Azalea

“Delilah, no splashing!” I called to the kids in the pool. There were about twelve kids total swimming while Lacey, Lily, and I sat under an umbrella watching them.

“That girl, I swear,” Lily grumbled.

I laughed at her. “She’s just spirited. Even if you don’t want to admit it, she is a lot like you, Lily,” I told her. Lily rolled her eyes, and Lacey laughed.

“I don’t know how you guys keep track of all these pups,” Lacey commented.

“It isn’t easy,” Lily said. “And Miss Luna over here is voluntarily adding a fourth one to her lot.”

“It’s definitely the last one,” I said with my hands over my growing belly. Missy and Sol were off somewhere today. The pack daycare was now pretty full with all the new families and children that have joined the pack, so Lily and I helped as much as we could. The packhouse is only set up to accommodate a handful of orphans, so Liam and I have a larger home being built for those children without guardians. A few of the new pack members will be handling it under my supervision when it is complete. For now, I was able to enlist the help of some families to foster the children while we get things situated. I hoped it would also help the rogue children integrate into the pack better and make some friends before the school year began.

“How are you feeling?” Lacey asked, looking at my round belly. I smiled at her.

“Wonderful,” I lied. The truth was that I am drained lately. Moving around has become extremely uncomfortable in a noticeably short amount of time as well. After being in the hospital for a few days, Doctor Ron was confident that the infection was under control, and I was allowed to leave. But the hormone-induced mood swings are atrocious. Earlier today, I managed to get Austin off my back only to get upstairs and find Junior reading to Leo. That somehow sent me into an emotional spiral. I feel a tad bit guilty that Austin got in trouble, but my guard duty was handed over to Lily for the rest of the day, which was much more fun.

Liam is running out of time to find a second person to supplement Felix as Austin will be leaving in a couple of days with his family for a vacation. Jacob and I have a healthy respect for each other, but Liam knows we aren’t very fond of one another. Even though Lily and I spend plenty of time together, I think he would feel safer with someone more qualified.

“When are you due again?” Lacey asked.

“If I can make it to the finish line, six more weeks,” I told her.

“Yea and Missy’s birthday is in about four. What does she want to do for that anyway?” Lily asked, changing the subject.

I scowled. “I don’t know. When I asked her a couple of days ago, she just shrugged and said whatever. She seems a little distracted lately.”

“Do you think she is worried about finding her mate? I was terrified on my 17th birthday. The uncertainty of the whole thing had my stomach in knots for weeks before,” Lacey told us. Lily laughed. “You guys weren’t nervous?”

“No, I was extremely excited. But then I didn’t find Damien for a while. He’s a year younger than me, and I lived towards the outskirts of the pack. I wasn’t near the packhouse often, so it took a minute for us to find each other,” Lily told Lacey. Lacey turned to me.

“And what about you? Excited or nervous?”

I let out a shallow laugh. “That is a very long story for another time,” I told Lacey. She just gave me a confused look but nodded her head. I didn’t think it was the right time to tell her about Liam’s rejection and subsequent acceptance three years later. I looked over at the back door of the packhouse to see Felix standing just outside of it. I nodded my head toward him, and Lacey turned, a smile immediately gracing her lips.

“She’s that gah-gah over that man and hasn’t even mated with him yet,” Lily whispered to me. I swatted her arm, and she laughed quietly.

“It’s not for lack of desire, girls,” Lacey said off-handedly as she stood up and left us. At that, we both burst out into a round of laughter.

Lacey

I smelled him even before Azalea tried to tell me Felix was outside. Every time the smell of marshmallows roasting over a campfire invaded my nose, my body lit up for him. We were taking things slowly, but that did not mean the mate bond was not trying to speed up the process. I wouldn’t be surprised if I went into heat any day now.NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.

I got up, leaving Lily and Azalea with all the kids in the pool. Felix’s eyes connected with mine as I made my way over to him. I could see them darken slightly as he watched me. Things were getting better between us, but we still had not talked about taking things further. It wasn’t hard to figure out that he was a man of discipline and restraint, which explains why our level of affection has not progressed past holding hands and only behind closed doors.

As I approached him, his tongue darted out, moistening his lips. “Hi,” I said softly. The corner of his mouth quirked up almost into a smile. “Are you here for me or to watch the Luna?” I asked him. I quickly figured out that the best way to get information out of him was just to ask him questions that required a ‘this or that’ type answer. He was a tad bit more forthcoming while we were alone but generally quiet. He nodded his head towards Azalea.

“I need to go check in with my boss. I will see you at dinner?” I asked.

“Move in,” he grunted. I c****d my head, surprised at his outburst.

“What?”

“Here. With me,” he answered.

My lips quirked up in a small smile. “Are you asking me to move in with you, Felix?” I clarified. He nodded his head. My heart raced in my chest. “You want me to move to B***d Eclipse?” I questioned. Again, he nodded. “To live with you?” He nodded once more. Here goes nothing. “And be your mate?”

He paused for a moment, then nodded his head slowly. My wolf was dancing around in my head in excitement. I was a little surprised by his request. Although I was trying to get to know him, we had not spoken about this yet. I bit my l*p as I looked up at him.

“Can I think about it?” I finally asked. He nodded his head. “I’ll, uh, see you in a bit, okay?” Felix stepped aside to let me through the door to the packhouse. Once I got inside and shut the door, I tried to take deep breaths to clear my senses of his scent.

Felix just asked me to move in with him, albeit oddly. And I think he wants to accept me as his mate. My wolf and my body were screaming ‘yes’ at me, so now I just needed to make sure my heart was ready for this.

Liam

“That is the fourth time this week,” I said.

“I know,” Damien said. “It’s just getting increasingly worse. Around the Inn as well.”

“First peaceful rogues, now violent ones. Have we been able to figure out what they want?” I asked. Damien shook his head. Since we found out about Gwen’s murder revolving around vampires, Damien has been more like his old self. I think having an answer finally has given him the ability to focus again.

“No. None of them seem to have a purpose other than mindless violence. This last group was small, and we caught them quickly, but we should increase patrols everywhere,” he said.

I nodded. “Let’s do that. And we need to hurry up and find someone to augment Azalea’s protection. I don’t want to worry her more than necessary with this.”

“Does she know about the attacks?” he asked.

“She knows there has been increased rogue activity, but I didn’t tell her how close they have gotten. I just need to get someone as reliable as Felix watching her, so I don’t have to worry about that on top of the pregnancy,” I told him. Damien nodded. I knew he understood after the last two times.

“Maybe you should give Langston a call. See if he is seeing any of the same things,” Damien suggested.

“Yea. Have we gotten the list of candidates from Austin yet?” I asked. Damien shook his head.

“I’ll go track that down,” he said. Damien left my office, and I walked over to the couch and slumped down. I closed my eyes and focused on Azalea for a minute. I could feel her happiness through our bond. Lily or the kids must be putting her in a good mood. I was much more at ease when she was happy.

My phone rang, interrupting my moment. I pulled it from my pocket to see that it was Abraham. “Hello?” I answered.

“Alpha, sorry to bother you, but I heard back about the surveillance tapes,” he said. “I thought I should tell you right away.”

“Please, go ahead,” I encouraged him.

“It was just as I thought; the attacker was a vampire. Are you aware of their varied abilities?”

“Somewhat,” I said.

“Some vampires develop various telepathic powers. Most have the ability to speak to others mentally, much as werewolves can through our pack link. Others can implant thoughts and feelings into others,” he explained. I nodded my head but then realized that we were speaking on the phone.

“Okay,” I said.

“From what my contact found, it looks as if the tapes were looped but for only a couple of minutes. It seems that would be long enough for a vampire to get in and out,” he continued.

“But how was it that no one saw them?”

“My guess is that they have been sneaking into the pack’s territory for a while. They were probably masking their scent to a degree as well. I think they were able to implant thoughts into the guards that evening to open up a clear path for themselves and for the tapes to be looped.”

“So, this took some time to plan. They would have to know our schedules as well as the layout of the prison to move that efficiently.”

“Precisely.”

“So, you still believe it was Clan Warwick behind this?”

“I do,” he confirmed.

“Thank you, Abraham,” I said before hanging up the phone. I dropped my head back against the couch. Were vampires waging war on us again?

“We need to kill the vampires and keep Little Mate and the pups safe,” Gavin growled in my head.

“I know. Gwen was clearly a warning, but for what I don’t know,” I replied.

“That wasn’t the first time the vampire visited Gwen,” Gavin stated.

“Why do you think?”

“If it were going to kill someone to send a message, it could have killed any pack member. It could have attacked our patrols. It was using Gwen before it killed her,” he explained. He was right; it made so much sense. Gwen was getting regular visits from Damien and Mrs. Hale. She had to get them to talk about what was happening within the pack and probably passed that information along.

This wasn’t good. There was no way that Damien and his father were going to take this well. And I had no definitive proof. I g*****d.

“Liam, are you okay?” Azalea’s voice floated into my head.

“Yea, baby. I am fine,” I quickly told her. I didn’t want to hide things from her, but I didn’t need her to be more stressed out right now.

“What’s bothering you? I can feel it,” she pushed.

“Nothing, sweetheart. I just need to talk to my dad. Not the most enticing thing on my list today,” I told her. That was the truth. Now that we were on the brink of another vampire war, I needed to speak with my father about all of this.

“Well, get it over with, then come swim with the kids,” she suggested. I smiled.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I told her.