Sold To The Alpha
Chapter 27

Charity recoiled in shock, 'you're my grandfather?' she whispered, her eyes wide as she tried to process everything she had been told.

Alistair cleared his throat as Aaron gripped Charity's shoulder trying to silently comfort her, 'I think we all need a cup of tea' said Mary standing up from her perch on Alistair's desk, 'Jared will you help me bring up the cups and pot?' she asked as she walked toward the door. Jared stood and with a respectful bow toward the three Alphas, followed Mary from the room.

Alistair stood from his chair, 'I don't know about Mary, but I think I need something stronger' he said as he walked toward his drinks cabinet and grabbed some glasses and a half bottle of scotch. Placing the glasses on the table, he poured a generous measure into each one and pushed them toward Aaron, Marcus and Charity, before walking over to Lucian and offering one to him.

Aaron took his glass and knocked the burning liquid back in one, while Marcus held his glass in his hand swirling it, deep in thought. Alistair re-seated himself in his chair, taking a sip from his glass as he mulled over everything that had been said.

'Where were you? why didn't I meet you? what happened?' Charity finally blurted out, giving Marcus a broken look. Pain crossed his face again as he looked into her eyes, 'It was never that I didn't want to see you,' he said desperately, 'please, never ever think you, your mother and your father were not wanted. I just couldn't replace you' he uttered, his grief evident.

Taking a deep breath he started to speak, 'As I said, my Annalise, she was perfection, all the best parts of her mother personified. When Anna-Marie passed, she was my beacon, she gave me reason to smile and laugh and live on through the pain. I watched her grow from a small child into a teenager and then an adult, she was smart and funny, she liked to play pranks on the guards' he said with a soft chuckle. 'But she was a spitfire, no-one could challenge her, she wouldn't back down from a fight of any kind. Marcus' eyes lit up as the memories flooded through his mind. 'I watched her shift for the very first time, she went from my beautiful daughter to a stunning white wolf who's fur caught the sun with a golden hue when she moved. She could run like the wind, faster than any of my warriors. I knew then that she was even more special than I originally thought, with White wolves being so rare, I knew she would need protecting from other packs who would want her if they found out about her.

'Then one day she came to me, it was her 18th birthday, her friends wanted to take her to a night club in town that was frequented by our kind and humans. I was worried, humans are not known to be tolerant of us, but she pouted at me, giving me those big Aquamarine puppy dog eyes that she knew I could never say no too, she promised she would be careful, no-one would know she wasn't human, her friends would never leave her etc. In the end, I relented, I just couldn't bear to see anything quell her happiness, and off she ran to change into one of her favourite dresses before her friends whisked her away for a night of fun.'

'I sat up that night waiting for her to come home, I couldn't sleep until I heard her padding in the hallway, I had been like that since the day her mother died, I had to check on her in the night, sleepovers at friends were torturous but I didn't want my paranoia I suppose is the word, to cloud her childhood.'

'3 am I hear the key in the lock and my Annalise stumbled into the house, giggling to herself. I got up to see her, make sure she was ok. She was drunk, oh was she drunk! she threw her arms around me and declared, 'Daddy! I had THE BEST night ever!, I had to half carry her into the living room as her legs didn't want to hold her up, trying not to laugh at my princess and her obvious intoxication. She dropped herself on to the sofa and declared, 'Daddy, I met someone! He is amazing! He's my mate' and continued to tell me all about a young man from the club, 2 years older who's name was David'

Charity's mouth dropped open, 'my dad?' she asked timidly, 'he would never talk about how they met' she said sadly, 'he never really talked about my mum at all after she died.

Marcus nodded, staring intently at Charity, 'Your father' he agreed, 'It seems David had taken quite a liking to my Annalise and her wolf had made claim to him, they spent every moment they could together, madly in love. Finally, the time came where Annalise felt she needed to tell him the truth about herself, who she was, he wanted to meet me and see where she lived.

While she and David had been growing closer, I had been researching white wolves through our history, do you know the story of the original Alpha's?' he asked as Charity nodded yes, smiling sadly he continued, 'My bloodline, the bloodline of the Red Moon pack descends directly from the warrior Alpha' he said, 'Every female born into the bloodline was a white wolf, a powerful creature supposedly gifted with powers from the original Alphas. Faster, stronger and with iron like bonds to their mate unlike any other wolfs bond.'

'But with this gift came a curse, for every white wolf born, their mother would be taken from the earth after the child's fifth birthday' Marcus shook his head vehemently before continuing, 'I panicked, I had already lost my mate to this curse, I couldn't risk losing my daughter, I sought her out, told her she could never see David again, I was trying to protect her' he said as he looked up with pleading eyes, begging Charity to understand.

Charity reached for his hand tentatively, grasping it in her own small white ones, 'But why didn't you know before my mother was born?' she asked confused

Marcus hung his head, 'I'm sure at the beginning the information was passed from Alpha to Alpha, but myself and the five generations before had all produced boys and the story stop being told, I only found it through old journals kept by previous Alpha generations' he said sadly.

Charity squeezed his hand, urging him to continue his tale. Taking a sip of his whisky that he still had clasped in his other hand, Marcus dropped his eyes to the floor again, 'Annalise, well as I said, she was a fireball, she screamed at me, cried, called me every name under the sun, said I hated him because he wasn't of our kind, swore she would never give up your father as long as there was breath in her body, in the end, I had to use my Alpha voice to restrain her from visiting him. Little did I know that as her wolf grew stronger, my Alpha commands grew weaker against her and she started to sneak out to see him after I had gone to bed!

'One day she came home, she wasn't her usual self, I knew something was wrong but every time I asked her, she would smile and brush it off saying she was fine. That night I checked on her as I always did before turning in, she was sleeping soundly under her sleets. Shutting the door quietly I took myself off to bed though a slight fear was still nagging at me that something wasn't quite right with my baby girl.

'The next morning I awoke and went downstairs to have breakfast, as the pack house sat and ate, I awaited my Annalise to come down with her usual radiant smile and cheeky comments about me being an old man and needing to watch my weight, but she didn't appear. Getting worried, I sent one of the she-wolves up to check on her in case she was ill, the young girl came running back downstairs moments later yelling for me, a letter clutched in her hand. My baby girl had run away in the night, she had waited for me to check as usual before sneaking from the house leaving a note behind.'

Charity had inched forward in her chair, still grasping on to her grandfathers weathered hand like an anchor, 'what did the note say?' she asked desperately.