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Chapter 9.
*****
*Corey*
“Amp up security, I want more guards at the borders,” Sean said after a short while of silence during which he stared at the letter we had received trying to figure out our best reaction to it.
“Why? They’re bluffing, you don’t warn someone before you attack them; it completely takes away the element of surprise. Why would you give someone a warning? They’re either stupid or just trying to alarm us.” Andrew, one of Jason’s Lieutenants, spoke.
“Maybe, and maybe they want something. Threats like these are usually followed with demands in order to prevent the attack…” I said, “It’s probably that.” I added looking at the letter as Sean slid it back over to me. “We should amp up no matter what it is: if we just assume they’re bluffing or that they want something and will not attack until we decline giving it to them, we might get a pretty dreadful surprise. So, while we don’t know that much about this;” I waved the letter, “– it only makes sense to have more guards at the borders… for now.”
The letter had been a threat and there was promise of another letter to follow, I assumed we would get told what they wanted in that one. What was weird was that none of us had ever heard of a pack called Alpha – a pretty strong name for cowards sending letters from an unknown location, there was no way we were calling them that – and there we were getting threats from them. We had decided to call them Phil’s pack for no real reason; it was just the first name that someone said out loud after Sean had finished reading to the room.
“Perhaps run through the enemies you’ve made for yourselves? Maybe you just forgot about them.” Ian suggested as he walked into the room with Joe in tow.
We had all our meetings at the town hall or in the boardroom in the basement of the hall because the place was completely soundproof without us having to use any magic to make it that way.
Sean and I looked at each other, immediately coming to the same conclusion as we both shook our heads before turning to Izabella’s father. “That would take weeks,” Sean said what everyone could probably have read from the expressions on our faces.
The only way to make ourselves heard and show other packs that our pack was not to be messed with in a world of werewolves was to show other packs that we were serious, dangerous and strong; show them what we could do. Of course, we did not just go around attacking and bulling random packs, we just had a lot of disagreements with many different packs that quickly escalated into physical disagreements and resulted in a clear winner and loser. The same could be said for Inferno and Titan, we were all in the same boat but that was what made the three of us the strongest packs on the continent. If the Phil pack was strong, they were either very good at hiding it, most likely killing off every single wolf from every pack they fought, or they were from another part of the world that we didn’t care about enough to seriously take note of.
“Well then, get to it,” Ian said.
“Why can’t we just wait for the next letter? If they attack us before then, they’re dead.” I highly doubted that our pack could be caught off-guard or hurt.
“I agree, we should just wait. The next letter will probably tell us what or who they want while reiterating their threats. If it tells us what they want, we’ll run through past enemy possibilities then because we’ll be able to narrow it down to a specific person or two.” Sean said as he leaned against the desk I was seated at while crossing his arms over his chest. I had the sudden urge to pull the desk towards me just so that he would fall but then remembered we were the Alpha and Beta of our pack and I did not want to embarrass him in front of our council in a very serious meeting. I missed how I would have done it without a second thought if we were still kids, it would have led to a fight with Sean that would distract everyone from the seriousness and tension in the room.
“I’ve never met a lazier pair of leaders in my life,” Joe mumbled.
Everyone chuckled in agreement except Sean and me. We frowned exchanging glances before Sean shook his head at Joe.
“We’re not lazy, we’re efficient and we’re smart,” Sean said.
“Yeah, why give ourselves more work when there are simpler solutions to things?” I asked getting up to rest my hand on the table and using it as an anchor to hop over to Sean’s side, “Now, if everything’s sorted and I can be excused, I will be with my family.” I smiled at everyone.
“Me too.” Sean smiled.
—–
I sucked in a deep breath as I stared down at Jayden who was curled up in our bed. I had spent the entire day with him while the twins were at school before we went to the park with them. It was a great move because it had tired them out, pilling onto the fatigue they already had from school and extracurricular, so we had no problem getting them to go to bed.
Jayden had changed a lot since Mike and his father were taken care of. He was outwardly stronger and less shy, but still very introverted. He spoke more too without being afraid to say what he was thinking out loud. He was still too friendly for his own good though and that still irritated the crap out of me. Yes, we were both adults that could take care of ourselves but… he was Jayden. I could never feel at ease with how he – and now sometimes our kids – just gave people the benefit of the doubt and were so ready to be trusting of everyone. He was a perfect father though. I liked watching him sleep, making sure he was okay even though he never had nightmares about his past anymore, one or two in the couple of years after I killed Mike but that was it.
It was so hard for me to believe that once I hated the sight of him, and now I couldn’t go a day without seeing him or hearing his voice. Young me was such an idiot, I always wished I had realised how perfect my mate was earlier and not ruined our first meeting and the months after that for both of us, especially him.
Reaching for my phone, I cursed as taking it from the dresser caused the torch I kept there to roll off and smash onto the floor before I chuckled to myself as Jayden showed absolutely no reaction to the noise; he still slept like a rock. I never understood how he did that, sleeping through the loudest of noises and he yet woke up the instant one of the twins started crying or calling for us. My smile fell as I stared at him. I had been so worried about him leaving or what he would think of me, I hadn’t thought about what he would feel if I told him what I’d done.
He would be crushed… and because of his insecurities I could bet that there would be a little voice in his mind telling him ‘I told you so’. He would find a way to blame himself. I didn’t want that to happen. I didn’t want him to be hurt and didn’t want him to think that I did not love him more than I did my own life or that the only reason I was with him were our kids.
I wasn’t going to hurt him. If living with guilt for the rest of my life meant not hurting him or losing him, I was prepared for that. Jayden and our children were more important than anything to me; I wasn’t going to lose what we had for anything.
I swallowed feeling my stomach twist as fear rose into my chest. Why had I let things get that far? How could I have done that despite everything I knew about and felt towards him?
Jayden’s groaning caused me to snap out of my quickly suffocating thoughts and I watched as he rolled over while extending his arm onto my side of the bed. “Corey?” He sat up pretty quickly. Ah, there go his sleeping habits.
“I’m right here,” I answered quickly to calm him down. He turned to look at me and I smiled as his eyes roamed over my body before he bit his lip.
“Why are you there?” He asked pulling the covers over himself as he shivered. “It’s freezing.” He furrowed his brows at what I was wearing, which was just briefs. I laughed.
“No, Babe, you’re just always getting cold.” He was right, it was freezing. I just couldn’t really feel it because I had been focused on how much of an asshole I was, how afraid I was of him knowing what had happened, though I had also gotten too caught up in staring at his perfection to feel cold.
He shook his head before his narrowed and now slightly concerned eyes moved over me again, studying me. “Corey, what’s going on?” He asked seriously. I tried to hide my anxiety at the short sentence that somehow made my heart thump harder in my chest. I swallowed shaking my head.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” I replied. It was not that much of a lie, he could have been asking about the letter and that would be absolutely nothing he needed to worry about. We had that situation under control.
“Corey –” He began frowning at me.
“Trust me, Jayden, it’s nothing. Just pack stuff, but nothing serious.” I reassured as I leaned down to kiss him before tackling him back down into our bed.
He laughed before pulling my face back to his to lead us into a soft kiss. I pushed up against him trying to intensify the kiss and show him that I wanted more, he seemed to want the same thing as he flipped us over so he was above me and began kissing my neck. I tried not to focus on my heart beating faster because I could not tell whether it was due to where we were headed or because I felt so guilty and afraid. I loved every second of being near him, every touch, every kiss but part of me wanted to be close to him as much as possible just so that it would drown out the memory of what happened with her, of how she felt. They felt so different, my wolf did not respond to her, her touch left no sensation on my skin, there was no pull, no instinctual or burning need or want to be with her so I could not understand how I could ever have mistaken her for him. Had I? I had to, I didn’t willingly… I would never want to be with anyone but him… but we did not just end up making out on that couch.
Jayden pulled away from me and upon seeing the concerned look on his face, I immediately leaned up to kiss him again to avoid explaining why he was feeling so much anxiety from me before I chuckled trying to lighten the mood. “I missed you,” I mumbled without breaking away from him. Hopefully that was a good enough explanation, it was true. It worked and he chuckled leaning into the kiss. It quickly became much more urgent and heated than our previous kiss and seemed to clear my thoughts but before we could head any further, the moment came to an abrupt end when we heard a sleepy little voice from the door.
“I can’t sleep…”
I let out a laugh as Jayden let his head fall onto my chest, probably embarrassed to be caught in this position by one of our kids. He moved to lay down beside me and we looked at our little girl as she stood at the door watching us with sleepy eyes.
“Hop in, Princess.” I smiled.
She ran over to our bed, holding her favourite blue Unicorn stuffed toy under her arm tightly before she climbed in and wiggled her way between Jayden and me. She snuggled up against me closing her eyes and I gave Jayden a smile that he returned after kissing the crown of Tamia’s head.
‘So… we’ll continue later?’ I linked to him causing him to laugh. I savoured the sound. Four days and I had missed his laugh so much. I couldn’t lose him. There was no way I was letting him know about what happened.
*****
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