Page 48 of Rejected Nanny Mate
Even if Joe was still flirting with me sometimes, he seemed to be pulling away. He wasn't spending as much time at home, and when he was there, he often locked himself in his office or was on the phone. When he did talk to me, it was always about Rose and her schedule, and nothing else.
It hurt more than I wanted to admit, but I had to be okay with this new normal. Things were going well for the most part, and I didn't want to mess anything up by being selfish. It didn't matter if, at night, I dreamt about how he'd touched me the night of my heat, and how it had felt to fall asleep knotted to him.
It didn't matter if I cried myself to sleep with those memories in the forefront of my mind. Nothing mattered more than Rose having her family complete again.
It was only a matter of time before I was sent back to the Saltfangs, and this wonderful, heartbreaking part of my life was over. Somehow, I had to find a way to be okay with that.
Chapter 17 - Joe
For the next meeting, we met at Emerald Blooms after I locked up. It was an impromptu meeting, but the other Alphas had been insistent that we needed to talk about the moving surges and the reappearance of Rose's mother.
Mia.
I was glad to have the mystery solved, but she also really complicated things for me in a lot of ways. She wasn't thrilled staying with Beta Malcom, and I couldn't blame her. Malcolm wasn't the friendliest guy, but he'd never married and had plenty of room for Mia. A local truck driver, he’d taken some longer distance routes while Mia was around, presumably to avoid having to cohabitate with her.
She hinted around constantly that she would be more comfortable staying with me, but that wasn't happening. At least not while Gwen was still in the house, and the selfish part of me didn't want that to change anytime soon.
It was a fucking mess. On the outside, the simplest thing would be to move Mia in and potentially try to form some sort of relationship with the mother of my daughter. It was a given that she'd be added to my pack, but I was waiting on Kiera and Nayeli, who were working with the witches in Jayce's pack, to perfect the spell that would be needed to break Mia's connection to her former pack. Mia was a strong witch, but she couldn't perform the spell on herself for some magical reason I wasn't too clear on.
It would be simple, but trying to make something work with Mia wasn't what I wanted at all. She was beautiful, sure. Otherwise, I wouldn't have spent a night with her eighteen or so months ago, and she was clearly still interested in me. Butthe only person I wanted, the woman who occupied almost every one of my waking thoughts and all of my dreams, was Gwendolyn Beaufort, and that was becoming a big problem. Because Gwen didn't seem to want me with the same fire, I felt for her, and every day, I felt like she was closer to moving out.
But that was a problem for a different time. For the moment, I had to speak to the other Alphas in the alliance and determine the best way to keep all of our packs safe. My relationship issues would have to wait.
I grabbed a few beers out of the fridge in the back of the shop and dragged a few chairs inside from the patio. My plant shop wasn't the ideal place to meet, but it was a Saturday night, and Scott's cafe was crowded, so my place would have to do.
Jayce arrived first, as usual, looking casual but well put-together in a button-up shirt and jeans. He leaned against the counter while I brought more chairs from out back, nodding in greeting when I came in. “Evening.”
“Evening,” I replied tersely. Our last face-to-face interaction hadn't exactly gone smoothly. I set the chair down and glanced at him, my hand on the back of the seat. “Grab a beer off the counter. The other two should be here shortly.”
Samson and Scott arrived at nearly the same time, and soon enough, we were seated in a rough circle, drinking and going over what we knew. No one else's pack had been experiencing the moving magic surges, but seeing how badly it had injured me had left the other Alphas on edge.
I told them about how it had been targeting Gwen, and I had been the one to take the hit when it became clear we weren't going to outrun the thing. That changed things because it meant whatever was behind the surges wasn't targeting us Alphas.
“Could I have been because of her magic?” Samson asked, “If that's the case, I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on Kiera.”
“It's possible,” I admitted, “but I've never heard of that kind of spell. It was like it was being guided somehow, like it had a mind of its own. And it seemed to know where she was without ever having seen her. It doesn't seem likely.”
“I think it's worth checking into,” Scott said. “If we can figure out what's causing these surges and put a stop to them, then that'll be one less thing on my plate.”
“Mine, too,” Samson added.
“But it's only targeted Gwen so far, and she's only shown magical prowess in the past few weeks.” Jayce rubbed his chin as he thought it over. “I'm not saying we should send other, more experienced witches after it, but I think it would be a good idea to try and have them do some research to see if they can find a similar spell. That will keep them out of danger while utilizing their powers to help us solve this thing.”
I was surprised. “It isn't the worst idea I've ever heard. Scott? Samson? What do you think?”
Scott looked a little reluctant, but he nodded. “It's worth a shot. I'm sure Nayeli and Kiera will be happy to help as much as they can, especially if it means keeping Gwen safe.”
Samson's face was pinched. “I don't like it,” he said finally. “I don't want to put Kiera in danger, but she's been working on spells with Gwen almost daily. If she finds out I'm holding her back from helping, she'll bite my head off. So, I guess I'm in.”
We agreed to increase patrols and allow cross-territory investigations without having to check with each other first. Thefour of us had open borders for each other most of the time anyway, but it was a good idea, especially with Jayce being so new, to make our intentions clear.
With that, we moved on to the subject I hadn't wanted to touch—Mia.
“You're 100% sure that she's Rose's mother?” Scott asked, suspicious. “Nayeli gets the feeling that she and Gwen don't really get along, and that puts Nayeli on edge.”
I took a deep breath and ran my hand through my hair. “It'd almost be easier if I weren't sure...But I am. If I dive into the pack bonds, I can see Rose connected to me, but also connected to Mia, even though she isn't part of my pack officially yet. She's definitely her daughter.”
“What are you going to do?” Jayce asked. “Is she going to join your pack?”
