*** Silas POV *** “Alpha, I was hoping to get you to take care of these before the end of the day.”Sam walked into my office. He wasn’t paying attention but pulling out a few pages from the bunches he had in his hands. When he looked up, he froze. Eros was the one sitting at the desk, pen in hand, doing paperwork.“I…um…Alpha…”“Yes, Gamma?” Eros voice came through low as he smiled at Sam.Sam stuttered. “I…I just…we were…is…”“Gamma, spit it out if you want me to do any work by the end of the day.”He cleared his throat. “A few of the guys would like to trade positions from morning patrol to night and vise versa. I’ve made the list of names but there is an odd man out for the switch so someone would either not get it or someone from the night would need to switch in the mornings.”“Understood. Place it here and I’ll take a look at it.” Eros tapped the top of the pile of papers to his right. “Anything else?”“Um…I…yes. Is everything okay?”Eros raised an eyebrow. “Everything is fine
The Crossroads were a place where you used to become an adult. It was off territory and only the big kids got to go because they were allowed to leave the territory. For a long time, it was a mythical place that the young kids fantasized about going. Over the past ten years though, Jackson had grown from a small town to more of a city. Now, that was the place where you could go to hang out if you were old enough to be off territory without your parents. The Crossroads became the thing of the past.There wasn’t much to it either. It just happened to be an plateau overlooking a lake. If you had the balls, you could jump off the edge into the lake. Otherwise, it was just a big open space, with no adults that we used to bring chairs, beers, smokes, and other shit to hang out. Outside the eyes of the adults and the pack.My truck was fairly large and since the dirt path hadn’t been used in so long, it was overgrown and I could hear a few tree branches scrap against it. But I pulled up to w
I sat at the outside picnic tables behind The Wayward Tap. Finn was manning the grill while Aelia was sitting with me. Noah was grabbing some ice and a small cooler. I had a beer in my hand and she was finishing off her drink. It was sunny but not too warm. Sam had tried to pin me down for work today but I snuck out early and headed into town. After running a couple errands, I stopped by to see Aelia. The bar was closed because she had found a good deal on some meat and requested Finn to barbecue it, which apparently was an all day sort of thing. After a couple beers, I now was involved with the process. Plus, Aelia said she would show me up since I was so quick to say I was stronger than her.She leaned back, stretching and closed her eyes. “It’s such a nice day out. Why can’t it always be like this?”“We would take it for granted if it happened every day.” Finn answered her over the flames he was stoking.I chuckled as she growled. “Finn, you suck. No one actually believes that shit
Storming off, she disappeared into the bar, the back door slamming shut behind her. Finn pulled me up by my underarm and I stood as straight as I could. He helped me back over to the bench and sat me down. I winced as the cracked or broken ribs shifted but I felt the throbbing headache from the knee to the eye. Aelia came back out with my clothes that I had changed from and a bag of frozen peas. She places the clothes on the table but gently placed the bag of cold peas on my eye.“Sorry. I wasn’t thinking about the level of power I was using.”Noah chuckled. “Yeah, no shit. He’s gonna have a time explaining his condition back at the pack. Man, we could be blamed for attacking an Alpha!”I snorted. “When I asked for it? No. I’ll make up something. It’s fine. I didn’t realize I’d get my ass beat so thoroughly.”Aelia helped me get dressed, allowing me to not move as much. I sat back on the bench, fully dressed, holding the peas to my eye as Finn served up the food. It was a pile of barb
*** Noah’s POV ***It was hard watching her. Solaris was cleaning a table after going over the whole bar three times now. I was getting a twitch in my eye just watching her. Finn was doing inventory since it was his week to do it before we made a full order. She had woken up this morning fairly weak, needing a massage to get her leg and arm moving. All this cleaning was just out of fear that if she stopped, so would her body.“Sol, stop. Seriously. It’s clean. For the third time.”Her eyes met mine and at first I could tell she was irritated but they softened to understanding.“Sorry, I…”I smiled at her, shaking my head. “I get it, you don’t need to explain. But if you over compensate and overdo it, it will only be worse tomorrow.” I held up the glass I was wiping down. “Dishes are done if you want to help me.”Solaris gave me one of her wry smiles before heading around the bar where I was leaning. We had a dishwasher behind the bar and I had the door down, wiping off any spots that
I stood at the stove. The potatoes I was frying up were turning a delicious golden brown as I flipped the cubed pieces around. We were opening a little late today and it gave us the rare opportunity to eat together. Since, it was my turn to cook, I decided on a simple Cubano sandwich with potatoes. Solaris had made horchata earlier so that would be added as well. The plates were already set out on the bar counter and I was finishing up then potatoes before doing a final assembly of the sandwiches.Finn was sitting on the bed, leaning back, talking to Solaris about our next trip to the castle. We’d been requested to attend a meeting there and possibly end up heading out of a mission if that was the reason for the summons. The Alpha King didn’t give Solaris much but apparently it was important enough that all the Alpha Prince’s needed to show up.“Maybe it’s going to be an all out battle against them?”Solaris hummed, standing between Finn and the kitchen counter. “I’d finally take out
Blinking, I stared at the door, then down at Solaris and then back at the door. Finn usually was easy to read. His emotions in the forefront but I was met by a wall when I tried to reach out through our bond. Walking over to the kitchen, I started to clean up the dishes after my now useless attempt to make dinner for all of us. I had to stop every couple minutes though. Fear gripping me. What if she stopped breathing? What if her heart stopped? I had to listen, confirm I could still hear it. I watched as the blankets rose and fell with her breathing. Once I was satisfied, I continued cleaning. Only for pure fear to strike me again after a minute, forcing me to stop, listen, and watch.Finally, after a few minutes of constant checking, I gave up doing anything. Walking over to the bed, I pulled back the covers and slipped in next to her. I’d put her a little more towards the center. Her usual spot was on the left side of the bed, Finn in the middle, and me on the right.
*** Silas POV ***I pounded on the door of the The Wayward Tap. The rain was pouring down and I was completed soaked through. Hell, I was lucky I even had sweatpants in the nearby tree from the other night. My wolf-ass ran all the way over here as fast as I could. The thunder rolled behind me and I pounded on the door again. Charles taught me how to ‘police knock’ when he first got into the force and I hoped it carried all the way up the stairs.Stepping back, I looked up at the window but the light wasn’t on. Cursing, I was about to knock again when the door swung open. Aelia was standing in the door in a huge shirt and clearly only half awake.“Sil, do you know what time it is?”“About three in the morning, I think.”She narrowed her eyes. “What are you doing here?”“I need your help.”“Help can wait till the morning, Sil.”She was abo