Page 5 of The Married Alpha And His Arrow: Vol 2

I yelled, “I’m not lying! I have a moniker, but it’s not AA. She’s my friend.” Jordan gasped, “Dear sweet goddess, YOU’RE THE BLACK ARROW!” My grandpa said, “Son, she can’t be.” It hurt that they thought that. I commented, “Hurtful. Why not?”

My grandmother said, “Sweetie, are you BA?” I said, “I don’t believe I gave any of you permission to use my nickname.” They all gasped. James smirked, “My cousin is the Black Arrow. That’s so cool! Everyone else is going to freak.”

I blamed feeling like I did for the next words out of my mouth. I said, “Everyone else can shove it. I assume you mean my other cousins by everyone. It’s a secret, not idle gossip. Isn’t it more impressive Heath is The Hood himself? I need to get home. He's going to be worried.” I stood and staggered. Jordan caught me.

Once I was steady he frowned asking, “Heath is the Hood? He’s the leader and the Hood himself? We’d heard that was Tony’s oldest son.” I told him, “You don’t have very good sources in our Shroud. Heath is the Hood and our leader. One in the same person. Did that make sense? I don’t think it did. God, I’m dying.” Jordan studied me, “You’re not dying. Look I know you don’t like us, but you don’t know us.”

I ripped my hand away from him and fell on my butt. I rested my head on the wall. I sarcastically replied, “Who’s fault is that? Oh wait, it’s yours.” James laughed. Everyone yelled, “JAMES SCOTT!” He asked, “What? It was funny. She’s funny.”

Jordan said, “Lexi, we need to get you to the meeting with your brother to give you back. The last thing we want is for our first impression with him to be that we don’t honor our word.” I scoffed, “Your word will mean SHIT to my brother. You abandoned us.”

My grandfather stood, “We need to get moving, but clearly we all need to talk. All of us were lied to. We wanted you and Heath. We WANTED to come home. We were told you hated us.” I looked at Jordan, “You knew I didn’t know who you were that night.”

Jordan winced, “We were told everything was explained. Your people didn’t know I was there that night. I couldn’t very well say you didn’t know me. They said you thought the man there had killed your parents. We were afraid you’d be scared of me.”

My dad’s father added, “We were told that the fallout between your parents and our families had all been explained, and that you decided to honor your parents’ wishes.” I replied incredulously, “I was eight years old, and Heath was eleven. Why the HELL would you have let that fly?” James shuffled on his feet. He said, “I mean she has a point. All us kids have said that’s crazy. You wouldn’t let Ulric make his own decisions and he’s eight.”

Jordan said, “Not now, son.” He moved towards me. I said, “If anyone is going to carry me it’s going to be James. He’s the least guilty of all of you. He was a kid just like Heath and I at the time.” Jordan smirked, “I brought you here by carrying you inside. You know that, right?”

I argued, “I was unconscious so that doesn’t count. I’m only moderately sorry if I threw up on you.” Jordan laughed, “You didn’t but our people cleaned the scene up. Did you throw up on Noah?” I smirked, “Multiple times. His face was priceless.” I actually laughed with them this time.

James picked me up and I groaned. I asked no one in particular, “Am I dying?” My grandfather said, “Our doctor said your blood pressure is high. Jordan found the substance they blew in your face. It seems the Princess doesn't want you to relapse. I’ll have to thank her.”

I snorted warning him, “You’ll want to stay away from her. She’ll kick your ass for what you did to me. She’s family to me and she has not tolerance for bullshit for the people she loves.” Jordan gently replied, “We are your family.” I said, “You could’ve fooled me. Besides, Haley is family. There’s no debate.”

Jordan said, “You are marked by that Alpha.” I replied, “Again, he’s my string. Don’t you dare say one bad word about him. I might not feel great, but I’ll kick your ass if you do. Probably while throwing up on you.” Jordan frowned, “But you’re the…”

James interrupted, “DAD! It’s not your place.” Jordan argued, “She’s my niece, son. How is it not my place? Her dad would say something.” James sighed, “We are strangers to her. Her brother knows the truth, he has to.”

I jumped in, “If you all are talking about Chase’s situation. Haley’s working on fixing it, and I don’t want to know about it.” Jordan raised an eyebrow, “If that’s your choice, I guess that’s fine.” I emphatically stated, “It is. Since you honored a choice I didn't make at eight years old, I’d expect you to honor this one. Since you know, I actually made it and I’m a freaking adult.”

Jordan laughed, “I was much happier with your choice concerning the Alpha wolf with the things I know than I was thinking Noah Calvert was your damn string. I was happy to see the mark on your neck. I thought you’d just chosen each other. That’s a much better match even if….” He trailed off then sighed, “Never mind.” They ran to the meeting place.

I yelled, “WAIT! You know who my mother’s ex is! He’s behind this, but we don’t know him.” Jordan admitted, “I do know him.” I looked at him, “You’ve known all along. Even that night you came to visit and argued with them.” Jordan looked away, “Yes, you’re right. We have known all along, but we thought you did too.”

I started to cry. I wanted Heath and Chase. I heard a growl I was very familiar with. I screamed, “CHASE!” He yelled, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HER?” I was ripped out of James arms. I clung to Chase with all the strength I had at the moment, which wasn’t much.

I saw Frank, Cameron, Kincade, Matt, and Derrick over his shoulder. I barely glimpsed a flash of Ted much further back. It didn’t surprise me that Tate was beside him dressed as his moniker. I cried, “Where’s Heath?”

Heath kissed the top of my head, “I’m here, Lex.” I reached out for my brother. I cried as he took me in his arms. I whispered, “They’ve known about us the whole time. They left us all alone.” Heath said, “I know. You don’t need to worry about this right now. We will get it figured out together when you feel better.”

I pushed away from Heath and threw up the Gatorade I’d managed to drink. My grandfather said, “Apparently, the Fairy Princess doesn’t want my granddaughter back on drugs. Drugs I never knew she was on.” Heath’s voice was cold when he responded, “How could you have possibly known about it? You were busy not being in our lives. I was there for her. Don’t you even give me that look. Also, that Princess is also the Princess of the Hackura. That’s the side of her you should worry about given what you’ve done.” Yes, it really was.

I felt my hair pulled back by Chase. He whispered, “I’ve got you, Sweetheart.” I wiped my mouth, “I think I’m ok now.” Chase picked me up. He called, “Dad.” Frank came over and took me from Chase’s hold.

He teased, “Fair is fair, Lexi. It’s my turn to carry you around.” He knew I was BA now too. I laughed, “That’s fair. I’ll request not over your shoulder though. Unless you want me to throw up on you.” Frank laughed and he carried me back over to the group.

I grabbed Kincade’s arm, “Are Kevin and Kyler ok?” Kincade assured me, “They are fine. They are just worried about you.” Frank said, “Let’s get you back to the pack doctor.” I shook my head, “No... No, I need to stay for Heath and Chase.” Frank sighed, “Somehow I knew you’d say that.”

Cameron nudged me, “You can’t do that to us again. Chase is unmanageable without you now. He went off on people left and right. Your brother was in shock. You, my dear, are many people’s linchpins.” I laughed then cringed.

I groaned, “Oh god don’t make me laugh it hurts.” Matt asked, “Are you alright? Ted is screaming in my head. I practically had to tie him down to a chair to keep him away.” I chuckled, “What did I just say about making me laugh? You didn’t tie him very tight. He’s like twenty feet away from us with company.” Matt yelled, “WHAT?”

He whirled around and growled as Ted tried to jump behind a tree. Matt called, “Get over here! This is what I get for not monitoring our bond closer.” Ted ran up to me. He asked, “Lex?” I assured him, “I’m fine. You missed the tail part of the fairy drug trap.” Ted admitted, “I’m actually sad about that.” I told him, “It’s something. I used it to scratch the troll. It seems to respond to my thoughts about it. It was kind of cool.”

My grandfather said, “You must be Anne and Tony’s boy. You look just like a perfect mix of them both.” Ted retorted, “You must be the son of a bitch who abandoned his grandchildren and let them believe you were dead, and they were alone. How DARE you give Heath shit about Lex turning to drugs. He was JUST a teenager too!”

He took a breath then continued, “He’s only three years older than us, but he had to grow up when he was eleven years old. He learned to lead alone, and he was a brother and father to Lexi. He had to help her get clean when he was sixteen. He picked her up when Noah broke her heart, and he trained her to be the fucking best there is! You have NO RIGHT to say shit to either of them. Ever.” I said, “I’d give you a standing ovation, but I think I’d fall down.”

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