Page 71 of The Married Alpha And His Arrow: Vol 1

Heath cut me off, “It’s not. She’ll reject him then. Is she sure she’s not pregnant?” I admitted, “She was never trying. She went to an outside doctor for birth control after Heath told the healer’s not to prescribe it to her anymore.”

Heath’s jaw clenched and he nodded, “That’s good then. She won’t have to deal with him for the rest of her life. I could kill him for this, I might kill him. He promised me he’d never hurt you then he did it on purpose. He tricked you. He knew Sally was his string, and he knew you’d never sleep with him, so he lied. THAT FUCKER!”

I reached out and touched his arm, “I know what he means to you. I never wanted you to know.” Heath was clearly frustrated, “YOU are NOT an island. You should not have kept this from me. You should have told me everything. I would’ve believed you! He had me believing if I brought you home, you’d turn to pills again. I missed you so damn much. I had shadows on you to make sure you were ok.”

I shook my head, “I know. It’s why I didn’t lose them. I knew you were worried.” Heath put his face in his hands. “How can I believe I’m a good leader when I can’t even protect my own sister?” I consoled him, “Hey, you are a good leader. I didn’t tell you in about the whole ordeal. I wanted you to have your best friend.” Heath gritted his teeth, “I should’ve known I couldn’t trust him. I trusted him with the most valuable person in my life, and he hurt you.”

I assured him, “I’m fine now.” Heath looked off into the distance, “I think our shadow killed the man that went after Sally.” I frowned, “Why would our shadow care about the former Lieutenant’s debts and someone going after Sally?”

Heath answered, “Because you got stabbed. Someone is going to great lengths to lead a trail to…” He paused then took a deep breath, “Dad.” I rejected that idea saying, “Dad is dead.” Heath agreed, “I know that, but it seems someone wants me to believe he isn’t. I think they want to set a trap for us now that we’re looking. They don’t seem to understand that I know our father would never have left us willingly.”

Hope bubbled in me the longer the idea sat. I asked, “Could he have been….? What if someone took him against his will?” Heath shook his head, “And now he’s walking around not talking to us? No, Lex. He’d march right back into the Shroud. He’d come and demand to talk to you. You were his little girl, and he adored you. He would never do this to us and I refuse to believe he would. It’s cruel and our father was not cruel.”

I deflated. He was right. I asked, “What are you going to do?” Heath snorted, “Appoint Isaiah as my Lieutenant. I’d pick Tate if he didn’t love missions so much, but I can’t pull him from what he loves.” Tate was Ted’s brother and Heath’s other best friend.

I warned him, “Heath Jordan Scott, don’t you dare knowingly walk into a trap alone.” Heath laughed, “I won’t. I have other ways to smoke this person out. I’m going to code a message only our parents or us could decode. I’ll scout the area. Then I’ll know if it’s someone trying to make us think it’s dad or not.”

I frowned, “But you just said you don’t truly believe it could be dad.” Heath admitted, “No, I don’t. Because if it is him then everything means nothing. Dad is over there in the ground. If he’s wandering around not approaching us and has been out there all these years; I’ll kick his ass.” We both paused. I was sure my expression had Heath feeling the need to assure me, “I do not believe it’s dad.” I nodded, “Alright, I believe you. You make excellent points.”

Heath casually stated, “I met the Alpha of this territory.” I forced myself not to react the way I wanted to. I asked, “Ted’s Alpha?” Heath answered, “Yes, he surprised me. He came to deal with the bookie. Who is not really a gambling bookie.” I frowned, “Now I’m lost.”

Heath admitted, “He had a good smokescreen, but I spied on the wolf. The wolf knew there was more to the story. Both of them did. Haley’s wolf and this Alpha Chase. They don’t seem to know exactly what’s going on. Or if they do, they were vague. I will dig into it.”

I questioned, “So, your former Lieutenant doesn’t have a gambling problem?” Heath scratched his head, “I don’t think he does. I think he owes someone a great deal of money, that neither he nor his family has the capacity to pay. I’ve put out the word that anyone who wants to collect has to come through me to get it.” Fear gripped me. I asked, “You’ll be careful?”

Heath laughed, “You are the one who’s not careful in this family. Going around getting stabbed and shit.” I was outraged, “Hey! You’ve been stabbed too!” Heath tilted his head, “Touché. I don’t like it when you get hurt. Did I take you away from your string?” I shook my head, “No, we had lunch. We had dinner plans, but Sally…”

Heath sighed, “But Sally. Poor kid. I can’t imagine her pain, and I don’t want to.” I assured him, “She seems over it all to be honest. She said she knew they weren’t going to be forever.” Heath looked away, “That’s just tragic. I trust our Goddess implicitly, but I have to wonder why she did this to Sally.”

I shrugged, “I’m sure her string wasn’t supposed to be like this. He had choices and he made the wrong ones.” Heath snorted, “I’m kicking his ass when I get back. He will know you are NOT his. Not now, not ever.”

I pleaded, “Don’t tell him about my string. Please, Heath. I’m so scared he’ll do something drastic.” Heath promised, “I won’t tell him. When Haley confirms this isn’t tampered with text me. Noah might be in pain when she rejects him.” Heath scoffed then added, “It will be telling.”

I frowned, “What do you mean?” Heath explained, “Noah doesn’t deal with our people when someone is rejected. Two of our people be rejected, and the pain tore them apart. They were down for a week, and they barely ate in sheer agony. I made sure they were somewhere private, so no one knows. Based on this tape I doubt Noah will be in pain. He will be angry. If he truly loves Sally, as he should, he’ll be incapacitated. He doesn’t know that though. He doesn’t know how to portray being rejected, he’s been handed everything he wants his entire life with the exception of you. Now I question if he was even sorry our parents died.”

I didn’t want to comment on that. I asked, “How did your meeting go about that? To find out about our parents.” Heath frowned, “It was a bust. There was the start of a contract to kill our parents, but it was unsigned. The payment didn’t come through. They didn’t have a record of who wanted the contract in the first place, it was all anonymous. They were supposed to meet for payment and to sign the contract, but the caller never showed. The demons heard the next day our parents were already dead. Don’t worry though, I’ll never give up. I’ll find out who took them from us.”

I looked away, “Or just took mom from us. You know since dad’s possibly out there.” Heath frowned, “He’s not, but if he is he’ll join mom shortly. I’ll kill him for doing this to us.” I didn’t say anything, I just rubbed Heath’s back. He didn’t mean that.

I agreed with him on his original thought. Our dad wouldn’t do this to us. Heath stood, “Thank you for telling me what happened with Noah.” I shrugged, “You’ve never asked before.” Heath’s jaw dropped, “That’s all I have to do now? Ask?” I shrugged and nodded.

Heath laughed, “Damn. I’ve been going about this the hard way.” He gave me a hug. “I’ll take care of Noah. Go be with your friends. Text me when it’s a done deal. Things are getting quite interesting.” I nodded and hugged him back, “I love you, Heath.” Heath squeezed me, “I love you too, Lex. Talk to me next time. Ok?” I nodded and we parted. I took off running back to my friends.

I ran inside through the back door and found Sally and Ted watching a scary movie. I snorted and crept behind the couch. I jumped up and screamed. Sally and Ted screamed, and I heard growls outside. I chastised myself, “Damn. Forgot to close the door.”

I ran back outside the front. I yelled, “Sorry! I just scared them by sneaking up behind the couch during a scary movie.” Kincade snorted, “Thanks for the warning.” I teased, “Anytime.” I ran back inside, making sure to close both doors.

Ted was holding his hand over his heart. He pointed at me, “LEXI SCOTT! You are LUCKY we all live a long time because you just scared a decade right off my lifespan.” I laughed, “I couldn’t resist.” Sally asked, “Is everything ok with Heath?” I filled them in.

Sally snorted, “Of course he can’t even tell the truth when my life has been threatened.” She went over to the game, “Let’s play.” We’d decided we’d do winners as a round. We had five cards each and whoever had the most was the winner and so on.

Ted won the first round. I got second, and Sally was last. Ted ran and grabbed the phone from the counter. He grinned as he dialed. He greeted, “Hello, Noah Calvert. This is a flower shop. We were unable to deliver your flowers today. We couldn’t find your address, but I have a message I’d like to read for you.” He paused. Sally had her hands over her mouth.

Ted replied, “Great! Ok, the message is I hope you get better soon.” Ted paused, “Oh… You’re not sick. Let me see... Oh here’s there’s more. I know you’re not sick, but you suck in bed.” Ted hung up. Sally and I were near tears we were laughing so hard.

I yelled, “OH MY GOD TED!” Ted asked, “What? You gave me that nugget of pure gold! I had to use it.” We went outside and grabbed our picture. I hung it and grabbed the bow Haley had left on the porch. I sank three arrows into him. One in each eye and the third in the middle of his forehead. Sally squealed, “You are so good!” I shrugged.

Sally looked at her drink, chugged it, then stripped down to her underwear. She ran around the house screaming at the top of her lung, “THE TROLL IS NOT WORTHY OF SALLY FUCKING QUAID!” We were laughing, and I could hear the guards snickering. Some were clapping.

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