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*****
*Carrie*
I smiled at my reflection in the mirror while running the brush through my hair. It was Corey’s brush, but he wouldn’t mind, I knew that. We shared everything… well, we would…
After I finished, I got up pulling my hair over my shoulder before straightening out the summer dress I wore. Corey had to like it.
“Corey!” My ears perked up hearing someone call his name.
“He’s not here, Hayley. He’s on building duty, not sure why he feels the need to leave so early, but anyway, what’s going on? Can I help?” I heard Sean.
“Tamia’s burning up again, I don’t know what to do, we’ve given her medicine and magic isn’t working.”
“Magic isn’t working?” Sean sounded surprised, “Alright, we’re still working on finding Marcus, he’ll be strong enough to fix it.”
“Sean, I don’t think it’s a good idea to wait, she’s only getting sicker, we need to figure something out and Eli and Ashton won’t leave her side. What if it’s contagious?”
I rolled my eyes as I dropped the brush. Why was everyone so obsessed with those kids? There were plenty of others around and if she died, there would always be more. The panic was further ruining my mood that had immediately lowered when Sean said Corey had already left the house.
“It can’t be if they’ve been with her a lot, we would have seen signs by now.” I heard Sean sigh, “Let me try magic,” he said. Obviously he was stronger than anyone else in the pack when it came to magic.
“It won’t work, and besides that, she doesn’t want anyone close to her except Corey and Carrie and Eli won’t let Carrie near her. We’re pretty much letting Eli and Ash take care of her.”
I walked up to them.
“Is everything okay? Is Tammy getting better?” I asked faking a perfectly concerned tone, “Sean, if you could just get Eli away for a few hours, I could check up on her, find out what’s wrong.”
I did not like the thought of her getting any better, but helping her would help me because Corey would love that I took care of her while he was gone.
The pair that were talking turned to me, both of their eyes dropping to the dress I wore before Sean’s jaw clenched as his eyes met mine again.
“No, I don’t think that’s necessary, Carrie. Eli and Ash can handle it until I get back with Corey.” Sean said.
I almost rolled my eyes. He still didn’t like me. It was like he just woke up one day hating someone he knew nothing about, I never liked him even when we were kids. He was always so arrogant because of his future-Alpha status, even when we were toddlers. It didn’t matter, I didn’t need him to like me. He would just have to accept me as a very important part of the pack once Corey and I officially mated and married.
“Sean, they’re seven-year-olds; they can’t ‘handle it’,” Hayley frowned.
Sean glanced at me as he linked to Hayley and by the expressions on their faces as they linked, I could see that the conversation wasn’t very pleasant. They were probably arguing.
Eventually, Sean growled angrily before he shot a glare at me as he pulled his phone out. He dialled a number and it ran until Corey answered the ringing with a ‘What’s going on?’
“Nothing’s going on, we just need you back at the house, Corey.” I heard someone shout a ‘Who is it, Beta?’ from Corey’s side of the phone, it was answered by a quick ‘Alpha’ from my future mate.
“I can’t there’s… a building crisis,” Corey said. I heard Jason’s voice mutter a ‘What?’ and Corey hissed something at him from the other end of the line.
“Don’t lie –”
“Sean, I’m trying to run this quickly, you told me to take over on building… which, by the way, will not be happening, but I’ll explain that later. I’ll see you then, alright? Just check on my kids. We’ll finish up here before dark.” He hung up. I tried not to smirk as Sean hung up looking frustrated. Maybe nursing Tamia back to health was not the best way to gain Corey’s appreciation… He did not seem to want those kids just as much as I didn’t.
Sean let out a low growl that made Hayley and I step back slightly before he glared at me but I just smiled sweetly back at him knowing it would only anger him more.
“I guess I should help.” I said before calling out, “Eli, Ashton, come here!”
“Eli won’t listen to –” Sean turned to watch in surprise when Eli came strolling down the hall, his face neutral and eyes dull as he looked at me. Ashton was behind him looking angry, probably because Eli had forced him to come with and leave Tamia by herself.
“What do you want?” Eli muttered, his face still expressionless. I figured that his mood could be blamed on his dad having disappeared but it was not a certainty because the little brat was always moody.
“Excuse me?” I frowned.
“I mean… um… You called us?” He mumbled sounding more polite. Sean’s eyes shifted from Eli to me and narrowed. I did not acknowledge his stare in the least and instead looked back at Eli.
“Sean’s going to give you some training so you can get fresh air while I take care of Tamia,” I said.
“No.” He shook his head.
“Eli, go with Sean.” My voice was gentle as I spoke but I rose my brow at him daring him to disagree with me again. I did not want to risk linking to him in case Sean listened in. He stared into my eyes for a few seconds before he nodded and grabbed Sean son’s wrist to begin dragging him towards the stairs.
“Come, Ash.” He mumbled.
“But –” Ashton began.
“Just come.” Eli cut his friend off making him groan.
“Wait – Hayley –” Sean looked back.
“I’ve got it, calm down.” Hayley rolled her eyes. Sean shot another look at me before he left with the boys. “Sorry about him, he just doesn’t really trust people he hasn’t known for more than a year,” Hayley said.
I laughed. “It’s alright, I’ll check on Tamia,” I said. She nodded.
I began walking to the room and she automatically followed me so I assumed that was Sean’s alternative to having Corey come back: have Hayley watch me.
“Hey, baby.” I knelt down beside Tamia. I didn’t like how much she looked like him – I wasn’t going to be using his name, it would be easier to make them forget he existed that way. I hated it, everything from her nose and round, brown doe-eyes that looked sickeningly innocent to her curly hair. She was going to be a constant reminder of Corey’s past if she stayed around.
“Carrie –” She sat up shakily. I frowned as I reached out and pushed away the hair that stuck to her sweaty face. She really was burning up and there I was getting her germs all over myself. God, why did Corey have to have children?
“Yes?” I asked softly knowing that Hayley was behind me, probably at the door. I needed to look like I cared about the little girl on the bed.
“I- I want my daddy.” She mumbled.
“Corey?” I asked.
“No, D-daddy.” What? Oh. Him.
The longer magic was used on someone, the less it would affect them but that didn’t really matter; no one had noticed yet because she didn’t want anyone near her and Eli was keeping his mouth shut about it. By the time Corey was done with the building or was close enough to finding Jayden to spend time with his kids, the magic would have worn off but she’d pretty much be dead so it wouldn’t matter. But, I had to make sure she kept her mouth shut until she was as dead as her Dad probably, hopefully, already was.
“Daddy’s gone, Tamia.” My word’s immediately made her glassy eyes widen in terror.
“No, no.” I mentally rolled my eyes at Hayley’s quick, concerned intervening, “Tammy, he’s uh… He’s visiting someone so he can’t come now, but we’ve called him and he’ll be back really soon.” Hayley said.
Tamia looked at her and gave a weak smile. “I’m hungry, Auntie.” She said softly.
“We have some Mac and Cheese, I’ll get you some.” Hayley left.
As soon as I was sure she was gone, I lifted my hand to make the door shut from across the room. Tamia looked at me and I smiled while mumbling a spell to temporarily make the room soundproof, it was a strong spell so I only had a few seconds of it before I ran out of magical energy.
“Your daddy’s not coming back, Tammy. Ever. So just forget that. You have Papa and me, and we’re a family.” I said.
She opened her mouth but nothing came out before she shook her head. “B-but my daddy –” she began.
“Is probably dead and if you want Eli to follow his lead, you’ll keep asking where your daddy is. So keep quiet, okay honey?” She stared at me before gulping and rubbing the tears from her eyes with her little fists as she sniffled. I waited for her to finally nod before smiling. “Good girl. Hayley will bring your food, you better eat some of it.” I said before I got up and walked out heading to the bathroom to sanitise my hands.
*Corey*
“Alright, blow it up.” I waved my hand before pulling the sound-proof headphones over my head.
I watched as what was left of the houses on our grounds was completely demolished. After surveying the site and running through costs with some of the deltas, I agreed with their ‘why re-build if we’re moving in a few months anyway?’ plans. We had construction on our new plot moving fast so it did not make sense to re-build when we would only be there for about four more months. I had no doubt Inferno wouldn’t mind us being in their packhouse for a little longer until our construction finished, I mean, we were selling our plot to them at half its worth…
We had packed away what we found in the houses that remained, including my own, and sent it to the Inferno house and some of our storage units.
I watched as the smoke cleared slowly while I pulled the headphones off and let them hang around my neck.
“Goodbye to our home.” Zeke’s elbow nudged my side.
I shrugged. “I think we’ve had enough shit happen here to be happy to finally get away…” I let out a breath.
“You forget, there was more good than bad, Corey. Your mating was here. Your kids were born here. We were born here. We grew up here…” Jason turned to me, “What’s the real reason you made us blow the place up, Corey? Inferno could have used these extra buildings.” He spoke softly.
I sighed as I looked at him and Zeke. They were my closest friends along with Trent, there was no point lying to them.
“I can’t put off finding Jayden any longer and I can’t let Kaden and Sean try to find him while I’m here pretending I care about re-building this place, I don’t. If we had built, I would be told to stay here and supervise instead of finding him, I can’t do that.” I muttered lowly so that everyone else wouldn’t hear. They nodded. I raised my eyebrows. “You’re not going to give me a speech on responsibility?” I asked.
“No, you know you’ve abandoned all of that, including the most important,” Zeke said.
I opened my mouth but had no words. They did not understand. They could not.
“Corey, your kids need you –”
“We’re here to work. So uh… Work.” I cut Jason off.
“Are you fucking serious right now? Corey, we know your mate is gone! But –”
“Get to work. Now.” I cut Zeke off. It wasn’t a suggestion, it was a command that they could not object to or disobey because I was Beta. I did not use the tone of voice often, but it was a last resort. They did not understand and I was not going to explain it. We came to work, that was what we would do. “Let’s get this rubble cleaned up!” I called to everyone.
I looked at Jason and Zeke and they just shook their heads at me before turning to leave and do as I had said, but they stopped when my phone went off.
I answered it quickly.
“Kaden?” I spoke.
“Yeah, I think I know where Marcus is.”
*****
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