Valen POV
The moment I laid eyes on him, I knew he was mine when he suddenly squealed loudly and barrelled
toward me on his little legs and crashed against me. I imagine the look on my face was of pure horror
at first as the pint-sized creature clung to my legs.
Tatum and Marcus just stared gobsmacked, and Marcus had his mouth wide open like he trying to
catch flies.
“I found you, I found you, I knew I would find you,” The boy screams, bouncing on the balls of his feet. I
pat his back, not knowing what to do with the kid. Yet touching him only made this scenario more real, I
was kind of thinking my drink was spiked, and someone slipped me hard drugs, and for a second, I
kind of hoped they had until I got a whiff of his scent.
He was a Rogue, but his Alpha aura was strong, too strong for just me, indicating both his parents were
Alpha born. Only another Alpha would scent the potency of his aura even as small as he is, but his
scent was also familiar.
“So he is yours then?” Tatum asks, stepping into my apartment. I blink before staring down at him, his
big amber eyes staring up at me. There was no doubt. he was mine. And I nod, apparently I have a
son? But how, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to have a kid t o an Alpha? What woman in the world
would hide it, that’s assurance for life having an Alpha’s child, what woman doesn’t want that?
“Who did you knock up?” Tatum asks while Marcus just rubbed his chin; he raises a finger in the air like
he was about to say something then closed his mouth before opening and closing it. First time I had
seen him lost for words.
“Everly…She has a?” he doesn’t finish when I pick up the creature that apparently came from my family
jewels. I press my nose into his neck, wondering if I smelt right. I near dropped him when I am
smashed with her mouth -watering scent perfuming out from his pores along with mine.
The boy giggles and tucks his chin as my stubble brushes his neck and face. “Stop, it tickles, ” He
laughs, and I couldn’t help but smile at his adorable cackle before he reaches for my neck with his tiny
hands, and I place him on my hip, sniffing his head.
“Your mother is Everly Summers?” he nods.
“Yep, and I am Valarian Summers, ” That would be changing, I thought instantly.
“Mum will be so happy, now you can be with my mum, I can take you home to surprise her, and we can
be a real family,” he says, smiling with all his teeth on display. Somehow I did not see that happening,
but it raised another question, how the hell did I get her pregnant when I hadn’t slept with her.
“Valarian?” I murmur, making me wonder if he was named after me and what a resemblance to my
mother’s name, Valarie; she died when I was a baby. I liked the name but was shocked she would
name him after me, yet how did she manage to keep him
from me, and more importantly, how is he here without her?
“How old are you?” I ask him.
“Five,” He answers, holding up his hand fingers splayed out, and I look at Marcus.
“How?” I ask him, and he shrugs.
“Well, I am sure you know-how, ” Marcus says, and I raise an eyebrow. Of course, I know-how. But I
wanted know-how it was possible; it made no sense.
“He is Everly’s, ” I repeat to him, and he nods.
” Get in and close the door, ” I snap at them both in case someone comes up here looking for me. I
definitely didn’t want anyone overhearing how the mother of my child kept him a secret from me.
“I’m hungry, dad. I haven’t had lunch. It took all day to find you, ” Valerian says, and Marcus walks over
to take him, but I tug away from him, not wanting to put my new son down. Instead, hugging him closer
and smelling his scent, god we smell good together, I thought.
“I will make the food then, ” Marcus says, and I nod to him. I hated Marcus’s cooking, but right now, I
wasn’t willing to put him down as if he would somehow vanish, and it would all be a dream, one I didn’t
want but now suddenly couldn’t imagine not having him in it. Please be real; if I wake and it isn’t real, I
may just consider that I have lost my mind because who dreams this shit up? And actually wants it
desperately to be true. I always wanted kids but never dreamed of them.
“Uncle Marcus will make you something to eat,” Valerian nods and eyes Marcus curiously.
“He doesn’t smell like you?”
“I am an only child, so he is not a real Uncle, but he is like my brother to me,”
“Ah, you have a village too? Mum and I have a village, Aunty Zoe and Aunty Macey, are mums village,
did your dad make you leave too as mums did? He called her names, and we had to build our own
family, ” Valarian states, and I blink at him.
“How about you tell me all about your village, and then I think we should ring your mum?” Valarian
nods.
“So you aren’t coming home with me?” he asks.
” How about we try to bring your mum here?” I tell him while walking into the living room.
“Thirsty, there is chocolate milk?” Marcus calls out to him, and he nods. Marcus continues to the
kitchen, and I place him on the couch sitting across from him on the other. Marcus brings him a glass of
milk, and Valarian takes it from him, gulping down half the glass before looking around at the coffee
table. His brows furrow, but he doesn’t set the glass down and I clench my teeth, I knew Marcus did it
to see my reaction by the smug smile on his face, but I was shocked by Valarian’s following words.
“Where are your coasters? You need coasters, ” he says, sitting like a statue as if the thought of
placing the cup down would make the world stop.
“Definitely your kid,” Marcus says, rolling his eyes before walking off, and coming back with a coaster. I
watch as Valarian places the coaster on the coffee table when Marcus gives it to him before he makes
sure his cup is perfectly centered. The coaster is straight, making me remember Everly finding me
coasters when I visited her.
She said one of the kids of the rogues was a little OCD. Now I wondered if she meant our son. Valerian
clasps his hands in his lap, looking around and twiddling his thumbs.
“How did you find me?” I ask him.
“Mum, showed me a picture on the internet and I got maps, but I couldn’t find your street. Casey got
the wrong maps. And then I found him, and Tatum brought me here, “
“I take it you’re the missing rogue boy, I heard about on the radio?”
“I was on the radio?” He asks excitedly, and I smirk.
Tatum chuckles, watching as he stands by the couch Valarian sits on.
“Yes, and I imagine your mother is quite worried about you, “
“Mum always worry’s about me,”
“I imagine that is what mothers do?” I tell him, and he nods.
“So, tell me more about your Village,” I ask him. “What do you want to know?”
“Do you know which pack your mother came from?”
He shakes his head and chews his lip like he was thinking.
“I know mum had a sister, and they used to be best friends, she doesn’t like speaking of her real family,
“So you have never met her parents, ” He shakes his head.
“No, they called mum a rogue whore and kicked her out because mum had me, but she isn’t a rogue-
whore right?” he says, his brows furrowing.
“Why would they do that?” he asks suddenly. I didn’t know how to answer that, but from what I know,
Everly was nearly twenty-three, so that would have made her Seventeen or eighteen when she had
him. But then Everly’s words flooded my mind, “I am not a rogue-whore“ she said, so that meant she
knew who I was and what I was from the beginning?
“Did your mother say why she didn’t tell me you existed?” he shrugs.
“She said she did tell you, but you didn’t believe her, then she said she couldn’t, ” Marcus also looks at
me, and I try to think for a second.
“What do you mean she couldn’t, ” He scratches his head.
“Why couldn’t she?”
“In case you took me off her, Mum thinks I don’t listen, but I do, she thinks you would take me away
from her, but you won’t, right?” I lean forward and brace my arms on my knees before scrubbing a hand
down my face.
“No, I won’t take you from her,” However, I would if
she didn’t tell me how the hell this was possible and also why the hell she kept him from me.
“How old are you?” he asks randomly. “Me?” he nods.
“Twenty-nine, ” I tell him.
“Your old,” He snickers.
“You won’t think that when you’re my age, ” he goes to ask something else but I speak before he could.
” I think we should ring your mother, she would be worried, and I think I should talk to your mummy, ” I
tell him and he nods.
“So you will come live with us now?” I pause because I knew that wasn’t going to be a possibility
anytime soon, or maybe it could be. If only it were that easy. I had no idea, this was the last thing I
expected, but I suddenly felt like shit, that she had been raising our son on her own, looking after him
all this time.
I pull my phone from my pocket when I realize something else. I met her when she was rogue and
kicked her out of my packhouse. My stomach sinks. I kicked my own son and mate out in the rain when
she was homeless and living in her car. The thought sickened me, he was right there all this time and I
did nothing for either of them. No wonder she hates me.
Marcus places a plate of grilled cheese in his lap, and he stares at it before looking up at Marcus.
“For real, how is it possible for you to be so much like him when you have never met?” Marcus says,
walking off and returning with a butter knife and fork as well as a placemat.
“They’re happy now?” he asks, and Valarian goes to open his mouth. I dial Everly’s number listening to
it ring. Marcus watches Valarian before speaking again when Valarian still doesn’t start eating.
“Yeah, yeah, I will get you a napkin, ” he laughs, walking off, and Valarian smiles and so do I. Marcus
ruffles his hair when he returns before passing him the napkin.
” Grilled cheese can be eaten with your hands, it’s finger food,” Marcus tells him, and Valarian
scrunches his face up. That’s my boy. The phone continues to ring when after a few seconds she finally
answers.
“I really haven’t got time right now, ” Everly says, hanging up on me. I shake my head before redialing
her number.
“What, Valen?” She growls into the phone.
“Want to explain how I have a boy with amber eyes and a startling resemblance to me sitting across
from me?” I ask her, and she falls silent for a second. “Valarian?”
“That would be him, we need to talk. One of my men will be waiting for you out the front of my hotel,” I
nod to Tatum, and he nods back to me before walking out. “See you soon, ” I tell her hanging up before
she can say anything. If she wanted our son back, she could come to me.
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