Fated To the Alpha by Jessica Hall
Chapter 180
Last Night we could have filled a lake with the tears the pack shed. This morning it wasn’t about our heartbreak but preparing the boy we all loved to remain calm about the change in situation. Andrei pulled every pack from duty so they could spend it with Jonah knowing not one person was wanting to leave his side. So instead we played, we ate like every other day.
Our attempts of trying to make everything remain normal was heartbreaking for us, knowing tomorrow we wake up and that piece of him that has become routine will be gone until we can bring home again.
Clive was due to pick him an hour ago now and was running late. I hoped he never showed up and dropped off the face of the earth so we could keep him. He didn’t deserve him, he didn’t know him. We only had him a very short time and no amount of time would be long enough in my eyes.
But in that short time we already knew him. We knew what his favourite cereal was, his favourite bedtime story. He liked climbing trees and painting rocks, he was more excited about a cardboard box and what he could do with it than any toy the pack tried to give him.
He was adventurous and cheeky and knew how to push everyone’s b*ttons, push them to the edge of their sanity and bring them back with one giggle and smile.
He loved campfires and his eyes would light up just from having your undivided attention, making me realize that was something he didn’t get much of even when he had a family because they were always on the move, something we were all familiar with because we all were rogues turned family turned Pack.
Everyone was on edge and alert waiting to see the man we were being f0rced to trust him with. How anyone could put a child with a man like him was beyond us. Andrei’s lawyers tried everything and even they couldn’t make sense of it. Andrei’s lawyer even went and knocked on a judge’s door in the middle of the night to beg him to reconsider.
The judge was apparently unwilling to help, making us think someone was pulling strings because who in their right mind would agree for an abusive piece of sh*t like Clive to have rights to a 6 year old boy and now we only had one other option to try before Kat pet*itioned to have the laws changed.
I stand up looking down at Jonah drawing with a stick in the dirt before he would rub the picture out and draw another. He smiles up at me, though it wasn’t as big and bright as usual, his eyes conveying a different message. He was scared and didn’t want to go yet he smiled anyway because that was Jonah.
“I will be back in a minute” I tell him and he nods, going back to drawing in the dirt. I walk over to Andrei. He had two duffle bags and he drops them next to the log that sat around the campfire, looking over documents in his hands.
Stopping beside him he looks over at me with a troubled expression on his face, he was nervous and scared like everyone else was.
“That’s everything from the safes, I can get more but we would have to go into the city”
“Alpha” Zane calls out while jogging over with another bag in his hand.
“Here, take it. It’s all I could find around the house but there is l0k there” Zane says, dropping his brown paper bag into a duffle bag when I look over to see the entire pack heading toward us.
Everyone emptying out the pockets and their savings, dropping it into the bags, Zane counting and taking note of everything and calculating.
Andrei tried to tell them no but they refused to listen, dropping everything they had and with what Andrei pulled from the safe there was nearly 400k there.
“Also Alpha, I need to speak to you later on” Zane tells him and Andrei nods his head.
“Already?” Andrei asks.
“Yes, I can smell it on her, it won’t be much longer” Zane tells him.
“I will handle it when we are done here ” Andrei tells him and Zane nods, looking thankful about something as he glances around at the pack nervously.
Casen brings Jonah over on his shoulders while Malik and Zane zip up the bags from his view.
Andrei reaches over to pluck Jonah from Casen and kisses his cheek when a car suddenly pulls up screeching to a stop and throwing dirt and dust everywhere.
The speakers in the car blaring, the b@ssway too high. Andrei instantly pissed off just at his disrespect of the way he turned up flicking dirt and rocks on everyone. One of the rear windows of his car was smashed and the man inside looked out at us with a smirk. Andrei places Jonah on the ground and I pull him behind me.
Derrick walks over to speak to the man.
“Grab the other one” Andrei says to me and I lean down grabbing the duffle. Malik instantly takes Jonah and walks away over to the willow tree with him while I follow Andrei. The man still hadn’t got out of the car. Instead he was speaking on the phone to someone.
“Give me 5 minutes first I think they want to talk, just follow the road it leads straight to this sh*t hole” I hear him say and look over at Andrei who looked on the verge of exploding until his father squeezed his arm. Who was he speaking to and why were they coming here?
The man gets out of the small daihatsu charade, rubbish spilling out the door onto the ground. He wasn’t very big for a werewolf, he smelt heavily of cigarette smoke and body odour.
He was wearing a flannelette shirt that was left open, with a tank top underneath, his entire body appeared to be covered in tattoos from the neck down. He also had a pair of black cargo pants on and boots. His greasy hair lay flat against his head.
“Who did you just invite to my pack lands?” Andrei asks and I know he was trying hard to keep his voice controlled even though I could tell he wanted to K*ll the man.
“Just my a*s*surance, ” He says. “a*s*surance of what?” Andrei asks.
“That I leave here alive, I was warned you had grown rather attached to my nephew Jonny”
“Jonah” Andrei growls.
“Yeah that’s it, now where is the brat, hand him over” Clive says looking around us but I step in his path blocking the view of Jonah.
He smirks and his eyes look me over. “The rogue Luna I heard about, I heard rumours of you too, heard you lay on your back for anyone, must s*ck terribly Alpha having a used up wh*re for a Luna” Clive says and Andrei launches at him. I grip his arm and Derrick steps in front of Andrei blocking him.
“Leave it, it’s not worth it” I grit out, looking back at Jonah. The entire pack was glaring at Clive. A few even shifted, unable to contain their anger.
Andrei was on the verge of shifting himself but I was curious where this man got information like that from and who was speaking lies of me, yet his dig at me still hurt.
Derrick shoves Andrei trying to tell him to keep his wits, the man was trying to bait us but I couldn’t understand why he would, I could tell he was a rogue, pissing off an Alpha was not the smartest thing to do. Clive laughs.
“Yes backup Alpha” Clive emphasised the word Alpha almost spitting it at him. Bending down and grabbing the papers. I hand them to Clive who snatches them.
“We will pay, just sign your rights over, there is nearly 400k in those bags you can have it, just sign the papers, do it for Jonah, we will look after him and you can go back to whatever it you do” I tell him.
“400k, is that all he is worth to you?”
“I can get more, but I have to head into the city, just tell me how much and I will have it two days time” Andrei tells him. Clive shakes his head.
“Not interested, I received an offer I couldn’t refuse already, now hand him over” Clive says as a sleek black Mercedes pulls up. It’s windows
blacked out and I couldn’t even see the driver. It parks next to Clive’s car but no one gets out.
Andrei looks at the car, Derrick turns his full attention to it.
“What offer, how much? I will get it for you” Andrei continues ignoring the new car’s presence and focusing back on Clive.
“Like I said, I was offered a place in a pack if I took the brat, and all my debts cleared and more than a pissy 400k for the boy”
“Name your price, our pack may be small and live out here but we have money, I will even let you join our pack just to keep him close” Clive laughs and shakes his head.
“No, the man I am now working for has invested a lot to ensure I take Jonah so if you would just go bring him to me, I will be on my way” He says.
“No, just take the money and leave, I am not letting you take him. You couldn’t even remember his name, and I know what sort of person you are.
You don’t even want him, or you would have known he was missing for months on end and that your sister was dead” Andrei says venomously. He picks up one of the duffles and chucks it at the man’s feet. Clive chuckles nodding toward the black car and the rear door opens.
“Like I said, I have had an offer I couldn’t refuse Alpha. You’re not the only one with friends in high places, so I will be needing that boy now” Clive chuckles before shoving past Andrei toward Malik who had Jonah. Andrei grips the back of his shirt pulling him back, the man stumbling over the duffle bag when Andrei wraps his hands around his throat.
“You’re not taking him, ” Andrei growls.
“That is where you are wrong” Comes a deep voice. A man hops out of the car and my breath lodges in my throat when I see the man from the Alpha meeting. Alpha Dominic steps out walking over, a cruel smile on his lips.