TWENTY-SIX. Surprise

POV – Elijah

I shove that thought out of my head and lead her back through the building, across the skyway and down to the Mess Hall. I pass Liam, the Beta who links me, that he wants to talk.

“I’ll join you in a sec,” I tell Lillia, who nods but doesn’t say anything.

“Where have you been all afternoon?” Liam asks, smiling and giving me a knowing look.

“I’ve been with Lillia,” I say, unable to hide my smile. Yes, I like her. Blaze grins at my thought.

“I found the pack Lillia is from, Urban Wolves. She’s right; it is a small pack on the outskirts of Matraville. I’m looking into the Alpha family now,” Liam tells me.

“Thanks,” I reply, turning back and heading for the dining hall. I see Lillia standing near Fiona at the counter.

“Hello. Is everything okay here?” I ask. Fiona smiles at me, a smug look on her face.

“Hello, Alpha. I just told this girl she can’t come in without scanning a card first,” Fiona tells me.

- It’s the third time this has happened – Lillia links me. I look at her; her wolf must be coming in soon.

“Really?” I ask. Fiona nods, but Lillia doesn’t move, not knowing I heard her thoughts when she linked me.

“Dorian told her my name should be on the list….” Lillia begins softly.

“Really? What name did you give her?” I ask.

“Lillia Grey,” Lillia states. Hmm. Lillia should be Lillia Greystone.

“There’s no Lillia on the list?” I ask.

“No, Lillia Grey,” Fiona smiles.

“Fiona, are you friends with Olivia?” I then ask.

“Olivia? Oh, uh, she was a year ahead of me at school. Why?”

“Is there a Lillia on your list at all?” I reply. Fiona shakes her head, which makes me raise my eyebrows.

“What about Lillia Redclaw?”

“Re-redclaw?” Fiona stutters. I nod.

“Uh, yes… there is a Lillia Redclaw…”

“Good. See me in my office at three. Ask Chef to replace you for then. That is all,” I scowl. I take Lillia’s hand and lead her into the dining hall.

“Sit; I’ll get you something to eat. What do you want?”

“Um, whatever,” Lillia says softly. I have to shake her submissiveness off of her, I think to myself, and Blaze agrees.

- She’s acting this way because she’s been hurt. Treated like nothing - Blaze links, and I have to agree.

I leave her at the table and head for the buffet, grabbing two trays and a food trolley to put them on. I get chicken wraps in pita bread and hot chips, two cups of lime jelly and two bottles of appletiser.

Pushing the trolley over to the table, I see Olivia and her friend Shoshanna sitting beside Lillia.

“Hey, babe!” Olivia grins as I approach.

“Oh, thanks, for me?” Olivia then asks as I put a plate of food in front of Lillia.

“No, not for you,” I reply, making Lillia smile and Olivia pout. I think she thinks it looks sexy, but it doesn’t.

“What do you want?” I ask Olivia once I’m seated myself.

“Oh, Shanna and I were just having a conversation with Lillia here, asking about her mother. I heard she’s not doing well,” Olivia replies; although sounding friendly, her voice sounds fake.

“See? Olivia would make a perfect Luna. What do you think, Lillia?” Shoshanna asks.

“She won’t be Luna here, but”, I growl. The look of hope flashing across Lillia’s face doesn’t go unnoticed by me, Blaze smiling in my head.

“Elijah! I thought we’d make a good team! We were great once!” Olivia cries, upset. I shrug.

“You actually need to have people like you to be a Luna,” I reply, eating a chip.

“Oh, Eli, I’m perfectly loveable, remember?” Olivia asks, leaning forward and exposing her cleavage, her eyebrows wriggling. A few days ago, yeah. But right now, ugh.

“We should go. Tootles!” Olivia smiles, standing up. I don’t reply, making her scowl.

“Sorry about her,” I say when Olivia and Shoshanna finally leave. Lillia shrugs.

“I don’t like her,” Lillia replies. I nod. Lillia looked upset when I walked over, and I wanted to know what was said to her before I arrived.

“Lillia, remember you are an Alpha’s granddaughter. You have more power than even me right now. You need to stand up for yourself.”

I watch as Lillia nods in understanding.

“Olivia’s a dumbass. I like how you said she has to be likeable to be a Luna,” Lillia says after a while of quiet eating.

“Have you found your mate yet?” Lillia then asks me.

“No. Not yet.”

“Good. I mean, I’m glad it’s not Olivia,” Lillia says, her cheeks going red.

“You don’t need to worry about that. We broke up before you arrived. She just can’t take the hint.”

“Well, if she was, I would have to leave,” Lillia states.

- No! She is not leaving us! – Blaze protests.

“Well, I’m glad you’re staying,” I reply.

“How can I refuse a night under the stars?” Lillia asks, smiling. I return her smile. Yes! She wants to spend time with us!

“On Saturday night, I’ll take you for a trek in the woods, and we’ll do that. Sleep under the stars,” I grin.

“You’re on,” she smiles back at me.

//\\///\\\//\\

I try to find reasons to spend as much time as I can with Lillia. I like watching her become more confident as the days blend together. I’ve also gotten familiar with her routine. She spends most of her time visiting her mum and reading in the pack library. I meet her for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the dining hall and pick her up from the Alpha wing in the mornings. When I started picking her up, Alpha Brent gave me a look, and when I responded with heated cheeks, he chuckled, telling me to look after her.

While away from Lillia, I’ve been busy with our Beta Liam and our best computer hackers trying to get more information about Alpha Marcus, Lillia’s former Alpha. Considering their size, I discovered they’re a particularly rich pack. Which, as Lillia told us, is small. It’s interesting, though, the size of their pack and finances. I want to learn more about their pack members and history. They are a relatively new pack, and I want to know when they were formed, why and by whom. Obviously, their pack formation would have needed to be sanctioned by the King and Queen, but we need a reason to go and ask them for information.

“Any noise from them when Avairy and Lillia left the pack?” I ask Liam.

“No, not really. I’ve hacked into Urban Wolves’ emails and finances; they didn’t even notice them missing. No traffic,” Liam explains.

“We need to keep an eye on them, still. It’s only been a few weeks since they left.”

“Yeah. You don’t need to tell me how important Aviary and Lillia are,” Liam says. I nod and pat him on the shoulder. I often forget how close his mate and Lillia’s mother were

“Lillia! Are you going to see your mum?” I ask her when I see her walking toward the hospital.

“Yeah,” Lillia replies.

“How is she?”

“Not good. Mum’s not the best. I think Olivia and Shoshanna were right. The doctors try to make it sound like she is, but I can see it in Mum’s face and figure. She looks worse than when we arrived here,” Lillia admits. Lillia continues speaking when I don’t say anything because I don’t know what to say.

“How do you think Olivia and Shoshanna knew about Mum’s condition, though? Do you think someone told them?”

I think about this. Olivia is not the nicest person, but surely she wouldn’t be that nosey. And Shoshanna sometimes works with sensitive information, but she wouldn’t, would she?

“I think they’re just trying to get to you. Shoshanna was there the day your mum collapsed, remember?” I watch as Lillia accepts my explanation.

“Lillia… um, I’ve been meaning to ask you something….” I say, trying to form my words correctly so I don’t sound like an arsehole.

“Yeah?”

“Um. Would you consider getting therapy?” I ask, “I mean, just to have someone to talk to, you could talk to me if you wanted, or Danni, but if there were some things you wanted to keep to yourself, I thought I psychotherapist would help. They could give you….” I rush out.

“Stop, stop,” Lillia laughs, touching my arm. Her touch sends warmth through my body, and my knees go weak.

“Is a psychotherapist like a quack?”

I chuckle. I haven’t heard that term for psychiatrists for ages.

“No. A psychiatrist can prescribe medicine, which a psychotherapist can’t. What they can do is give you someone who will listen to you without judgement while giving you some strategies to help you get better,” I explain.

“You know a lot about it, it seems,” Lillia muses.

“Yeah. I saw someone when one of my friends passed away when I was fifteen,” I admit.

“Oh, I’m sorry. How?”

“Suicide.”

“Shit. I mean, not shit. I mean, I’m sorry. Fuck. Shit,” Lillia blurts out, covering her mouth. I can’t help but laugh.

“I’m really sorry to hear that,” Lillia says as my laughter dies. Her cheeks are red like a tomato; she looks so cute.

“It’s alright. Male depression is not something there is much information about it, but it’s real,” I say.

“What was he depressed about?”

I shrug at that question. Thomas was happy, but one day he came to school really unhappy. He wouldn’t tell us why. He started hanging out with the wrong crowd, and then everything went down from there.

“Thomas became an addict to cope with whatever was happening in his life. Although there’s almost instant gratification with drinking and doing drugs, the downer is worse. It got to him in the end,” I admit.

We continue walking, and Lillia doesn’t say anything.

“Anyway, therapy helped me. I thought it could help you, too.”

“I’ll think about it,” Lillia says.

“Good. I’ll see you later?”

“At dinner?”

“Yeah,” I smile. Lillia smiles back.

“Okay, see you then,” I say, grinning as I turn around.

I return to the Alpha’s office, looking forward to the paperwork on my desk. It had never occurred to me that I would become an Alpha of my own pack, growing up as the second-born in my family. Even at Alpha Training, I never took the role seriously. I wanted to be a Delta, so I focused on that. But secretly, I enjoy taking over Redwood Pack. Brent has been piling more and more responsibility on me, and even though his daughter and granddaughter are back, he hasn’t stopped giving me work.

A furious knocking bangs on my door, and I look up, not realising how much time I’ve spent typing on the computer.

“Yes? Come in,” I say, saving my work. A delta I’ve seen around before but never spoken to walks in, flushed with energy.

“Alpha Elijah?” the Delta asks, standing at my desk in front of me.

“Delta. How can I help you?” I ask.

“There’s been an attack. Alpha Brent asked me to take you to the video room to look at the footage,” the Delta states.

“An attack?” I ask, standing up.

“Yes. A guest… Lillia… was found beaten and unconscious in a janitor’s cupboard. Alpha Brent wants you to….”

He doesn’t get to finish as I’m up from my desk and already out the door. The Delta follows me as I walk through the building and across the skywalk to the middle building, where the security room is.

Yes, the middle building is the pack’s accommodation building, but we also keep the security room here. There is also a large kitchen with emergency food in this building if we ever need to lock down the building. Unlike some packs with panic rooms, the accommodation building is one big panic room. During emergency lockdown practices, we can block off the windows and entrances to the building using reinforced silver shutters and doors. We can fit the whole pack here and live comfortably for a month if needed. Hence why the security room is situated here.

“Amber, have you heard?” I ask, walking into the room and seeing Amber, one of our top deltas, sitting at the desk.

“Yep, boss, looking through the footage as we speak,” she replies. I stand behind her and watch as she tracks through footage from the morning.

“You seem close to the girl,” Amber tells me as she tracks Lillia and me walking down a hallway and talking. I nudge her.

“I think she’s my mate,” I mumble.

“Really? She’s pretty. Looks young,” Amber muses. I nod.

“She’s seventeen,” I admit.

“Aha.”

Amber tracks Lillia walking down hallways, following her from camera to camera.

“We don’t have cameras in every part of the packhouse. Unfortunately, she disappears from the camera here,” Amber says, pointing to one video on the screen, “and then appears again here. Do you know where she was going?”

“The hospital, to see her mum,” I answer.

“Where was she found again?” I ask the Delta, whom I’m trying to remember the name of. It’s a Jay name, I’m sure of it. I’m tossing between Justin and Joshua.

“One of the hallways between the library and service entrance. Sorry, I didn’t get told anything more,” the Delta responds.

“That’s okay, Jason; it’s something I can work with,” Amber responds, typing something into the keyboard. A new set of video feeds appears on the screen.

“The problem is, is that we’re blind around there; our cameras there are in the process of being replaced,” Amber admits.

“Fuck,” I state, wiping my hands down my face.

“I was thinking that too. Who would know those cameras are down?” Jason asks. I look at him. Good thinking.

“Only those on rotation here. The proposal would have gone through our security team months ago, so only those who work here would know about it….”

“Or?” I ask.

“Or someone who works in that area, who saw the camera’s being taken down,” Jason muses.

“You’re good,” I smile at Jason.

“Thank you,” he grins back.

We spend the next few hours trawling through the working cameras in the area, finding nothing out of the ordinary.

“What about those three?” Jason asks, indicating Olivia, Shoshanna and Erin.

“They’re always together. I highly doubt it. Shoshanna works at the service desk, so she has a reason for her and her friends to be there,” Amy explains.

“I wouldn’t dismiss it, though,” I comment, thinking.

“Why do you think that?” Amber asks.

“I dated Olivia. And lately, I’ve been spending time with Lillia. Maybe… maybe she’s jealous?” I state. Amber scoffs.

“Not all girls are like that. Plus, Olivia… what would she get out of it? You’re not her mate, are you?”

“Olivia, no. Lillia, as I said, maybe,” I state. We continue to watch the footage, but it’s fruitless.

“Maybe write down the times people go in and out of the area for the morning and around the time of the attack. I should go see how Lillia is doing,” I sigh.

“Alrighty then,” Amber replies.