Amaris Rejected! Stone Mountain Shifters, Book 2

Chapter 7 - Alpha Blake

**Trigger Warning**  Child loss

Amaris POV

Present Day

After giving Devi a bath to remove the spaghetti and berry stains, I put her to bed with a story. I take a nice hot shower, brush my teeth and put on my pajamas. I lay in my bed, but I can't sleep. Thoughts of Devon keep circulating through my brain and I can't shut them off. Of all the luck! I knew Alpha Blake was hosting an Alpha Conference, but after searching for Devon without success, I just let thoughts of him drift to the back burner. I guess after being abandoned, I didn't feel a real obligation to let him know about his daughter, so I didn't try hard.

Things were extremely difficult when I arrived here. Thankfully, I had my car and my monthly stipend that first year, so I was able to focus on childbirth and raising Devi. Simultaneously, I started online classes through the college and my professors worked with me so I was able to finish assignments early. Also, in my spare time, ha ha, I worked for The Healing Hand creating lotions, potions and cures. So when Devi was born, I was under a tremendous stress load, but the shifters I met here adopted us and helped me care for Devi while I completed my degree.

I barely slept, but when I did, I dreamed. A lot of my dreams turned out to be prophetic. I saw in my dreams the way forward. I would dream of certain people who needed a certain cure and they would show up at the shop the next day for help. I dreamed of Devi before she was born and of my childbirth. While it was a blessing to have Devi, I lost her older twin brother, Devlin. It was due to the stress of carrying them, working and classes, but I had no other choice.

I reached over to my bedside table and pulled out the scrapbook of the childbirth that Julia made for me from the photos she took. There are photos of me through my pregnancy. Shifters gestation is 4 - 5 months, so I got huge fast. There are a few photos in the delivery room, and then a couple of me holding both my son and my daughter. He was tiny, however, and they put him in the NICU where he stayed for a few months before he passed. He fought hard, but he was too precious for this world. I will see him again in the afterlife.

The last pages of the scrapbook were of me holding him after he died. The final one is the most heart breaking one of all. It showed me holding him up over my breast and I had just fallen apart. The pure sorrow on my face shows the devastation. I closed the book, sobbing once again as I put the scrapbook back on the shelf of the nightstand.

I had suffered great loss. I had been on my own my whole life and my fated mate had abandoned me after getting me pregnant. However, I am strong and I have a strong community behind me. I don't need an unreliable male to complete me. Anyway, he's here now and I have to face the fact that his daughter deserves a father and he has a right to be a father to her, if he will. That remains to be seen.

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The following morning, as I am about to walk in to see the first patient, I get a summons from Alpha Blake. "Amaris, can I come visit with you on your lunch break?"

"Sure, Alpha. 1:00pm?"

"I'll see you then." He closed the mind link.

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I wasn't dumb. I knew this was about Devon. He didn't mention anything about bringing anyone with him, so I assumed it would be just he and I.

My assumptions appeared to be correct when he showed up at my office door alone at exactly 1:00pm. He was punctual if nothing else. "Hey, Amaris." He greeted me with his wide dimpled grin as he closed the door. Seating himself on the armchair across from my desk, he leans back and leisurely clasps his hands behind his back. "I guess you know why I am here." I nodded. He continued. "I spoke with Alpha Devon Wright yesterday." I nodded again. "He told me a sad tale. I told him it sounded like he was screwed." He barked out a laugh. I joined him. Alpha Blake was one of the kindest wolves I had ever met.

He continued. "So Amaris, I don't want to pry too much, but as your alpha, I wanted to counsel you. After what my enforcers told me yesterday, I don't think you want anything to do, personally, with Alpha Devon. However, I know you and therefore, I know that you wouldn't keep your child from her father."

"That's correct, Alpha. I was just sitting at the diner yesterday evening, feeding Devi and he just appeared out of the blue. It was shocking." I confirmed. "And, you are also correct in assuming that I want nothing to do with a man that abandoned me the next day after we mated. I really consider him nothing but a mistake...a...a one night stand."

"Alpha," I continued, "I don't even know what happened nor why he left. We were in bed and the next morning I awoke to him exclaiming about 'what had he done.' Then he was gone as soon as he had his pants on, the rest of his things in hand. He never returned. I never heard from him again."

"He did share some things with me, Amaris, but I think that is his responsibility to talk to you about."

"I don't care, Alpha. I don't really want an explanation. Maybe one day, he can explain himself to Devi when she wants to know why he abandoned her mother." I growled. "But I want nothing to do with him, except to be civil and allow him time with Devi. I don't want her taken away from me because she is his daughter. He lost that right three years ago when he left. I don't care who you are, there is no good or bad reason to cast aside your mate."

"I agree with you, Amaris. There is no reason to jilt your mate." He is suddenly dead serious. "I've known Devin a long time. I was really surprised and disappointed to hear what he had to say. I would give anything to find my Luna." He stares out the window sadly. I wonder about his story. He is a very nice looking man. Easily 6'5", early thirties, chestnut hair and sea green eyes. Why couldn't he have been my mate?

Then it occurred to me, while I was sitting here across from this gorgeous man. I would never find my second chance mate unless I rejected Devon.

I leaned forward quickly, "I do need to meet with Devon. Can you arrange it?"