The Alpha's Unexpected Mate

Welcome to book 3 in the Dalgarrd series! This is Leander and Sara's book. Remember to leave comments if you're reading, it will help me know if posting book 4 is what you guys want :) I hope you enjoy the story! Sara “So, I’m ready to go,” I stand at the kitchen door with a bag in hand. Mom continues scrubbing the countertop without looking at me. Dad folds his paper, places it on the table he’s sitting at, and looks up. This isn’t a typical day, and I’m not going to college or going on holiday with my friends. I don’t have friends because my parents didn’t like it, and everyone avoided the weird girl at school. No, I’m being thrown out of my home by the people who swore to love me forever. When Jill and Paul Nicolles adopted me at the age of two, they committed to becoming my parents. They promised that they’d never turn their back on me, no matter what. Jill and Paul gave me a pleasant childhood, albeit lonely. They didn’t like me going out or making friends. They kept a tight leash on me and sheltered me from bad things – all things if I’m honest. Sheltering your child is not terrible, but it is sometimes stifling. I was twelve when they told me that I was adopted. I found out only because I was curious why I didn’t look like either of them, not even slightly. I had different colored hair and eyes from theirs; my skin was tanned where theirs was fair, and even my smile was different. Not only that, but I heard them talking one night about when the day came for them to tell me. I wasn’t sure what they meant until Paul said that he and Jill couldn’t keep the truth of my parentage from me forever. He said that I’d already begun to ask questions, and it would be easier if they told me that I was adopted rather than have me ask more questions they couldn’t answer. I was shocked to hear his words and even more surprised when Jill said I shouldn’t have realized anything so soon. The woman was adamant that she’d made sure I’d never ask. Paul mentioned something about my mind being stronger than Jill had anticipated. So, Paul and Jill sat me down and told me how they’d adopted me at two. They’d chosen me especially out of a handful of children, and I wasn’t to ask about my birth parents because no one knew anything. I was abandoned on the doorstep of a local care home without any trace of whom I might belong to. Jill said I should be grateful that somebody wanted me; it’s not like anyone else had come forward to adopt me in the previous two years. Even at twelve, I was offended that they would say such a thing to me, though it shouldn’t have shocked me. It wasn’t as if Jill and Paul hadn’t knocked the confidence out of me from the moment I could understand what they were saying. Don’t get me wrong, they loved me and showed love to me in their own way, but they had to make sure I wouldn’t leave them. They wanted me to need to be near them so they wouldn’t lose me, even if I still don’t know why they did that. It was the biggest shock of my life, finding out that I was adopted, and I felt as though everything I knew was a lie. I wanted to know everything about my birth parents and where they came from, why they gave me up, and if I was a mistake. I begged Jill to give me any information she had. I was curious about where I came from. Surely, I was allowed to ask questions? Jill was super angry with me and yelled how she’d already told me I’d been abandoned. How the hell would she know who they were if the authorities didn’t? Jill called me a selfish brat and said that she’d raised me for ten years as her own and never once made me feel as though I wasn’t her child. What gave me the right to be so selfish? I pushed back, trying to make Jill understand that I loved her and Paul and never meant any disrespect. They would always be my parents, and I never wanted them to think that I wasn’t grateful for the life they gave me. But I had to know where I came from - nothing would change, and it’s not like I wanted my birth parents to take me back. All I wanted was to know why they didn’t want me and maybe find out if they were too young to care for me. I wanted to know if I could have inherited any illnesses that may need medical attention in the future. I wanted to know if I had siblings and whether or not my birth parents kept them or gave them away as they did me. I just wanted answers to the many questions rushing through my young mind. Jill screamed how they didn’t want me for a reason, and perhaps they were dead. There was no way of knowing who they were or how to find them. If I mentioned anything again, she’d make me sorry that I was ever born. That day, Jill slapped me to the ground before grabbing Paul’s belt and beating me with it, screaming how selfish and ungrateful I was. I begged her to stop, but she was so angry that she lost herself for a while there. The woman who raised me broke me that day. When Paul came home, Jill told him everything that had happened. He was displeased that she’d hurt me, and he came to talk to me. I didn’t say anything; I listened to what he had to say, his excuses for why Jill hurt me. I’d caused her emotional pain, and I should have realized how lucky I was to have been chosen. They could have left me in the children’s home to rot, but they didn’t. Paul checked my body for injuries, of which there were few. I didn’t understand where all the marks Jill caused had gone. It was as though they vanished into thin air. Jill had split my lip when she hit me with the back of her hand. Then my back and legs, not to mention my arms, where I tried to protect myself, were covered in lacerations from the belt. But, suddenly, I didn’t have more than two fading marks on my body. Paul wouldn’t believe that I had been hurt the way I said I was, and he told me what would happen if I ever lied about Jill again. How could I be so nasty? Jill may have hurt me, but it wasn’t as bad as I was making out. I couldn’t give him any answers because I didn’t understand. Maybe I was losing my mind, and I’d imagined the marks all over me. Paul then gave me a guilt trip about what mean lies could do and how they weren’t so bad if I looked at things. He then told me that if I ever brought up my birth parents again, he’d do more than beat me with his belt. I apologized to both Jill and Paul and promised that I would never speak about my birth parents again. Nor would I let slip to their friends or the neighbors that they weren’t my birth parents. No one knew the truth because we moved around so much. We never stayed in one place for more than a couple of months until we moved to this sleepy little town of Lakebrooke. I was fifteen when we moved here, and to the outside world and the people of Lakebrooke, we were a happy family. Paul and Jill were well-liked in the community, and I was their well-behaved little girl. I had thought we’d be moving again no sooner had we moved here, but Jill seemed to settle for the first time in forever. I was happy because I hated moving. All I ever wanted was a place to call home. With Jill settling here, so could I. People often wondered why I didn’t make friends easily. They’d make comments at neighborhood barbeques and birthday parties that my parents would force me to attend. Something we had never done anywhere else we’d lived. But Jill told her friends I was shy and preferred to be at home. I never argued the case, nor did I mention that it wasn’t fair that Jill and Paul were allowed friends, but I was not. Though I kept my promise not to bring up the adoption or to find my family again, Jill was never the same with me. Our relationship broke down somewhat. Of course, she still interacted with me, came to my school plays, and baked cakes with me on Sundays. However, the hugs and kisses, even the I love you’s, were few and far between. I gave up trying to get Jill to love me as she once did. I also gave up saying sorry because there are only so many times a person can say that word before it becomes mundane. I got on with my lonely life until one evening five months ago. Something happened to me, and I was terrified. I was lying in my bed, and I suddenly became hot and uncomfortable. Jill and Paul were out for the evening, so I was alone. I suddenly couldn’t breathe; everything zoned in, brighter, louder. My nails seemed to grow, and my gums ached. I climbed out of bed and rushed to the window; I needed air. My back suddenly snapped, and I screamed, but that scream sounded like a howl. My heart raced, and the fear spiked higher when a voice inside my head told me to run. The voice seemed to be coming from inside my head and all around me. I didn’t even think about hurting myself; I jumped out of the window, landed on my feet, and ran for my life. I ended up in the middle of the forest, thirty miles from my home, a place I had been warned never to go. My parents explained once how the forest was two hundred and fifty miles wide, and bad things happened there. Jill would scare me with stories of murders that would occur in the woods and how, sometimes, young girls would enter but never leave. At first, I didn’t know what she was talking about. I had never heard of anyone even entering the forest, let alone bad things that happened. But I didn’t think about it because I had never been anywhere near the forest since moving to Lakebrooke. I wasn’t allowed half a mile from the house, but I couldn’t stop my feet that night. Something there called to me, and I followed the feeling. Perhaps I should have gone to the hospital, but the voice in my head told me to keep running. I was terrified, and the pain became so much that I thought that I would die. It was everywhere, all over and inside of me. Nothing I did made the pain go away, and the howls that ripped from my throat scared the hell out of me. I remember falling to my knees and praying for it all to end. I didn’t have a clue what was about to happen. All I wanted was to go home where I was safe from harm. But that couldn’t be because my legs snapped, I screamed, my back cracked, and I screamed again. The voice, one I’d heard before, back when I was thirteen and thought I was crazy, told me not to be scared, that all would be well as long as I didn’t fight the change. The moment I felt my face changing, I lost all control over myself. I blacked out as something else took over my body. When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t me anymore. Everything was strange, and I sobbed inside when I looked at my reflection in the lake. I was a Wolf. I didn’t know if I was insane or dreaming, but it didn’t feel real. The voice I’d heard before told me that her name was Chai and she was my Wolf. I was a Werewolf, and though she knew it would be hard for me to believe, it was the truth. I closed my subconscious and let Chai take control. I did because I was too afraid to do anything else. The next thing I remember, I was naked and walking, or rather, stumbling toward my house. Thankfully, my parents were still sleeping, so I was able to slip inside easily. I took a long hot shower in a world of my own, then woke up the following day, not knowing how I made it to bed. I ached everywhere but was shocked and surprised to realize I had super hearing, strength, and speed. I also felt like a freak because I was a woman who changed into a Wolf! I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t tell anyone because I had no one to tell. Who the hell, in real life, would believe such things as a Werewolf existed? That’s right, no one, and I would have ended up in a mental hospital. People already thought I was crazy; I didn’t want to give them a reason to say it was true. I went to the library and pulled out books of myths and legends of Lycans and Werewolves. I wanted to read them and see if what I’d been through could be true. What I read about Werewolves told me it’s possible for me to be such. However, I found it hard to believe when I don’t recall being bitten by a Werewolf. It’s also hard to believe that I was born this way; unless my birth parents were also Werewolves and had passed the gene on to me, which is freaking crazy. Humans don’t turn into animals! But just say it was possible, why would my birth parents leave me in a world of confusion, alone and with no one to talk to? All the reading and thinking made my head hurt. I had no clue what I could do or where I’d go next. I needed answers, and I didn’t know which way to turn, which meant I was more confused than before I read the books. I gave up reading books that sent me into fits of panic. I also stopped checking out Werewolves online because that was worse than reading the books. Around my shifts in Jill’s restaurant, I spent my evenings running to the forest and learning about the Wolf inside of me. Chai became my best friend, and she taught me a lot in a short amount of time. However, I know I’m naïve and still have much to learn. Chai told me that there are others like me out there, but I should not go looking. If I did that, I could be attacked by rogues, who were usually evil. Everything Chai has been trying to teach me hasn’t cleared much up. She doesn’t know much about other shifters because she didn’t awaken until I did, so she’s also learning as she goes. What she does know seems to be coming to her in pieces like a puzzle. It’s hard for her to piece them together, and Chai was worried she could give me incorrect information. Chai told me that this shouldn’t have happened, and she should automatically know who she was and how to help me. That’s why Chai believes that someone either bound us or put some kind of spell on us to keep us from knowing our true selves. I ignored the fact Chai pretty much told me there was magic out there. It’s not because I didn’t believe it; I can transform into a Wolf. Why wouldn’t there be magic also? But it was too much for me to deal with right then. Back to why I’m being thrown out of my house.