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Chapter 4.
*****
*Jayden*
I dropped my phone on the table beside my newspaper. After initially calling Corey, I waited some time because he was probably busy with work, but when I called again he still did not answer, an hour later and still, no answer. Why wasn’t he answering my calls? It had been more than a day since we had spoken and I was becoming quite worried, also, I just missed him and hearing his voice made me feel better since we could not be together at the moment. God, I sounded clingy… I was probably overreacting; he was with Jason, Sean and Zeke. They were all very strong. He was absolutely alright, and he could take care of himself. I would have felt it if he got hurt, even though he was far away, our connection would have made me feel like something was off. What was I worried about?
As for missing him, he would be back soon… hopefully.
I sighed. I needed to stop clinging to him, he wasn’t going to go anywhere, and he had assured me of that countless times as well.
“Daddy! Tell Tammy to get away from me!” I heard Eli shout from upstairs.
I smiled as I got up and made my way upstairs. Luckily I had the twins to distract me. “What are you two doing?” I asked spotting them in his room from the hallway.
“She won’t leave me alone!” My eyes widened as he shoved his sister out of his room, she stumbled almost falling back and he then slammed the door in her face. Whoa.
Tamia looked at me with wide tear-filled eyes and I sighed grabbing her hand. I was a little worried about how Eli would act as a teenager…
“Eli. Hey, open up.” I said knocking on his door even though it was clearly unlocked. I heard angry stomping from behind the door before it swung open and Eli stood glaring directly at Tamia, she shrunk behind me slightly. “Bed,” I said. They both ran over and sat on Eli’s bed, Eli still glaring at his sister, though she pretended not to notice that and began playing with one of his action figures. I could see that it was annoying him even more; the only reason he was probably only not yelling at her was because I was in the room. “Eli, you know you aren’t allowed to slam doors, let alone into people’s faces, that was really rude of you,” I said.
“But she won’t leave me alone!” Eli exclaimed finally grabbing his action figure away from his sister very roughly. He seemed to pause for a second as I tensed, both of us wondering if he hurt her but when her only reaction was looking down at her empty hands he continued, “I want to be alone!”
“I just wanna play!” Tamia said frowning at him. I smiled as I walked over to them and sat on the carpet in front of them. I began explaining to Tamia how sometimes people needed time to themselves and that maybe her brother would play with her later. “But what if he still wants to be alone later?” She asked.
“Tammy, I’ll play later.” Eli gave her a smile.
“Fine…” she mumbled.
“Why do you want to be alone?” I looked at Eli.
“Just.” He shrugged.
“Sick of people?” I smiled.
“Very.” He smiled back at me. I chuckled ruffling his hair. He was usually incredibly social so I didn’t mind him wanting some alone time.
“Tammy and I will just bake some cookies then, sound good?” I said taking her hands and pulling her from his bed. She jumped happily.
“Yeah!”
“But-but I wanna bake cookies too!” Eli suddenly yelled out. I laughed.
“Well, let’s –” I was cut off as clear ringing came from the kitchen. We had heightened hearing senses being wolves and could even hear vibrations from downstairs.
“Papa?” Tamia’s eyes widened.
“Maybe, come on,” I said sprinting downstairs. I got to the kitchen and grabbed my phone answering it as I did. “Corey?” I spoke.
“No, Sean. I’m using Corey’s because I can’t find my charger and I just put my phone in charge in Corey’s room. How is the pack? Everything’s good, everyone’s good, I hope?” Sean spoke. I felt more than a little disappointed that it wasn’t Corey but was glad to be hearing from someone that was with him.
“Everyone’s great, Sean. Izabella and Ash are fine.” I said.
“Hey, Uncle Sean!” Tamia called I smiled at her as Sean chuckled.
“So lame… Hello, Alpha.” I chuckled. Eli always put on this really calm and cool persona around Sean. Tamia was her bubbly self around any- and everyone.
“Hey, Sweetheart.” Sean greeted Tamia, “I trust you’ve gone through your training, Eli?” Sean said.
“Every day.” Eli smiled. I frowned. I hated how much work he was already doing. Stupid Alpha training, for some reason Eli seemed to love it though.
“That’s our Alpha.” Sean said sounding proud, it made Eli beam almost as much as it did when Corey was proud of him, “Your mate had a little too much to drink last night, Jay. And now I have to put seeing the sites on hold until he’s fit enough to get out of bed.” Sean sounded a little angry.
Too much to drink? But Corey stopped drinking after the trip to the peaks…
“Really?” I asked not quite believing that Corey had gotten drunk.
“Yes. Really.” Sean’s voice clearly came through grit teeth.
“What did he drink?” Eli asked.
“Orange juice… too much can be dangerous…” I chuckled at Sean’s answer.
I heard a painful groan from the call. “Shit, my head feels like crap. What time –” Corey was saying.
“Papa, you swore!” Tamia said wide-eyed, Eli’s face shared the same utter shock. Their faces would have been funny if I wasn’t angered by Corey. He really got drunk? How much did he drink? It took so much for him to get drunk.
“Tammy?” Corey sounded like he had suddenly gone completely well. “Eli?” he sounded confused.
Sean burst out laughing as we heard a loud bump and then Corey trying not to curse as he hissed random words.
“Hi, Papa,” Tamia said happily.
“Paps.” Eli was still aware that Sean was probably holding the phone.
We heard some scrambling and more laughing from Sean as Corey hissed at him again. “I’ll see you guys. Tell Izabella and Ash I love them.” Sean called out. Before I could reply, Corey spoke into the phone.
“Hey, guys. I miss you.”
“When are you coming back?” Tamia asked.
“Uh… Soon. Is-is Daddy there?” Corey said sounding preoccupied.
I opened my mouth to speak but an unfamiliar voice on the other end interrupted.
“Rise and shine, Button-Head! I brought you some meds for your head, I figured you wouldn’t have any.” I heard the person say.
“Thank God, you’re a lifesaver…” Corey mumbled. She was speaking to him? Button-Head. What was that? A nickname for him? It sounded familiar but I could not place it.
“Corey?” I spoke slowly.
“Oh, sorry, Babe, my head’s a mess right now. This is Carrie, she’s an old friend of mine, really, really, really old –” I heard a smack followed by laughing, “I’m kidding. Geez, calm down, woman… I ran into her last night.” He said.
“Jayden?” The woman spoke.
“Uh… Yeah…” I said uncertainly. Not very sure why I suddenly felt so awkward, though.
“Oh my gosh, I’ve heard so much about you!” She said. I heard Sean snort somewhere in the background.
“Oh really? What have you heard, Carrie?” He asked.
I furrowed my brows at Sean’s attitude towards her, his voice sounded so hostile and annoyed. Had they had a run-in or something? If they had, it probably wasn’t that bad, right? Sean butted heads with quite a few people he just met… as did Corey.
“Everything. It’s so amazing how you guys got together, I feel so bad for you, Jayden! It’s such a sweet story though.” I paused at that. Exactly how much had he told her in one night? “I’ve always wanted to go to the peaks. You sound very strong despite being an omega.” I heard Corey chuckle awkwardly as she added that. I was shocked and caught off-guard. Did he tell her everything? It left me feeling a little… exposed.
“I miss you so much, Babe. I love you guys.” He said. I swallowed still wondering exactly who the woman was.
“We love you too…” I said.
“Can we make the cookies now?” Eli sounded a little restless. I laughed as Sean and Corey did too.
“Yeah, I’m hungry, Daddy.” Tamia pouted up at me. I watched as she looked at Eli and they began linking to each other.
“Guess we’ll talk later, Love you.” I opened my mouth to say bye to Corey but the line went dead. I looked at my phone exiting to the home screen slowly and paused staring at the picture of Corey before turning to our kids. We would talk again later…
“So –” I began.
“Let’s get pizza!” The twins yelled cutting me off. I guess we aren’t making cookies anymore. That was a relief, I suddenly did not feel like it.
“Okay, just this once.” The twins cheered, “Get your jackets.” I added.
———
I watched as my kids ate pizza talking softly to each other and laughing. I had no idea what they were talking about; but I wanted to bet it was mean because they didn’t want me to hear it. They were probably making fun of the things they spotted around us. I loved how close they were already; I had never had that with anyone and was really happy they did.
As we ate, I found myself thinking about the call earlier. That ‘friend’ Corey had run into… I had never met her and I found myself developing a strong dislike for her already. I didn’t trust her and definitely didn’t want her around Corey. I looked down shaking my head at how stupid I was being. I wasn’t usually the jealous type, Corey was. But I didn’t feel like it was all jealousy, I just had a bad feeling about her… About her being near him.
I sighed running my hands over my face.
You’re an idiot, Jayden. You’re just jealous because you’re so damn insecure.
I agreed with that thought, my wolf didn’t, he let out a low growl in my head but I ignored it. I was just jealous. I looked at our kids and smiled. He loved me, it didn’t matter who she was… right?
*****
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