Page 102 of The Alpha and His Childhood Sweetheart

Her phone rang ending our moment. She sighed, “A partial Fairy calls.” She kissed my cheek, “Keep carving your own path Elise Conners. No one can tell you how to do that. Everyone’s journey is different. If you aren’t ready to have a baby for your first century with EJ, then you aren’t. If you’re ready tomorrow, then you are. Whichever you choose, I’ll always be in your corner.”

I squeezed her hand, “Thank you.” It was so weird to talk about being alive for centuries. I didn’t think I was going to take that long to have a pup, but Haley was right. I could. It was so nice talking to her and getting her perspective. She was right. This was EJ and my decision. I was lucky to have in law’s that saw it that way.

The next person to come sit by me was my father in law. I smiled greeting him, “Hi, Eric.” He nodded in reply saying, “You are nervous.” I sighed, “I’m nervous about a lot of things. I know there are people who want my husband, his mother, and my husband’s siblings that I consider my own.”

“I know you spend a lot of time thwarting those efforts. I’m worried about my grandpa today. I’m worried that I’m just sitting on the sidelines while Mel is being taken advantage of.” Eric frowned, “Would it help to know I’ve been paying someone to watch her?” I stared at him for several moments.

Rhea said, “I mean, I told you he would.” She knew him in a past life so she knew him pretty well. I asked, “You have?” He nodded, “Yes. He followed both Tiffany and Melanie for a whilebecause he didn’t know which one was Melanie. From what I’ve gotten, they have the same schedule.”

He admitted, “I had no pictures of her to give him. He got their routine down easily. One morning he was waiting in a coffee shop they frequented. Tiffany thought he was cute, so Melanie walked over and introduced herself and her roommate.”

I asked, “Does he send you pictures? I’d love to see her life there.” Eric snorted, “The man is not a photographer. He can’t seem to catch her from the front. I still haven’t seen her face. I may not officially know if she’s my future daughter in law, but the love you and my son have for her mean I’m keeping tabs. She’s not from my pack so what I’m already doing is sticky. My man stays back in the shadows. It’s just occasionally checking in.”

I touched his hand, “Thank you. That’s more than I could ask for.” Eric smiled, “It’s more than I should do. The whole damn thing gives me a headache.” I snorted, “Me too.” He nodded and stared off into space before rubbing his temples like I did.

He got up, “Everything will be ok today.” I sighed, “I wish we knew that for certain. He replied, “We have healing Fairies on our side. We have a better chance than we’d have otherwise, with my Angel and pups here.” He was right. I nodded to him, and he walked away.

When it was time for everything to go down, I walked inside. We were all waiting. Rhea grumbled, “I hate waiting. I thought we had a plan for this to be a part of the action.” We had but things changed. The time for them to come back or call had passed.

I locked eyes with my mom on the video call. We were both worried. EJ signaled to Alexander, who left. When he popped back, I nearly threw up. My grandpa had been shot. I ran to him while Alexander healed him.

I held him as they explained what happened. He linked me, “I’m alright, Elise.” I couldn’t reply or let him go. Honestly, their voices faded into the background while my mind replayed that my grandpa had been shot.

The other side was now using snipers, and our sure shot sniper hadn’t been there. Fear gripped me. Was the original sniper ok? Rhea reasoned, “Surely, ours is fine.” She had to be correct. I didn’t want to think of something happening to our sniper. They’d done so much for me and this family.

EJ was pissed. I knew he’d been trying for years to get a name about the circle group. Honestly, I was pretty certain it was a ring. It seemed obvious since they were an anti-ring group. What I couldn’t work out was why they didn’t want to join forces.

Haley shared her thoughts. Something about it felt wrong, but right to me about it. I still kept circling around to someone who knew what the Ring was. Someone who was Ring adjacent in a way. That probably didn’t make sense, but it clicked for me. Someone who was playing the Ring on the outside but destroying them from the inside. Rhea agreed, “It makes sense.”

Rhea added, “Haley pointed out with more snipers coming into play they might be able to pop to them.” I argued, “Not if they were technically involved in the Ring. They’ve clearly found a way to conceal themselves from Fairies. If these people are involved, but not, they might have some sort of protection on them so the Fairies couldn’t pop to them.” I stopped thinking about it because my headache was coming back.

Alexander and EJ exchanged theories and made plans. Alexander was going to reach out to his contacts this time. He wanted answers. I was marginally surprised he hadn’t tried that before.

When we finally left, I knew what I had to do. I could feel EJ’s tension in our bond, and I could see it in his body. I hated that he felt inadequate because he couldn’t figure this all out. I knowwe all felt there was something obvious we were missing but it alluded us. Someone should’ve been able to pinpoint it, but so far we were all confused.

We needed a distraction and gave each other one for hours. The next several weeks were crazy. We had meetings going on all over the area. The regular sniper was still missing. A fear I didn't understand was plaguing me about it. My mom and Sam felt the same thing.

It didn’t make any sense. I’d never met this person, but I’d lock myself in the bathroom and cry after every report that it wasn’t the regular sniper who had been on scene. I wiped my tears and walked back downstairs to EJ’s office.

I worked in there too sometimes, but I also had a separate office for private meetings. The pack needed to know they could come to me without EJ knowing we were talking. I had followed Haley’s lead and found it worked best. I split my time between the two offices.

Toby came in right after I’d gotten back from my own office. Rhea snicked, “Phil will have something fun for us to think about.” Hopefully he did, because my thoughts were depressing and going to land me in my mother in law’s therapy building soon.

I held out hope Phil could turn my thoughts around because it was clear his excitement had rubbed off on Toby. Everyone started filing into the room. Rhea perked up, “Now I am intrigued. Phil must be next level about his news, to be corralling everyone together.” She was right.

Phil entered the room actually hopping, like a rabbit. I was surprised he was excited about something involving not only a Nashville pack, but Black Path. There was bad blood with them around here. Rhea whisper squealed, “I know! It must be juicy since our father in law always has to send Alpha Theo down to them as a council representative.” True.

I still couldn’t believe Lucas and Alpha Theo could manage to be on the council together. Stranger things had happened, but it felt like a step with them. The point was Alpha Theo always had to go to Nashville. The packs were overly aggressive if Eric or Lucas went because they thought they needed to prepare for war.

Rhea scoffed, “They are never happy if Alpha Theo goes either.” She was right, but that amused him. He and his son Lux enjoyed needling them. Lux was his oldest son, a partial Werewolf. We didn’t know anything about his mother. They were oddly quiet about her, but I knew Eric didn’t like her.

I liked Lux though. He was fun, but in a different way from the partial Fairies. Or really any partial Werewolf I knew. He had a beautiful singing voice and could play the guitar too. He was quite popular in his pack. Rhea chuckled, “All packs really. Even the girls here fawn over him.” She was right, they did.

Phil pulled my attention back with his news. Rhea gasped, “A new Female Lead Warrior that’s sixteen and wolf less?!” I looked around the room in shock. That meant she’d had to beat all the females and the pack leadership to get the title. That was unheard of. It would be great to give other wolf less pack members confidence. But sixteen? My heart broke for this girl.

Rhea told me, “I’ve been around the block, and I’ve never heard of this. I know Female Lead Warrior’s are new, but I’ve never heard of a Lead Warrior that age let alone wolf less.” A deep ache inside of me formed. I wanted to reach out to this girl more than anything. I was lost in my own thoughts until Phil said her name. I grabbed the paper and read it. Her name was spelled differently, but I knew that name.

Rhea gasped, “Did he say Ashley Griffen?!” He had and now my headache came roaring back. Alexander was stunned just like me. I asked Rhea, “The name is obviously a coincidence,right?” She whimpered in reply as a literal pang shot through my head. It felt like someone hit me with a bat.

---