A Secret Alpha Mate
Chapter 63

(Benjamin)

This party was dragging on. There was no one here that was interesting to talk to, I've seen most of these people at Hailey's ball anyway.

Julianna was off making a fool of herself drunk somewhere, hanging off the arm of someone she's never met. She craved attention even more than Hailey did sometimes. Maybe it was my fault for not giving it to her more, but we've been together for over twenty years, I couldn't fake it anymore. "Alpha, Benjamin." Someone came up. I blank on his name, I'm not sure if I've ever met him actually, but he knew my name so I must have met him previously.

I shake his hand, "How are you?"

"Not too bad, I was looking forward to meeting you in person." So I guess I didn't know him.

"Ah, and your name?"

"John, previous Alpha of the Blue Lake Pack." I've heard of that pack but they weren't close enough for us to interact regularly.

"Nice to make your acquaintance," I look him over, "You traveled far for a last-minute event," I note.

"Yes, Alpha William is like a brother to me, I've known Alpha Jackson since he was a pup." A close family friend. I nod, looking past him trying to replace a way out of this conversation.

"Ah, I know you must be busy." John pulls my attention back to him.

"Just looking for my Luna, making sure she doesn't overdo it with the champagne." I give a tight smile.

He smiles at me, "Alright, you go replace her then. I guess I'll see you at the trial." I freeze.

"What do you mean?" I ask icily.

"I'm one of the Elders that will be presiding over your upcoming trial." He explains, great I would have to suck up to this waste of space.

"Of course, I look forward to getting that past me. Can I get you a drink? Maybe you can meet my family if they're around, they tend to run off to do their own things at parties, I'm sure you understand." He nods.

"A drink sounds great, I would love to meet the rest of your family if they turn up." He agrees, I lead him to the bar and order a double whiskey. This night could not possibly drag anymore.

Lucky for me, I couldn't locate Seth or Hailey. Julianna stumbled over to me giving me an excuse to leave the Elder and take her back to our room.

I knock on the door of the room Seth and Hailey were sharing and I get a grunt in response. I open it and see Seth lying across one of the beds.

"Dad?" He groans.

He must have gotten too drunk. I flip on the lights and Julianna comes up behind me and gasps, rushing past me to grab Seth's face.

"My baby, oh my sweet boy, what happened to you?"

He looked awful.

One of his eyes was swollen shut, and the other was dark and bruised. Blood pooled on the bed from his nose that was definitely broken. His suit was bloodied and his shirt was ripped. "What the hell happened to you?" I demand, "What did you do?"

That earned me a glare from Julianna, "He was obviously attacked, how dare you blame him." She hisses at me before turning back to him.

"Is anything broken? Let's go replace the clinic."

"I'm fine," Seth mumbles, Julianna stumbles to the bathroom and comes out with a washcloth and a cup of water, and starts to clean him up. Well, attempts to clean him up, she's mostly spilling water on him. Pathetic. Both of them.

"Who did this to you?" I ask

"The Beta and Gamma."

"Of this pack?" He nods. I clench my fist. This is the last time I would be disrespected by them.

Alpha Jackson was an unfit leader. Taking an omega as his Luna, altering the Elders to our "mistreated omegas", all the drama at tonight's ceremony, on top of all that he couldn't control his Beta or Gamma.

I needed to replace a way to put an end to this. If we couldn't move forward with our alliance, I would make sure to end it before he did, before he was even aware of his downfall.

I left them to it I had a call I had to make.

(Benjamin)

I made sure to get up early before sunrise, I had an errand to run and I didn't need anyone else around. Thankfully, I only had to get to get past the front gate, I insisted that it was delivered. There was a late brunch today and I wanted to get this done well before people started to wake up.

I snuck out back, thankfully not meeting anyone but a few omegas already bustling about the place, cleaning up the remnants of a long night.

Taking a deep breath I knocked on the back entrance to the cells, someone answered immediately.

"What?" He said, his voice flat.

"I am here to see my daughter, Alpha Jackson said I was allowed a visit today," I said confidently. He closes the door on my face and I hear some muffled voices.

"Okay," He opens the door, "You have ten minutes."

He escorts me down to a dimly lit dungeon. I couldn't tell if there was anyone else down here. It was eerily quiet.

He raps on the door with a few swift knocks, "Wake up princess, your daddy is here." He laughs and walks away.

I see her face come to the cell door through the long, thick, bars.

She was still wearing her Luna dress and her hair was everywhere. One night in the cell and she looked like she's been here for months.

"Who the f**k are you?" She hisses.

"I'm here to help." I whisper back. She rolls her eyes and backs away, "You literally have no choice, who else has come to help you?" "Who are you?" She repeats,

"That you don't need to know." She scoffs,

"Why should I trust you then?"

"We have a mutual enemy, well enemies really, so that should make us friends." She raises an eyebrow at this.

"What do you have against them?" She questions.

"Let's just say I have some unfinished business with the Luna and the Alpha has stepped on my toes one too many times." She nods, thinking.

"I guess I have no choice. But if you screw me over I will make you suffer, you will lose everything that you've ever loved." I grin widely.

"Same goes for you." She smiles back at me, she was attractive actually.

Maybe once she got that baby out and her body back we could have some fun. I needed something fun, everyone was so boring these days. She owed me for helping her anyway, it was the least she could do. "So," She pauses, waiting for me to go on, "Now what?"

"I don't have a full plan yet. We can't do something too sudden, I don't want them to know it's me. Yet." She nods.

"The first thing we can do is to invalidate Isla as Luna." She says.

"So, is the baby really his?" I ask her, she looks away, deciding whether to trust me.

"I need you to get in contact with someone for me, immediately." If she has the first step to taking them down for good I didn't care what it was.

"Tell me what to do."

"Okay, so his name is-"

A loud bang of the door cuts her off, two guards walk in.

"All of her meetings are supposed to be supervised, you idiot." One of them says to the other, "Just wait until the Gamma hears this."

I slip her an envelope between the bars before they get too close and wink.

"I'm sorry, I just got to my station this morning. I didn't know."

"You're off guard duty today. Go home."

The leader turns to me, "Time's up, you can come back next week and all of your meetings from here on out will be supervised." He looks between us.

A week? Jennifer's face visibly pales.

"I'll see you as soon as I can," I promise her, not knowing exactly when that would be.

There must be a way to get a note into her, not everyone was loyal to their Alpha, I knew that well enough by now.

"Times up." The man repeats and follows me through the door to the stairs. I head out not looking back, I needed to figure out a way to see her again. I felt good for the first time in weeks, having an ally, even one in a holding cell at the moment, was better than none. I felt confident that we could work something out together.

(Jennifer)

I really hoped I could trust that mystery man, my fate was pretty much in his hands until my parents came to see me. I hope that was soon.

I wish I got his name, his pack, something had, I didn't know how to contact him. I really hope that wasn't a big joke or someone on Jackson's side to try to get information out of me.

I didn't give any information though. Did I? I carefully went back over our conversation in my mind, satisfied that I didn't give anything too incriminating away.

I ran my fingers on the envelope.

I wonder what time it was, every minute felt like an hour down here and I was starving. I almost regretted not eating last night but I didn't want to give Isla the satisfaction.

The innocent Cinderella act was getting pretty old, I don't realize how Jackson didn't see right through it. No one is actually that nice.

I didn't need her pity, and I guarantee I would not give her any pity when her time comes at my hand.

I lay back on the bed, I was bored as hell. The door opened, maybe I would get some food now. I heard the shuffling of feed and hushed voices and some crying. Why was someone crying? Was there a new prisoner?

I stash the envelope under my pillow.

"My baby my sweet baby, reduced to this. I can't believe it, I never thought you to be so cruel to a member of your own pack, your own ex-girlfriend for crying out loud." My mom sobs, I roll my eyes.

"You are going to be sorry after this." My dad angrily shouts. How many people were down here?

A light flickers on and the sudden brightness hurts, I recoil back.

Jackson, Lucas, Cam, my parents, the doctor, two people I've never seen before, and that stupid "warrior" Mitch or Mickey or something idiotic are standing in front of my cell.

"What did I do to deserve such a lovely welcome party? I joke icily, coming up to the bars.

"You know what you did," Cam responds.

"We're ending this once and for all," My dad glares at Jackson, "Then you'll let my daughter out." Let me out? I wonder what deal he struck with them.

"Hi, my name is Doctor Louis," one of the strangers walks up to me looking timid.

Was he from some looney bin? I wasn't going to a mental hospital, is that what my parents wanted for me? That had to be worse than this.

I back up involuntarily.

"I'm not going with him," I shout.

"Going with him? No dear." My mom steps forward, "He's a doctor we brought to conduct a paternity test." No f**k no, not yet. I look at my mom, my eyes pleading, hoping she could read them.

This was too soon. I wasn't ready. I didn't know they would want to do this today, I thought they would have forgotten about me for at least a week or so, after all the festivities. No, this can't be happening. I shake my head back and forth.

"Darling, it's okay, he's going to conduct one for us so that we can prove that the pack's doctor messed up somehow, or is lying." My dad glares at the doctor.

"I'm here to take a sample too, we will compare the results." Dr. Lockheart steps forward looking exasperated, "Again."

"Back to the drawing board, eh doctor?" Lucas chimes up, "Get it? The drawing board, like blood drawing?" Cam rolls his eyes, and the doctor fights a small smile.

"Everyone's a critic," Lucas mumbles.

"Can we please get this over with? I have guests I'm still hosting today." Jackson says, I avert my gaze.

"Don't let me hold you, go back to your f*****g party. I'll be here later." I turn around, indicating this was over.

"Honey, the sooner we get the results, the sooner we can get you out of here." My mom says.

"I-I don't want to, I haven't eaten. I might faint, that can't be good for the baby."

"You're starving my pregnant daughter down here?" My dad roars at the Mick guy.

"No, I brought her a fresh meal from the kitchen. Luna's orders. She refused it and threw it at me." Mick shrugs.

"Let me eat and then we can do this another time." I try to grasp at any excuse, this can't happen today. This would seal my fate.

"We're doing this now. Then you eat." Jackson says curtly.

Mick goes to open the door and I back up.

"No, I really, I'm feeling really sick, nauseous I don't think-."

"We're doing this right now." Jackson commands in his Alpha tone, "Sit down." I'm forced to submit, anger courses through me. I wonder if I could shift if I could run, take them off guard.

Both the doctors came up and draw blood from different arms, okay that was a lot of blood I wasn't lying now about feeling lightheaded.

"There we go, all done."

"Thank you, doctor," My mom says to him, "Now please go get this tested, far away from here and call us with the results."

"I'll let you know the results of this test too." Dr. Lockheart says, "Again."

"Is that everything then?" Cam asks.

"I have everything we need for an accurate paternity test." The mystery doctor says.

"Very good, I want you all to sign the official statement as witnesses, and I will need a copy of both of your results." The other strange man spoke for the first time.

"Yes, Elder John. Let's go to my office and finish this now. I need to be downstairs to welcome my guests." Jackson says.

An Elder was presiding over this? That couldn't be contested, whatever the results were are rock solid now. I knew what the results would be.

"Enjoy your brunch." I spit, "I guess I'll just starve down here." My mom lets out a wail.

"We will enjoy it." Lucas flashes me a smile.

"Don't worry, she will be fed." Mick says to my mom, "I can't guarantee she will eat it though." He scoffs.

My mom looks back with one last glance before breaking down into tears.

Well f**k. There was no way I could get out of this now. The only way would be to escape.

I waited until they left to open the envelope. and dump it on my bed. A white note falls out that says, "Open me first."

and a small folded piece of paper that looks like its glued closed.

I listen and I can't hear anyone else.

When the time comes. Open the small envelope and you'll be saved. You have to be out of the dungeon for it to work.