"Alpha, I must apologise for interrupting you, but it's important," I looked up from my paperwork to see Jamie standing in the doorway to my office. She looked genuinely panicked but I had already made it clear that Jackson and Luca were to deal with everything.
"Jamie, I told you four months' ago that if there were any issues, you were to go to either Jackson or Luca," I told her as I moved my hand across my stomach, rubbing it in an attempt to ease the pain which was there.
"I know and I really am sorry, but this an issue I don't trust either of them with," she replied.
"I would love to help you Jamie but I am behind my desk for a reason. I can't afford to get stressed," I sighed and I felt bad that I was turning her away, but I told her with the rest of the pack what was going to
As we walked into the living room Jackson and Luca were having the same argument they had every single week. They were trying to decide which film they were going to watch this afternoon. I was sure there was some sort of underlying bromance there though between the both of them which they had decided not to tell anyone about. Even Elliot had told me that she thought there was something going on between Jackson and Luca behind her back - to this day I still don't know if she was joking or being serious. "You picked last time though," Luca moaned. "No. You picked last time. We ended up watching Skyfall," Jackson replied as he snatched the remote from Luca's hand and started playing with the TV. "Actually, I picked la
"Jayson?" Blake and I both said at the same time but he didn't move. He just stood inside the door where we could both see him, silent and still. I couldn't believe that he was here. He had been gone for over a year now, Mollie had killed herself four months' ago because she didn't want to live without Jayson anymore and Jonah had effectively lost control of the pack almost seven months' ago. To look at him now you wouldn't know that he had once been the Alpha of the most powerful pack in the country. He had bags under his eyes, premature wrinkles covering most of his face and he looked like he hadn't stayed in one place for longer than couple of days. "Halloween was three months' ago mate," Blake joked when Jayson didn't speak but I really wasn't seeing the funny side of this.
BLAKE "Who was that?" Luca asked once we were outside of the house. "His name is Jayson. He was the Alpha of my old pack but after Ellie killed James, he just sort of disappeared and no one has heard from or seen him since," I sighed as I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. I didn't know why he had decided to come back now or what the hell he even wanted, but I already knew it wasn't going to be good and that him being here was going to do more harm than it was good. I had missed him and had been worried about him, he was like my brother and he was there for me through the tough periods of
ELLIE "You really shouldn't be doing this. Think of the twins," Blake sighed as I prepared for the day. "He isn't going to talk to anyone other than me. Even if I hate what he has done, I still need to try to talk to him," I said with a weak smile. I didn't really want to see or speak to Jayson, but I was the only person he wanted to speak to. Even when Luca had gone to check on him this morning and attempted to speak to him, Jayson made it clear that the only person he would be speaking with is me. I was worried about the twins. It was damn near impossible to sleep last night because they wouldn't stop moving and there was a serious amount of pain which, e
"Firstly, you need to understand-" "I don't need to understand anything. I just need you to tell me what else you have done and whether it's going to be a threat to my pack," I seethed. I could feel my hands clenching and unclenching beneath the desk, putting all of my energy into keeping my wolf at bay. I knew it was dangerous to shift while I was pregnant. I was especially dangerous when I was seven months pregnant and carrying more than one child. "Why did you leave Moon Shadow?" Jackson asked as I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing, willing myself to calm down before I did something stupid which would only land me in more trouble. "Being an Alpha. I never wanted it. I was forced into it," Jayson sighed b
As the medics rushed Ellie to the hospital, they refused to let me anywhere near her. They kept assuring me that she was fine and that the pain was normal, they just needed to get her to the hospital. But, even when we got to the hospital, they rushed her off to some room and told me I was going to have to have wait outside her. It didn't matter that she was screaming my name or that I wanted to be with her, they told me that they would fetch me when the time was right. So that's how I came to be sitting in the waiting room with Luca beside me and Jackson opposite me. Neither of them had spoken since they walked in the room and the silence was only making me more agitated and on edge than I already was - I could feel her immense pain through the mate link and it was killing me. I ju
JAYSON I was only just beginning to get comfortable in my cell when they kicked me out and moved me somewhere else - apparently this was the next safest part of the dungeons for me other than being in solitary confinement. I don't know what they thought I was going to do though. It's not like I came here so that I could run off again, I actually came here to try to help but that didn't get me very far. I only ended up pissing off a psycho Third in Command, upsetting an old friend and causing the early labour of the Alpha. I wouldn't say that's a good start to my time in Darkness - even if I didn't like the
BLAKE "-will make a full recovery," I wasn't listening to a single word the doctor was saying to me. I knew I should have been because she was telling me about Ellie but I just wanted to spend time with Maxwell and Nicole. Maxwell with his blue eyes and Nicole with her green ones. They were both beautiful and I was still having a hard time believing that they were actually mine and that they were here. I was a father and I was in love with the both of them already - until they started keeping me up at night and I was dealing with them while El caught up on her sleep. For now though I loved them and I could
MAXWELL I didn't even realize the room had fallen silent, until I looked across at the stage to see my mother was now standing up there with Uncle Luca one side of her and Jackson the other. Michael was at the back with Shantel standing in front on him, his arms wrapped around her waist, with Aurora on his left and his twin sisters, Kailyn and Trinity who were fourteen and looked exactly like their mother to the point that it would have been difficult to tell who the twins were and who Aurora was if she had aged at the same rate as a werewolf, standing on his left — it's a shame that Daniel wasn't here. I did actually miss him and hope that he would make an appearance, but I guess he was either happy with his mate or he was still searching for her. Uncle Link was off to the side of the stage with his arm wrapped around Aunt Jamie, who actually was in her thirties but still had the face of a teenager, while Uncle Link must have been in his late fifties by now but looked just as good
MAXWELL "Ah, Maxwell, my man, you ready for what's about to happen?" Michael grinned as he threw his arm around my shoulder. I am pretty sure he was more excited about tonight then I was, then again, he was about to become Beta in place of my mum's best friend, so I guess he had good reason to be in the mood that he was. "Don't call me my man, I've told you about that before," I chuckled. Despite there being an eight year age gap between Michael and myself, I actually got on better with him than I did with Daniel, because of the amount of time he had spent looking after me when I was younger; I became quite attached to him when I was six and he started looking after us every Saturday night so my parents could have some time alone. Nicole was close to Abby, but that wasn't surprising given that they were practically the same age, but it got to the point where the two of them were inseparable. You would never find one without the o
"This is Blake, my mate, and these are Maxwell and Nicole. I guess I should formally welcome you to Darkness." I pointed between Blake and the twins in turn, still watching her face in an effort to gage her reaction, but there was nothing and I didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing; I would like to think that it's a good thing and that she knows she's got nothing to worry about. I wasn't going to be a problem for her, not when I had Blake, and I didn't think that she was going to be a problem for me either, not when she had Luca and was going to have fun with three kids by the looks of things. "Hi. I'm Daniel and I like Lego. I am daddy's favourite and he loves me more than he loves Michael, that's Michael by the way, and I'm going to be four next month. Daddy told me that I'm going to be a big boy and-" "Daniel. Calm down." Luca chuckled as he picked his son up and held him on his hip. Daniel wrapped his arms around his father's neck, kissing him on the cheek, wh
ELLIE "How do you think they're going to turn out?" I rocked Maxwell in my arms, Blake had a sleeping Nicole in his own and the boys were having a competition to see who could colour without going outside of the lines; it had been a rather peaceful afternoon and I think that had something to do with the fact Luca wasn't around. As much as I loved him, he was bringing the whole mood down with his constant snapping and unnecessary arguments with either myself or one of the boys, and I knew that's because he was such a stubborn pig who didn't want to get what was rightfully his; he wanted to do the right thing and let her go. But, what was the right thing for her, wasn't the right thing for him and it was beginning to show. I didn't mean to interfere, and I sure as hell didn't expect him to shout at me, but someone needed to point the idiot in the right direction otherwise he never would have done anything about his mate. He would h
LUCA I didn't even need to think about where I was going because my feet seemed to take me there on their own, they knew where we were going and they wanted to get their quicker than I was anticipating; it was almost like they were more excited than I was to get what belonged to us. My wolf hadn't stopped dancing around my head and he continued to let out both howls and yips of happiness in the back of my head. It always made things so much easier knowing that you had the support of your wolf, not that I ever doubted his reappearance once we got to finally meet our mate properly, but he had been unnervingly quiet since I decided that I wasn't going to go after the girl who was made for me.I wasn't even going to lie, I was still shocked that I had been given a second chance, I was even more shocked that it had happened as quickly as this; it had barely been a week since I rejected Charlotte and I was already being given another ch
LUCA "So, let me get this straight, you want to break my mate up with her boyfriend by pretending that you've been sleeping with him?" I asked Ellie. I know that she was only trying to help me but I didn't want her to ruin someone else's relationship just for the sake of my own happiness. She was my best friend and I know that she just wanted the best for me but I refused to let her do something she would live to regret in the end, especially when she came to live in the pack with me and Ellie had to face her every single day knowing what she had done. "You got it," Ellie grinned proudly. "Yeah. That's not going to happen," I told her without breaking eye contact and I noticed Blake nodding in agreement with me from the corner of my eye. I knew that he wasn't happy with the plan from the expression which he had been wearing and the look of murder which was in his eye as she spoke about anothe
I was luckier than same people. I may have lost both sets of my parents but I had a mate who loved me unconditionally and would do absolutely anything for me even if he was a jealous pig at times and overreacted whenever someone got a little too close to me. I had a brother who had always been my rock and had helped me through more things as a child than anyone had done. And I had three others who were practically like brothers anyway, I loved them like they were and I didn't want to lose any of them again because of something as stupid as me not wanting to ask for help. I had my children. I finally understood what it was to love something so much that you would kill anyone who dared to hurt them and I really understood what a mother's love was, I understand how a child could become the centre of someone's universe and how everyone could seem insignificant in comparison to your own child. I would die before I let anyone touch the twins again and I would fight
ELLIE I watched out the corner of my eye as Luca left the room. I don't know why Jamie opened her mouth and thought it was acceptable to comment on his skills as a father but she was in the wrong and she didn't have the right to make a comment. Luca did his best for those boys. He tried to put them before himself and, when Charlotte didn't want anything to do with either of them, he was there to make sure they had the love and the care they deserved. He wasn't the perfect father, I don't think there was a thing such as the perfect father, but he wasn't terrible and he didn't deserve the comments which Jamie made. She didn't know what he had been through. She didn't know the fights he had to endure just to make sure those boys never felt like they weren't wanted. She didn't even understand the pain he was in after finding out that they weren't really his children because his mate got he
LUCA I turned to see Michael staring at me with something in his eyes. He wasn't an idiot so he knew there was more to the story than he was being told, I knew I would have to tell him the truth at some point but it could wait a little longer before I did that. I would have to do it with a clear head and when I could explain it to Michael properly. "Are you sure you're alright dad?" Michael asked. "I'll be fine. And I'm sorry if you think I'm dumping you on people all the time. I don't mean to, I just, I don't know how to deal with all of this," I sighed as I ran my hands through my hair. "You're trying your best and I know that. You've always done the best for both me and Daniel, even when mum gave up with the both of us, you were still there and you have always been there. I love you dad and, when I am older, I want to be the same sort of man you are because you're nothing but selfless," Michael shocked me by wrapping h