? What do you have to do with our baby?”I’m not prepared for what the girl says next - it answers one question but raises a thousand more. “My name,” she says, “is Alaya.”The name is similar enough that it hits me like a freight train - I know exactly why she seems so familiar. She looks exactly like Layla, the older woman from the San Diego pack, only much younger. “Who are you?” I ask, my curiosity overtaking me. “I’m a Star Twin,” Alaya says. “I don’t know what that is,” Nash tells her. “Let’s get out of

“Sister!”I can hear the pure joy in Layla’s voice as she greets her long lost Star Twin. Ayala runs into her arms and they embrace. Seeing them together like this, it is so clear that they are two halves of a whole. “It’s been so, so long,” Layla says, holding Ayala’s face in her hands so that she can look at her. Layla’s face is wrinkled, and her hair is gray, while Ayala looks like she’s my age. Still, it’s obvious that they are twins. The sparkle in their eyes is the same, the way their laughs sound like wind chimes, and the way they brush stray strands of their long hair behind their ears. “Welcome home,” Layla says, taking Ayala by the hand and guiding her to the sofa. They sit together and immediately start chattering away. Clearly, they have a lot to catch up on. Nash and I can hardly follow most of their conversation - they talk so quickly, and almost in their own language. Not to mention the fact that we don’t know what they’re talking about, since the people and p

Arnold and Nash disappear somewhere, probably to try and tidy up the library, while Layla takes me and Ayala downstairs.Layla putters around for a while, getting the spa set up. The hot water bubbles away, and the fragrant aroma of various herbs wafts through the air. Finally, we slip off our robes, which are embroidered with wolf imagery along the sashes and collars and are a recognizable staple of Layla’s spa, and slip into the water.“So, young Luna,” Layla says, her body relaxing while her eyes remain alert and keenly fixed on me. “What do you have to tell us?”“I wasn’t able to shift, even after I turned eighteen,” I tell them. “I thought maybe going outside in the moonlight would help, but it didn’t. My whole pack tried to banish me, calling me useless and saying that I might as well just live my life as a human. I thought that my desperation in that moment might trigger a shift, but even though my survival depended on it, nothing happened.”Ayala and Layla are noddi

“Let’s go, Nash,” I say, taking him by the arm. The San Diego shifters seem to all get the message and collectively form a protective group around me, Nash, and Ayala. We hurry back into the pack house, leaving a few guards outside to stand watch.Isaac adn Regan remain on the beach, unable or unwilling to fight us, but also unable or unwilling to leave.As soon as the patio door slides closed behind the last member of our pack, and we’re all safely inside, the entire pack erupts into questions.“What could possibly be going on?”“Why are they back?”“Is Juliana okay?”“Do you think there could be more of them coming?”“Quiet, please!” Nash puts up both his hands, silencing the crowd. My heart swells with pride in my mate - he’s a good leader, and a good Alpha, even when things are especially confusing or difficult. “The issue we have is that there are two shifters here who seem determined to kidnap Ayala, but we don’t know why, or what they intend to do with her w