“We are far away from the pack, so we should be safe,” I tell him, but his eyes aren’t on me; they’re bouncing between the kids.
“Mummy, can the boss man come with us?” Liam asks.
I look down at him, and I can’t help but smile. He’s a joker, and he always knows how to diffuse a situation without even trying. Leo smiles too.
“His name isn’t boss man, it’s Leo,” I correct Liam.
“You can call me boss man, it’s fine,” Leo says.
“You see, he said it’s fine. Can he come with us? Please, mummy?” Liam says, then gives me those puppy eyes of his.
“I can help with directions. You haven’t been here in a while,” Leo tells me, and I know I’m beat. It’s all of them against me.
“Fine, boss man can come,” I tell them, and Liam pumps his fist in triumph. Luke has a smile on his face, and surprisingly, Karla has come out from her hiding space behind my leg and is just staring at Leo.
“Okay then, lead the way. We don’t want to go too far, and if there’s a clearing nearby, that will be the best place. They’ll run around and burn out some energy,” I tell Leo.
I take Liam’s hand and Karla’s, and surprisingly, Luke opts to walk by Leo’s side. I’m not worried that he’ll say something he’s not supposed to, like how they don’t have a father. Luke is the smarter and more mature of the three, so I know he won’t say anything he’s not supposed to.
We continue walking, and the weather is perfect for an evening stroll. We walk in relative silence, but after a while, Leo and Luke start talking, making sure to include Liam and Karla. Leo tells them all about the pack and what his role as an Alpha means. The boys find it really interesting, but my sweet girl Karla is very uninterested, and I don’t blame her.
“We haven’t seen any other kids around. Why is that?” Luke asks Leo.
“Well, that’s because the kids here, they’re really sick, and that’s why I asked your mum for help. She’s here to try and cure them,” Leo tells Luke.
“That won’t be a problem. Our mum is the best,” Liam shouts, the last word echoing all around. I can’t help but feel proud that my own son is my very own personal cheerleader.
We continue walking and reach a clearing filled with beautiful wildflowers, with butterflies everywhere. “Here we are. Do you like it, Karla?” Leo asks my daughter.
She nods her head vigorously; she’s still too shy to speak. But with the way she nodded and the smile on her face, it’s clear that Leo has made her happy. I let go of her hand, and she runs off, smelling the flowers and chasing the butterflies.
Liam looks up at me because I’ve freed his brother and sister, but not him. “Don’t go too far; I mean it, Liam,” I tell him in a stern voice.
“I won’t, mommy, I promise,” he says to me, so I finally let him go, and he runs off to meet up with his siblings.
But as he runs off, I realize that I’ve just let go of my last shield from Leo. I slowly turn around, and I can see the questions all over his face. Shit.
-Alpha Leo’s POV-
“Answer me!” I growl loudly, and she flinches back.
“I do not have to tell you anything,” she snaps back at me, and I know this is like pouring water on stone; this is a losing fight, and she’s never going to tell me anything.
“When did you become this person, Scarlett? Or were you always like this, and I was just too blind to see it?” I ask her, hoping to get a genuine reaction from her, but she just continues to stare at me.
“Fine, you do whatever the hell it is you’re doing, but you better make sure that I don’t find out what it is. Stay away from that lab and from Lena,” I warn her.
“Or what?” she asks me.
“You don’t want to know what I’ll do to you, Scarlett. You’ve seen what I do to people who disobey me or cross me. The only thing stopping me from doing that to you was my love for you, and you’ve done well to take that away. So, nothing is holding me back now. You’ve been warned, Scarlett,” I tell her, and for the first time, I see fear in her eyes. That’s good.
I leave her standing there and walk out of the house, not knowing exactly where I’m going. After a while, I end up in front of the clinic.
I check in on the kids, spend some time with them, and make sure that everything is in order. After a couple of hours, I leave the clinic, but I still don’t want to go home. Before I know it, I start walking away from the pack and toward Lena’s house.
By the time I get there, she has her back to me, wrangling three of her kids and telling them not to run off on their walk.
“Do you mind if I join you?” I ask, and I can see her body freeze. I don’t know if it’s out of shock or because of something else.
She slowly turns around to face me, with two of her kids in front of her. I had seen the boy last time-his name was Liam-and the girl, I hadn’t seen her before, but she looked just like Lena. Except for her eyes, though. They kind of look like mine, but that might just be me seeing things, because somewhere deep down, I’m hoping that Lena lied to me and that these kids really are mine.
I tell her that I’m here to apologize, and she’s quick to tell me that it doesn’t matter and that she’s good. But for some reason, I can’t leave. Then, all of a sudden, I hear a…
A voice asks who I am from behind Lena, and then a little boy steps out. He must be the third. He steps forward and stares right at me, and I swear it’s like looking into a mirror. I glance at Lena, and I think I see fear in her eyes, but it disappears quickly, so I’m not sure.
Liam answers instead and tells his brother that I’m their mother’s boss. Things move pretty fast from there. The second boy tells me his name, then introduces his brother and sister, who are still hiding behind Lena’s leg. It’s clear that she’s shy around new people, so I don’t force it.
Then, surprisingly, Liam begs Lena to let me join them on the walk, and he also calls me “boss man” instead of Leo. I don’t complain because I kind of like it.
I make the excuse that Lena has been gone for a while and doesn’t know her way around, and with all of us ganged up against her, she relents and tells me to lead the way. Luke stays by my side while the others walk behind me.
We walk in silence for a while, but my mind is anything but quiet because I’m ninety percent sure that Lena lied to me and that these kids are actually mine. There’s no way that her child with another man looks exactly like me.
Luke interrupts my thoughts by asking me questions about the pack and what it means to be an Alpha. I’m more than happy to answer him, and I make sure to include his siblings. They ask so many follow-up questions that it’s clear they don’t know much about that part of themselves-the shifter part.
But it makes sense. There’s only so much that Lena can tell them, and they live in the city, nowhere close to a pack, so they won’t have those experiences. While I was answering their questions, Karla didn’t seem too interested, but at least she had come out from behind Lena’s leg, and whenever I looked away, I could feel her eyes on me.
I knew the perfect place for her. We continued walking, with Liam and Luke getting my full attention. Finally, we reached the clearing. Before the sickness hit, you could find the kids from the pack playing here, and I could see the appeal. It had everything kids loved: flowers, butterflies, and there was a lake not too far where the boys would skip rocks and swim.
I asked Karla if she liked it, and she had a huge smile on her face as she nodded her head so fast. Lena let go of her hand, and Karla ran straight into the clearing. Luke followed behind her, and after promising not to run off, Lena let him join his siblings. Finally, we were left alone.
I could see the shift in her body, and it just confirmed my suspicions. She was hiding something. Those kids might have been mine, but she was keeping it from me.
I had two choices: I could either confront her, or I could act like I didn’t know and show her that I had changed, hoping she would trust me with the truth.
What should I do?
Alpha Leo’s POV
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