Chapter 33-Roman

I know she’s hurting, I can feel it. I can feel her guilt, her anguish, I can feel the worthlessness she feels. But we have to deal with this now, I can’t lose her. We both shower in silence, me washing her and her washing me. I can feel her love through the bond too, which is a nice little silver lining in the turmoil of her feelings.

Once we’re done, we head downstairs to my office. I already linked Seth and Aston to be there. Max would be doing training today so I’ll fill him in later. He’s not up to speed on everything, considering he doesn’t even know I’m a hybrid. When we walk into my office, Aston, always the dimwit, speaks.

“Hey Luna!”

I have to laugh because I feel confusion, anger, and then realization run through her emotions. I guess she forgot she was mated to an Alpha. She glares at me and I pretend to choke on a cough, very unconvincingly.

She cracks a smile, but any amusement she had dies the second she locks eyes with Seth. Guilt. Overwhelming guilt fills the bond now. Seth’s face softens and he gets up and pulls her into a hug. I hear her whimper an apology before they switch their conversation to mindlink and I turn to Aston to give them a minute.

“I had scouts out all over the borders and up to 30 miles out. There’s not a single trace of vampire. They might not know she’s here, it’s possible her ex didn’t say anything to them, we know the contact was very infrequent.” he says to me

“We can’t bet on that. I want all the warriors working full time patrol. And we need a new security system. Our current one detects motion based off body heat, and the fuckers are literally cold and dead so it won’t work on them. That’s your job. We can’t underestimate them, this prophecy is over 300 years old and for all we know that’s how long they’ve been planning this out.”

“Man, why the hell do I have to get stuck with the new security system? The one we have now was a pain to install. Make Max do it!” Aston whines while I raise my eyebrow at him

“Seriously?”

“Yes! Give me the vampire hunting job, anything but the security system! That shit gave me a raging headache last time.” he grumbles back

“Ladies and gentleman, your Beta, whining over a headache” I say, laughing and clapping him on the shoulder “Fine, Max can do it. If he complains about it though I’m throwing you under the bus. No more vampire search parties. Yet anyways, I don’t need any other pack alerted by suspicious border activity. And if the vampires do know she’s here, they can’t know we’re onto them. Everything we do, we keep on the down low” I finish

“What about the issue of her … the demon King coming for her?” Seth butts in and I sigh

“Well, I won’t keep him from her. He might end up being useful to have around, we don’t know the extent of her powers. I will work with her on controlling them until he finds her, but ultimately he’s our best shot at knowing what she’s capable of, and I prefer to not find out the hard way. No offense, babe.” I say looking at her

It’s true though, I just don’t know what I’ll do if he tries to bring her down to the underworld with him. I’m not sure her training on Earth, while she has no idea what she’s doing is smart. All she needs to do is lose control and then I have another mini grand canyon on my territory. But still, I don’t want to let her go, but I don’t know how I can leave the pack while I take a nice little vacation out of Earth.

Shit, I still need to deal with the area she destroyed. If the vampires somehow come across that destruction, it’ll lead them right to us, and I have no logical way to explain that to my pack members should they be the ones to find it.

“Aston, I’ll need you to find a couple Earth witches and follow me out to the woods. There’s a small mess we need to clean up” I tell him

“What exactly did I do out there?” Amara butts in. Shit, how do I gently explain to her she almost ended the world without slamming my walls up and lying to her to save her more worry and guilt?

“Well, to simply put it, you made it look like a bomb went off.” An atomic, nuclear bomb, but I’ll omit that for now.

“I can’t remember anything…” she says, hugging her arms, I can feel she’s terrified of herself through the bond, so I walk over to her and pull her into my arms

“You lost control baby, it happens sometimes before you learn how to handle your powers. I lost control when I first came into my own magic plenty of times. One time my dad spent a couple weeks trying to get my mess cleaned up. He ended up telling the pack members that a human airplane crashed into the territory” I tell her, laughing at the memory while an ache settles in my chest. I’ve barely seen my dad since mom died, he left the country. We used to be close, but he turned into a shell of the Alpha he once was when he lost his mate. Not even his own children could bring him any type of happiness. I was bitter towards him, I could handle his cold shoulder, but he broke Gemma’s heart. We don’t even know for certain if he’s still alive.

I bury my thoughts, refocusing on the situation at hand. That’s a topic for another day. I look down at Amara who is giving me a calculating look after feeling my emotions. Shit, these walls are going to be an issue. But, I guess if anyone should know all my deepest secrets and feelings it should be my mate. I kiss her forehead and look back up at Seth and Aston. Seth has a disgusted look on his face, while Aston has a mocking smile.

“I didn’t know the big bag Alpha could be so affectionate” Aston teases

“Fuck off or I’ll make you do the new security system.” I tell him with an eye roll. “Amara, why don’t you go hang out with Gemma while we handle the forest? She’s with Violet, Cici, and Serena.” I tell her

“Why can’t I go with you? I should see what I’m capable of.” she says, annoyance hitting me through the bond

“I’d rather you stay in the main territory for now. I don’t want to risk you being spotted anywhere near any border. It’s not permanent, just until we figure out what exactly we’re dealing with.” I tell her and she huffs, but clearly doesn’t have a rebuttal. I pull her chin up and give her a long kiss, really not wanting to be away from her.

Being away from my mate so soon after the bond snaps into place goes against the laws of nature. Normally, new mates are shacked up for about a week, sometimes longer. In my sister Violet’s case, I didn’t see her until 3 days ago. I internally shuddered at that, I gave her the keys to a cottage I had in the more discreet area of the territory so I didn’t have to deal with possibly hearing her and her mate. I did the same with Gemma when she and Seth were first mated. I know what happens when you find your mate and I get it, but I still don’t need to think about my little sisters getting dicked down. Or strapped down in Violet’s case, I guess? Ok gross, I internally gag at my thoughts. Nope, no thank you.

“Shall we get going, I’m coming too.” Seth says

“You and Aston go grab the earth witches, brief them on the situation and offer them a generous pay. I’m going to walk my mate to the living area with my sisters.” I tell them.

They nod their heads and walk out, leaving me alone with Amara. I pull her into my chair with me as I sit down and wrap my arms around her while she lays her head in the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, she’s fucking cute. We sit there like this for a couple minutes before she pulls away and looks at me.

“Do you have to go?” she says, her eyes starting to water as she looks down “I’m sorry if I sound clingy, I just don’t want to be away from you right now…” she trails off when I put my index finger under her chin and pull her gaze up to meet mine

“This is normal, baby. I don’t want to be away from you either. Once I get everything sorted, Aston will handle my duties and I’ll take you somewhere that we can stay until you want to leave” I tell her. I’ll take her to the cottage. It’s not near the borders but it’s close enough I can get to other parts of the territory or the packhouse quickly, if need be. Or someone could get to us quickly…

“Promise?” she says, and I feel how vulnerable she is right now.

“I promise. I just need today to get everything sorted out, ok? I wish we could just be in our bed right now, but soon baby.” I tell her

“Okay…” she says before she kisses me. I kiss her back and then get up to lead her to where my sisters are with the beta and gamma females.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m currently running towards the destroyed area of the forest with Aston, Max, Seth and two Earth witches, Araidia and Paloma. They are riding on Max and Seth’s backs, I snarled at Max when he suggested that we shift and let them ride us. Aston the asshole didn’t miss a beat and told everyone I was “freshly whipped and unable to touch a woman other than my queen”. Dick. I’ve been whipped for the last month, but he doesn’t need to make a big deal out of it. You’d think being around 3 mated males would lessen the blows about loving my mate but nope. Fuckers.

We’d also filled Max in on everything, he was quiet for a few moments before nodding his head and asking what he needed to do, which Aston quickly spoke up about the security system. Max, of course, didn’t utter a single complaint. I always appreciated him, he was probably the best gamma in the history of this pack. He was not of gamma blood, but I chose him as my gamma probably when we were about 12, saying even if my dads gamma produced an heir I would still choose him. He was always the more soft hearted one out of all of us, while I was the serious one, and Aston was the clown. Aston and I had been best friends since birth, his father was my father’s beta so we were always around each other. Once we started school, we became fast friends with Max and the rest was history. The previous gamma was not able to produce an heir before he was killed in a rogue attack a couple years before my father retired as Alpa. That left the position open, and my dad let me pick the new gamma. He wasn’t officially sworn in as gamma until I took the Alpha title, but he was the acting gamma. My father and Aston’s father helped him of course, but he took it seriously. He was only 16 when he started as the acting gamma, my father had asked him to wait until he was 18 but he refused. Regardless of his skill and natural ability, I think he always felt like he had to work harder to prove himself worthy since he wasn’t born into the title.

I would have told him about my demon side one of these days, but I never found the need to. The only reason Aston knew about my demon side was because he was there the first time I lost control. Me, him, and my father were out for a run, Max had stayed behind with Serena-they dated for years before they were lucky enough to be mates. I was hunting a deer, but I lost its trail and got pissed off that I’d lost the trail, and well, I kind of lost my shit. I was a 16 year old boy, I got angry at everything, I couldn’t help it. I burnt almost the entire forest floor and knocked a couple trees down, nothing to the degree of what Amara did. Thankfully, before I could do more my father snapped me out of it. We had no choice but to tell Aston. I would have told Max, but my father told me I needed to keep that side of me hidden, that the pack wouldn’t accept me, and that I was a strong enough wolf to not need my demon side to fight my battles for me. Eventually, I learned to be ashamed of my demon side and I never felt the need to confess to my pack what I was. I didn’t need them thinking the only reason I was strong was because of my powers, and not my own hard work, like my father said.

I’m abruptly pulled out of my thoughts when I stumble over the first crack in the earth, signaling we were coming up on Amara’s destruction. I shifted first, telling everyone to remain in their wolf forms as we traced the cracks until the ground was no longer stable to walk on. I looked back and saw the witches with wide eyes. I couldn’t read the other 3 since they were in their wolf forms but I’m sure their faces would have mirrored the witches’. Araidia and Paloma hopped off Seth and Max, and put their hands to the ground.

“Alpha Roman, I’m not sure this can be done today. This will take a couple days, maybe even weeks. The destruction is far greater than I could have imagined” Araidia said quietly

“I understand, and I am not asking you to drain yourselves. I’m sure you understand that I can’t leave it like this, though.” I respond

“Of course, Alpha. We could get this done much quicker if we had the help of 2 or 3 Fae” she says back, cautiously.

“No. No one else can know about this, we discussed that, Araida. As I said, I am not asking that you drain yourselves of your energy for this, I am just asking that you make it a priority to get it done. I know you have already discussed compensation with the Beta, but I will happily pay you whatever more you could need.” I tell Araidia sternly

“Alpha, if I may” Paloma butts in “my daughter, Dahlia, is mated to a fae. You know her, you have allowed her, her mate, and their daughter entry into the lands freely. Their daughter, Elowen, is a Fae Witch hybrid. She came into her powers early, she’s 8 now. If we could allow the 3 of them to help, I think we could have this done by the end of tomorrow. My daughter was a loyal pack member, and her mate is a good man.” she says, puffing out her chest in pride.

I consider it for a moment, I had known Paloma since I was a child, and Dahlia grew up with me. She was always a kind person, and when she asked me to move off territory into the Fae lands, I was sad to see her go. I had only met her mate a handful of times, but I was a good judge of character and got no sense of ill-will from him. If they could have this done so quickly, then the benefit would outweigh this small risk.

“Very well, Paloma. Please have them stop by Aston’s office as soon as they arrive. He will mindlink me to come speak with them personally. Tell them I will compensate for their travel, housing, food, and whatever other needs they have. They will be taken care of during their stay here, and of course they will be generously compensated for their time. I appreciate that you are both willing to help in this matter.” I respond to her

“Of course, Alpha. If we may ask…what caused this?” Araidia asks, still looking around at the chaos.

“I cannot disclose that currently. I assure you that the pack is not under any immediate threat, and I will happily explain this to you at a later time. Please trust that I put my pack before all, and if there was any danger it would be relayed to the pack appropriately.” I tell them both, my voice holding finality. They both nod their heads, although I can tell they’re able to sense the power behind the destruction.

“I understand, Alpha. I will contact my daughter immediately. If she and her family are able to come right away, they should be here by 7pm.” Paloma says

“I will let the border patrol know they are coming and to mindlink Seth to escort them here. I have other matters to attend to, so I will be leaving as long as there is nothing else you need or want to ask”

“We’re okay, Alpha. Thank you. If anything comes up I will ask one of the men here to mindlink you.” Paloma says while Araidia nods her head in agreement. With that, I give them a curt nod and shift back to Adonis. I ran back towards home, eager to get to my mate.