Page 22 of Alpha's Redemption

“Well, one way to find out!”

I stalk off to the bathroom. Minutes tick by while I wait for the digital screen to light up along with the other three that I took as a precaution. Chewing my lip, I glare at them, willing them to be negative and crossing my fingers and toes, praying to the Moon Goddess I’m not. I can’t afford to be. I have a hotel to rebuild, a war brewing, a challenge to fight, and a Valarian to take care of!

As soon as the screen lights up and the timer beeps, I nearly dive into the sink basin where the tests are perched. I grab them, examining them.

“Wrong!... Wrong!... Wrong!” I cry.

I hear a knock a second before the girls barge their way into the small bathroom as I fling the third one back, hitting Macey in the head with it. She cringes but catches it.

“You jinxed me! Unjinx me! Now!” I demand as she reads the test before fist pumping the air in victory and bouncing on her feet.

“I’m gonna be an auntie again! You owe me– Shit! I forgot to tell you the bet!” she curses. Yet, all I can think about is what fucked up timing this is as I sink onto the edge of the toilet and put my head in my hands.

“Come on, Evie. It’s not the end of the world. You won’t be alone this time, and Valen is great with Valarian and…” Zoe says, but her words don’t help, so I drown her out as memories of my last pregnancy flood me. And what the hell am I going to do about the challenge?

ChapterEleven

Everly

Valen is working with Marcus tonight, so after I get Valarian from school, I decide to have dinner with Zoe, Macey, and their girls. The kids have fun, and it reminds me of before our lives got so complicated—when it was just us against the world.

It's comforting knowing that nothing has changed even now with my title. To them, I will always just be Everly—not Luna, not rogue-whore. Here, I’m safe to be my normal self and am free to do as I please without judgment or someone scrutinizing me somehow. When the 7 o'clock news comes on, I send the kids to play with the Lego sets in Casey's room.

"Remote! The news is on," I say, waving my hand at Zoe. She passes it to me and I quickly flip to the channel.

"Since when do you like watching the news?" Macey asks as I race to the sofa and sit in the middle in front of the TV.

"I like the news when I don't star in it. Imayhave handed a list of evidence to the media about Nixon and my father this morning," I tell them.

"What! What'd you give them?" Zoe screeches excitedly and rushes over to sit on the other side of me. It was petty, but if they want to talk shit about me, I should be able to have fun returning the favor. I’m far from apologetic, even over the one thing that was total bullshit, but then again, it could be true! Either way, it makes for exciting conversations at dinner meetings. I chuckle to myself; he’s going to kill me.

"Oh, this I gotta see!" Macey says, snatching the cold bowl of popcorn off the coffee table. Both Zoe and I looked at her questioningly. We all squeeze onto the sofa and get comfortable, Zoe sitting with her legs over my lap and her feet on Macey's.

Macey sits un-blinking, chowing down on cold popcorn from the kid's movie we watched after dinner. She’s shoveling handfuls in her mouth in a very un-ladylike but completely Macey-like manner. When the news anchor comes on and Nixon's photo pops up in the corner, we lean forward eagerly.

I purse my lips. They burned my hotel and I will burn their reputations. The newswoman reports on Nixon's first mate and how she became forsaken, how his wife isn't the mother of his child and—the most damning part to him—that he abandoned his daughter to the forsaken. I even managed to find some old photos of Leah, his mate, and a hospital report of a young woman named Kayla, who was Carter's twin sister, which would push the evidence along.

Plus there was an accidental photo that, from the awkward angle, looks like he was picking his nose while sitting in his car outside the pack hospital. Man, it was hard getting a hold of hospital footage, but somehow Valen had managed it. The news anchor even says that they will pay for the DNA test if he wants to prove his innocence. Of course, we all know that won't happen, only making him look more guilty.

The news anchorwoman then goes on to talk about his hate for rogues and speculate that this may be the reason why his daughter is still technically rogue and his mate has turned forsaken. Sitting back, I smile smugly; suck on that, Nixon!

Both Macey’s and Zoe's eyes are glued to the TV and Macey is shoveling popcorn in her mouth so fast that she starts coughing and spluttering, choking on her popcorn when my father's turn comes next. I snicker, and Zoe snorts. I smack Macey's back and she sucks in a lungful of air. Instead of his usual portrait photos, Ava and I had managed to find some old pictures on the family link app that he forgot to remove. It was a photo from when we were kids at a dress-up party.

We had sent three photos to them. My father had been wearing one of my mother's mini dresses and fishnet stockings with a wig and high heel boots. One picture was of him in the wig, all glammed up as a woman; another was without the wig, revealing that it was definitely my father, because the photo was of him in our bathroom putting on red lipstick; and the last image was him bending over drunk, his nuts hanging out since he was also wearing my mother's lace panties.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the photos in general, but I know my father won't see it that way, especially when the news anchor tells the city that he’s secretly a crossdresser and that his two daughters confirmed it. We all burst out laughing, knowing how horrified my father will be over this. Though there really is nothing wrong with it, it had all just been for fun, it will definitely taint my father's conservative front he puts up.

"Man, I wish I could wear heels that high. Any more than an inch and I can't walk straight," Macey laughs.

"There is so much I could say to that comment," I tell her, and she glares at me. I snicker at her outraged face.

"Damn! Papa John got some nice legs on him. A bit hairy, but look at them muscular thighs," Zoe says, and I elbow her, a little grossed out she’s checking out my father.

"Oh my God! I bet your father had a heart attack seeing this pop up on the news," Macey chuckles.

"You know there will be backlash," Zoe says, and I shrug.

"What are they going to do? Accuse me of lying about who Valarian's father is? It's obvious whose child he is by the eyes, and I amprettysure there isn'tonearticle that doesn't taint me poorly. Sticks and stones," I tell them.

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