7. Babysitting

LIAM

It was evening, Mom had mind-linked me to stop by only for me to realise she had tricked me.

"Me alone with her?" I asked, looking at the little pumpkin.

"She’s a good girl, Liam." Mom said dismissively.

Dad smirked.

"Yup, a real angel." He added, not sounding very convincing. "We could do this tomorrow?"

"No baby, we are going." Mom said firmly.

They were going to visit some lone wolves who lived near our pack territory. Considering the murder, Mom and Dad decided to check in on them, and here I was stuck with my little sister Azura - Aunty Indy’s girl that Mom carried.

"Wiyam, I be good." She blinked those large blue eyes as she assured me.

No, that was an alarm bell right there. No kid who says they will be good will be good… and I had seen the devil, Dante. Kids were scary… Don’t mess with them.

"So, since you're visiting a few elderly wolves… you should be home by eleven?" I asked.

Mom smirked.

"Yes, hopefully. Relax Liam but I do think we will be back before eleven. It's only six pm now." She said, glancing at the clock on the wall.

"Anything I need to know…"

"No, just keep her away from the sugary stuff. There’s pizza in the oven. It should be done in twenty minutes. Eat, get her ready for bed, tell her a story, then she should knock off." Mom said, grabbing her jacket before meeting Azura with a hug and kisses.

The fact that it had been just me and my twin, Kiara, growing up; we didn’t have younger siblings, so seeing Mom like this was strange. Not to mention, I wasn’t here for Azura’s entire three years of life.

Was she really going to sleep? Didn’t look like it…

"Oh yeah Liam, Raven was saying she wanted to move to the packhouse, get something sorted for her. I was going to tell you earlier, but then with everything that happened last night, I wasn’t in the right headspace." Mom said, just when she was about to step outside.

"Sure." I said, emotionlessly.

Raven at the packhouse? Fuck, that’s where I was staying… I couldn’t deal with this, not when just looking at her made me want to go over to her and claim her as mine.

Once the door shut after Mom and Dad, I looked at the little girl who now had her finger shoved up her nose.

"Don’t do that. It's gross." I said, crouching down in front of her.

"Do what?" She said, taking her finger out of her nose and… fuck!

She ate it!

"Azura, pumpkin, you don’t eat that."

"Eat what?" She asked.

Did she not realise what she had just did?

"Ok, let’s wash your hands…"

She frowned as I tugged her to the kitchen. Goddess kids were gross.

"I washed my hands after I went to the toilet, Wiyam."

"Yeah, but you were picking your bogeys." I said, lifting her onto the worktop.

"Oh, they're tasty." She giggled.

I cringed. Were we this disgusting as kids?

"Alright, how about we get the pizza and watch a movie while you eat?" I suggested.

Hopefully, she’ll fall asleep in the process. I took a tray out, grabbing what we needed before taking the pizza out.

"Wiyam, can I have Coca-Cola?" She asked, as I took a can from the fridge for myself.

I’m sure Mom said no sugar…

"Aren’t you too little?"

"No, I'm allowed half a can." She said, looking up at me with those large eyes of hers.

That’s true. We were werewolves. I guess pups were more tolerant to caffeine how adults would be to alcohol and stuff.

"Ah. Ok." I shrugged, grabbing another one and placing it on the tray before carrying it to the living room.

Placing the food down, I put a slice on her plate and asked what she wanted to watch on TV.

"I watch… that!" She pointed at a show and I put it on for her. Sitting back, we began eating and my mind wandered to Raven and what she had said earlier. It was hard seeing her, yet all I wanted was to see her all the fucking time. The urge to just pull her into my arms and tell her to fucking accept me and me alone was so damn strong. But I didn’t really deserve that, not after how I shut her out for the last three years.

‘What are the autopsy results? Anything yet?’ I asked Zack through the link.

‘Poison, but the traces are so light we barely picked them up.’

"Wiyam, coke!"

I opened the can, putting a straw into it for her as I held it out to her distractedly.

‘Of? What did it include?’

‘They still working on that, but there were traces of silver and wolfsbane mixed in too.’

‘Get pictures of the mutilation, exact time of death, and whatever else you can before returning the body to the family…’

‘So soon?’ Zack sounded surprised.

‘His parents wanted him back... If we can’t get any more information from him, then it's best we accept their wishes. There were a few scents around him, I’ll question those wolves tomorrow.’

‘Ok Alpha.’

I closed the link to see Azura sucking on the straw-like there was no tomorrow.

Shit, how much did she have? I pulled the can out of her iron grip to see it was practically empty.

Well, fuck.

"That was tasty." She said in awe, shivering from the fizziness, before she gave me a big smile. "I love coke."

A sliver of doubt entered my mind, and I wondered was she really allowed it?

I got the answer to that ten minutes later…

"I want to go out! Let's go for a walk, Wiyam!"

She was hyper and acting like a rabid dog right now.

"Wiyam!" She pulled at my sleeve before biting it and pulling my arm. "Out!"

"Mom said bed, Azura." I said, about to pick her up when she tensed and I could hear her pounding heart.

Shit, she was going to cry!

"Ok fine, let’s go for a walk."

Seriously, I hope this wore her out, I guess I couldn’t really complain. What idiot gives a kid coke just because they said they are allowed it..? Me. That’s who.

Two hours later, Azura still had not settled down. She was beyond upset, crying and asking for Mom. I did text Mom, who said they had a little way to go, but thanks to an accident they were in the midst of a traffic jam, and they couldn’t really abandon the car.

At first, Azura had been happy and running around, but then she started getting upset, and now she was out of control.

"I want Mama!" She was now screaming in my arms.

Damn kids were loud.

"Look Azura, how about we go back home-"

"MAMA!!!"

Fuck! My ears were going to burst.

She was trying to escape my hold, hitting my shoulder as she cried. If Mom saw the state she was in, she was going to castrate me.

"Need help?" Raven’s sexy voice came from behind me.

My heart skipped a fucking beat as I turned towards her. As much as I wanted to refuse her help, I couldn’t handle the pup in my arms.

I didn’t reply, watching her. Her eyes weren’t on me but on Azura, giving her a gentle smile, although she was crying too much to even pay attention. With Raven, she always had that smile on her face. You wouldn’t think she had snapped at me in my office earlier by the look of her now, but it was one of the things I loved about her most growing up.

She had been a lot smaller than Kiara, but she always held her hand, taking care of her, making sure she never stumbled or hurt herself. Raven had always been tiny, but the size of her heart was fucking huge. She always held such a positive and loving energy around herself that even when I sensed her sadness, it would be accompanied by the biggest smile.

She began walking over to us and I looked her over appreciatively. She looked good in an oversize off-shoulder knitted jumper dress, that draped off one shoulder, and she wore thigh-high boots underneath.

I couldn’t fucking speak, trying not to look at her thighs that were drawing my attention.

"Eyes up here, Westwood."