Page 79 of The Married Alpha And His Arrow: Vol 2

Haley said, “Other than the fact that dogs are adorable and not comparable to the fucking Troll that was fucking awesome!” I laughed. Then it morphed into a hysterical kind of laughter to crying. Chase picked me up. Heath was talking in hushed tones with Katie. Logan had his arm around her, but he shot me a look that told me he was worried.

Chase carried me back upstairs. He laid me down, “The doctor said you’re fine, but you’re on bedrest the rest of the week.” I agreed, “Fine, I’ll need my laptop though. I’m going to start tracking him. He doesn’t get a free pass for this. Not from me.”

Chase growled, “He wasn’t getting a free pass.” I reiterated, “I said from me. I was taking the backseat. I was going all peace and Zen shit. Now? Now I’m GOING to find his wretched, wicked warped ass. Try to kill our son? Our Emmett?” I broke down in tears. I cried, “He’s so handsome Chase. He looks just like you with my eyes. I can’t…. I can’t imagine a world where he’s not in our life. If I hadn’t had that dream, he’d be gone.”

Haley scoffed from the doorway, “He would not have been gone.” She was standing there with Eric. Haley sat down, “You might have delivered next week or today, but I would’ve healed Emmett. The fucking Troll keeps forgetting about me. I’m more powerful now. I would never let that happen to you. We are going to find him, Lex.” I hugged her and cried.

After several moments I sat back and wiped my eyes. A portal opened and Gunner walked through. Haley said, “I called Harper’s boytoy lover to help us.” She handed me my laptop. She smiled, “The guys have things to do, and we are going to think of things they didn’t. Harper’s boytoy lover is going to help us with the techy side. He mentioned things about an algorithm. I got that right, didn’t I?”

Gunner replied, “The word? Yes, that was correct. Was that anywhere close to all I said? No, not even a little bit.” Haley said, “Basically what I just heard was I got the important fucking word Haper’s boytoy lover said.” Gunner smiled teasing, “Haley, my name is still Gunner.”

Haley retorted, “If you wanted me to call you anything but Harper’s boytoy lover you should’ve corrected me the first time I said it. Besides, you can’t fucking lie to me. I know you like the nickname. It makes you all damn warm and fuzzy inside. Plus, even Cali says it should be Harper and Cali’s boytoy lover. So, if I agree to a name change it would be that.” Gunner laughed.

Chase kissed me, “Are you ok?” I nodded, “I’m fine.” The guys left. Ted and Sally joined us. Haley turned to Gunner asking, “Can we track the delivery itself?” Gunner pulled out his computer, “Let’s see what we can do. Hello Ted and Sally.” Ted blushed. He’d always had a crush on Gunner before he met Matt.

We all worked on tracking everything down. Sally and I knew of a few things Noah might order food and drink wise. Just as he knew brownies with fudge on top was my favorite, I knew he loved candy from Europe. Specifically, he loved Caffreys Snowballs from Ireland and Lion bars from Britain. He also loved an energy drink from Australia and New Zealand called V.

Gunner put up algorithms on my laptop to monitor purchases of those items together. I had no doubt he was going to put that and more on his own laptop. Haley squeezed my hand questioning, “Do you feel better?” I said, “Yes, I didn’t want to be involved, but I can’t sit back anymore. Not when he’s trying to take Emmett from me before he’s even born.” Haley nodded, “I get it. It triggers a very primal instinct when someone is trying to hurt your children.” I reached over and squeezed her hand for a second.

We worked for a bit longer before Haley snapped me some soup. My eyes were closing. Haley pulled the bed sheet up around me and told me to sleep. I woke up when Chase got into bed. I turned to face his chest and held onto him. I whispered, “They keep trying to take the twins from us. It’s not fair. This should be a really happy time for us. It’s like every time I turn around, they are trying to steal our damn joy.”

Chase kissed my forehead, “We won’t let them. This is a very exciting time in our lives. We found each other, and our family is growing. They fail when they come at us because we are strong together.” I pointed out, “It only takes one time for them not to fail.” Chase held me tight, “A chance they won’t get.” He kissed me lightly on the lips, “Go back to sleep, Sweetheart.” I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer anyway.

The rest of the week flew by. Haley stopped by to ask me to reach out to Raphael. Chase and I had a bit of an argument when I found out there was some ancient knife that wanted to kill him. He was right though, I’d asked to be kept out of the loop.

I’d sent a message out to Raphael for a meeting with Haley and me. I'd imagine he’d see it and get back to me next week. Before I knew it the day of my Luna ceremony had arrived. Nadine, Susie, Haley, and Miley helped me get ready.

Miley did my hair in a half back intricate styled braid. Haley snapped my makeup just how I wanted. Then everyone helped me into my dress. There was no hiding my bump, but it looked cute in the dress.” I felt like I looked like I’d eaten too much lately. I knew it was a baby, but it kind of just looked like I was super bloated. Not a definite baby bump look going yet.

Susie said, “You look just like a princess. Is black your favorite color?” Haley sighed. I smiled telling her, “It is.” Susie nodded, “Cool. Mine is purple.” I smiled, “For your Luna ceremony I’m sure we could find you a white and purple dress.” She laughed, “Bash will be in his brother's pack as his second or enforcer. Peter is the oldest so Chelsea will be the Luna, not me.”

I winked pointing out, “I’m sure Reagan thought the same thing.” Susie seemed stunned, “You think I could be a good Luna? Like you?” I nodded and looked at Nadine as I said, “Of course you would. It’s in your blood.” Nadine fanned her face and mouthed, “Thank you.” We all walked downstairs together where we found Heath waiting for me.

Haley popped everyone else outside. Heath told me, “You look beautiful.” He kissed my cheek. I replied, “Thank you.” He went to the door then announced, “Some other people wanted to say hello.” He opened the door and I saw James and another man.

They flashed inside. James said, “You look gorgeous. Congratulations on the Luna thing and ummm the twins. Heath told us.” I smiled. He held out his hand and I pulled him in for a hug, much to his surprise.

I whispered, “Thank you, James. I know you followed me that day and helped fight for us. You didn’t have to do that. I’ve been meaning to text you, but things are very crazy right now.” James responded, “That's what family does. We show up.”

The other man cleared his throat. James cleared his throat, “Right. This is Jasper. Jasper this is Lexi.” Jasper shook my hand. I greeted, “It’s nice to meet you, Jasper. Heath said you helped us too.” Jasper agreed, “Yup, I found the bean spilling bitch, and we all helped make her pay for what she did to you.”

James quickly said, “Well, we’ll go now. We just wanted to say hi and congratulations on all the things.” I disagreed, “No, don’t go. Stay.” Everyone paused and I added, “I’d really like for you to stay.” Heath smiled at me. I knew he was proud of my response.

James and Jasper looked cautiously hopeful, asking simultaneously, “Really?” I nodded, “Really. We were all children when this grudge shit went down. We can only move forward from here. You guys didn’t have a choice and neither did we. If you guys want to get to know Heath and I, then I’d like that. I’ve always wanted a big family and you being here means a lot to me. You didn’t have to come just because Heath told you what today is, but you came anyway. It means a lot and I’m truly sorry I didn’t get James number to text him. I really meant to.”

Jasper said, “We’d really like to say and to have a relationship with you guys. All of us cousins would.” Heath asked, “How many cousins are we talking about? I keep meaning to ask.” James snorted. Jasper answered, “Eighteen.” I’m sure my eyebrows touched my hairline as I shrieked, “There are eighteen of you?” Jasper nodded, “Between the two families, yes. They are all seething with jealousy about James and I seeing you guys first.”

James complained, “I have taken so much shit for calling Jasper to help that day.” I laughed, “He’s your big brother. That’s naturally who you call first.” James snapped his fingers and pointed at me, “SEE? YOU SEE? She gets it! They would ALL call you first, and they know it! You’re also VERY tech savvy. Why WOULDN’T I call you? If I’d called anyone else, they’d have called you themselves! You just can’t win with our lot, Lexi.”

Jasper swatted him saying, “Make them want to meet us all less.” Heath and I were smiling at each other watching their exchange. We’d always wanted this. Heath said, “It actually makes us want to meet you all more. We’ve watched other big family gatherings in the Hood. The Calvert’s, Tony, and Anne always had us over for big get togethers. We stopped going because it made us sad that we’d never get to joke with our cousins. Or have inside secrets as a family.” James happily told us, “We will have SO many inside secrets!”

Chase linked me, “Are you standing me up, Sweetheart?” I laughed replying, “It’s not our wedding and no. James and Jasper are going to take their seats. Then we will be outside.” Chase said, “I’ll be waiting on the platform.” I questioned, “Platform?” He didn’t answer.

I said, “Well, you two go find seats. There’s a pack run after, but I’m not worried. I know you guys can keep up no problem.” James and Jasper laughed. James rubbed his hands together, “That will be fun.” They took off outside.

I turned to Heath, “I guess we can have big family gatherings once we aren’t their dirty little secrets.” Heath snorted, “We aren’t their secret, that's the adults. The cousins don’t give a crap if people see us together.” I asked, “Have you met more of them than Jasper and James?” Heath answered, “Nope. I wouldn’t do that, not without you. We do that together or not at all.” I kissed his cheek.

I said, “Let’s go see our strings because Allie had better be out there.” Heath laughed, “She is. She’s so happy for you.” We walked out the door. I bumped him with my hip saying, “I’m happy for you both.” Heath lowered his voice, “I told Sophia about Allie. I didn’t want her to find out from someone else. She was really happy for me too. She’s looking forward to meeting her second chance one day.”

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