Chapter 32 - Rejected My Alpha Mate

Rachel POV

Bella & Rachel's Apartment

"Do you know your blood type, Ethan?"

I was filling out forms for my OB/GYN as part of the pre-admission process for my delivery day. If things went well, I would have my baby following the birth plan I was working on with my medical team.

I had yet to go public with my pregnancy, but I knew I wouldn't be able to hide it for much longer.

Ethan handed me a stack of forms he'd found for me at Patrick's place. I was hoping I would have a copy of my birth certificate ready to go. All my important paperwork had been kept with Patrick. I'd never needed it in the past since I had never gotten a job or legally married my mate.

Not that my mate would have legally married me, I thought with a flash of bitterness.

"I'm type O," Ethan said, "It's the same as Patrick. He donated blood when we had the school shooting. I remember it was a big deal because O is like the universal donor type and is in highest demand. He signed the form so I could donate too even though I wasn't sixteen."

I looked at my paperwork in confusion.

"This says I'm AB. What type would Mom have been for us to be AB and O? If she and Patrick were both O, could I be AB that way?"

"I have no idea," Ethan admitted, "I have her death record here. She's A. If she's A and Patrick is O, then we could be either O or A. You couldn't be AB. That's not possible."

I took the death record from Ethan. It was prepared by the Bureau of Werewolf Affairs where wolfen society records were kept. They chose to keep their own records when it came to pack members. My mother was said to have been from House Flores of Harvest Moon Pack which was Patrick's home pack.

Her birth name wasn't listed on the document and the seal smudged when I ran my finger over it.

What was going on here?

"Ethan, I don't think this is a real document."

Why would Patrick have forged a death record for our mother? She hadn't left him any money as far as I knew. Her family was unremarkable according to all we knew about her past. She had died from cancer in our home with a hospice nurse as the only attendant.

I remembered the nurse well. I looked through the stack of documents dealing with her death until I confirmed the nurse's name. I was about to ask Ethan about it when the door opened.

"You think you've got a forgery? Share! I haven't seen a good fake in a while," Jack laughed as he held the door for Bella and, surprisingly, Nathan Lewis.

Nathan asked, "You see forged documents on a regular basis? What kind of work do you do, Jack?"

Bella brought a bag filled with takeout over to the table and cleared a space for it. She stacked papers haphazardly while I tried to reconcile the sudden influx of people with the idea my records might be forged.

And I had an impossible blood type for my family line.

"I'm a junior associate at a law firm. Technically I've passed the bar exam so I'm a lawyer, but I don't have enough experience to get my own cases. I mostly push paper around right now."

"What are you doing here, Nathan?"

For a moment, I was a teenager again with my boyfriend bringing over burgers after school. Nathan, Bella and I had spent a lot of nights together studying around a kitchen table. Having Jack and Ethan there made it feel even more cozy. I wondered why I felt so disoriented when I loved every person present in one way or another.

"I ran into Bella and Jack at the Chinese place. I convinced them to get their meal to go so I could come back here to help you out."

"He offered to pay. Who was I to turn him down?" Jack laughed, reaching for the paper I had smudged.

I offered the death record to him. The ink of the seal was definitely smeared even though I hadn't spilled anything on it. My fingers weren't damp either.

I had no idea why Patrick would have forged a death record for my mother, but it really seemed as if he had.

"Do you know anything about death records issued by the BWA? I was born in a human hospital and so was Ethan. We have his birth certificate. It's identical to the human documents issued. I looked it up online."

There weren't nearly as many examples of documentation from the Bureau of Werewolf Affairs. I wasn't sure if the BWA was more secretive than the human agencies or if it was because there were fewer documents issued for our kind.

I felt lucky I had Jack to ask for free legal help. He might only be in his internship stages at the firm, but Jack knew his way around the law and he loved Bella enough to be willing to do anything to help me even if it was only on her behalf.

Jack held the paper up to the light before looking at me with a confused expression. Bella came back from the kitchen with plates and forks. I wasn't in the mood to eat -hadn't even been thinking about food- until the smell of the Chinese wafted over me.

Soy sauce and steamed vegetables and sweet spices all overwhelmed my senses.

Suddenly I was starving.

I took a plate from Bella and began to help myself from the boxes while Jack worked up the nerve to say whatever he had to say.

I tried to encourage him.

"You don't have to worry about me freaking out. Patrick is a first-rate liar. I've known him as a crook all my life. As long as you pass me the egg rolls? I'll promise to hold it together while you tell me what you know."

Jack chuckled, "I guess you are probably more familiar with cons than most. This is definitely a fake. Your mother died of cancer, right?"

"Yes," I acknowledged, covering my rice with more soy sauce and sweeping another pile of papers off to the side to make room for a drink.

"She died at home though," Ethan said, "Does that matter? It wasn't at the hospital. There was a nurse there who called the time of death and we had to wait on someone to come make it official. Her body didn't leave the house for hours."

Werewolves had no particular preferences on burial rights. Some followed the same traditions as humans while others wanted cremation only or a simple burial on pack lands.

My mother had wanted to be cremated according to Patrick. I'd never questioned him about it. My world had been too shattered from losing my mother to care what happened to her body once she was gone.

"I remember she was so still."

I didn't think Ethan remembered the day our mother died at all. He had been so little, not even school aged. I was a child myself and the day was mostly a blur in my memories.

"I didn't think you remembered it," I murmured between bites as Ethan seemed to be lost in thought while eating himself.

He made a sound in response before saying, "I remember. I just don't talk about it because it makes you sad. Why would Patrick fake the death record?"

"Insurance scam?" Jack suggested, shrugging, "Or he needed paperwork to show to someone on an unofficial basis. These would never pass inspection from any human authority. We still have to get a legal death certificate from the human courts in this country. Wolfen society is different in other nations, sure, but here? All of us have to have the same paperwork when we're born or we die."

I was confused as I had been filling out my birth forms for my baby on the way.

"Ethan has a birth certificate from the human hospital he was born in. I should have one too? I don't know what hospital I was born in. I think I was born on pack land."

"You still don't have your paperwork together? We can apply to get you new copies, you know?"

Nathan spoke up from the seat he'd taken beside me, "I can help with documents from the pack side of things, too. You know my mom works for the Bureau of Werewolf Affairs?"

No, I had no idea what Nathan's mother did for a living. I assumed she stayed home like a traditional luna to attend to pack business.

"I didn't know. I would appreciate the help though."

"Enough to give me a date night where we aren't both working?"

I smiled around my fork. I was ready to hug Nathan for the food alone. I briefly thought of Tyler -he would be furious I stepped out with Nathan- only to shove him out of my mind.

All Tyler cared about was his father's schemes.

Nathan wanted to be with me. Tyler was afraid of even a photo being taken of the two of us together.

"How's tomorrow look for you?" I asked after swallowing my food.

"Looks a lot better now I'm going to share it with you."

"Okay, okay. Enough sap from you two. We want to enjoy dinner too, you know?"

I laughed at Jack and gestured to the food, "Better get started helping yourself then because this pack of wolves isn't shy around food."

"You're not shy around anyone. Eat up! We can always have Nathan order more. He can afford it!"

I gasped only to realize everyone was looking at Nathan for a reaction. A moment passed and he burst into laughter before agreeing.

It felt good to share a laugh with my friends and family---but I wondered what I would learn about my family when the real documents I needed started to come in and what my ex-mate would do when I made sure to get my picture taken with Nathan Lewis on our date night tomorrow.