Page 65 of The Alpha and His Childhood Sweetheart

This conversation reminded me that I was surrounded by women I admired. Veronica gave Haley the words she deserved to hear from her birth mom. The Hackura women truly did amaze me sometimes. When they explained why Haley didn’t know I didn’t personally agree but I didn’t voice it. Honestly, at this point I think she could handle knowing. Alania nearly caused her to lose her children.

On the other hand, Alania had done enough damage. We should all just let this lie which everyone agreed on. Haley joined us a second before Max went stiff beside me. Rhea purred, “We should be detectives.” I wanted to laugh but instead raised an eyebrow at Angela who was already clapping and cheering.

Several people’s jaws dropped when Max vaulted over the table with ease and ran to Micah declaring him his. Gunner was visibly excited. Only because I turned to Angela did I see the flash of movement to notice Alexander was leaving the room.

I pushed back my chair quietly. Bjourn nodded to me as I slipped out. Seriously, these people just never missed anything. Rhea pointed out, “They are Hackura.” I headed out quietly and followed after Alexander’s scent.

I found him on the beach sitting in the sand crying. I put my hand on his back without saying anything. He confessed, “I'm a bad brother.” I snorted, “I know nineteen people who would vehemently disagree with you.” He wiped his eyes, “I’m happy for him, I really am. I know he’ll be so happy with Micah. I’m proud of him.” I whispered, “I know. You just want your mate too.”

Alexander looked up, “It’s one thing around wolves because they have to wait until their eighteen, but I’m a Fairy. I have so many conflicting feelings. I just feel like I’m losing my mind sometimes.” I frowned, “Why?” He shook his head, “I can’t talk about it because it hurts.” What?

Rhea told me, “Oden is locked up. I’ve got nothing.” I asked, “Alexander, what’s going on?” He just kept crying. Honestly, I’d never seen him so upset before. I’d barely seen him cry. I just kept rubbing circles on his back.

I smelled my mate before I saw him. I tried not to fan myself when EJ picked up his brother and hugged him. It was so not the moment to be feeling this way. I sent up a prayer, “Moon Goddess, please let Alexander confide in us about his feelings forLadybug.” I knew it bothered EJ that he wouldn’t, and it bugged me too.

When Alexander stepped back, I watched the walls go back up around him. He was shutting us back out. Damn it! Come on, just let us in. I held my breath hoping he would say Melanie’s name, but he didn’t. Rhea sighed, “This is the ongoing situation that never ends.” True.

When we returned, we ate quietly. Angela had lost her excitement about Max and Micah. She looked so sad and nothing could cheer her up. She was looking at everyone but Alexander. She must have known how upset he was.

When we left Alexander went wordlessly to the gym. Haley looked worriedly after him. She looked at Eric then sighed. I could tell she wanted to know what was going on, but she was respecting Alexander’s choices. Goddess above, maybe since we couldn’t she would figure it all out and things would be ok. But it wasn’t our place to tell her, no matter how much I wished we could.

EJ and I walked over to a hill and just sat down, and he held me. Angela popped to us crying, and I felt awful. Rhea whined, “I don’t like when she cries.” Neither did I. Angela was so young and her power wasn’t fully developed. Blurry paths were just something that wasn’t clear to her yet. Maybe decisions not being made kept them that way. I didn’t really know, and we didn’t expect her to yet either.

I should ask Melanie since she’s read all those Fairy books. The headache I got from that thought nearly had me cringing. I put it aside. Angela would figure it out and Melanie didn’t need to know. The headache cleared. Thank goodness. That one hurt.

Or was there really some cosmic plot in play? I shook myself because that was still silly. Rhea whispered, “What if it’s not cosmic, but something is going on?” I questioned, “Like what?”Rhea sighed, “I don’t know but it does seem weird.” We stopped discussing it when my headache returned.

It went away when I focused on making Angela feel better. I just needed a plan to figure this out. How was I going to do that? Rhea admitted, “I don’t know.” I reasoned, “Well, we are moving here soon. I just needed to get Melanie here too. That’s just all there is to it.” Obviously, it wasn’t some big conspiracy. I was being dramatic. Being here would make it easier.

EJ popped us to Alexander, and he ended up fixing the situation. He pointed out Angela was doing really well with her sight. She’d saved Cassie last year. Both of them had scared the shit out of all of us. That was a whole ordeal that turned out to be a giant misunderstanding. Alexander and EJ still hadn’t forgiven themselves for it, which was ridiculous. It wasn’t their fault.

I winced hearing EJ and Alexander were headed for a fight. Rhea said, “I mean Alexander asked for space four years ago. It was bound to run out.” I replied, “Sure but what was going to happen that EJ finally snapped?” She groaned, “I don’t even want to know.” I did and didn’t.

What bugged me after Angela left was the conversation between EJ and Alexander. My future brother in law looked scared to hear that EJ would run out of space. What was he so afraid of? Admitting to liking Melanie wasn’t life or death. Nor was it a bad thing. Eric wanted the boys to come to his office for a meeting.

I was excited that I was included in the meeting with them. Honestly, Eric always made me feel included. Just like Haley did. She’d had me sit in on some disputes with her. She’d even had me decide a couple. I was nervous but excited. She urged me to follow my instincts. Then told me what a great job I’d done. She also offered constructive criticism, but always in her office later.

Rhea purred and pride filled me when I heard the reason for this meeting. Rhea purred, “They are ready to lead the pack and we will be with them.” Pride and fear hit me. This was the largest pack in the country. EJ was already a target, but leading the pack would make him a bigger one. I was so proud of him though. He’d worked very hard.

I loved my mate’s ideas of how to handle the transition between Eric’s leading Black Mountain and handing over to EJ, Alexander and Cassie. He was so smart. Rhea purred, “He is.” She practically rolled over in my mind splayed out as if he could see her.

Rhea sighed, “He’s just perfect. Everyone should leave. I need to show him my appreciation for his Alpha-ness.” I chided, “You CANNOT make me laugh out loud right now.” She asked, “Who is laughing? I’m serious.” She always was about sex.

Honestly, his idea was a weight off me too. I could move here and work with his mom. She and I could do the same thing. Slowly transitioning to me being at the helm instead of her. I could tell Eric was proud of EJ’s plan too and so was Alexander.

When we left the office, we encountered a few situations with his cousins. EJ encouraged Saied to follow her dreams as Female Lead Warrior because they mattered to their family. He just wanted her to be happy. I was so proud of my man. I loved this pack for so many reasons.

One being they didn’t care about tradition. At the heart of the Conners family was making sure everyone was happy. No matter what that looked like.

Next Daisy found her mate, the adorable Omega that loved to cook with Mrs. Blanch. I was so happy for Daisy. She’d been crushing on Zoe since her family moved here three years ago. Alexander left in a huff. Rhea told me, “Thor said he’s got it.”

Well, if anyone understood, it would be him. Eric was the oldest Alpha without a mate before he’d found Haley at thirtytwo years old. The masses told him to just pick a chosen mate, but he’d refused. I knew my dad admired him for that. As their family celebrated another mated couple EJ popped me home.

I was humming with excitement to turn eighteen. Rhea purred, “We did leave another suitcase there.” When he called it our room she was back to rolling over in my head. We discussed the day and I had to agree that for some reason taking over at nineteen seemed less like a mountain I’d struggle to climb.

Probably because Haley Conners had taken over at nineteen and crushed it. She was a Luna, Princess, mother, and went to college for her therapist degree. Seriously, she must barely sleep to achieve everything she did. Rhea snickered, “Hackura need like three hours to be fully rested. They can get by on one for quite some time if they need to.” I needed that ability.

Nerves flooded me as I decided to confess that I wanted to wait on pups. Rhea told me, “It will be fine. Let’s not make this a big deal. Centuries will be had. We will have pups ones day.” I was glad she was with me on that. We’d talked about it a lot and she agreed.

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