The Alpha's Daughter

IX

Linus watched her copy the words, her brows furrowed with concentration. The moment she completed copying the five words she looked up with wide eyes and held up her paper.

“Oh you’re finished?” He took the paper as though he hadn’t been paying attention, “you’re quick.”

The words were copied nicely, but the penmanship is what you’d expect of a two-year-old. The paper was neat, he had to give her that much. Where ever she made a mistake she simply crossed it out and wrote beside it. Now Linus was curious. Why didn’t she just use the eraser? Then he stopped to think about it.

Was that something they were taught or did they learn it intuitively?

He’s going to go on a limb and say she’ll figure it out eventually. “Very nice!” she smiled at her. The pup lit up from the praise, her light brown eyes going wide. “Let’s try something else”, he hummed.

The kiddo nodded.

He handed her another blank sheet. “I’m going to call a word and you write how you think it’s spelt”. He met her eyes, “good?”

She nodded.

Linus wrote a list of words on a different paper, for his eyes only. In truth, it was the same words she just wrote with a couple more thrown in. He was just curious how good her spelling would be.

“Alright”, he looked at his list, “the first is 'cat'.” The little girl stared at him and thought for a moment, tilting her head. “I see you already have Emma’s unnerving habit”, he complained smiling.

The girl smiled, her eyes were crinkling. Seems she liked being like Emma in some way.

“Write the word”, he snorted and tapped on the paper.

She looked back to her assignment. He hesitated for a moment then wrote. Linus didn’t check it immediately. Instead, he got started on his own assignment. So the two sat like that, Linus called a word and the girl tried to spell it. After thirty minutes and halfway into his assignment, he noticed she was at the end of her page.

“Let me see it”, he held out his hand. She hesitated before handing the paper over, she curled in on herself a little. Not as confident as her copying, eh? Linus looked over the paper, of the ten words he called only four were spelt wrong. “Good job”, he smiled brightly.

The girl blinked at him then matched him with a smile of her own. Her eyes crinkled as Linus ruffled her hair playfully. He raised his hand and two paler hands held his. She peeked at him from under his palm. Linus cooed and ruffled her hair more.

And… he doesn’t want to do his homework anymore.

“Alright”, he smiled at her.

Her smile grew wider at the praise. Linus was sure to show her the correct spelling for each word, going as far as searching for the object on his phone and showing it to her. A few more minutes passed and they did another round of spelling tests. The girl started pouting in the middle of their third round and Linus stopped all together.

He lay on the floor making himself comfortable, “let's do something you want to do.”

She looked around the room and then tugged him excitedly. Linus rose with a chuckle. She pulled him to a bookshelf. The lower level had children's literature. The pup started to wring her hands again, carefully scanning the collection. She pointed at a book, and then looked to Linus. He reached for it and examined the cover.

It was the little red riding hood.

He snorted. "Is this your favorite?" She shook her head, "has Emma read this book to you before?" she shook her head again. He nodded, "gotcha."

Linus looked over the title once more, then scooped the girl into his arms and threw himself backwards on the bed. She looked at him startled and he wiggled his brow with a mischievous smile. She smacked his chest with no real annoyance and he laughed.

“Alright", he sat up and adjusted her in his lap, "you ready?" She nodded. Linus cleared his throat then began the tale, "once upon a time…”

Linus performed the story. He gave the characters voices, showed her the pictures and acted out where he could. It was the way Emma read books to children. He's seen it many times, even experienced it firsthand a lifetime ago.

“Did you like the story?" Linus asked as he closed the book. The child tilted her head before nodding. "I did one thing right, I guess", he chuckled. He checked his watch. "We still have time before dinner", Linus rested his cheek on his palm as he looked at her, "what do you want to do?"

She looked around the room again and then tapped the book.

"Another story?"

She nodded.

Linus hummed as his eyes roamed the room. The minimalistic guest room was now chock full of children's toys and books, most were pink and strangely fitted the child's aesthetic. He moved the child from his lap to the soft covers and crossed the room. She tucked stray hair behind her ear as she watched the man's back curiously.

Linus turned to her with a small smile. The child tilted her head but smiled back. He returned with a brush, a couple of ponytail holders and two pale pink ribbons in hand. Linus set them on the bed and then sat down. He opened his legs and patted the space between them. The child climbed over his thighs with a laugh, plopping herself in the centre. She turned to give him a big smile. He squeezed her nose playfully. The child leaned away to escape him, features scrunched cutely.

Linus took up the brush, "I'm gonna do your hair while I'm at it, ok with you?"

She nodded.

“Alright kiddo", she sets her to look ahead, "this is the story of how Emma saved my life, just like she saved yours. This was years back", he opened the story, "there was an attack on the pack and the wolves were scattered." He craned his neck to meet her eyes, "You ready?"

Another nod, so he began brushing.