A couple of days after our little outburst in Marc's office, we get a letter to our house. A letter. He could have just sent someone over to tell us. But no, instead he sent someone over with a letter. I sigh, but open it up immediately. Raph is looking over my shoulder curiously. There's only one little piece of paper with two words scrawled on it.
'Two weeks?' Raph reads it aloud. I sigh again.
'I'm assuming that's when he's gonna go and get them.'
'That's great!' Raph says with a smile on his face and hugs me closer to him. I let the letter drop in favour of hugging my mate back and giving him a little peck. I'm excited as well. I can't wait for them to finally be here and be with us. But I'm also worried about the obvious tension between the Alpha and us. We've been such good friends for so long, it feels strange to feel the need to tip toe around him now - and even worse to barely see him in the first place.
'What's bugging you?' Raph eventually asks when I don't answer him calling my name.
'Marc.' is all I say.
Now he sighs in my stead and pulls me to sit with him on the ground.
'You know he was only protecting his mate. We stormed in there with no prior notice and we felt light a threat. You would react the same way. I would, too.'
I know he's right, but it's still the first time I'd felt this distanced to him over such a small matter.
'Hey.' Raph turns my face so I have no choice but to look at him, 'You know, this might just feel worse because you're part of the pack now. You have a much stronger connection to him now than you did before and so it's probably harder to figure out what to do and how to deal with this. You'll be fine. This was nothing and both of you know it. Once you've both calmed down and worked through the awkwardness of talking about it, you'll be fine.'
His forehead is touching mine now and he is intently staring at me as he says this and for some reason, I can't help but chuckle.
'You're probably right.' I finally concede and lean my head on his shoulder, hugging him to me.
'I'm always right.' He whispers in my ear and this time, I just laugh out loud. This man is truly everything to me.
Two weeks seems like barely any time at all when you think about it, but once you have to wait for something for two weeks, it seems like an eternity. Days don't seem to pass at all.
Raph and I spend our time sneaking around the pack house in hopes of doing our work without meeting the Alpha and retreat to our original home at the end of every day. We don't do much else than that. The only things I can think of are my pregnant mate, the fallout I had with the Alpha and the possibility of being reunited with the other half of my family soon.
Elif comes by a couple of times during our wait, giving us updates she overhead her parents talk about and swearing us to secrecy about her being here with us in the first place. She's trying to mend in her own way. Often she'll invite us to come to her place to eat, or tell us that Randy asked for us, all in an attempt to get us in the same vicinity as her father.
Other times, she gets so frustrated that she'll feel the need to complain about the "lack of spine" her father seems to have when he's supposed to be the Alpha and she'll get herself so worked up that she sheds a few angry tears. I learned that when her face starts getting blotchy and her eyebrows crowd together over her nose even more than when she was just angry and when her lower lip starts shaking just a tiny bit, that's when her tears are close. Raph and I would do our best to make sure she felt okay before going home every time, although mostly she would refuse and throw a tantrum about wanting to stay with us as well.
Strangely, not once did Randy show up to pry her off us and I had the sinking suspicion that he was doing it to not give his mate any other reason to lose his cool. Apparently, that little outburst seems to affect so many more people than necessary and I still feel like it's my fault.
A few days before it will finally be happening, Clarissa visits the Alpha back for one of her reports. And on her way back, she comes by our place.
When I open the door, she has a serious face and simply pushes in. She sits down opposite Raph and gestures for me to sit as well. I quickly exchange a confused glance with Raph before sitting down and waiting for her to start.
'So I heard you had a bit of a fall out with the big boy and neither of you is mature enough to start talking again.'
I hang my head. Raph has been nagging me about it for days now. Telling me to just go up and talk to Marc and get it over with. Everyone involved knows that neither me nor Marc really still bare a grudge, we're simply to chicken to talk it out. Or maybe too prideful to be the first to bow.
'Right, well, I can tell you that he's not talking to you mainly because he feels bad to have delayed bringing your mum and brother back by this long. Which also means he can't tell you why that is the case. And so, because this is absolutely ridiculous, I've taken it upon myself to sort this mess out.'
Now she just looks like a stern mum with her arms crossed over her chest and one of her eyebrows raised as if she's trying to figure out how anyone could be this stupid. I sigh. I do a lot of that lately.
'So here's the problem. For years, and I'm talking way before you guys showed up here like to two puppies abandoned in the rain, we've had rogues at our borders. They were everywhere in the area, including the borders around your old pack. However, the day after that boy of yours showed up, they simply disappeared.' She pauses then and Raph immediately grips my hand. I can feel his unease and slight fear just sitting next to him.
Calm down. There's nothing to worry about, love. I try to calm him down mentally. It only marginally works, but I can see him taking controlled breaths to try and ease his mind.
'Anyway, the Alpha was suspicious of the timing, which is why he's delayed it. He wanted to see whether they'd come back or stay gone. Granted, even two weeks might not have been enough, but he argued that if they really were waiting to ambush us, which, even now, is barely even a possibility, they wouldn't simply stop waiting even if we delay it for months. The Alpha assumes that they've either moved on or simply lost interest for a while. But they're not organised enough to be a real threat.'
Raph is still struggling, but he's hiding it well. The only indication that he isn't alright is his hand clutching mine in a death grip.
'So what if they are waiting to attack us? We won't be able to get the man power out there to help the escort, it would be too obvious for the other pack.' I finally ask.
'Even if the are waiting, there's never been enough of them to pose a serious threat, even to a small convoy. Plus, we're depositing groups of scouts in the no mans land to make sure there's no sign of them a day in advance. It should all go well. Don't worry, I'm not telling you this to make it seem like a risk, it's just the Alpha is taking extra precaution that probably isn't even necessary.'
I nod reluctantly. I don't like the situation, but I shouldn't question Marc. He's a good Alpha and a great leader, he'll know.
'Alright, Clarissa, thanks for coming by, it means a lot.' I smile at her. She shouldn't have come by really, her orders a strictly to come into our land, report to the Alpha, and leave immediately after.
'Don't worry about it. When my friends are fighting like little children, it's not like I actually have a choice, now, do I?' She winks at me playfully and then stands up. 'Right, this is my cue though, I can't waste anymore time. I'm part of the convoy, so I'll see you soon, yeah. I'll keep both of them safe.'
She gives me another wink, a wave and then bolts out of our house, changing mid-jump and leaving strips of her clothes in her wake. I laugh, sometimes I wish I knew her all my life. I can only imagine what trouble her and Zach would get me into together.
But the smile leaves my face when Raph starts panting next to me. Immediately I turn to him, hold his face in my hands to help him clam down. His hands are slightly shaking as he lifts them to grip my wrists in return. I look into his eyes and the only thing I find is fear. I'm not surprised in the slightest. When he finally told me what happened while he was distracting the rogues for Sam to get home, I knew he would carry it with him for a long time. The only thing I didn't anticipate was for to come back to haunt him this soon.
'Take deep breaths, Raph. Calm down, you're fine and I'm fine. You heard Clarissa, everything will go to plan and you'll see Sam again in just a few short days. It'll be fine, I promise. I'll make sure it will.'
By now, he's calmed down a tiny bit. I'm hugging him to me with him straddling my legs, swaying from side to side slowly. And eventually, after a lot of minutes of whispering sweet nothings into his ear, he seems alright again.
'I just don't want anyone to get hurt.' he whispers.
'No one will get hurt. We'll all be fine. Sam and my mum will be here soon, they'll find a place to stay, we'll spend lots of time with them and then, in a few weeks, our little baby will be born and we'll be too busy looking after him or her to be concerned by anything else. You'll see, it'll all be fine.'