Fated To the Alpha by Jessica Hall
Chapter 179
When we got home it was nearly dinner time. Derrick and Jonah picked dinner up on the way home but Andrei didn’t even acknowledge them, instead racing to his office and shutting the door. Jonah was trying to show him something, but Andrei was too distracted to notice.
Luckily Jonah quickly forgot as Derrick distracted him and pulled him into the living room and put a kids movie on. I watched for a bit while eating dinner but after an hour curiosity got to me. I could hear crashing coming from the office. I heard him on the phone multiple times, and heard him talking to Kat, Ezra.
Some man from the city, the one who gave us the news, the one who said we couldn’t keep Jonah safe here with us. Andrei was raging but most of all what he felt was fear, the same as me. Fear for what would happen to our Jonah.
It was K*lling me wondering what would happen to him, he was such a bubbly boy despite all he lived through, despite what he lost, he always smiled.
Now I wondered if his new home would be warm, would it be safe, would he have enough to eat, would he be happy, would he thrive but most of all would he be loved because I loved him, the pack loved him, Andrei loved him. Jonah has no idea the handprints he has left on everyone’s heart here.
He was the light after so much darkness, this pack suffered but Jonah kept them on their toes, made them laugh. Jonah filled us with hope. He was the hope I had that we could be a family. He was the hope that made us all want to keep fighting. It was because of him, the pack came alive again.
“Is Mr Andrei ok?” Jonah whispers from where he was sitting on my lap. He yawns tiredly and I nod. Malik tried to calm Andrei down, His father did, but they were just as devastated. Malik ran from the place with tears trailing down his face.
Getting up, I tuck the blanket around Jonah. He watches me leave and Derrick moves sitting by his feet while I wander down the hall to the office. I push the door open and Andrei was arguing with someone on the phone over temporary custody, or asking to at least be able to check the living conditions. His words make me more nervous.
What had set him off so completely.
He has been on the phone since we got home, has not left the office and for the most part I was too afraid to know. I wait for him to get off the phone and he tosses it on the desk falling into his chair heavily.
“ I don’t know what to do, we never should have told anyone we found him” He says staring off.
He swallows his eyes red and puffy like he had been crying and I move closer not knowing whether I should touch him or not but when I step closer he pulls me on his lap, pressing his face into my shoulder blades. I stare at the printed pieces of paper on his desk.
My heart sinks when I see a photo of a man. But not just any photo, it was a mugshot. His crimes ranged from petty theft, to a*s*sault. Domestic violence and he even had one for fraud. Clive Steed. There was also some information on his family.
Sister Melissa Marie Steed. Going over the documents I found the domestic violence report, there were multiple and most were against his own mother and his younger sister. Car theft, the list never ending and I was shocked to see he actually spent time in a human prisons too, that was the first time I had ever heard of a werewolf spend time in a human correctional facility but said he did three years for kidnap and shooting his sister in the leg and breaking her arm.
“He can’t go with this man” I whisper, picking up the picture with his mugshot again. He had greasy dark hair and resembled a thug, with his beard and tattoos on his face. What I found most disturbing though was the way he smiled in his mugshot like it was some joke, that he was better than not only pack laws but human ones too..
“The mother’s brother?” I ask and Andrei nods against my shoulder.
“He has no money, in fact he owes nearly a hundred look to some pretty f*uc*ked up people. But despite all that, he is blood I am not. We can’t do anything. Kat and Ezra have spent nearly all night, trying to find away for us to keep him”
“Can’t kat overrule him?” I ask, she is Queen after all.
“Kat’s livid, even she said what use is being Queen if she couldn’t overrule. But she would have to change Pack law and that takes time. After everything with Dominic, no one will vote in her corner until she proves herself, Laws are written in bloody treaty’s and expected to be upheld until changed or revised. She goes against it, we could start wars with every pack for abusing her authority”
“But she can command them, ” I tell him.
“It’s more than that Sage, it’s Pack politics, you can’t just do what you want without reason because you are stronger, not without severe repercussions”
“But he is a bad person”
“Some would say I am too, Sage. It doesn’t matter what he did, by law he has paid for those crimes and is free now, he is blood to Jonah and the only living relative and hasn’t broken any of his orders since being released 2 years ago. Besides his debt they have nothing on him”
“So we just let him go, let this man take him. The same man that beat his own mother and sister.
What’s saying he won’t do those things to Jonah?” I ask appalled. I felt sick, this couldn’t be happening.
“No, he can’t go with him” I tell him, getting up. We could run with him, hide him, anything has to be better than letting him go with this horrid man.
“We have no choice, Sage. He isn’t ours”
“He is, you found him. His uncle didn’t even know he was missing, please. We can run with him” Andrei shakes his head.
“We have a pack Sage, it’s not that simple ” Andrei says, placing his head in hands.
“We will get him back, we just have to wait. It will just take time” He breathes rubbing his temples.
“How much time?”
“I don’t know,” He says, running his fingers
through his hair. I was shaking in anger, in fear for him. Andrei gets up walking out of the room. I follow after him and he stops before walking into the living room. Despite how tired Jonah was, he instantly sat up, a big smile on his face when Andrei sat beside him.
“Jonah, do you know how to use a phone?” Andrei asks him. I lean on the doorframe watching. Derrick jumps off the couch walking away. He returns with his phone, it was an older b*tton model which would be simple for a kid to use, no passwords.
“No” Jonah tells him.
“Give him mine” Derrick says, going through it and erasing everything on it.
“He still needs to know the number in case he loses this” Derrick tells Andrei who nods.
“Jonah I need you to listen okay, we are going to show you how to use the phone, so you can ring us”
“Why do I need to ring you, you are next to me?” Jonah laughs and I look at the ceiling trying to swallow my emotion.
“Because tomorrow you are going to a new home, so you need to know how to use a phone ok”
“A new home? but I want to stay here” Jonah says, looking over the couch at me and I couldn’t handle his tear filled eyes.
“It’s only for a short time, then you come back here, but you use the phone, get me a pen and paper” Andrei says looking behind him and Derrick rushes off before returning. Andrei writes his mobile number on it. I had doubts about how a child of his age was going to remember a 10 digit number when some adults couldn’t.
“ I don’t want to ring you, I want to stay. I want to stay here” Jonah says, crying and tossing the phone. Andrei grips his face.
“Stop, I need you to do this. I can’t be with you when you go”
“Go where?” Jonah asks.
“With your Uncle Clive”
“Clive, Clive ” he whispers, his eyes going wide like he suddenly remembered the face that went with the name. Jonah shakes his head, crying harder and Andrei tries to calm him down.
“He made mum cry, he took our house, I want to stay here, please let me stay, I will be good” Jonah says.
“He is coming to get you tomorrow” Jonah starts shaking his head smacking Andrei’s hands.
“Listen Jonah, stop and listen to me, I will get you back, I promise but I need you to show me you can use this phone. That you can ring us, if you need us”
“You promise, I can come back home?” Jonah says, tears spilling on Andrei’s hands. He holds his shaking pinky up and Andrei looks at his tiny pinkie in the air before wrapping his around Jonah’s.
“I swear to you, I will bring you home. I won’t let him keep you, you are ours but you need to go and behave, until I can get you back, but I will get you back” Andrei tells him and Jonah’s sobs turn to hiccups and he nods.
Jonah sniffles, tears staining his face as Andrei tries showing him how to use the phone before telling Jonah to do it. Once he had successfully used the phone by himself and rang Andrei’s number 10 times, Andrei tried to get him to memorize the number. It was impossible, Andrei tried for hours and it was nearly midnight. Jonah yawning and his eyes fluttering only for Andrei to wake him.
“Andrei, no more” I tell him.
“He needs to remember the number” Andrei snaps at me, becoming frustrated. I know it was out of fear but Jonah was falling asleep.
“Sage is right, he is exhausted, let him sleep. Try in the morning” Derrick tells him. Andrei nods letting Jonah lay back down. He tucks the blanket back around him but remains by his side.
Derrick pats my shoulder pulling out the sofa bed when I hear a soft knock on the door. My eyes were raw from so much crying and I s*cked in a breath walking over to the door and opening it.
Malik, Casen, Vince, Nora. Zane about 20 people were at the door with pillows and blankets. My heart clenched at the sight of their broken faces. I push the door open wider letting them in and they all file into the living room surrounding the couch making themselves comfortable on the floor.
Derrick chucks more logs on the fire and as I go to close the door my throat restricts when I see the entire pack laying on the ground out front. They couldn’t fit in the packhouse they knew that, but they wanted to guard their boy. Their Jonah.
The little boy they all spent hours hunting for, chasing after, the little boy that took a broken pack and put them back together reminding them how to smile and laugh. I leave the door open before going back to the couch. Andrei moves over and I climb in behind Jonah tucking his body against mine.
“We will bring you home, we won’t give up, you have a huge family here fighting for you Jonah, you are pack, you are ours” I whisper to him before pressing my lips to his forehead and closing my eyes.