The Alpha's Abandonment

Clear drops of water streamed down the window in lines of parallel anticonformity. Victor stared beyond them at the grey skyline as black pavement rushed beneath the wheels of the public bus he was riding.

The school kid beside him coughed, holding a hand to his mouth for such a brief moment that the effort to catch germs was futile. A young baby whimpered in his mother's arms two seats ahead, while another young pup bounced on the seat beside her and shrieked excitedly at cars passing them outside the window.

Sighing heavily, Victor rested his head back and closed his eyes. If only it wasn't raining, so he could run to work and not worry about getting his only suit drenched. If only his car hadn't needed fixing today. If only he hadn't been rear-ended by a distracted teenager on a provisional licence. If only...

He shut down the negative thoughts and tried focusing on the day head. Auditors were coming to inspect his factory, and if he didn't get all his paperwork in order, they might find something against him. He'd been so careful, deliberately meeting every regulation the council had in place for small businesses. His employees weren't so conscientious, often urging him to put profit above principle.

But Victor had too much to lose now if he was caught for tax evasion, illegal trading, or worse. In only a few months, he'd be a father, and he wanted a good and honest future for his child.

The bus rounded a bend and his stop came into view. Pressing the stop button, he rose and shouldered his way to the door. It didn't take long to walk the last couple blocks to his factory, but his impatience was building at how late the bus had been. Pedestrians streamed around him, giving wide berth to his dark scowl and determined strides.

The bittersweet scent of roasted coffee was familiar since cafes abounded on the city streets, but the hint of hazelnut that gilded this particular scent had him stopping in his tracks.

A face caught his eye, the skin pale and lips drawn in a straight line of resolve.

His heart quickened and steps resumed hurriedly. "Safiya?" He reached her just before she disappeared into a building entrance.

The startled look in her eyes stabbed him in the gut. "Victor? What are you doing here?"

"I'm on my way to work. My car's at the mechanic and I had to take the bus because it was raining and I couldn't afford to... You know what? Never mind about me." He abruptly stopped his rambling, caught his breath that had been stolen by the sight of his mate, and focused entirely upon her. "What about you? Weren't you going back to your province?"

She'd visited him in his city, tearfully telling him about her recent discovery of pregnancy, and they'd come up with a plan of how to proceed. As Queen of Vinlarhk and soon-to-be bride of Lord Khaan, she had admitted complete uncertainty of her future. Everything had been so clear before, once she'd broken things off with Victor and agreed to her parents' arrangement of marrying the lord. Her province was her future; her people her priority-- until the pregnancy muddied everything.

"I just...I just needed to have a check-up... to check my health, you know, before I flew back."

She nervously tucked her strands of her long, dark hair behind her ear, and Victor noticed the diamonds that dangled from her lobe. They were another reminder of how socially distant she was from him, how impossible any notion of them being together was.

He also noticed the way her breathing hitched, her heart raced, and her eyes dropped to the pavement between them. Looking at the fertility clinic beside them, at the frosted glass that kept patients private and procedures secret, his heart raced. "Why don't we go for a short walk together?" He motioned ahead of them down the street

"But my appointment--"

"Can wait. Come, let me buy you a coffee." Taking her trembling hand gently, he led her away from the clinic and to his favourite cafe on the corner near his factory. The auditors could carry on without him; the life of his future was far more important.

"You know I said I'd keep the baby," he reminded her firmly once they were seated with their drinks. The warmth of his coffee did little to ease the chill that had settled in his chest. The clinic Safiya almost walked into not only helped couples fall pregnant, but terminated thousands of pregnancies without any questions asked. Judging by the skittish movements of his mate and the nervous twitches of her eyes as they roamed around, it didn't take him much to guess her true intentions.

She immediately shook her head. "I've thought about it, and this is best for everyone. What we did should never have happened. This way, it can go back to the way things were before...before we met." She swallowed hard and stared into her drink. Her usual Alpha confidence was gone, replaced with a look of anxiety that carved a hole in his heart. "You saved my life, and I owe you. If you took the baby, I'd only owe you more and I couldn't let you--"

"You owe me nothing," he interrupted, desperately wanting her to see that he'd do anything for her, his true mate. Even though she'd rejected him, he still felt the bond urging him to love and care for her. "I only want what's best for you and our child. No one needs to know your mate is a rogue, if you'll only let me arrange everything."

"You don't understand. I can't be pregnant like this!" She pinned him with desperate eyes, the hazel flecks in them darkened with despair. "My maids already know, and my guards will find out soon. It won't be long before my parents know and then...then the future of our entire kingdom will be jeopardised. The betrothal between myself and Lord Khaan will be broken, his family will want more power in the court, and when their cousin, General Aston, decides we are no longer worth serving, he will use his military influence to overthrow the palace and--"

"It's okay. Just calm down," Victor interrupted, taking her shaking hand in his and speaking calmly. "It can't really be that bad."

"You clearly don't understand politics," she retorted, sniffing quietly. "Just another reason why we could never work out. You do understand, don't you?" she asked, looking up at him with a stiffness in her expression, yet also a depth and authority he could never fathom.

He nodded sadly. "I have no objection to you doing what needs to be done for your people. However, you don't have to sacrifice your child--"

"It's just a bunch of cells! I can do what I want to fix the problem."

His grip on her hand tightened, and he had to take deep breaths before he could respond calmly. He could never view the baby as just a problem. His presence in their lives right now was problematic, sure; but the child himself was not to blame, and shouldn't suffer from the difficult circumstances his parents had stupidly created. "I won't pretend to understand everything you're dealing with, but I can promise you that I will look after our baby."

Safiya scoffed, "So you can raise a prince, and come back years later to claim his throne? Or you'll demand riches to keep quiet. You'll blackmail me or form alliances with our enemies--"

"Safiya," he growled lowly. "How can you say that about me? Those things never once crossed my mind, I swear on my grandmother's grave. All I want is to care for my child and release you to live for your kingdom. I ask for nothing else."

Her lips opened and closed as she thought of what to say. She hesitated a few minutes longer, and he could see the sweep of emotions cross her face. Then she crumpled and he held her hands tightly.

"How...?" the question was torn from her lips in a strangled whimper, nearly drowned by the excited chatter that surrounded them in the busy cafe.

"I will rebook your flight. You can stay with my mother Lilac in Western Isles until the birth. No one will recognise you there."

"But my province..."

"I've written an email. You can send it to your Beta, telling him you were called away on urgent business and he should run your pack normally while you are away."

"My betrothed?"

Victor's jaw tightened at the mention of the lord, of the powerful man who was everything he was not and could never dream to be. The man who would claim the woman made for Victor. "You like him, don't you?"

Safiya shook her head slowly, then nodded as she thought about it. "I...I believe I could...one day.."

"And he loves you?"

Her eyes dropped, and tears filled the waterline. "Y-yes. I've seen the way he smiles at me, and how he holds me. He's too precious for me but I know he cares regardless. The bond on his part is very forgiving."

"Then a few months apart out of a lifetime of love and being together will only strengthen the bond."

She gave him a watery smile. "You've thought of everything haven't you?"

He nodded. "This is my child I am wagering for, so yes, I believe I have."

Safiya took a deep breath and twisted a serviette between her fingers. Finally, she met his intense gaze. "Alright. But as soon as it's out, I don't want anything more to do with it."

"That's fine. I will care for the child. He will be fine with me."

Safiya boarded the flight to his mother's, and Victor returned to work. His normal routine was heavily disrupted by constant thoughts of his mate and their child. Was she alright? Were they both healthy? He trusted his mother to care for them, but the Queen of Vinlarhk was unpredictable. She was in a dicey situation, and he couldn't anticipate just how unsettled she'd be feeling so far from home with none of her familiar support and surroundings.

He ached to be by her side, to hold her throughout the miracle of their child's development, but he stayed away for her sake. She wasn't his, she'd made that abundantly clear. Her rejection still stung his heart and tortured him at night, the softly spoken words of turning him down and refusing to mark him after they'd spent so beautiful a time together.

Though she was a Queen with the weight of responsibility on her shoulders, could she not understand the importance of being with her destined mate? This question would haunt Victor, until the rational side of his mind reasoned otherwise. It was because of this responsibility to her people that she had to ignore the bond with a common rogue, and instead form an alliance with a powerful and elevated man of similar rank.

Victor consoled himself with thoughts of the future, of how to raise his child the best way he could, and give him all the opportunities an honest life had to offer.

The peace didn't last long.

His world came to a standstill when he received an urgent call from his mother. Safiya had gone into early labour a couple months before her due date, and since Victor had promised he'd be there for the birth, he boarded the next flight to meet her in the hospital. His heart thudded heavily from the urgency in his mother's voice, for she had told him only recently that Safiya had been fine, her pregnancy healthy. So what had gone wrong?

"Where is she? Where's Safiya?" he demanded at the nurses' desk in the maternity ward.

"I'm sorry, we don't give out information to strangers--"

"She's my mate, for hell's sake!" Victor slapped his hands on the bench, glaring down at the adamant shewolves who refused to cooperate.

"What's the commotion?" a security guard asked from behind, and Victor whirled around, grabbed the man by the collar, and slammed him against the wall.

"Where is my mate?"

"Victor..."

He turned at the sound of her weak voice, and could only stare as a thin and pale Safiya was pushed towards him in a wheelchair, her tiny frame hidden by a billowing theatre gown.

"What happened? Are you okay?" He rushed towards her, but pulled up a few feet away. Her skittish eyes prevented him from coming any closer.

"I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me anymore. I'm okay," she told him, rising from the chair to align herself with his agitated gaze.

He scanned her from top to toe, a horrible feeling arising in his stomach at the sight of her flat belly. "Where's our baby?"

"It's fine. I took care of it so you don't have to--"

"What did you do?!" he roared, causing the security guard to grab him by the arms and drag him back from the frightened woman. Victor shook him off, ready to throw a skull-cracking punch, but restrained from putting the guard in a coma.

A young doctor steadied Safiya, but she refused to be put back in the chair. So instead, he gave Victor a stern look, "Sir, I cannot allow you to stress her like this. She's only just recovered from an overdose of silver--"

"Silver?" The awful word struck him like a dart of the deadly poison.

"We managed to filter her blood before any real damage was done to her central nervous system--"

"You tried to kill our baby?" Victor waved the doctor aside and focused on Safiya. A mixture of rage and anguish consumed him. "Tell me you didn't!"

"Hey, it's my body! I can do what I want," she yelled, tears beginning to run down her face as she stood up to him. Her royal maid and guards from Vinlarhk appeared by her side, shielding her from the enraged rogue.

"Your body?" Victor echoed, his heart ripping open with despair. "But it was my baby..."

The doctor stepped closer, demanding seriously, "Sir, you have to calm down and leave--"

"Not until I see...what's left of...my baby." He choked on the horrible words, grief consuming him in a way he never expected.

"Victor?" His mother's voice reached him above the demands of the guards and the pleas of the doctor. "Vic, your son is alive. I have him here."

Relief nearly made him fall to his knees. He saw in Lilac's arms a bundle wrapped in her soft cardigan, and felt his heart try and burst free from his chest. The baby's tiny face was pale and tinged with blue, but he was safe in her arms.

"He has the blood of kings in his veins. Should have known he'd survive," Safiya said wearily, a hint of resentment in her voice.

Victor glanced sharply at her. "I promised to care for him. How dare you try and take that away from me. How could you?"

Her lip quivered, her eyes glossed over. "I couldn't bear to be pregnant a moment longer. You'd never understand."

"I had it all arranged for you--" His voice broke, and though he wanted to yell and demand she be reasonable, he couldn't; not in the face of her undeniable pain at what she was going through.

"She's the gestational parent," the doctor explained quickly, sounding tired of Victor's aggression as if his emotions were irrational. "She had the right to terminate the pregnancy whenever she wanted to."

"But she gave birth anyway, and my baby was alive. Why didn't you do anything to help him?" Victor felt renewed anger simmering in his gut. The hospital couldn't even spare a blanket to wrap the helpless newborn in.

The doctor shrugged, looking at him wearily. "So what if the termination failed? We have no responsibility to the foetus."

"So you just left him to die!? My son..." Victor shuddered to think what would have happened if his mother hadn't been here with Safiya. He imagined seeing the apparently unwanted baby torn from Safiya's uterus and dumped on a cold metal tray, left in a dark room all alone as it screamed with pain from the poison in his tiny body. "You're a monster!" Victor stepped forward, ready to strangle the doctor, but his mother's urgent voice stopped him.

"Victor, don't waste your time on someone like him. Your son needs you now."

With one last deadly glare at the man who called himself a doctor, Victor sighed heavily and reached out to Lilac. Only when his baby was placed in his arms did his heart resume an almost normal rhythm. His entire body felt like curling around the baby and protecting him from all the danger in the world. He'd never imagined a mother's womb would be the most dangerous place on earth during his son's most vulnerable stage of life.

After a few quiet moments, Safiya spoke weakly, "I don't ever want to see either of you again." Her voice was icy with resolve, and she gave one last lingering look to her rejected mate before she was escorted down the corridor by her guards.

Victor watched her go, his heart cracking from the finality of the rejection and her absolute disregard for her own son. As she walked out of their lives forever, his mind wrapped around the pain and suffocated it in the recesses of his brain. He would never share this story of birth with his son. He would never subject him to the horror and neglect of what his mother had done. Safiya would never have the power to torment him with her indifference and selfishness.

"Victor, I... I don't think he looks so good," Lilac said, her voice edged with panic.

He looked closely at his son, and his heart spiked at the strong blue colour around the baby's lips. His tiny chest wasn't moving. "He's stopped breathing!" Victor yelled, rushing to the nurses' desk once more. "Help, please! He's not breathing!" When the nurses ignored him, he ran down the corridor until he found the doctor. "My son's not breathing! Do something!"

"I've already told you; it's not our responsibility," the doctor stated firmly before hurrying away.

Feeling utterly helpless, Victor stood stock still and stared at the scurrying of nurses, the methodical stride of doctors, and the dazed stroll of sick patients. In this busy hospital, surrounded by life-saving technology and scientific equipment, not a single person cared enough to help his critically ill son.

"I'll give him CPR," a rough voice said from behind him.

Victor whirled around and saw a cleaner emerging from a corridor. He motioned for Victor to hand him the baby.

The new father stared at the man, older in years but strength not diminished. He recognised him as a rogue, and hesitated to hand over his precious son. He cursed himself for not completing a first aid course and learning how to administer CPR himself, but it was too late for if only's.

"He's been poisoned by silver, but survived the birth," he explained, carefully giving the older man his son.

The man positioned him in one arm while placing two fingers on his tiny chest. He pressed gently yet rhythmically, before holding the baby's mouth to his ear to listen for breaths. A frown of concern crossed his face before he swiped all the cleaning materials off the top of his trolley. Laying the baby down, he cleared his throat with a gloved finger. "Got fluid in his windpipe, the poor chap," he muttered before breathing gently in the baby's mouth, then beginning CPR again. A few seconds later, a high pitched scream was heard, and Victor nearly collapsed with relief.

"Here ya go." The cleaner wrapped the squalling baby in the cardigan before handing him to Victor. "Skin to skin contact is best, before even a bath. Take this little chap home and hold him real close, ya hear? Sorry 'bout the silver. Nothin' you can do but wait and see how it's affected him, the poor little pup."

Victor stared at the cleaner, gratefulness washing over him as he took in the man's grizzled appearance, scarred hands, and sympathetic smile.

"I don't know how to thank you," he began. "But how did you..."

The cleaner waved it off. "Me mate was a midwife back in our pack. Learnt a thing or two from the old dear before she was taken."

Victor sensed a load of underlying grief in the rogue before him, but instead of prying, he held out his hand. "I'm Victor. We should keep in touch."

"Glad to be of 'sisstance. I'm Rivet." At Victor's raised eyebrows, the cleaner laughed. "Long story. Maybe I'll tell ya one day."

"I'd like that."

As Victor made his way home with his mother and baby son, he contemplated his future. How much damage did the silver do to his baby? Would he have permanent brain or nerve damage? Would he suffer any disabilities? Would he ever lead a normal life, or live with permanent scars of his mother's desperation?

Lilac grabbed his hand, silently comforting him.

"Have you thought of a name?" she asked him once they'd reached her house and settled on the couch in the living room.

Victor stared at his son, at his small fists, tiny lips that were now a healthy pink, and squinted eyes. He was perfect. "I thought Saf...I thought Safiya would have one in mind," he stuttered.

"She never even talked to the baby," Lilac recalled, bringing mugs of steaming tea and sitting them on the low table before them. "I don't think she ever wanted him, and I should have picked up on the signs. I'm sorry, son--"

"It's not your fault," Victor cut her off. "I put you in this situation. I made this mess, and now I'm suffering for it. I just don't understand why my innocent son needs to--" He broke down, tears streaming down his face. He stared at his son, the image blurred, and vowed to give him everything he would ever need in life, no matter the cost. Victor would let no one dare hurt his family again.

"How about Zion?"

"Hm?" Victor wiped his eyes, before tenderly brushing a finger over the soft cheeks of his son.

"I know Safiya rejected you true to the curse on our ancestor centuries ago, but there is the promise that the love of a mate can break it. Every generation has prayed we would be the ones deserving of that love, but here we are. Still cursed. Maybe your son will be the blessed one."

"You really think the legend is true? That an Alpha will actually choose to love their rogue mate?" Victor stared at his son and couldn't comprehend anyone not loving someone so innocent and beautiful. But he'd already felt the painful sting of rejection, and life would only get harder from now on.

"Why not? Every curse has a blessing. Every night, a morning. Every rejection...an acceptance." Lilac sipped her tea and watched lovingly as Victor cradled the baby against his bare chest. The baby nestled in, responding to the warmth of his father. "You remember the city of Zion?" she continued, "It was the ancient Holy City, the homeland of our King's chosen people. They rebelled against Him time after time, yet He never gave up on them. He never stopped loving them, so every time they cried out for forgiveness, He redeemed them back to Himself. He blessed them beyond what they deserved. God has already saved your son from fatal harm, so I wonder if He has a greater plan for his life. Maybe your son will be the chosen one to receive love and acceptance from his Alpha mate, and break the curse that has held us in chains for too long."

Victor didn't need long to feel the hope sprouting in his heart. "Zion. I like it." He smiled for the first time that day. Placing a soft kiss on his son's forehead, he whispered the prayer that echoed his ancestors.

"Zion."