The Chosen Alpha (Prequel to The Female Alpha) novel Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Follow thy Heart

Mikalya’s P.O.V

“My name is Kashmira Shaw and I’m from the DawnFrost pack in Jammu.”

It was later in the afternoon, after we had returned to our hotel room with Kashmira and her son and had had our lunch that Kashmira finally decided to tell us about herself. We were sitting on our bed in a circle and sipping on some karak chai (strong tea) as she breastfed her baby, whose name we learned was Kushal.

She had gotten rid of the clothes she was wearing earlier, since they were torn and dirty, and now she had one of Ruksaar’s ghagras on and her face was uncovered. Now that I could look at her, I could tell that she was very young. She had dark brown eyes with a slight tilt to the corners and midnight black hair that reached her waist. Her son however, had dark brown eyes similar to his mother but his hair was a lighter brown in color.

“I was born and raised in that pack itself and I found out that my mate was the new Alpha of the pack. We were mated within a few days after we found out we were mates.”

“You don’t sound particularly thrilled about it.” I told her after listening to the disappointment in her voice.

“I’m seventeen years old.” She told us much to our surprise. “I was mated at fifteen, without a chance to even experience what life is. And Arsalan Ali, my mate, isn’t a very kind person.”

I sucked in a deep breath as memories resurfaced. Suddenly, I wasn’t sitting in the hotel room in Gujarat, not in the present, but I was transferred a hundred years back into the past, to a pack where women were treated worse than dirt and rape and abuse were just as normal to the men like breathing.

“Did he abuse you?” I asked her through gritted teeth, snapping the doors closed on all the painful memories from a century ago.

“No!” Kashmira shook her head. “He wasn’t cruel to me…he just…I didn’t really have much choice in anything I did or said. Everything had to be as he commanded.”

“Is that why you ran away?” Ruksaar asked her frowning. “Because he was suffocating you?”

“No…” This time, there was reluctance to her voice that led me to believe that she didn’t find it easy to share her secrets with strangers.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to tell us why you left,” I told her. “It’s of no business to us anyway. However, have you decided what you are going to do next? You have a baby with you that needs constant caring and by the looks of it; you have no money and nowhere to go.”

“I know that!” She snapped at us before biting her lips and lowering her head. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re not ready to share,” Ruksaar told her. “We understand that and since you have nowhere to go, you can stay here with us. But you have to understand that we are guests here ourselves. We won’t be staying here long, another week at most. You’ll need to do something for yourself in the meantime.”

Kashmira didn’t say anything for the longest time. She just hung her head and cradled her son close to her chest like he was her lifeline. So we left her alone.