Reuben POV
Before exiting the office, Evelyn straightened her dusky pink silk shirt and light grey pencil skirt. Fuck how much I wanted to lift her skirt up and take a taste of her, just to see how sweet she was. Her cherry blossom and salt scent was enticing me in and I could feel the tingles as I held her hands in mine.
She was a temptress and the thing that killed me…she didn’t even know it. As we joined the others I didn’t miss the smirk both Nate and Pierce gave me.
“All okay Alpha?” Nate’s voice rings out in my head.
“Yes, let’s get to work.” I respond back privately. “Can I show you my bedroom now?” Rex’s hand wraps around mine as he starts to pull me away.
“Rex not now. We are giving our guests a tour of the pack.” Evelyn gives Rex a pointed look. “Can I come?” He looks to his mother with such a cute hopeful look.
“Oooh me too?” Elspeth pipes up. “Elspeth, when have you ever been interested in pack things?” Rex scolds his sister.
“I always have been. Mummy, tell Rex I’ve always been interested in pack things.” She looks even cuter as she stamps her foot and sticks her tongue out at Rex. Blimey is this was being a parent was like?
“Elspeth you won’t even be Alpha so why do you care. I’ll be Alpha.” I didn’t have siblings but I would have a guess to say this type of bickering was normal.
“Hold on there a minute little buddy. You’re Mama is an Alpha. What’s not to say she’ll give the title to your Sister?” Pierce must have siblings…I’m guessing he caused most of the shit as a child in his family. He causes shit for me now. He was an experienced hand at it.
“Because I’m the Alpha not her..” Rex adamantly says and boy do I believe him.
“Daddy, Rex is being mean!” Elspeth starts to sob as she hugs her big bunny tedding and runs over to Noah. I can feel Evelyn’s eyes on me, watching me watch Elspeth. Noah picks her up and places a kiss on her cheek, before wiping away her tears.
He soothes her with ease and I can see that she’s a daddy’s girl. My heart aches that I’ll never measure up to him in her eyes, that she’ll never come to me like that. But it’s my fault isn’t it. My job now is to keep them safe, to correct my wrongs.
Noah first glances at Cassandra who has a frown on her face. He then looks to me as his eyes glaze over entering into a mind-link.
“Shall we?” Evelyn gestures for us to start the tour as her eyes come out of a mind-link. I shouldn’t get jealous, but I couldn’t mind-link her like he can and that didn’t sit well with me.
“I have some duties to attend to at the hospital…perhaps I’ll see you there.” He nods to me before walking over to Evelyn and placing a hand on her shoulder. I can only see the back of him but by noticing her eyes, they enter another mind-link and judging by her response, she didn’t appreciate what he had to say, I was impressed by what she had achieved in four years.
The pack was advanced and well protected. However they could benefit from some additions, such as cameras to keep an eye on the vast borders where the patrol couldn’t keep an eye on every part. They also had these bramble bushes in quite a few areas which formed a natural fence but they needed high fencing to act as a better deterrent.
The problem for me now was to find a way to gently offer this advice to Evelyn and for her not to take it as criticism.
We had missed the warrior and pack training which takes place first thing in the morning. That was standard for pack practice. But what wasn’t standard was that all pack members, if able, attended training.
The impact of the attack on the pack and the murder of her parents really did show. She wanted each and every pack member to be able to defend themselves in an attack.
Donnie, one of her Head Warriors and I learnt was Harry’s father, had invited me to partake in tomorrow’s training. I looked forward to watching the trained warriors in action, and having a word with him about his son’s friendship with Elspeth.
After the tour we returned to the Alpha home for lunch. During the tour, we left out the hospital, Evelyn didn’t seem keen to take us there. Was that what Noah and her were mind-linking about. But I would try and get a closer look at it tomorrow.
Rex really was keen to show me his room. After lunch he and Elspeth, showed Pierce and I around their room. What surprised me was that they shared. It’s not like they didn’t have the extra rooms, maybe it was a twin thing.
Some how Elspeth had manipulated Pierce and I into playing tea parties on their bedroom floor. She had gone as far as to place a tiara on Pierce’s head.
He didn’t mind, he was playing along and chatting to the teddies sat in our circle as if they were members of a royal court.
About an hour in, she insisted that we both wore aprons and helped with the washing up. Pierce playfully moaned, telling her one minute he was royalty, the next cleaning the dishes. Her response was a simple shrug and that her bunny teddy was now king and gave the orders.
“I need tea towels.” She talks to herself as she runs out of the bedroom door and down stairs. I take the opportunity to turn to Rex who has been playing along with Pierce and I.
“So you two share a room eh?” I comment.
“She used to get a lot of nightmares and would come into my bed at night.” “And now?” My eyebrows furrow, why did she have nightmares?
“Now I have the nightmares.” He frowns looking at his bed. Of course he did, for a four year old he had been through a lot.
He could act brave in the day but at night you can’t escape the nightmares that come. I used to know about that as a child myself. Especially after Mother died.
I follow his gaze until I see a football under his bed. Maybe if he was tired out, completely exhausted, he might sleep better.
“How about we have a kick-a-bout outside once we finish tea parties? See if you are a goalie or a striker…” I offer.
“Definitely a striker..” He beams at me.
“Ah a glory man.” Pierce teases.
“No, I just like to get the goals in.”
“See a glory man. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of team work or being a mid fielder for that matter.” Pierce chuckles as we hear Elspeth run back upstairs with her tea towels.
However, she wasn’t alone. She was followed by Evelyn who burst out into laughter at the sight of Pierce and I on the floor wearing pink unicorn aprons having a tea party.
I woke up at 5am keen to have a cup of coffee before watching the warriors training session. Donnie came for me at 6am and we headed over to the training grounds which just like the rest of the pack was advanced.
She’s acquired some impressive equipment and I had the feeling I would be even more impressed by the hospital.
Training seemed to be split into two teams, warriors and pack members. The pack members were to train as normal but it would seem the warriors were to show me their skills.
“Good morning warriors…” Donnie greets the warriors and signals for them to come closer.
“Morning Head Warrior.” Not one tired eye looks at me, they seem rested, strong…good because they are going to need it. It also meant she hasn’t told them of the imminent threat yet. It was a good idea to have more than one head warrior also, but I presume that was more because the beta was a doctor and spent a lot of the time in the hospital.
“This is Alpha Reuben of the Red Stone pack.” Donnie introduces me which I didn’t want, for the exact response on their faces. They all look at each other with uncertainty.
“The Red Stone pack?” One of them queries, looking rather confused. Yes, I suppose we were seen as the enemy.
“Yes, at the moment we are in a state of truce. I want you to show Alpha Reuben just how well trained we are.”
“Thank you Donnie, my men will join us shortly. Perhaps we can all share techniques with one another.” My men are ruthless. Trained assassins and I had informed them that they needed to help the Silver Moon warriors in any way possible.
I’ve been watching them spar each other for around thirty minutes. They were well trained. Fast, strong and not willing to lose. I imagine she has drilled it into them that losing meant death..
They remain in skin form and I would be interested to see their fighting skills in wolf form as the next few days unfold.
“Alpha Reuben, would you like to take part?” A cocky warrior asks he me, must be around the same age as me, not slightly younger. if “Sure…”
“I don’t think Alpha Evelyn would…” Donnie tries to step in but I cut him off.
“She’s not here and it’s fine. I’ll go easy on him.” I smirk, this warrior really thought he could beat the Alpha King,
I take my top off, I didn’t want to get it muddy and I hadn’t packed loads as I didn’t want Evelyn to suspect that we were actually staying longer than she thought. As I remove my top over my head I hear gasps behind me.
“Alpha?” Donnie’s voice sounds strained. Oh yes, the bullet wounds. The bullets were out but I hadn’t wanted to delay getting here so didn’t fully heal. I will do, it will just take longer.
“Your back…it’s green. “The warrior almost turns green himself in front of me, ready to vomit.
“I was shot with three bullets. The bullets were poisoned with wolfsbane. Fucking painful. This is the enemy we are now up against. They may not use traditional body combat so we need to make sure we are ready for any eventuality.” My voice is strong and my aura firm. I didn’t need to sugar coat shit, they could see from my back what the price is, what they are fighting against.
“Now I’m still injured but I won’t go easy on you. Are you up for the task?” The warrior’s eyes are still wide until I rein him back in.
“Yes Alpha….” He takes a deep gulp.
“…I’m up for the task.”
“Good because in this coming battle, there’s no room for error…” And you are also protecting my mate and children, and no matter what. They can not be compromised.
I rein my aura in, he needed to feel confident enough to make the first move and my kingly aura was preventing him from doing that.
Just before he makes the first move on me, my head whips to my side as her intoxicating scent reaches my senses.
