The Ripple Effect

“Mr. Luca... Are you mad at me?”

I was pulled from my thoughts by the small, scared voice of the little girl shuffling beside me. Her eyes were wide and glazed as if she was holding back tears. My heart clenched.

Yes, this little girl has been raised by vicious and heartless killers... But she wasn't too far gone. She had a few less than positive qualities, sure, but who didn't? Making her feel insecure certainly wouldn't help. So I forced the negative thoughts out of my head and swooped down until I was eye-to-eye with the sniffling angel.

“Sweetheart, I could never be mad at you,” I promised, chaffing her arm gently. “I was just thinking really hard.”

“Oh.” She looked down, but then she grinned impishly and jumped at me.

Her arms latched around my neck, and I smiled as I straightened back onto my feet and resumed walking with the little leech mooching an easy ride.

“What’re you thinking about?” Zeya asked, nestling into the crook of my neck.

“Nothing important,” I decided, sighing softly. She didn't need to know my weakness in her... No little girl should ever have to know that feeling of betrayal.

“It’s important,” she countered, patting my cheek roughly. “Tell me.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know, you’ll catch more bees with honey than vinegar.”

“But I’m trying to catch a wolf, not a bee. So this works just fine.”

I gave her a strange look, and it only made her giggle and wriggle around in my arms until I put her down.

“Tell me right now, Mr. Luca.” I gave her a stern look. “Tell me right now...please?”

I groaned loudly. This girl had the biggest puppy eyes I had ever seen!

“I was just thinking about what we’re going to do,” I lied quickly, wanting this dropped.

But she gave me a cross look. Then her bottom lip started quivering, and she looked down.

“You’re lying,” she whispered, shaking her head. “It’s about me. You don’t want me anymore!”

“What? That’s not—!”

“Yes, huh! You hate me!”

“Zeya, I just—!”

“No!” she screamed, quickly turning and running back in the way we just came.

I immediately took off after her, demanding she turn around right now. But since when does an Alpha voice work on another Alpha? Of course she kept running, and it was so hard to keep up with her that she slowly faded into a blur in the distance.

My heart sunk in my chest. What if they found her? What if she ran right into her father’s arms and Zeya met the same fate as her mother? It would be my fault.

“Zeya!” I screamed even louder, so loudly that my lungs threatened to burst.

But minutes passed, and the minutes turned into an hour. I could faintly smell her scent over the forest, but it grew weaker as the seconds waned on.

"Zeya! Zeya, where are you!" I called, my heart sinking farther with each step.

Is this what raising children was like? Her mood had come out of nowhere! And this was horrible! Terrifying scenarios kept flashing through my mind, and I was powerless to dismiss them as fantasy. What if her pack had found her? Or what if someone mistook her as a rogue and attacked? Or what if—?

"Zeya! Zeya, answer me!" I screamed, much more frantic as I kicked trees and shook bushes in the hopes that she would jump out of one of them. "I'm going to count to three! ...One! ...Two...? ...Thr—"

My empty threat (like I could punish that angel!) was cut short when I was knocked onto my back, my breath rushing from my lungs. I gasped for air, stunned, as someone pushed on my chest and leaned closer to my face.

"You think you can just run around kidnapping children?" a woman hissed, jabbing my chest with a horribly bony finger. A growl of disapproval slipped past my lips, and that earned me a curt slap across the face.

"Umm... Ow?" I grumbled as my hand absently rose to my stinging cheek. "What the hell is your problem!"

She rolled her icy blue eyes at me, but her status as a shifter was no surprise—if her strength was any indicator. Then, the woman rolled her head around as sickening, popping noises filled my ears, and she glared down at me.

"You're looking for Zeya. You're screaming your head off about her, your little war prize."

"What on earth are you—?"

"Your type make me sick!" The woman spat, poking at my chest again. It was really starting to piss me off... "You men think you own everything you can put your hands on! Well, do you want to know what I think?" She jabbed me again, and my jaw ticked. "I think you're all a bunch of pigs! And pigs don’t deserve anything!"

She tried to jab me again, but I snatched her wrist out of the air, twisted her arm behind her back, and jerked around until I had her pinned beneath me. A gasp of air rushed past her lips, but I just glowered down at her.

"Stop poking me, damn it!" I hissed, applying more force to her wrists when she tried to wrench herself free. "Now, what do you know about Zeya? Where is she?"

"Like I would tell you!"

"Damn it, where is my daughter!"

Her eyes widened, and her mouth started moving awkwardly.

"D-Daughter?"

"I won't repeat—"

"Daughter?"

That voice wasn't the woman beneath me. My heart thudded against my ribcage, and my head snapped to the right. The woman was forgotten in that second, my legs already having pushed me far away.

I pulled the little girl into my arms, lifting her from her feet and crushing her against my chest as I whimpered threats to my runaway while simultaneously breathing praise to every deity I knew. She wriggled and squirmed, but I held tightly onto her.

"Never do that again, Zeya!" I growled in her ear as I finally let her feet touch the ground again.

"You called me your daughter," she whispered, gawking up at me through wide eyes.

"Ah, geez, Zeya..." I had never blushed before in my life!

"You did, though! So you don’t hate me? You called me your daughter... Papa."

My heart clenched inside my chest, and for once it wasn't from the pain of my mate's rejection. It seized for this little girl, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling. My vision became blurry. I instinctively wiped the water from my eyes before the tears could fall, and I pulled Zeya back into my arms as I knelt down before her. I wanted to see her.

I wanted to see this little girl as she is now, and I wanted to see her when I no longer had to kneel to look her in the eyes. I wanted to see this little girl grow up and find a mate, a family of her own. And even then, she would come see me every day to show me my grand-pups.

Even now, as I looked into her eyes, I knew that I could count on her to be there. I had thought that my only chance for happiness was with Sophie. But clearly it was with this girl.

My daughter.

"Of course I don’t hate you. You scared me half to death," I whispered, pressing a chaste kiss to her forehead. "You can't just run off because you're upset with me, Zeya. Never do that to me again, okay?"

"I promise I won't," she whimpered, wrapping her tiny, shaking arms around me.

“Good.” I slowly lifted myself back onto my feet. Once I was sure of Zeya’s words, I turned around to look at the woman sprawled on the forest floor. “I have never threatened a woman in my life. But if you continue to be an obstacle, that status will have to change.”

“Papa, she’s nice,” Zeya whimpered, tugging on the edge of my shirt. “She found me and made me stop running. Otherwise, I’d be halfway across the globe by now.”

I gave the little girl a weary look, but I did not doubt her words for even a second. Begrudgingly, I turned and held out my hand to the woman still lying wide-eyed on the ground.

She stared at it for a moment, but then her look of shock was displaced by the bitter expression of stubborn rage. I only just suppressed a growl when she smacked my hand away in favour of being a show off. Though her backwards handspring onto her feet was a little impressive, I would never admit that.

“I see this was a case of miscommunication,” she muttered.

“Your apologies need work,” I commented dryly.

“I wasn't apologising.” She rolled her eyes and placed her hand on her hip. My lip twitched into a sneer. “Zeya, my offer still stands. Even if you must bring your...oaf with you.”

The thought of tearing the woman to shreds flashed through my mind, but a tiny hand grasped my fingers.

“Papa, she offered a place to sleep and dinner. Can’t we stay? It’s just one night.”

I tore my eyes from the angel and looked at the smirking she-Devil before me. But my shoulders slumped in defeat.

“If it’s what you want...”