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Chapter 12.
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*Corey*
I frowned staring at the note. It had one sentence carelessly scribbled down onto it.
Watch them burn, Corey.
Yes, the threatening letters were clearly my fault. What the particular note in my hand meant, I didn’t know but I had figured out who had sent it. Sean and I guessed that it was a small pack – The Windson pack – that attacked one of our company buildings a few years back, killing almost every one of our wolves in it, five of our guys survived. Five. Did they think they would get away with that? They killed one eighty-three of our pack’s wolves that day, innocent wolves that were at work.
The incident never made the news, we had Kaden and some of his pack compel the humans who had known anything about it to forget. Afterwards, we sought them out, Sean gave the order for us to attack them and I effectively burnt their packhouse to the ground… by mistake… I was aiming to scare them and injure their leaders.
They asked for it though, so no regrets from me.
So how did this relate to the unknown pack, Phil, which had sent us the first note? Well, Sean suggested that they either grew their numbers incredibly fast or convinced packs that hated us at much as they did to merge with them and create a new pack; an ‘enemy of my enemy…’ situation.
I was still at the office with Sean, we had been there for a few hours doing pack paperwork, finances, trying to purchase the plot and things like that.
“I should be getting home.” Sean looked up.
“I think I’ll sleep here,” I replied as I returned to the work I had been reading through before looking at the note again. They probably wanted to attack our pack again, but we were prepared both at home and in the city.
“Another fight with Jay?” He looked at me.
“Not this time.” I wish it was another little fight with Jayden; that would be easy to solve. He chuckled.
I sighed as I got up. “How’s Ash’s arm?”
“Improving… Izzy’s still too mad to even talk to me” He frowned. “Talk to her?” He looked at me expectantly.
I gave a chuckle of disbelief which instantly made his face drop. “Sean, I’m her best friend, I’m Beta, but I’m not God.” He glared at me as I laughed, it was the truth though. Izabella was incredibly stubborn when she wanted to be. There was no way she was going to listen to anything I had to say about forgiving Sean after he let Ashton’s arm get broken. “Fine, let’s lock-up,” I said deciding to leave as he did. We closed up the office before doing the same to the rec hall and then split up to head home.
I took my time strolling there until I walked into my house and was happy to find it quiet. Was Carrie gone? No. I could still smell her lingering scent clearly. I growled in annoyance but forced myself to calm down before I could shift and rip her throat apart. My kids did not need to see that. She was up to something though. I didn’t trust her. There was no way she was there just to re-join our pack.
I locked the front door before making my way upstairs silently. The house was quiet which led to the assumption that everyone was probably asleep. I peeked into Tamia’s room as I passed it before I did the same to Eli, they were both soundly asleep. I didn’t go near any of the guest rooms, instead quietly walking into my room as I heard low singing. I smiled listening to Jayden’s voice as I stood at the door, leaning against the frame while he changed; too busy to notice I was there. His senses were still that of an Omega, even though I had tried to train him. I watched his body move as he changed from his daywear into pyjama pants but before he could put his shirt on I snuck up behind him and grabbed him by the waist.
He let out a surprised scream before turning to shove me away from him. My amusement quickly disappeared as he stumbled back away from me and ended up tripping and falling onto the carpet. “Don’t – don’t do that!” His voice was terrified and frail as he covered his face.
I knelt down in front of him completely confused by his reaction. I did that all the time; it was usually funny seeing him slightly scared but at the moment he was really freaking out. He looked like he was about to pass out or burst into a fit of tears.
“Hey, hey, calm down,” I grabbed his face as his breathing came out rugged and strained.
“I-I’m sorry –” His voice sounded choked, probably because of the tears he didn’t want to let out in front of me.
“Jay, hey, calm down,” I whispered leaning close to him while drawing his hands away from his face, “Calm down, talk to me,” I spoke softly. The moment took me back to the only time I had seen him more terrified than he looked right then on the carpet. It made me angry. What could have scared him so much?
“I-I keep seeing their faces everywhere. A-and hearing them speak. I can’t – I don’t-don’t know why but I can’t do it again – I can’t deal with it again – I can’t –”
He pulled his hands from mine to cover his face again and I clenched my teeth seeing that he was trying very hard not to begin sobbing. I didn’t know why he didn’t want to cry, I guessed that he was trying to be strong and it irritated me because he wasn’t. He was a wimp, and I loved him that way, as himself.
“Whose faces?” I froze, “Mike and your father?” I asked softly, carefully. I tried to hide the disgust and anger in my voice as their names left my mouth. He nodded. “Jay, they’re dead. They can’t touch you.”
“I know!” He hissed, “I know I’m being so stupid and pathetic… again, I just…” He whispered.
“No, you aren’t.” I said softly as I hugged him, “You’re probably just freaking out because you think everything’s too perfect.” I said, he had said that a lot. I didn’t even know what ‘too perfect’ meant. I figured he was just afraid.
He looked at me. “It is too perfect, Corey. With you, and the kids, and the pack being perfectly well. Something’s going to go wrong. Something’s going to happen. Something always happens.” His face fell into terror again, “W-what if the twins get hurt?”
I couldn’t help the smile that broke out on my face. “Jayden, trust me, nothing’s ever going to happen to our children.” I said, “I promise that… and I promise you nothing’s going to go wrong. There is nothing to be afraid of.” And though the smile stayed on my face, guilt was banging in my gut because I had already made things go wrong and Carrie was just making it worse.
He frowned. “See, now I feel a little dumb for panicking…” I laughed and hugged him tightly. My smile fell from my face as soon as he couldn’t see it and I bit my lip staring at the wardrobe behind Jayden while he held me back tightly.
Tell him the truth… if you tell him now, he might not take it too badly. I shut my eyes trying to block out that thought. I couldn’t. I couldn’t take a chance like that. I could not lose him.
‘You shouldn’t be lying to him; he’ll take this better if you just tell him the truth.’ My eyes shot to the door and I saw Carrie peeking in, smiling at me. What the hell?
‘You better be out of my house by tomorrow morning.’ I linked back to her before looking at Jayden as I let him go. “Ready for bed?” I asked.
“You aren’t.” He said as he got up and climbed into our bed. I smiled as I threw my clothing off and walked over to the door opening it widely.
Firstly, the twins hated it when our door was shut because sometimes they woke up and joined us in our room, but that night I also wanted to make sure I would be able to hear any noise Carrie made… In case she did something to my kids… I knew it wouldn’t bother Jayden, he slept like a rock. I might have been over-reacting but she made me uneasy. I would have to find a place for her to go… Maybe on the other side of town?
I glanced down at the twins’ bedrooms again before turning the light off and moving to climb into bed beside Jayden.
“What was that letter about?” Jayden mumbled barely awake as he slid a hand onto my chest that I immediately caught with my own.
“Nothing you should worry about, just some threats to the pack.” His eyes opened and I chuckled, “We can handle it, Jay. You know we get threats every other day.” I said smiling at him.
“I know.” He bit his lip, “Night.” I watched as he shut his eyes and moved against me putting his arms around me. I welcomed the touch leaning into him. Nine years and it still felt amazing just having him touch me…
I smiled kissing his temple before I shut my eyes.
“I love you, Teddy,” I mumbled knowing very well he was already asleep.
*Carrie*
I turned over in the bed Corey’s ‘Mate’ had given me glaring at the wall as I heard more whispers from their bedroom before they fell silent.
I hated how this place smelt. It had his scent all over it. And that child. Eli. I had never met a seven-year-old that hard-headed… Well, besides his father. I guess that’s how Alphas and Betas acted, Sean and Corey were the same way when we were younger, just less blatantly disrespectful to their elders. I liked Tamia though, but it was clear that she listened to her brother a lot. I had seen it when I offered her some sweets and she said yes only to change her mind a few seconds later, probably after Eli linked to her while he was still glaring at me. Was that the only look his face could make? No, he looked at his family differently. I already hated that kid as much as I did his dad.
I clenched my teeth. Tamia was easy; all I needed was Eli for her to cooperate, but I was going to have so many problems from that boy, I knew that. I needed him to trust me but with the way he was acting, getting his trust was going to be beyond impossible. I would just have to think of something else with him. He seemed pretty protective, of his sister, of his friends, of Jayden and even Corey. It was cute how much he resembled Corey in both personality and looks, that didn’t make me dislike him any less though. Oh well, the kids could both just stay with their other dad when Corey admitted he did not want them around.
I sat up and smiled as looking at the ring on the chain around my neck. It didn’t fit my finger anymore; it hadn’t in a very long time. I guess he would just have to get me a new one…
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