Chapter Fifty Nine

Liam

As soon as Azalea left, I looked at Damien. “We need to arrange a permanent guard for her. I will not be able to keep her in my sight at all times and I have a feeling she will eventually like some freedom,” I told him.

“That is a good idea. How would you like to go about this?”

“We should start by looking at our most skilled warriors. Maybe look for any that may have integrated in the past couple years so they may not have any preconceived opinions about her. Give her a fresh start if we can. Also, no one unmated,” I finished.

He smiled at me. “I will look into it. Until then, should we continue to use Austin and Jacob?”

“Let’s see how they do today,” I said, not convinced. Jacob did not seem to like my orders concerning Azalea.

“Before he arrives, were we able to substantiate any of his claims from last time I met with him?”

“He is positively the Alpha of White Moon and I found no evidence to suggest that Azalea’s mother is not his sister. So, from what we can gather, Azalea is in fact his niece. She would hold a claim to the Alpha position of White Moon.” I nodded my head.

There was a knock on my door. Alpha Isaac was here. “Come in,” I said. Damien moved to stand behind me and Alpha Isaac entered the room. I motioned for him to sit. He sat in the chair opposite me and looked at me expectantly.

“Good morning, Alpha Isaac. Thank you for your patience over the past few days. I appreciate the lack of interruption while I was with my mate,” I said.

“Very precarious situation. Your mate is a she-wolf is she not? I am curious as to wait ailment would cause your disappearance for so long,” he said.

“That is a personal matter, I am afraid. But rest assured, she is back in full health. I appreciate your concern,” I said coldly.

He smirked. “So, where is my niece?”

“You know I would not forcibly hand over a member of my pack.”

“You were able to corroborate my claims, were you not?” he challenged.

“Yes. It does appear that you have a niece who is a member of my pack. The problem you fail to see is that although she has a claim to your pack, she does not want your title.”

He growled. “I do not care what her wishes are. She has a responsibility to her blood. She will come to White Moon.”

“I find it interesting that you have yet to inquire about your sister and her own mate,” I challenged.

“You think I am unaware of my sister’s foolish actions? I know she followed along like a weak b**ch with her mate and his foolish plans to help usurp your father. I know she died leaving Azalea to grow up knowing nothing of her heritage.” Rage was brewing in his eyes.

“Then if you knew all of this, why did you never come to claim Azalea? Why let her grow up an orphan? Surely growing up with her Alpha uncle would have been better than an orphan in her birth pack?”

He growled and stood up. “I will not take judgement from a baby Alpha.”

I stood up, meeting his glare. “From where I am standing, it does not matter. You failed her as a child, and you will not dictate her future now. You will have to find another successor of your title. You will not be taking anyone from my pack, Alpha Eirlys.”

“You owe me! I took care of the threat to your title and this is how you repay me?” he shouted.

“I never asked for your assistance in this matter. You also have not provided me any proof that Kol’s threat has been neutralized,” I said, a dangerous calm coming over me. Damien was stiff but silent behind me. “As far as we can tell, the whereabouts of Kol are currently unknown.”

“I can assure you; my people will not have let him get away,” he growled.

“And you still have no evidence to substantiate this. Now, I believe we have nothing left to discuss. I expect you to make your travel arrangements and be leaving my lands by morning time. If you will excuse me, I have obligations elsewhere,” I told him. I turned to Damien who nodded. We walked around my desk, passed Isaac, and left my office.

“Do you think he will really accept your decision?”

“I will give him no choice. He is not taking Azalea. She is just warming up to being Luna, there is no chance that she wants to take an entire pack.”

We made our way towards the front doors of the packhouse.

“I am going back to my office. I should also check on Lily. She linked me for your credit card number during that meeting,” he linked.

“Oh Goddess.”

Damien giggled as he walked away. I left out the front pack house doors and made my way over to the clinic. It was a brisk fall day. I should have brought Azalea a sweater. Hopefully, my uncle was done with her because I wanted some time with my mate.

I walked in the front doors and smiled at the receptionist.

“Good morning, Alpha. What can I do for you?” she asked with a bat of her eyelashes.

“I just wanted to pop in and talk to my uncle really quick. He should be with someone I sent over?” I told her.

“Oh yes, that shy little thing. Austin and Jacob took her back there. You can head on back there,” she said. I gave her a little smile and a ‘thanks’ and headed back towards his office.

“What the f**k is your problem? You have had an attitude since Liam asked us to do this!” I heard Austin whisper-yelling. I stopped just out of their sight to listen.

“Are you kidding me? You know who she is! And Liam is just going to blindly accept her as his mate? Something does not add up. She was still in the pack on his birthday. Why didn’t he know then? And where has she been? Why is she back now?” Jacob ranted.

“Does it matter? It really isn’t any of your business and it's his mate!”

“Are we sure? What if she is pulling some trick on him?”

“Why? Why would she show up now after being gone for years? And how is she supposed to trick the mate bond?”

“She doesn’t have a wolf. How can she have a mate?”

“Damien’s mom is a human! She is Beta Declan’s mate. Seriously, what is your problem? She seems so nice.”

“Her parents were traitors. You can’t honestly believe she came back here because she wanted to.”

“Maybe you don’t know her. Liam told us to drop the past. If you cannot do that, you need to take it up with Liam and not take it out on her.” I was actually quite impressed with Austin. He was defending his Luna with no hesitation. I walked towards them, effectively stopping their conversation. Jacob averted his eyes.

“Good afternoon, gentleman. I suspect my mate is still speaking with the doctor?” I spoke.

“Yea, she’s still in there,” said Austin.

“Is there an issue, Jacob?” I directed at him.

“No, Alpha. No issue.”

“Good, because if there was some issue that you had with my mate, I would hope you come to me about it,” I said in a flat tone.

He nodded at me with a stoic look. Just then the door to the office opened gently and Azalea emerged. She froze seeing all of us.

“All good there, Luna?” Austin was the first to pipe up. She gave him a small smile and nodded. Her eyes travelled to me. A sweet smile stretched across her face.

“Ready, baby?” I asked, forgetting about the idiot Gamma. I held out my hand to her and she walked to me. She grasped my hand and smiled up at me. “Want to go somewhere with me?” I asked. She nodded her head. “Austin, Jacob. You are both dismissed for now.”

They nodded their heads and led the way out of the clinic. I followed them with Azalea in tow. When we stepped outside, she hugged my arm closer bringing her body flush to mine. I let go of her hand and wrapped my arm around her, letting her share in my warmth.

“What did my uncle have to say?” I asked her.

“Just some questions about what happened when you marked me. Can I assume you called him when I didn’t wake up?” she said with a smile.

“Yea… I was worried…” I said.

“Thank you.” she said. I looked at her quizzically. “For worrying.”

“I will always worry about you,” I said. I bent down and kissed her forehead.

“So, what are we doing?” she asked.

I gave her a big smile. “I wanted to take my beautiful mate on a picnic.” She smiled. “How does that sound?” She nodded her head eagerly. I chuckled.

I quickly linked Lily, “Hey, how long do you think you are going to take with that project?”

“I am thinking we will be done by morning! Can you stay away tonight?”

“Yea, got it handled. Can you send a sweater downstairs to the kitchen for me right now? And then maybe some clothes for the night later?”

“Sure thing, I will send someone down with stuff in just a few.”

“Thanks, Lily.”

Azalea

Liam led us back into the packhouse and to the kitchen. Walking around the pack house and grounds so openly made me very nervous. Having Liam with me made it better though. There were not a lot of people around, so we weren’t getting much attention. When we got to the kitchen, there was a small girl packing a picnic basket.

“Oh, Alpha Liam! I got everything all set for you!” she said excitedly. She was a cute little girl with mousy brown hair that fell in soft curls around her face. She had happy brown eyes that shined when she looked at Liam. She had to be no more than 9 years old.

“Thank you very much, Missy!” Liam said bending down on one knee to be at eye level with her. She gave him a sweet hug. “Why don’t you go make yourself a big bowl of popcorn and watch a movie down in the lounge! And you can enjoy these,” he said as he reached in his back pocket and pulled out a box of M&M candies. She squealed in excitement.

“Really?” she asked excitedly.

“Absolutely. You deserve a special reward for doing a special job for the Alpha,” he said smiling at her.

“Alpha Liam, it was just sandwiches!” she said with a huge smile on her face.

“Well, I still appreciate it. Now go, on,” he said. She grabbed the candy from his hand and excitedly ran from the kitchen. He stood up and turned around towards me. “Ready?” he asked.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“That was Missy,” he said.

“Why is she in the kitchen? She is what 8 or 9?”

“She is 9 I believe. Her father was a warrior for the pack. He died last year, and her mother has a hard time taking care of her alone. Missy comes and stays in the packhouse a lot and asked if she could earn some money to help her mother. So, we give her easy tasks or special things she can do to help out. We also give her money for her work and she takes it back to her mother. Sometimes, I give her special tasks with a more tangible reward, so she gets to enjoy something for how hard she works,” he said with a small blush on his face.

My eyes teared up. “Oh, Liam,” I said trying to hold in the tears. In every way, he was a better Alpha than his father. He moved closer to me, reaching out to grab my waist.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong? Did I do something?” he asked worried. I shook my head and stepped closer to him, wrapping my arms around his waist, and laying my head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me. “Baby, why are you upset?” I stayed quiet for a moment, just holding him. He sighed. “I couldn’t let a little girl like that end up like you. I could not let her hurt. I converted a few of the omega bedrooms into kids’ rooms. Bunk beds, toys, games, books. Everything they could need should they need it,” he said running his hand through my hair. I pulled away from him and looked up into his sweet blue eyes.

“I love you,” I whispered. He bent down and placed a loving kiss on my lips.

“I love you, too. We should go have some lunch,” he said quietly after we broke apart. I nodded my head. “Here, put this on. It’s cold out,” he said wrapping me in what I assume to be one of his sweatshirts.