Page 99 of Dark Sold Mate

The late summer sun hung low in the sky, coloring everything in golden hues as Silas stood on the elevated platform looking down at his pack’s gathering. Wolves from his pack interacted freely with other wolves from the Clearwater pack, looking more united than ever before.

It’d been three months since they raided that warehouse and freed fifteen women from their trafficking ring. Three months after they had killed the auction head and given a crippling blow to the network that had been scaring the human women throughout the region.

Three months have passed since Elle told him that she was pregnant with their child.

Silas tracked her with his eyes through the crowd. She stood close to the food tables, laughing at something Sara had said, one hand unconsciously touching her stomach where the baby was growing. She was showing now—a mild swell which Silas found beautiful. Her hair was styled all the way down her back, and she looked happy and ethereal.

She was everything. His wife, the mother of his unborn child, the woman who changed his whole world.

“You are staring.” Rael appeared by his side with two glasses of what seemed to be whiskey. He offered one to Silas.

“I can’t help it,” Silas took the drink. “I mean, look at her.”

Rael followed his brother’s gaze to where Elle and Sara were now being joined by some of the Clearwater pack’s women. “She’s doing well. The pack has really taken to her.”

He was right. The change had been slow, though irrefutable. Since the rescue mission, once the news got out about Elle and her magical powers of tracking and her courage in confronting the traffickers, the attitude of the pack had changed towards her. They had begun to see her not just as a human, but as their Luna. The Alpha’s mate, who saved Starville’s reputation. More importantly, telling the pack about Elle's Omega designation had stunned them into silence—three generations was a long time, long enough that most of them had stopped believing it was possible. But the shock had slowly, and not without resistance, settled into something closer to reverence. It was still a long way from easy. But it was a start.

Then the news of the pregnancy made everything better. It melted even the hardest hearts at the promise of a new generation and the Alpha’s bloodline continuing.

Elle was now getting gifts, advice, respect, and love she had never expected from them all.

Even her old bullies never even looked at her, due to the fact that Silas had also threatened anybody who so much as glanced at Elle wrongly.

“Alpha Killian looks satisfied,” Silas nodded in the direction of where the leader of the Clearwater pack was busy talking with some of his pack members.

“He should be. We have shown that we are innocent, we have only tightened our partnership, and that we are determined to protect humans instead of treating them as inferior.” Rael took a sip of his whiskey. “The evidence taken in that warehouse, and the testimony of the rescued women, have cleared up our pack’s name.”

That was another good thing that happened in the last three months. The shifter Council had been shown the meticulous paperwork Elle had prepared, the photos and eyewitnesses, the names of the buyers they had photographed, all of it. Their reputation got fixed, and the case about Silas’s pack’s reputation was closed.

“Have there been any new auctions?” Silas asked, even though he knew the answer.

“None that we’ve detected. They are silent. They are either reorganizing after losing so many key players, or they have closed down totally.”

Silas was not sure about the latter. Organizations like that did not just disappear. They changed, evolved, discovered new methods of functioning unnoticed.

However, the trafficking had ceased in the meantime. For now, women were safe. And that was the victory Silas had to take.

“All fifteen ladies got home safe,” Rael said. “The last one got reunited with her family two weeks ago. Cristina’s rehabilitation worked like it was supposed to.”

Silas wondered about those women—the things they went through. What they saved them from. That was what they were fighting to achieve. That is what made the risks worth it.

“And Carter?” Silas asked.

Rael smiled. “Thriving. He has basically been adopted by August. The child is in school, his mother’s medical bills have been taken care of, and he is talking about training to be a pack enforcer when he is older.”

A smirk pulled at the corner of Silas’s mouth. He had gambled with Carter, but he had earned his way into that trust by giving them useful information. More so, Carter was now a part of their bizarre, extended family. It was a reminder for Silas that people could be saved, and one wrong decision didn’t make up your whole life.

“Speaking of,” Rael said, his tone turning teasing. “Have you not settled on names yet, two?”

“We are still on it,” Silas took a sip of his drink. “Elle prefers old-fashioned names. I want something that will dignify both sides of our child—the wolf and human side.

“Good luck with that. You’re both stubborn as hell.”

Silas laughed. “Don’t I know it.”

A movement in the crowd attracted his attention. Killian was coming toward the platform with a huge smile. “Alpha Silas,” he climbed the platform to join them. “This is quite a gathering. Your pack has outdone itself.”

Rael quietly slipped away, giving them privacy.