My Alpha mate left our son dying, to save his mistress's son

I clutched my son, Kael, pressing a trembling hand against the gash weeping crimson on his small side.

The rogue claws had found him moments ago, and the silver dust embedded in the wound was doing its terrible work, but the blood loss was the greater threat.

"Julian, please," I pleaded, my voice thin and ragged with fear. I looked up at my Mate, the Alpha, my eyes begging him to recognize the gravity of the situation.

"We have to get Kael to the healer's den. Now."

Julian, powerful and imposing, stood before the cabin's fireplace, his body tense. He glanced at the blood soaking the fur Kael was wrapped in, his eyes were complicated, shadowed by something I couldn't decipher.

"Just a moment, Lyra," he said, his tone annoyingly detached. "I have other things to handle at the moment."

While my heart hammered with primal terror over my son’s life, a terrible sting of emotional neglect pierced me.

While our son was lying in the pool of blood, fighting each and every second for the survival, he was busy in his mind telepathy, desperately trying to connect with someone. I wondered who.

I struggled to hold my son steady, the need to move overcoming me. "Have other things to handle? Are you kidding me, Julian? Kael is bleeding from a silver wound! We need to go. Now."

"Will you please shut your mouth for a moment?" He yelled at me.

I was stunned to see him going mad at me, for what? For trying to protect our child?

"Just a moment, Bella. This is really important." He added, his voice lower than earlier, a small effort to erase the guilt he felt after realizing how wrong he was shouting at me at a situation like this.

A cold, unfamiliar rage spiked through my fear. What business could possibly be more important than the life of his true-born son and heir?

But before I could argue, a faint, high-pitched howl echoed from the north side of the territory. It wasn't the sound of battle; it was a distinctive distress call.

Julian answered it instantly, not with his voice, but with a low, rumbling acknowledgment in the Pack-mind. His expression instantly shifted, the stoic determination replaced by a familiar desperation, and a look of hurried decision.

"I have to go," he growled, already moving toward the door, his eyes avoiding Kael.

I felt a surge of pure, freezing shock as I forced the words out, "What? No, Julian." I pleaded, clutching Kael closer, "You can't just leave us here. We need to carry Kael to the healer. Our den is surrounded with rogues and I can't do this without you."

Julian paused by the threshold, his immense shoulders hunched. He looked back at me, his eyes now a mixture of guilt, frustration, and a deeply-rooted concern that wasn't for us.

"I'm sorry, Bella, But… Elara's pup is hurt. Badly. She’s too far out, and the rogues might still be near. I have to go to them."

Elara's pup. The child she had conceived from a past fling, the child Julian had always treated with too much possessive care. He was leaving his own son, wounded and poisoned, to go to her child?

"You're kidding," I whispered, my voice shaking with disbelief and sorrow. "You're going to leave your own son to save hers?"

Julian looked at me, his face set in a grim mask. "I'm sorry, Bella. But I have to go. You know Elara's child is weak and can't be moved without assistance. Kael is strong; he'll wait for me."

Elara's child had a slight crack in his backbone. Healers had suggested that it could be fixed with regular exercises. But, Julian said it's too tiring.

He let her pup take rest all the time instead and promised him to exchange his bone when he is old enough for the surgery.

To keep him entertained and not feel lesser than other pups, he began spending five days a week with him and Elara, completely neglecting Kael and me.

But, never in my worst nightmares had I thought that he would leave us to die in rogues' hands to go save Elara's pup.

"What about my son, Julian?" I asked, a fresh wave of panic making my voice tremble. He crossed the floor in a single stride, looking only at me, never at Kael.

"You will be fine, Bella. Just hold the wound tight. The bleeding will slow. I will be back before the Moon rises."

I still tried to stop him. But, before the words could escape through my lips, he was gone. I was at a loss for a long time, not knowing what to do, the sound of Kael's unnormal breathing enhancing the terror in my eyes.

"M-Mom..." Keal, my two years old child, choked, "Where is Dad? Why is he not doing anything?"

I barely managed to suppress the tears from streaming on my cheeks at my son's words. I did not want to scare him. So, I said, "He is clearing ways for us, Kael. He will be here. Soon. I promise. Just hang on a little."

After whispering a few encouraging words into his ears. I walked up to the window of our room. I slowly slid the window sill to get the outside view. My eyes widened in terror.

The rogues' were everywhere. Killing each and every person coming in their way. But, my gaze fixed at a familiar person. Julian.

There he was, holding Elara's pup in his lap, who looked completely fine, his top-tier soldiers making way for Julian and Elara.

I took a sigh of relief. Now that he had rescued Elara and her pup, he would possibly return to us, to save Kael, his son. I immediately connected Julian through telepathy.

"Julian, now that Elara and her pup are safe, can you please return and help us? Kael doesn't have much time."

"Liam is traumatized by the attack, Bella. He isn't reacting. Elara can't handle him alone. I need to stay with them tonight." He had replied, his voice laced with concern and worry, just not for Kael but Liam.

Just when I thought I would go crazy in anguish, Kael's painful scream echoed through the room.

I turned back only to find a huge and strong wild rogue standing next to Kael, his nails dug deeper inside Kael's neck, making him bleed from two places now.

"Tell your Alpha to fulfill our demand or you son dies!" He barked.