The Rejected Daughter Of An Alpha novel Chapter 32

"It was almost 40 years ago. If it is not your fault, please child, don't apologize. Your breath is wasted in an apology that isn't yours to make. How can you help me?"

"If you would like to follow us to the main office, we can discuss more there. Let us get the others to the infirmary and call off the guard dogs."

"Boys. You can go. Let the woman go." The boys do as he says and he looks at me for permission to enter the territory and when granted, he walks next to us and has us lead the way.

We get to the infirmary and the warriors take the lady and her pups in, whilst my mate, my beta, and I take Orni to my office. When we get there I walk over to my chair and sit down and Cassie sits on the edge of my knee. James, my beta, stands in the corner, ready to attack should he have to.

"What do you know of my grandchild." He commands more than asks. His voice holds no power and I believe that there is no malice. Just desperation.

"I know someone with a very similar story. A lady I'm very close to was recently told that her mother was betrothed to a man she knew as her father, but found her mate. Her mother's father was a cruel man and killed her mate when he found out she was sneaking out to see him. After that her and her betrothed were married quickly after. She never revealed to her father that she was pregnant until after the marriage so her father just thought it was her husbands. She had my friend and one other child, a son, and when my friend was 8, she kicked her out. It was only recently that my friend's mother divorced her husband and left. The women had verbally abused my friend because she looked like her mate. It was a harsh reminder for her."

He is silent for a moment and then responds with a slight strain on his voice.

"Could I meet your friend? I'll know if she is my sons daughter. It is worth the shot."

"I'll call her down here." My mate says with a sympathetic look on her face.

While she mind links her mother, I ask some questions that have been slightly bothering me.

"Why did you wait so long? Why wait almost 40 years to look for your grandchild?"

"I wanted to look sooner, but I'm a rouge. I had a small pack to look after and I was, honestly, too grief stricken. I almost failed to lead my 'pack'. I was in no place to look for my grandchild. I wasn't mentally stable enough to do anything. I had already lost my mate and then the only peace of her I had left died and I was broken."

"Then for your sake, I hope this is your grandchild. I can't imagine losing Cassie."

"It's a fate worse than death."

"Cassie, what's going on? We've talked about this, you can't do the vague mind links." Ari says as she walks into the office without knocking. I imagine that was part of the 'vague' instructions that my beautiful mate left for her. Onri stands up and turns to look at her and I can tell by the slight shaking that his eyes are watering. "Cassie... who's this?"

"This is Onri Yemin."

"Cassie, would you text your father and ask him to meet me here. I need my mate with me."

"Your mate? Cassie is your step-daughter?"

"No, she's my daughter. I gave birth to her. What would make you think she wasn't?"

"She only ever called you 'my friend'. I'm sure that you can understand what I'm talking about."

"Yes, I can. It's Cassie's way of taking precaution, so I apologize for her."

"I would want to protect you too. And I'm sorry I couldn't before now."

They continue conversing and after a couple of minutes, Cole walks in and kisses his mate on the head. They fill him in on the events of the morning, including Cassie and I being mates, to which he looks surprised. He realizes that he would be stupid to oppose and just threatens me before going back to his mate, but it's good so see him making an effort into being a father.

We schedule for the blood test to be done and everyone leaves except for Cassie who just sits on my desk. I've only just realized that she's still just in my shirt, so I mind link someone to bring her some proper clothes.