Page 18 of Betrayed Alpha Mate

“Hey, buddy…” Dad peeks in curiously, and I see him through the mirror. As I turn toward him, he steps inside and engulfs me in a warm hug.

“Hey, Dad!” I return before he pulls back and gently pats my face.

“Should have shaved for today, son. I think Emily liked you better when you were clean.”

I turn back to the mirror, a hand absentmindedly stroking my jaw where dark stubble frames my face. As I meet my eyes, I wonder if my father is right.

Did Emily like me more when I was clean-shaven?

Back in the day, when I was younger, I didn’t keep a beard. But that was before I rejected her, before I joined black ops, before I matured.

I’m not the same man I was back then.

“You really think she liked me better back then?” I ask curiously, to which my father nods as he steps in front of me, placing both hands on my shoulders.

“Unless she was just being extra nice because of Mom,” Dad says with a wistful smile and longing sigh. “But I always thought she liked you back then. More than she likes you now,” he chuckles.

I join him with a nervous chuckle, internally grimacing. If only he knew…

“We’ve both grown up a lot since then, Dad,” I lament, and my father nods thoughtfully as he fixes my tie, then pats my shoulder.

“Well, I would have thought Emily had outgrown you,” he chuckles lightheartedly as he turns to the mirror to rearrange his black cloak. “It sure seemed that way, even after you two returned from black ops.”

Was it that obvious? I think grimly, and Dad continues, “I’m surprised she’s marrying you at all.”

I frown at my father as I watch him brush a hand through his graying hair. “Why do you sound unhappy about it?”

“Unhappy?” Dad scoffs and turns back to me. “No. I’m not unhappy. I’m just wondering if you’re ready to be the man Emily needs.”

I stare dumbfoundedly at my father, wondering where this uncertainty is suddenly coming from.

When I first told him about the mating ceremony, he was ecstatic, it seemed. He has no idea that it’s for the sake of Emily’s powers, and he doesn’t know about her magic at all. But still, he looks at me suspiciously now, and I can’t help but wonder why.

“What do you mean, Dad?” I ask as my frown deepens.

He sighs first before he explains, “Since you got back from ops, we haven’t really spoken about what happened out there.”

“We don’t have to, Dad…” I begin, but he shakes his head.

“No, we have to. I thought I lost you when that call came in,” he says, reminding me of the time our black ops squad fought a group of ghastly vampires who used explosives to fight us and landmines to keep us from their hiding spot.

It was a mission only Tyler, Nicholas, and I were on, and I’d been caught in a blast.

A shiver passed through me at the memory of what it was like having a run-in with death. My chest had been sliced open, my flesh torn to the bone, and I’d been unconscious for nearly three days.

Delilah was with Hunter and Dominic on another mission across the state, and she was the only one who could have healed me. But I’d woken up from that near-death experience, and an angel appeared before my eyes. If it wasn’t for her, I probably would have died.

“I was horrified, thinking that I would lose my only son, and just a year after my wife died…” Dad sighs sullenly, his eyes saddening. “But that’s when Emily came to the rescue, insisting that she’d do everything to make sure you were alive. And that’s when she offered to join black ops with you, so that she could make sure you’d stay alive and come back home.”

“I thought…” I pause to gulp, confusion setting in. “I thought you imposed that on her as a condition for her taking over at the clinic.”

Dad shakes his head firmly. “I would have never asked Emily to join special ops. Your mother would never have allowed something like that to happen to that girl. She chose to do it on her own, and there was nothing I could say to stop her.”

I blink dumbfoundedly at my father, digesting this information. I had no idea Emily joined because of me.

I knew she saved my life when she joined as the medic for our team, and she stayed with us for the next three years until we retired.

She…she lied to me.