Hunter's Secret

*****Twenty-Two Years Ago*****

Red Rock Pack – Titus Black’s POV

I groan and put my hand out to snooze my alarm. I don’t want to get up yet. I just want to lay here a little bit longer with my beautiful mate, Lillian. I pull her a little closer and snuggle my face down into her perfectly straight black hair. I know my responsibility is to my pack, but I only met her a few weeks ago, she is amazing and perfect, and I just want to stay here forever. My alarm has other plans though and goes off again. This time I sit up and turn it off.

“Titus?” my mate mumbles. Her voice, even sleepy, sounds like an angel.

“My love, I have to meet with Liam this morning. You can go back to sleep.”

I walk over and give her a kiss on her forehead, and she smiles, drifting back to sleep.

‘Titus! Are you ready yet?’ Liam asks, annoyance in his voice.

‘I’m coming,’ I growl back. I throw on a hoodie and a pair of sweatpants and start to walk to the offices across from the pack house. I am very much not a morning person, but I don’t have the luxury of sleeping in anymore. I took over my father’s job as Alpha, on my eighteenth birthday, two weeks ago and immediately had to step into the role.

I met Lillian the next day and I instantly fell in love. She did too because we marked each other the next night. I move my hand up to the mark and have flashbacks of that night; the feeling of her teeth sinking into the spot under my ear, the flushed looks of her face, the way her body responded to my touch, her legs wrapped around my…

“Ahem! Are you just going to stand there daydreaming or are you actually going to lead this meeting, Alpha?” Liam scowled with sarcasm dripping off that last word.

“Watch your tone!” I growl, letting my Alpha aura out, “I am still your Alpha. You will respect me!”

Liam lowers his eyes involuntarily and huffs at me.

‘We should kill him. I would personally be much happier without him around,’ my wolf, Ryker, remarks.

‘We can’t just kill the Beta because we don’t like him. Although, I have considered it,’ I reply, and we both smirk.

“Shall we start the meeting now or are you just going to continue to insult me, Beta?” mocking his tone from earlier.

He doesn’t respond and just sits down. Begrudgingly, we both start to discuss current pack issues, of which there are many. It wasn’t planned for my father to step down as soon as I turned eighteen, but I guess he was just tired of doing it, so he left me to clean up all his messes. I honestly don’t even know where he is right now because he just decided to leave me and my dying mother to fend for ourselves. She has cancer and the treatments have stopped working. Maybe my father just didn’t want to have to watch her die. Not that I want to watch that either, but I also don’t want her to die alone so that is another super nice thing he left me to do.

“Okay, as much as I appreciate you telling me all the things that I have messed up on in the past two weeks, I am going for a run. We can finish this conversation later.” I simply say and stand up to leave.

“We need to talk about this now, Titus!” Liam shouts. I ignore his choice not to use my title, flip him off and leave anyway, hearing him slam his fists on the table as I shut the door behind me.

I head back to the pack house to check on Lillian and she is still sleeping. This is not surprising considering the meeting only lasted about twenty minutes. I walk back outside, slip out of my clothes, and let Ryker take control. Shifting, I groan, not used to the pain yet. Ryker takes off for the woods behind the pack house. We both need to blow off some steam. He runs while I think about what to do with Liam.

Liam has been my father’s Beta for many years now and hoped that he would earn the Alpha title when my father stepped down but unfortunately for him, I got it instead. I have never liked Liam, even when I was younger. Maybe that is from our almost fifteen-year age gap or maybe just the fact that he is a horrible person. He could choose to fight me for the position but despite his big talk, he is too weak and old to actually challenge me and win. I have Alpha blood and a mate. He has neither.

The only other ways to get rid of him without killing him are to have him step down willingly, which he definitely won’t do, or have someone challenge him and I don’t like anyone else my age enough to want to spend that much time with them. So, I am stuck with Liam for now. Just like I am stuck with all the other problems in this pack. It’s fine. I will handle it. By myself. Like I have done for years.

I need to figure out what to do about my mother first. She probably only has a few months left, a year at the maximum. The treatments aren’t working anymore, and they are so painful for her. The chemotherapy has left her and her wolf weak and tired. We have good doctors and good medicinal techniques, but the cancer has just wrecked her body. The twinkle in her eyes is gone now, and I am watching her slowly fade away. And my father left us. How could he just leave? His mate is dying, and he just leaves, without even saying goodbye to either of us.

'Titus? Would you like to have a picnic for lunch?’ Lillian mind-links me, breaking me from my thoughts.

‘Yeah, let me know when you want to eat,’ I respond.

‘It’s lunchtime now. I have everything ready. Where are you?’

‘By the pond.’

‘Okay, be there soon.’

I get a quick drink from the pond and go to shift but remember I don’t have any spare clothes with me, so I start to head back to the pack house. I head up over the hill and see Lillian walking toward me, holding a picnic basket in one hand and a pair of clothes in the other. Smiling, I run up to her and grab the basket in my mouth and lay down in the grass, motioning for her to climb on. She does and I take us to the edge of the pond. She sets the clothes on the ground, and I start to shift back. She turns her back toward me and I quickly put on my clothes, thankful for the jacket too. I walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her. She looks up at me and I kiss her forehead.

“You okay? You were out for a long time today, Titus,” she asks gently.

“Sorry, I lost track of the time. We just needed to blow off steam this morning.”

“I know, that’s why I brought you clothes.”

“How did you know? I haven’t talked to you since this morning.”

Pointing to her mark, “I can feel you. Remember? So, are you going to tell me what happened this morning or not?”

“Let’s eat first.”

“You’re deflecting again, Titus,” she scolds. I just sigh and turn to go get the food set up. I know she won’t leave it for long, but she doesn’t need all my problems too. I can handle them by myself. Right?

We eat in silence and when we are done, she stretches her legs out and motions for me to come over. I lay down beside her and place my head into her lap. She starts playing with my hair and I can feel myself start to relax.

“Your mom, your dad, or Liam this time?” she pointedly asks.

“Well, mom is still dying. Dad left. And Liam is just Liam,” I sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I can handle it, love.”

“I know you can handle it, but you don’t have to do it by yourself. Titus, I am here for you. I am not going anywhere.”

Looking up at her, I say thanks and she smiles and just continues playing with my hair. She moves her gaze back over the pond and I can feel her take a deep breath in to try to calm her sudden nerves. I try to figure out why she is nervous, but the words that leave her mouth are not ones I expected to hear.

“I’m pregnant.”