Chapter 5 A mate for the Alpha

Ralph's POV

I watched as a young woman walked into the HR office. She looked familiar, but I didn't remember where I had seen her before. Those almond-shaped brown eyes and that long, brown, wavy hair had left a lasting impression on the mind. This girl. Where did I know her from?

Then she mentioned Cory, my son. I became suddenly interested. Did he get her pregnant? What has that boy done this time around? I hope he's not being notorious again.

Raven, the HR knows how hard I can be on Cory, but it's not because I don't love him. I've loved that boy since he was a pup.

At 17, I rejected my mate; she was the Alpha king's daughter, but I didn't want her as my Luna. That girl was too arrogant and spoiled for my liking, so when I found out that she was my mate, I planned to reject her, but her father caught a whiff of my intentions and quickly passed a new law: Rejection of a mate would lead to banishment. Choosing between Lila and banishment, I chose the latter, but I didn't leave alone.

A lot of others were banished with me. We left our pack and settled in a human-dominated society. We've always kept our identities hidden from the human folk, but we exist amongst them.

Some humans know of our existence, especially those in government and high positions. I created the Moonlight estate and sold houses in that community strictly to werewolves, especially rogues like me. In my company, all senior managers are werewolves; we also own the Moonlight Hospital, and all doctors and staff are werewolves. This has helped us keep our identities hidden for as long as we've been here.

It's like I've created my own pack after being banished and being an alpha; my rogue pack didn't have any issues with me being in charge. The problem they have is with my son, Cory.

I met Cory's mother when she was a struggling single mother. I fell in love with her and brought her in to be with me.

People were against our love; they said she was a human, and she would expose our identity, but I went ahead and married her and legally adopted Cory, who was then 3 years old.

Soon, she got pregnant again with my pup, but in the third month, she developed a complication and died. I blamed myself for her death. Maybe a human wasn't supposed to have a wolf's pup; maybe humans and wolves aren't supposed to be together.

It's been 17 years, and I haven't forgiven myself; that's why I haven't remarried since her death. Sometimes I forget that Cory is my adoptive son. To me, he's my biological son, and he also thinks of me as his dad. We have a strong bond, though he thinks I'm hard on him sometimes.

After the girl left, I called Cory to my office. I needed to hear his side of the story, too. "There was a girl here just a while ago." I said to him, "She says you bought some stuff from her shop, and your card declined. Is that true?" He furrowed his eyebrows, looking lost,

"Who's that? What's her name?" His question reminded me of how I forgot to ask for her name. "I don't know." I shrugged. "How much did she say I owed her?" He asked again.

"50 bucks." He bit his lip, "I don't think I owe anyone 50 bucks. Why didn't you ask me before paying her?" He queried me in a way that made me feel silly,

"It's alright if you didn't buy anything, it's just 50 bucks." I dismissed his concerns.

"But Dad, you need to be careful, what if she goes to other places pulling the same trick? She will be making so much money. Don't give money out so freely because you have it in abundance."

"She mentioned your name, that's why I believed her. I'm not dumb enough to be falling for some cheap tricks." I defended my honor.

Cory stopped and furrowed his eyebrows. "Can you describe her?"

"About your age, curly dark brown hair, almond-shaped brown eyes..." I was reading his body language as I described the girl, and it hit me that he must know who I was talking about now.

"Do you recognize her?" I asked again.

"Ah... yes. I forgot." He replied, but he looked uncomfortable. Maybe he had a bad experience with the girl or something, I just couldn't tell.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He curtly replied, which indicated that he wasn't fine at all but didn't want to talk about it.

"Are you sure? You know you can talk to me about anything."

"It's fine, Dad, it's fine. Just let it be, thanks for footing my bill," he replied dismissively. I could tell that he was uncomfortable about the topic, so I excused him.

"You can get back to work then," I replied when Cory left. He must have forgotten that he had a wolf for a dad because I heard him talking to someone far away,

"Don't let this girl into this premise ever again."

He sounded so stern that I got curious. Who was she? I also doubt that the young lady came here just for 50 bucks; that wouldn't make sense. My inquisitiveness was such that I never let things rest until my wolf was satisfied.

"Alpha Ralph, am I seeing you tonight?" I got mind-linked by Anne, one of my friends who never stops partying.

"Erm... It's a Monday, Anne, I can't party with you." I linked back.

"I got some girls for you. They're hot, I promise. You will love them." She linked back. "You're part of the reason I have a bad reputation." I linked.

"Well, if you find a mate, I won't force these girls down your throat anymore. I just want you to find a mate." She replied.

"Okay, Friday night, I will be there, but tonight is a no-show for me," I replied.

"You'd better be here, Alpha. I will be waiting for you." She grudgingly cautioned me.

"You have nothing to worry about." Anne had a way of making me attend parties I didn't want to attend.

I will say that my Playboy reputation is all because of her. She never took no for an answer. Hmmmm. She got me so lost in my head that I forgot all about that girl from earlier.