Page 99 of Alpha's Regret: My Luna Has A Son

I should have used the kids’ bathroom, not the joint one between Zoe and Everly’s room. Turning back to the task at hand, I grab the pink loofah and sniff it. It smells of Everly, so the fluffy pom-pom pink thing must be Zoe’s.

I’m bending down under the shower head, trying to wash the shampoo out when I hear the door open. At first, I think it’s Everly until I hear the mention of fudge mumbled. I freeze. That’s not Everly.

“Remind me to call Emily tomorrow to check on her,” she calls out. Frozen, I wonder what she’s doing in there before I hear what sounds like someone peeing. Were they that comfortable peeing in front of each other? Then again, Marcus and I were close, and he had no care about taking a leak in front of me.

“Everly?” she asks. I say nothing before suddenly the shower curtain is ripped back, and we make eye contact.

Her weary gaze goes to my shocked one, and her eyes widen when she screams, scaring the crap out of me. I grasp the shower curtain, trying to shut it while she tries to cover herself where she’s sitting on the toilet peeing.

The shower curtain is flimsy. I yank it closed, only for it to rip off, and the motion catches me off guard—I lose my footing on the slippery surface. I somehow end up sprawled out on the floor, my head bent awkwardly in the corner of the shower and my legs spread in a very inappropriate manner, exposing me to a horrified Zoe.

“Shit! Fuck! I thought you– Ugh! I can see your dick and balls! I can see it all! I want to unsee it,” Zoe shrieks, covering her eyes. “Everly!”

“Shh, shh, stop! Don’t call her in here,” I choke out, trying to un-wedge myself. Damn, how embarrassing and awkward. We make eye contact—eye contact!—while both of us are in a very vulnerable state.

“What– Are you alright? Oh my God, you’re bleeding! I’ll get Everly,” she gushes, about to run from the room, but I move, grabbing her ankle as she goes to dart out.

“I’m fine. Let’s just never speak of this moment again,” I gasp. My back is killing me, and I reach behind me, pulling out the pink back scrubber that’s digging into my rear. I drop it on the floor before looking up at Zoe, who is staring at the ceiling.

“You good, dude? Alive?”

“Just great,” I tell her, covering myself with the torn shower curtain.

“Nice chat,” she says, quickly closing the door. I stumble out of her death trap shower and over to the mirror. The corner of my ear is bleeding and running down the side of my face. I clean it up before drying and putting on some boxers; we'll add that memory to the ‘most awkward situation’ file in my head. Man, I can never look that girl in the eye again.

Walking out, I find Everly passed out on the couch. Her mouth is wide open with her head tilted, bent back awkwardly. I sigh, relieved when I realize we didn’t wake her.

Scooping her up, she doesn’t even stir, making me wonder how much she actually works, since she could sleep through all that noise I just made and Zoe screaming. Walking up the hall, I stop when Valarian calls out as I pass his door.

“Are you sleeping in here, Dad?” he asks, rubbing his eyes.

I peek around his door and give him a nod. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be here in the morning when you wake up.”

His eyes move to his mother in my arms. “Can I sleep with you and mom?” he asks, suddenly brightening up excitedly and I look down at Everly. I intended to sleep on the couch because Valarian’s bed is far too small, but if Valarian is in there, maybe she won’t mind?

“Please?” he whispers, but he’s already climbing out of bed.

“Okay, but be quiet; we don’t want to wake your mother.”

“Mom could sleep through a tornado. The only thing that wakes her is her alarm once she’s asleep. Auntie Macey let off an air horn, and she didn’t even move! I don’t know how her alarm wakes her,” he says, walking ahead and pushing the door open.

“Really?” I ask him.

“Yep. Probably the medication that Grandma Val gave her. She takes them sometimes when she can’t sleep. She took them just before dinner,” Valarian says as I place her down on the bed. I thought she took Tylenol, so this was news to me, yet she did give me a funny look when I caught her popping pills like she was caught doing something she shouldn’t be doing.

Valarian climbs in the middle, tugging the blankets up.

“Grandma Val works here?” I ask him, climbing in beside him.

“No, she died when I was a baby. She gave us the hotel to build our village,” Valarian says, yawning. He places his head on my chest and snuggles closer.

“If you were a baby, how do you know she gave them to your mom?”

“Because I heard Auntie Zoe and Auntie Macey arguing with mom over her taking them, something about them making her infertile. They said Grandma told her to take them only sometimes, if the pain is too bad because they have wolfsbane in them and she shouldn’t spend her life numb.”

I stared up at the ceiling, feeling guilty. Wolfsbane is poison to werewolves, but it also has medicinal properties in low doses, like pain relief because it kills the nerves and paralyzes you temporarily. Yet, too much can kill you.

“What does infertile mean?” Valarian asks. I don’t answer and just ask another question.

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