Reuben POV
I refused to stay in hospital overnight. I felt a lot better, the rehydration trick had worked.
My doctors had said they were surprised with Noah’s methods, they would have taken me into surgery to remove the bullet. I have a feeling doctor or not, he enjoyed inflicting me with more pain with his technique. But at least I wasn’t out under and wasn’t away from the pack link. Was that his thought process also?
Damn he was a good doctor.
I wouldn’t admit it to his face…or to Pierce’s either. My wolf also didn’t want to leave Pierce alone back at the alpha house. I knew he was trying to wind me up but my wolf was paranoid that he would make a move on her.
Vicky had insisted on a bedside vigil throughout the night which meant I had been up since 4am with her in the kitchen checking emails. I was struggling to be more and more in her presence.
“Tell her to leave!” My wolf growls in my mind. “She’s making sure I don’t pass out on the kitchen table, have a heart.” I respond to him.
Vicky had been there for me for the last four years, she didn’t run away when things got tough. Sure we had disagreements and there were days she annoyed me…but she stayed by my side.
However the fact that I hadn’t been sexual with her screamed a warning to me. How has it been so long? I’m not saying I haven’t helped myself out but four fucking years?
What was I waiting for? I thought Evelyn was dead. Which was confirmed by my own eyes when I visited the Silver Moon pack. Why would I wait if she was dead, why would my body not pursue another wife. Why didn’t I take Vicky?
“She isn’t mine…”
“And Evelyn is? Don’t forget she abandoned us, abandoned her role as Luna and took our children away. Four years…we can’t get those years back. Evelyn is an alpha in her own right now. Vicky has been the acting Luna for four years…”
“No!” My wolf roars at me and it’s enough for my own body to shake. “Are you okay?” Vicky jumps from her chair and places her hand to my head.
“You’re burning up.” She frets, placing her fingers to her mouth.
“I’m fine, it’s just my wolf arguing with me.”
“About what?”
“Nothing important.” Now wasn’t the right time. I don’t know what I wanted, or what Evelyn now had planned.
“I’ll fetch you another drink…” She struts off to the kitchen. Even at this early hour she was dressed in a tight vest and petite shorts that showed off her bum cheeks as she bent over. She was wearing fluffy heeled slippers and looked every inch of the model Luna. But why did I find Evelyn so intoxicating….
She aggravated and confused me more than anyone ever had, she had spent years building an alliance against me… why? What the fuck had I done to her?
Told her to be kinder to a Luna in need. To help shelter a Luna that had lost her pack from a vicious attack. That’s all I asked at the time.
She turned packs against me when she was the one who knowingly was pregnant with my children and left. How could I forgive her for that. Why should I?
My mood hasn’t much improved as everyone starts to come into the kitchen for breakfast. I cursed when Candice and Milo entered the kitchen, I had forgotten they were even here.
Pierce has also now joined and between he and Candice, they seem to both enjoy winding me up and making little comments at the table aimed at Vicky.
“Stop!” I growled slamming my clenched fist onto the table.
“Vicky is the acting Luna and you will show her your respect.” I warned at them all. They didn’t have to like her but they needed to remind themselves that she was under my pack’s protection.
It’s the Silver Moon pack family that break the awkward silence as they enter the kitchen and take the empty seats. Rex and Elspeth sit next to Candice, Noah takes the seat next to Milo, leaving a space next to me.
She backtracks when she realises and decides to stand behind her two children and help plate them up. I see her gently shake her head which meant her and Noah were talking privately to one another.
“Good morning Master Rex.”
“Hello Beta Milo, I didn’t know you were here.” He smiles politely before his eyes fall upon the food in the middle of the table.
Cassandra and Michelle had been in here early to prepare breakfast. They refused to remain even though I insisted on it. They had heard that Rex was here and wanted to make American pancakes for him as Elspeth had said that was his favourite.
“How are you feeling?” Candice asks Rex and I can’t keep my eyes off him. He had been through hell. He was an innocent four year old but was showing courage beyond his years.
“I’m okay thank you. I slept well, it’s nice to be back in a nice bed.” He smiles sadly and my heart breaks for him. Evelyn sensing his sadness places a kiss on top of his head and reaches for the chocolate spread, putting it in front of his plate.
Vicky starts talking to Pierce about his pack or something but I can’t concentrate, my eyes are fixated on Evelyn, Elspeth and Rex. We’re they really meant to be mine? Both Evelyn and Elspeth notice my eyes on them and both glance up, but not Rex. His eyes are watching Vicky with keen interest. That’s right he hasn’t met her, this is actually his first time here. He should have been born here, grown up here…they both should have.
Elspeth finishes her pancakes, even licking the remaining chocolate spread off the plate, before turning to her brother.
“Rex, let’s go I want to show you the garden.”
“Sshh not right now.” He whispers to his sister but doesn’t look at her once. He keeps his eyes on Vicky, frowning. In fact he hasn’t even touched his pancakes. Michelle and Cassandra walk down having completed their duties upstairs and start to help with the kitchen clean up. Their eyes are also on Rex, Cassandra more so than Michelle.
I concentrate back on Vicky as she turns to Evelyn.
“Well Evelyn, now that Rex is safe and well, you can finally return to the Silver Moon pack.” She places her hand on my arm, all eyes now on us and where Vicky’s hand is. “Yes absolutely…” Evelyn starts but I cut her off before I can stop myself.
“There’s no rush. Rex needs to be checked over again and signed off for a long car journey. Anyway he hasn’t had the grand tour by the Alpha King himself.” I smile at him with a playful wink.
“Yes, I would like to see how things are run here…” Rex responds, how old was this boy?
“You’re four years old, what do you know.” Vicky laughs out loud, throwing her head back.
“I know a lot actually…even for a four year old.” He smirks, like a cat that got the cream. He looks just like his mother at that moment in time.
“Oh pray do tell…” She throws her arms out, gesturing for him to tell the table. Evelyn, who is still standing behind him, places a calming hand on his shoulder.
“Well for starters the men that kidnapped me were idiots….” His voice not now sounding so calm. Yet he still held a maturity beyond his years.
“Really, how so Rex?” I ask, intrigued. I move my arm from Vicky’s embrace and place them by my mouth, massaging the tips of my fingers together.
“They didn’t blind fold me once, not once. Which meant I saw all of their faces. They also spoke openly all the time which meant they weren’t part of the same pack as they couldn’t use the mind-link. I can always tell when Mum and Uncle Noah mind-link, their eyes glaze over.’
“Interesting…you have a watchful eye for a four year old. What else?” I encourage him to continue. Vicky has gone quiet, her mind clearly also thinking about what he is telling us. He is giving me more information than I had hoped to of gained from the dead short fat fucker. He was an alpha in the making.
“Reuben don’t encourage him.” Vicky whispers but I hush her.
“I don’t know why but they got spooked one night, insisted on moving me immediately, which is when we reached the pub.”
“Thank the goddess that your Mama and Reuben were able to find you.” Pierce raises his mug of coffee.
“They were a mess…used the speaker thing through the van that they moved me in.”
“What?” I sat forward, my thought process ahead of everyone else. That same dick that hung up on me, the one who organised all of this. Would Rex be able to help bring him to justice…or to my pack punishment more likely. I nod my head for Rex to continue.
“It was a female voice, a voice a lot like yours Vicky.”
