Ch 3 - It Was A Note

Ivy sat in the passenger seat, watching as her mate tapped the steering wheel. While she knew that he had things that were worrying him, she was happy to see him less burdened than she’d seen him in a while.

She thought back to the days just before they met Calypso. While they’d been best friends for years, he had begun drifting from her, from everyone. She’d tried her best to bring him back to who he used to be, but nothing worked.

Unlike now, she couldn’t read him as easily back then, but she knew that he was contemplating leaving before Calypso arrived at their pack. There was something he wanted to go in search of.

“Cain,” she called softly.

He briefly turned to her. “Hmm?”

“Were you going to leave?” she asked.

He scowled. “What do you mean?”

“You know? Back then? Before Cally arrived? Were you going to leave?” she elaborated.

He was quiet for a while before speaking up again. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s just, I don’t know if the others noticed, but I could see you pulling away from us, like even more than normal. I’ve been curious all these years about why,” she admitted.

He was quiet once more, before pulling the car over. “I was going to. Funny enough, Channing is the person who stopped me.”

She understood. “Why? Where were you going to go?”

He sighed. “I don’t know Ives. I was just so fed up with having to follow Tyson around.”

“And you wanted to know more about your family,” she said quietly.

He never talked about them, and they all knew not to ask him about them. His family had been murdered in a rogue attack, and Channing’s parents took him on as their own son. However, with Channing rebelling over the years, it didn’t feel right for him to be their son when they had their own troublesome son to deal with.

And so, he stepped away.

He knew that stepping away meant that he would be alone, and to drown out that loneliness, he started training. His training would help him secure the Enforcer position with Tyson, and for a while, his life had some kind of meaning.

But it also got old quickly.

Soon enough, he found himself yearning for more, and it wasn’t long that his curiosity travelled back to his family. They had been mercilessly killed, and he often wondered why he’d been spared.

“Why didn’t they kill me too Ivy? Why was I left alone to deal with all this pain?” he whispered.

She reached out to hold his hand, her tears already on their way. “Because fate knew you wouldn’t be alone for too long. Look at where you are now. You have a brand-new family, and I can bet you they love you like their own.”

He knew that much. He couldn’t dispute it, not when they’d shown him time and time again. He was briefly worried when Calypso found out about Nathan and Zen being her biological half-brothers, but it wasn’t long that he learnt that it changed nothing between them.

He was still her big brother, and they too took him on as a brother.

“You also have me. Had you left, we would’ve never found out the truth about us being mates,” Ivy added.

He knew she was telling the truth. “Do you think Channing knew?”

She smiled. “If there’s one thing we know about Channing, it’s that none of us knew just what it is that he knew. We just know that he was awesome.”

He laughed at that. “True.”

“I’m just so proud of how far you’ve come, and I wanted to check in and make sure that you’re at least appreciative of where you are right now,” she commented.

He picked up on her unspoken worry. “I’m not going anywhere Ivy. I’m home now. You are my home, and I have my family with me. I have no reason to leave.”

“Not even to go looking for answers on your family?” she checked.

He shook his head, smiling. “If anything, my new family may be the key to finding out what happened to my biological family.”

She hadn’t thought of that. “True, but how will you bring it up on top of everything that’s going on?”

“To be honest? It’s not urgent. I mean, yeah, I’d like to know what happened on that day, but it won’t bring them back, so it’s no use me bringing it up in the middle of all this chaos. I’ll wait until everything is settled down,” he responded.

She nodded, before bringing his hand up to kiss it. “I’m here for you the whole way.”

He reached out to caress her cheek, wiping her tears away. “I haven’t always been the best friend and mate to you, and yet you’ve stayed by my side. I don’t deserve you.”

“You sure don’t,” she joked, making him laugh.

“I’ll spend the rest of our lives making it up to you Ives. You’re my whole life. I love you so much,” he stated passionately.

She pulled him in for a kiss. “I love you too.”

They spent the rest of their trip laughing and going down memory lane. While they weren’t as close to their former pack mates anymore, they couldn’t deny that they’d had the best times with them.

Their former pack mates had settled in at their new pack. Calypso had officially taken the Silver Moon Pack, and merged it with the Dark Moon Pack. Everyone was accepting of each other, and for the first time in a long time, the members of the Silver Moon Pack were at peace.

Ivy and Cain arrived to a relatively quiet pack house considering it was early afternoon. They wondered what was going on, when they ran into Eddy. He had a stack of papers with him, and he was sweaty.

“Hey guys!” he enthusiastically greeted.

“Hey! What’s going on? Where’s everyone?” Ivy questioned.

“They’re all down at the new pack house. It was suggested that painting it and decorating it could be a fun activity for the packs to do and get to know one another,” Eddy replied.

“Like a team building exercise?” Cain checked.

Eddy clicked his tongue. “That’s it! How did it go with you guys?”

“All is relatively well. Cally and Killian should be swinging by in a couple of days,” Ivy informed.

“Well, they’ll be happy to know that we haven’t encountered much trouble, though I heard that some members of the Silver Moon Pack are worried about Tyson coming for them. Harlan tried to reassure them that they’re safe, but I guess it’s something that’s going to bother them for a while, you know?” Eddy stated.

Cain understood where they were coming from. “He was a tyrant, so like you’re saying, it’s going to take them a while, but it’s something we should definitely bring up to Cals. She’ll know how to best approach the situation.”

“I guess we’ll let her know when they come through,” Eddy agreed.

Killian and Calypso’s dive was slightly longer because they had to drive around the woods to get to the Dark Shadow pack. While the two packs were next to each other, the barrier of woods was wide enough to separate them for miles.

They enjoyed the scenic route since they rarely got to take it in. They were engaged in mundane conversation, with music playing softly in the background, and they both yearned for days like this.

Days where no danger existed, and they could just be.

But they knew that they had a lot to overcome before they could enjoy said days.

They finally arrived around lunch time, and the pack house was buzzing. Their pack members were happy to see them, and they felt a little guilty for having spent so much time away from them.

They headed to their office, where Killian had finally made space for her. She’d requested it after she realized that she didn’t have a space to work out her Luna things, and he couldn’t argue with that.

Especially since it made for a great added element to their sex life.

Jethro and Grant walked in seconds after they did. “Well, you two look well rested.”

Calypso scoffed. “Ha! If only!”

Grant chuckled. “You probably won’t know true rest until everything is one and done.”

“Which apparently won’t be any time soon. What’s the latest here?” Killian asked them.

“We’re doing fine. We scouted our usual spots to find out if anything has been picked up on us, and it’s safe to say we’re still riding low,” Jethro reported.

“And what about the rumours surrounding Nathan and Phillip?” Calypso asked.

“The news going around is that the whole thing went down just outside the borders of our pack,” Grant confirmed.

Killian nodded. “Ok, good. That means people won’t come this side looking for answers.”

“The woods are looking spookier than ever thanks to your mom,” Grant noted.

They’d requested that she make it that people didn’t want to entertain what could possibly be on the other side of the woods, and she complied. She cast a spell on them, making them even darker than before, and every now and then, there were random sounds of things that weren’t really there.

But the sounds on their own were terrifying enough.

“I won’t lie, even I got spooked, despite knowing that there’s nothing there,” Jethro joked.

Calypso grinned. “As long as the spell is working, then I’m happy.”

“Is my dad around?” Killian asked.

Edward hadn’t left with Samantha and Amaya. “He is. He’s with the boys right now.”

Just as Grant had spoken, Edward walked in with his grandsons. “Mommy! Daddy!”

The two of them ran over to their parents, who gladly picked them up. “My babies! I missed you so much!”

“We missed you too mommy,” they both said with sheepish grins.

“Oh? Just mommy?” Killian teased.

They laughed. “We missed you too daddy.”

“Boys, why don’t you ask Uncle Jethro and Uncle Grant to take you to see the new toys that came in?” Edward suggested to them.

Xavier turned to Jethro and Grant. “Will you please?”

The two men laughed at the lethal puppy dog eyes. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Calypso and Killian put them down so that they could go. Once they were gone, Edward took a seat before the couple, and the look on his face instantly worried them. He looked troubled by something.

“What is it dad? Why did you need to get rid of the boys?” Killian asked him.

“I took them out for ice-cream, but Xavier seemed bothered by something, so I spoke to him and he eventually told me what was troubling him,” Edward spoke.

Calypso was anxious. “Well? What is it?”

Edward took the paper out of his pocket. “Well, he showed me this.”

It was a note.

From Jeremiah.