Missy

Vlad took me out to the cabin and cooked dinner for me. It was pleasant, and once we were away from the packhouse, he was his normal self again. But despite all my effort, I was distracted all night.

When V finally asked me what was wrong, I lied and told him I wasn’t feeling well. He brought me home, and I went straight to my room. Now I lay on my bed with one of my earphones in my ears, staring at my diary app, trying to work out what I feel while music thrummed softly in one ear. Usually, I found it super easy to work through my feelings right there on the screen, but nothing was coming out.

Someone knocked at my door. Checking the time on my screen, I realized it is late. I locked my tablet and set it on the bed, going over to my door. I opened it slowly to find Maddox standing there with a shy smile.

“Hey there,” he said.

“Hey. What’s up?” I asked, confused.

“I just wanted to make sure you got back okay,” he said. I wasn’t convinced. I raised an eyebrow in question at him. “Okay. I can’t sleep and was hoping you couldn’t either.”

“Something like that….” I said, looking away from him.

“Do you maybe want to go watch a movie or something with me?” he asked.

“I’m watching the pups for Lea tomorrow… I should really try to sleep….” I tried to excuse myself. Maddox reached forward and grabbed my hand. I looked up at him to see sad eyes.

“Missy, please don’t pull away from me. I miss my friend. I respect that Vlad is your boyfriend, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still hang out,” he said. I missed him too, but ever since he confessed that he likes me, I haven’t been sure how I am supposed to feel. “Talk to me. Tell me what is bugging you so I can fix it.”

I pulled my hand away from him and turned around, stepping back into my room. “Maddox, you….” I started but let my voice trail off. I felt him step up behind me.

“I what?” I just shook my head. “I was honest with you? Missy, I can’t help how I feel, and I didn’t want to keep it a secret. You deserve to know that I think the world of you. But I didn’t want you to run away from me.”

“I’m not running away,” I replied softly.

“Then why won’t you look at me? Why are you always coming up with some reason not to spend time with me? Before we went over to the Inn, we spent every day together.”

“Maddox, I’m sorry. It’s not like that….”

“Then come downstairs, sit on the couch, and watch a movie with me. We can sit on separate couches if it will make you feel better, but don’t ice me out,” he asked.

I bit my l*p while I considered what to do. I wanted to spend time with Maddox, but now it just felt like I was admitting that I liked him back. Vlad is my boyfriend, not Maddox. He has been there for me through so much. But Maddox is my friend, and I wasn’t being fair to him either.

“Alright. We can go watch a movie,” I said as I turned around. He smiled brightly at me.

“Great! I was thinking The Conjuring!” he laughed. My face dropped, and I pushed past him, leading the way out of the room. We were not watching a scary movie.

Lacey

I fell asleep easily in Felix’s arms. Comfort surrounded me, and I was exhausted after being marked. Now I understood why Harry slept for over twelve hours after he finally let me mark him. I can’t imagine how tired I would feel if I wasn’t a werewolf. I expected Felix to be a loud snorer, but he wasn’t. He breathed deeply behind me but never made a sound.

I felt my body being moved sometime later, waking me from a comfortable sleep. Felix was pulling a shirt over me. “What’s going on?” I asked groggily.

“Rogues,” he said. I realized quickly that he just linked me. I am marked; we can link each other and feel each other now! It only took another minute to realize that I could also feel his worry. I wiggled out of his grasp and finished pulling the shirt over me. I looked down to notice it was his shirt. He was already wearing his pants again.

I looked back up at my mate as he bent down and pulled me up quickly into his arms. “Felix, what are you doing?” I asked quickly. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he hurried out my door. “Felix,” I said more anxiously now. He just carried me out of the room wearing only his shirt.

“I need you safe,” he linked.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Our room,” he replied. I realized he was moving towards his room that was down the hall from where I was staying. He stopped outside the door, unlocked it, and pushed it open. He deposited me on the bed before going to his closet. He turned around to hand me a pair of shorts.

“Please stay here,” he linked before he ran from the room shirtless. I sighed, holding his pants in my hand. He could have given me thirty seconds to put on some panties, at least.

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Liam has been gone for so long now. I was able to keep calm for the first couple of hours, but the lack of communication from Liam was slowly eating away at me. I checked on the kids’ rooms every twenty minutes or so. An hour ago, I found Missy’s room empty and started calling her immediately. Luckily, she answered and told me she was just downstairs watching a movie. I didn’t want to worry her about the rogues, so I sent a message to Austin so he could check on her. If Damien and Liam were helping the patrol with the rogues, Austin and Jacob were making sure the packhouse was safe.

I sat on the couch, rubbing some of the soreness from my sides. This was not a huge group of rogues, so I do not know what was taking Liam so long. I am also sure I would be less on edge if my body was not overflowing with pregnancy hormones right now.

There was a knock on the door, and it immediately opened before I could stand to answer it. Lily poked her head inside. “They are on their way back, Lea. But Liam is a little banged up. Damien thought I should warn you so you don’t freak out,” she said softly as she stepped inside.

Dread started trickling through my veins. “How banged up?” I asked.

“He will be fine in a day or two,” she said hesitantly.

“Is he going to the clinic?”

Lily shook her head. “No, he wanted to come straight to you. He insists he is fine, but Damien said he got hit pretty hard.”

“Goddess, Liam,” I said. Worry and anger were battling themselves inside me, resulting in tears welling up in my eyes. “He needs to go see the doctor,” I continued.

“I tried, but you know how they are. He should be here in just a few minutes. Do you want me to stay?” she asked. I shook my head as I slowly pulled myself to my feet.

“No. I will deal with him. Can you just have someone bring him up something to eat? He is going to need something to help him heal.”

“Of course,” Lily said. She ducked out of the room, leaving the door cracked.

“Liam, you better not let your daughter see you bleeding! She is downstairs watching a movie right now!” I linked him as I waddled over to our bathroom. I grabbed some wash rags and towels from the cabinet then found the small washbasin under the sink. I left it to fill with warm water and took the towels out to our bedroom. I returned to grab the basin, then again to grab some bandages and antibacterial ointment. If he needed stitches, he was going to the clinic without argument.

As I stepped out of the bathroom holding a pile of bandages and ointment, the bedroom door swung open, and Liam came inside. I gasped a little at his appearance. He wore basketball shorts but nothing else. His chest had multiple deep scratches across it, bleeding down his front. There were bruising of different degrees, all starting to heal. There was a small gash in his ear that was trickling b***d down his neck. There was also plenty of small cuts and scrapes on him that were beginning to heal.

“I’m okay, Little Luna,” he said cautiously.

“You are not okay!” I almost yelled at him. He walked towards me with a small limp. “Liam, what happened?”

“There were more rogues than we initially thought, and they were determined to get into the territory,” he said calmly. How could he be calm right now? Has he not seen himself?

“Did you let Gavin out?” I questioned. Gavin was far more ruthless than Liam; they complimented each other well. Gavin will stop at nothing to protect me, our children, and the pack, which also could lead to the state Liam is currently in.

“Yes,” he said. “We were in control together.” I sighed. Liam brought his hands to either side of my face, and I looked up into his blue eyes. The eyes he gave our boys. “I’m okay, I promise.” I just blinked at him for a moment, trying not to break down in tears.

“Let’s clean you up,” I finally said. Liam placed a soothing k**s on my lips before whispering, “okay.”

–

Liam did not want to get up in the morning. He kept trying to roll onto his side all night to get close to me, but he would wince and roll back over. He was clearly still sore from his healing injuries. I left him in bed to get the kids and go down to breakfast. On the way down, I found Lacey coming down the stairs looking a bit flustered. The kids had already run ahead of me. “Good morning,” I greeted her hesitantly.

“Good morning, Luna,” she said, trying to mask whatever was bugging her.

I sniffed the air, picking up something different from her. I couldn’t smell the same as normal wolves, but I could definitely tell a difference. My eyes narrowed in on her neck. “So, how was your night?” I asked her, probing for a confession.

“Oh, um. Busy. I guess rogues were attacking last night?” she replied. I nodded my head.

“Yea. Did Felix help with that?”

“Yea. He ran off to help. Didn’t come back for a while. Must have been a serious problem,” she said, trying to steer the conversation away from herself.

“Maybe he was distracted by something else?” I suggested. She looked at me, blushing. I suppressed a laugh. “You don’t have to hide it. And you won me $50, so I should be thanking you.”

“What?” she asked, dropping her jaw.

“Oh, we were all betting on it. Lily had three weeks, Damien ten days, Liam two days, and I was in for a week. If you mated last night, that should be about a week since coming here,” I said thoughtfully.

“Seriously?”

“Oh, yea. Definitely.”

Lacey dropped her shoulders and let her head fall back. “I guess I might as well talk to you about transferring packs.”

“Paperwork is already started and sitting on my desk,” I laughed. “We knew you wouldn’t reject him. It was just a matter of time. None of us could agree because he’s so…. Felix.”

Lacey laughed at that. “Yea, he is a bit different.”