Alpha's Secret Bride

Bernard walked in carrying several large bags.

Emma stared at them.

"What’s all that?"

Bernard set the bags down and rubbed the back of his neck. "I may have gone a little overboard."

Elara leaned over to peek inside one of the bags and laughed. "A little?"

Emma pulled out a stuffed wolf, then another toy, followed by a stack of colorful books.

"There are enough toys here for twenty pups."

Bernard shrugged as he picked up another package. "They deserve everything."

From the other side of the chamber, Bryan looked up from his blocks.

"Can I have that one?"

Bernard laughed. "See? I knew Your Highness would appreciate my shopping."

Beside Bryan stood Zoey, who immediately spotted her father and ran toward him with a bright smile.

"Father!"

Bernard laughed as he scooped her into his arms and lifted her easily.

"My love, you’re getting heavy. What have you been eating?"

Zoey giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I ate cookies and chocolate," she answered proudly.

Bernard smiled. "Did you save any for me?"

Zoey immediately pointed toward the table.

"There."

She expected to see the cookies and chocolate still there. But the spot was empty. Her little face fell as she looked around in confusion.

"Where’s mine?"

"Mother ate yours," she said innocently, pointing at Elara.

Elara’s eyes widened as she tried to hold back her laughter.

"Zoey, don’t start!" she said, shaking her head.

Despite the laughter that slowly returned to the house, one chair at every family dinner remained empty.

Brandon’s.

No one ever moved it or used it. His place stayed exactly where it had always been, as though everyone was quietly leaving room for the day he would walk through the door and take his seat again.

Emma still listened whenever a new report came in from the search teams. She read every update, followed every reported sighting, and asked about every new lead, even when most of them ended in disappointment. Months had passed, yet she still couldn’t bring herself to believe that Brandon was gone for good. Somewhere inside her, a quiet certainty remained that he was still out there, waiting for them to find him.

Every moonfall, after Bryan and Charlotte Nadia were asleep, she would stand by the window and look out into the darkness before whispering the same words.

"I’m waiting for you."

She kept those words to herself, holding on to the hope that one day Brandon would return.

The weeks slowly turned into months, and life at the estate continued around her. Charlotte Nadia grew stronger with each passing day, reaching new milestones while she watched every one of them.

Shortly after her first birth moon, Charlotte Nadia took her first steps. Emma, Elara, Nina, and Emily were gathered in the living chamber when the little princess pushed herself upright against the sofa and let go.

Emma immediately held her breath.

She wobbled forward, taking one tiny step at a time with her arms stretched out for balance. Everyone leaned closer, ready to catch her if she fell, but halfway across the chamber, she stopped. She looked around at the waiting faces, then turned toward Emma and toddled straight to her.

She made it three more steps before losing her balance and dropping into her mother’s waiting arms.

Everyone burst into cheers.

She laughed as she hugged her daughter against her chest and kissed her forehead. "You did it."

Nadia squealed and grabbed a handful of Emma’s hair.

Elara laughed. "She knew exactly where she wanted to go."

She smiled down at her daughter. "You’re just like your father."

Nadia only giggled, unaware of the tears gathering in her mother’s eyes.

Nadia reminded her of the day Bryan had taken his first steps. After Emma had encouraged him to walk toward her, he had surprised everyone by turning and walking straight into Brandon’s waiting arms. Brandon had been so overjoyed that he celebrated Bryan’s first birth moon in grand style.

As she grew older, questions about the father she had never known began to appear more often.

One quiet moonfall, Emma was sitting in the corner of the living chamber with a book resting open on her lap. She hadn’t turned a page in several minutes. Instead, she watched Bryan and Nadia playing on the rug, surrounded by wooden blocks, stuffed wolves, and colorful toy cars.

Bryan carefully placed another block on top of his tower and held his breath as it wobbled.

Beside him, two-winter-old Charlotte Nadia hugged a stuffed white wolf almost as big as she was. Her golden eyes wandered around the chamber before settling on the large framed photograph above the fireplace.

It showed Brandon holding Bryan in one arm while keeping the other wrapped around Emma, the three of them smiling beneath the moonlight.

Charlotte pointed toward it.

"Bryan?"

He looked up. "Hmm?"

She pointed again. "Who’s that?"

Bryan followed her finger and smiled. "That’s Father."

"Fafa?"

"Yeah." He carefully placed another block on top of the tower. "And that’s Mother and me."

Charlotte stared at the photograph for a few seconds before looking back at him.

"Where Fafa?"

Bryan’s hands stopped moving. The block he had been holding remained suspended in his fingers as he glanced toward Emma, then slowly looked back at Charlotte Nadia. He seemed unsure of what to say, especially when he saw the sadness in her face.

"Father went away."

Charlotte frowned, her small fingers tightening around her stuffed wolf.

"Where?"

Bryan shook his head and lowered his gaze to the block in his hand. "I don’t know."

"When Fafa come home?"

Bryan was quiet for a moment. He turned the block over in his hands, studying it as though the answer might somehow be written on it.

"I don’t know."

Charlotte hugged her stuffed wolf tighter against her chest, her lower lip trembling.

"I want Fafa."

Bryan looked at her again, and his expression softened. He reached over and gently touched her arm.

"I miss him too."

Charlotte looked up at him, her eyes still fixed on his face.

"Is Fafa mad?"

Bryan immediately shook his head. "No. Father isn’t mad at us."

"Why he no come home?"

Bryan opened his mouth, but no answer came. After a moment, he reached across the rug and took her little hand.

"I think he’s trying to find his way back."

Charlotte looked toward the photograph again.

"I wait for Fafa."

Bryan squeezed her hand.

"Me too."

Across the chamber, Emma lowered her eyes to the book in her lap. A tear slipped onto the open page before she could wipe it away.

Charlotte Nadia turned toward her.

"Mother?"

Emma quickly brushed the tear from her cheek and forced a smile.

"Yes, Your Highness."

Charlotte pointed toward the photograph again.

"Fafa."

Emma looked at family picture for a moment before turning her face away, hiding the tears that had begun to fall again.

"Yes, it’s Father."

Charlotte stared at the photograph for a few seconds before looking back at Emma. Her little brows furrowed as if she were trying to understand where the man in the picture had gone.

"Call Fafa?"

Emma’s lips parted, but no words came. Her eyes filled with tears again, and she quickly looked away from the photograph, trying to keep herself together.

Mrs. Thompson noticed the change in her expression and stepped forward before Charlotte could ask another question. She gently reached for the little girl’s hand.

"Come on, Your Highnesses. Let’s go get some milk and cookies."

Charlotte looked up at her, momentarily distracted.

"Cookie?"

"Yes, sweetheart." Mrs. Thompson gave her a small smile. "And you can choose which cup you want."

Bryan, who had been sitting nearby, immediately looked up at the mention of cookies.

"Can I choose mine too?"

"Of course," Mrs. Thompson replied. "Both of you can choose."

Charlotte slipped her small hand into Mrs. Thompson’s, but after taking a few steps, she looked back toward the picture.

"Fafa?"

Mrs. Thompson gently squeezed her fingers and kept her voice soft.

"We’ll talk about Father later, sweetheart. Come on. Let’s go get your cookies."

Charlotte allowed herself to be led toward the door, with Bryan following beside them. Mrs. Thompson glanced back at Emma once before quietly taking the pups out of the living chamber, giving her the space she needed to collect herself.

Her gaze dropped to the mating ring on her finger. She had taken it off once, thinking she might finally be able to let go of him, but she hadn’t been able to leave it off for long. She wore it again now, just as she had every day before Brandon disappeared.

More than two winters had passed, yet the band remained on her finger, worn smooth from the way her thumb still brushed over it whenever she thought about Brandon.

One moonfall, she was standing beneath the stars with Bryan and Nadia tucked against her sides. The pups had grown heavier in her arms, but she held them close as she looked toward the dark sky.

"If I can survive this," she whispered, pressing a kiss to each of their heads, "then so can you."

Her eyes glistened as she looked beyond the estate.

"Come back to us, Brandon."

The wind moved through the trees, carrying her words into the darkness.

__

Far beyond Santorini, in a place no one knew existed, a man’s hand rested on a cold wooden table.

He slowly reached for the device beside him and picked it up.

The screen lit his face as he read the message.

His fingers paused over the screen.

Then he typed a short reply.

"Proceed."

He set the device down and leaned back in his chair.

Several winters had passed.

And whatever he had been waiting for was finally beginning.