Extra Chapter 2

Extra Chapter 2

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*Eli's POV*

"How many eggs do you want?" I looked over at the kids and frowned seeing Neo already eating a bowl of instant oats, he pointed at the bowl giving me a half-hearted smile and continued scrolling through his phone as he had been doing since walking into the kitchen. He had only moved his eyes from his phone to greet us and pat Jack who had been eating his morning kibble. Jack was so old he barely did anything but sleep, but I didn't even want to think about having to say goodbye to him soon because the thought always made me tear-up.

"One," Aslinn replied.

"Two," Nyra said.

"Two for both. One isn't going to keep you filled throughout your training." Karabo spoke.

"Do I have to? Everyone else is hanging out at –"

"Aslinn," I cut her off with a stern stare, "skip this session again and you're doing extra training for a month."

"But it's just this once and I –"

"Nope," I cut her off.

She glared down at her plate, "Why do I have to train so much anyway? I'm not a Delta."

"You're still one of the strongest wolves in our pack, we might need that strength sometime and how would you help out if you have no fighting ability?"

"But I already have fighting ability. Please, please, everyone's gonna be there."

"Aslinn, stop being lazy." Nyra shook her head.

I looked at Aslinn surprised when she didn't say anything back to her sister and noticed that the pair were linking because Aslinn was smirking while Nyra's face had gone slightly red. I narrowed my eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing." Nyra said way too quickly, it made Karabo – and even Neo – look up at her questioningly as well, "Anyway, um – can I have boiled eggs instead?"

"I figured you would," I replied pointing to the eggs I was boiling.

We continued breakfast talking about random things. We were rarely able to have such a calm breakfast, but since it was Saturday and Karabo and I had managed to finish everything we needed to do the previous evening, we figured it would be the perfect time to not have to rush through making everything before we needed to head to work while the kids got ready for their lessons. It had been ten years since Neo was born and things were going pretty well for all of us. The pack was doing great and we did not face as many war-related problems since Karabo joined me. What can I say? He was better at talking people down (including me) and avoiding unnecessary fights than I was.

Aslinn had not changed a bit since she was little when it came to training, but everyone thought it was cute of her and that added to her already cute image – which was annoying given the amount of attention she clearly got from the youngsters, particularly males, in the pack. Nyra was pretty popular as well, mostly because not even young Deltas could beat her in training which was pretty epic, though that meant us having to train the Deltas harder. She fought so well, we sometimes let her train Neo and he loved training with his sister, she never went easy on him. Neo was... quiet. He didn't seem too close to anyone in the pack outside of our immediate family except Alex and that seemed to be just because Alex was his beta, they were cousins and trained together a lot. With Alex being as confident and outspoken as he was compared to Neo who barely even smiled and rarely said a word during the meetings we let him sit in on, it wasn't surprising that the pack elders were leaning more towards Alex when they wanted to talk address the young pack leaders. Karabo and I had tried a lot to get Neo out of his shell because I knew he would be a great Alpha despite the rest of our pack currently being unable to see that, but that was just who he was. Introverted and very, very quiet. No matter how many club activities we made him take part in, he didn't budge. I was hoping he would become a little more outspoken in the next few years before he would take over as Alpha.

I sat down beside Karabo as we ate, everyone talking except Neo who, when told to put his phone down, began focusing on his food while occasionally adding mumbled words to the conversation that I didn't quite understand the references to but it made his sisters laugh. I opened my mouth to suggest we go go-carting but Nyra asked a question that made me completely forget about that.

"Will I find my mate on my birthday?" I looked at Karabo the same time his eyes rose from his plate to me and we both scoffed. I kind of felt sorry for the person mated to our daughter considering that both Karabo and I were already tough to deal with, and at the same time I really couldn't care less about them and hoped whoever it was never met her. I couldn't imagine what kind of wolf or person would be good enough for her. She was straight and I wondered if her mate was part of our pack, wouldn't his ego be bruised considering that she had beaten everyone except my generation's Deltas? Her birthday was in a week, I liked to pretend that that meant nothing except another celebration of her existence.

"Doesn't matter. Mates aren't all that. You just focus on training, Sweetheart." Karabo replied.

"Listen to Dad, he knows what he's talking about." I agreed.

"She already focuses on – Ahh!" I was shocked when Aslinn suddenly let out a painful cry before she punched her sister's arm but Nyra didn't even react.

"Training is already my focus," she grinned at us. Karabo glanced at me, his face mirroring the suspicion I felt. I doubted that that was what Aslinn was going to say. "I think Aslinn needs some strength training. Clearly." Nyra smirked as Aslinn glared at her and we laughed. She was probably right given how that punch from her sister didn't even make her flinch.

"Nice work beating Keanu, keep that up," I smirked remembering that practice. He was Ben's son, a couple of months younger than Nyra and our future Army Delta, I considered him our best fighter after the two obvious ones and my daughter.

"K-Oed." Karabo grinned.

"Okay," Aslinn sat up, "if I promise to do an hour more every day, can I skip training today to go to the mall and then the party – and I'll take Nyra with because she clearly needs to de-buff." She smirked.

"I'm not buff!" Nyra shouted grabbing her arms while looking like it was the most offensive thing she had ever heard.

Neo groaned dropping his head onto the table mumbling about how noisy and annoying the pair were and I chuckled reaching out to pat his head.

"An hour every day?" Karabo asked.

"For the next month – I promise." She held out her pinkie finger. My husband looked at me and I smiled. Aslinn was more dedicated to promises than she was to skipping practice and that was saying something. He linked his pinkie to hers.

"Right, take your sister with you," he said.

"Dad! I can't –" Nyra began.

"One day off wouldn't hurt." I smiled.

"But –" She stopped when Aslinn linked to her and once again her face began to redden. I narrowed my eyes.

"Seriously, are you linking about a boy?" They both looked at me wide-eyed basically confirming my suspicion.

"What? N-No! I-I'm gonna change," Nyra was out of the room in less than a second.

"I'm gonna help her change into something other than track pants." Aslinn disappeared as well.

I chuckled.

"Alpha, wanna go go-carting after training?" Karabo asked. It was one of Neo's favourite activities, so I expected a yes which was why I was surprised when a muffled 'no' came from him as his head was still leaning on the table, "Why not?" Karabo sounded concerned.

"Saturday. Too many people at the track."

"All the more reason to go," I said. He looked up and I immediately regretted suggesting it because he looked so helpless. I hated that face because I knew he used it just to make us feel bad since at any other time of the day his stone-straight face and unintentionally glaring eyes unsettled everyone in our pack despite his age. I bet he had learnt the face from Aslinn. Even if he was alpha, he was our youngest and quietest so his sad faces were gut-wrenching.

'Eli, let him be,' Karabo didn't even have to link to me because I had already given in.

"What do you wanna do?" I asked.

"Read," he replied immediately.

"Outside," Karabo said. I smiled as Neo had to think about it for a while before he replied.

"We can take Jack to the park." He glanced over at the dog who looked up when he heard his name.

"Okay!" I clapped. Heading to the park was better than not heading out of the house because Neo rarely went outside for anything but training unless he was forced.

We finished breakfast before heading to training that felt a little empty without the girls, though everyone else kept us pretty occupied. My mind kept drifting to Nyra's unusual shyness at the breakfast table and I found myself unintentionally glaring as I ran through the reasons until Karabo pointed out the look on my face.

"It's Nyra, isn't it?" He had stepped into my line of sight to block everyone else from my view and I raised my brows at him, 'It's very suspicious, she's definitely acting weird.' he linked to me. I grabbed his hand to tug him closer because since he was nearby, why wasn't he closer? He chuckled leaning against the wall beside me and I moved to lean my head against his lightly.

"Who do you think it is?" I mumbled running my eyes over the teenage boys in our gym. I could not imagine my daughter being with any of them. I couldn't imagine her being with any of the guys that weren't there either, not even any of the guys from the other half of our pack.

"No idea." Karabo's thoughts seemed to match my own, "You think someone from Rain?" Rain was a small pack that resided nearest to us.

"Maybe... should we crash their party?"

"No!" he snapped instantly. I raised my brows at him and he licked his lips re-considering it, "No... I mean, they would be pissed at us and it's incredibly intrusive, that's just not us."

"True." I frowned, 'But she's obviously into someone and we have to make sure he knows his place!' I linked to him.

'You think he wouldn't? Most of the guys are afraid to even touch her in combat when we're in the room.' I smirked. That was true. One wrong move or weird touch and I would kill them, 'It kind of sucks though. Do you think she's afraid to tell us? Have we been too strict?'

I sighed. Maybe. Or why did she feel the need to hide it from us? Maybe she just didn't want to tell us about her crushes... My eyes widened. Was she already dating him?! Well, we did make it look like we were going to beat up anyone that dared ask them out, the only guy that was ballsy enough to even become close friends with Nyra and hang out with her constantly was Keanu because they had grown up together. But they were practically related... Except they weren't.

"It's Keanu!" I exclaimed out loud causing everyone in the gym to look at me, "Sorry –" I apologised to them quickly as I turned to a wide-eyed Karabo.

"Oh my God, you're right! Who else could it be?!"

"W-what?" Both our heads turned to look at Ben's son who seemed to have just pinned someone down on the mat. I held back a sneer at how puppy-eyed and innocent his face looked.

"You –" I began but Karabo's arm swung over my shoulder as he cut me off.

"Oh, nothing. Continue." He waved at everyone, 'Let's just wait for her to tell us, Eli.' He linked to me.

I wanted to protest, I wanted to ask him who he thought he was thinking he was good enough for my daughter but didn't want to get into a fight with Ben who would probably ask why I thought my daughter was too good for his son. I mean, she had pinned him countless times and she wasn't even a Delta. Her control of magic was leaps above his. She was much smarter than he was as well. She was obviously way too good for him. Her mate was probably an Alpha. Though, not even an Alpha could measure up...

'Eli.' A hard nudge to my side made me realise I had let out a low growl while glaring at Keanu who had undoubtedly noticed because he had stumbled away from his opponent, further from me. I shook my head to get out of it and clapped.

"You know what, everyone? I think that's enough for today! Keanu, you need extra work, so do you Jessica and Graham. 6 PM practice," the last two did, Keanu didn't really need the extra work. Did I say he did because I knew he was planning to attend the party Nyra and Aslinn would be at? Yes.

I watched Keanu's face drop as everyone began to disperse quite happy that they had had a shorter practice than usual. I already expected an argument with Aslinn later about why she had to do the full extra hour for the next few weeks if it wasn't even a full practice that she had skipped.

'That was petty.'

'Do you want me to tell him it isn't necessary?' I looked at my mate. He just ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek, 'Yeah, I thought so.' I laughed as he shoved me lightly.

Running my eyes over the practice room, I spotted Neo just as he had returned one of the weights to its stand as a few of the other boys walked up to him.

"Hey, Alpha. My mom's taking us to get pizza. Do you wanna come?" It was one of the younger Deltas, Riam, he was twelve.

"I – My – We're going to – going somewhere. Can't." My son motioned to Karabo and me quickly as he stumbled over his wording, "Good-good job... training everyone." Neo gave a bow that he instantly seemed to regret as he turned away awkwardly, looking embarrassed before he disappeared running towards the shower way faster than necessary.

"Aw." I let out a soft breath. Why was he so shy?

"He'll grow out of it..." Karabo sounded like he didn't think that for sure, he just hoped Eli would.

We spent the next few minutes speaking to some of the kids and Deltas while waiting for Neo to finish getting cleaned up. Karabo and I had not really done much moving apart from small demos and pointing out instructions to everyone as we had had our training with our older pack leaders much earlier in the morning. When everyone had cleared out, I looked over to the changing room wondering why my son was taking so long just as our young Beta walked in.

"Hey, Uncle Eli. Alpha." I frowned.

"I'm Alpha too."

"We know," Karabo patted my shoulder clearly trying to rile me up and it worked because I turned to glare at him but he started laughing along with Alex. I shook my head at them. Alex got along exceptionally well with everyone in the pack.

I rarely saw the young Beta when he was little but he had been around more now that Tamia let him fly out to us by himself. The more time I spent with Alex and Neo, the more I wondered if Alex was better suited to be Alpha. I would never voice that thought out loud to anyone, not even Karabo because I felt bad for thinking it but Neo just... didn't seem as suitable for the position even though it was his.

"Where is he?" Karabo looked over at the changing room.

"Probably making sure to take as long as possible so he doesn't run into anyone when we leave." I bit my lip.

"Maybe we should talk to someone about it, he seems to be becoming more anxious," Karabo mumbled. I began to nod but saw Alex shake his head with a chuckle.

"He'll be fine." We looked at Alex, "Trust me, he's just a very timid introvert."

"Maybe, but he needs to be bolder, more aggressive if he's going to be Alpha." I paused after saying it, expecting Karabo to argue but he clearly thought the same and just glanced down with a soft sigh. It seemed that neither of us wanted to admit it out loud, but we both thought the same.

"I don't think so." I raised my brows at Alex and he smiled, "Just give it some time, you'll see what I mean."

"What –?" Karabo began but we all turned when we heard footsteps approaching from the bathroom until Neo stepped out and stared back at us. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion for a second before speaking.

"You said I need to go outside, the forest is outside. Can we walk Jack in the forest?"

"Outside where there are other people," I said.

"There are always other people outside." Neo stepped out of the gym door as if trying to make a point that he was now outside and he was right, there were billions of people currently outside. Karabo laughed.

"Neo, near those other people," he said.

"There are people nearby in the forest, and if you really want to be near-near other people, we could just stand in the centre of the pack houses. I mean, we weren't going to talk to the people at the park anyway." I wanted to continue pushing him to go to the park, but he was right. The only difference between home, the forest and the park was the amount of noise, he never interacted with the other kids at the park anyway. But there was always a chance that he would and maybe, just maybe, he would make a friend there, so it was worth the noise and him being awfully uncomfortable for a while.

"You're not talking your way out of this," I said finally.

"Pap –"

"No." I began to walk towards our house with Karabo following. He looked a little pained by Neo's protesting but didn't cave either.

"But –"

"Alex, you wanna come too?" I asked.

"Sure! Let's go."

Neo let out a whine but began to follow us anyway. It only took a few seconds of walking with Alex for him to brighten up. Alex seemed to subtly annoy him until they began playing around. We drove to a random park in town which turned out to be mostly vacant, but to my disappointment, Neo didn't even look towards the swings where a few kids were playing and instead asked us if he and Alex could take a walk with Jack to get ice cream. Karabo and I figured at least he had come outside to the park so we just waved them off. He looked very happy that he 'won' as he dragged Alex towards the street while Karabo and I sat down on one of the benches.

I smiled as my mate leaned against me while we talked about how great it was to do nothing for a while until he had to be a jerk and remind me of the time I yelled at him in the park after we kissed. It started a mini-argument about how I already apologised for that at the time while he insisted he never forgave me for ruining the kiss so I just kissed him again asking if that fixed it. When he said no, we just kept sharing little kisses and messing around. I was glad we could talk about the past without my getting too bothered by what happened at the time. Eventually, we returned to just watching other people and their pets. Alex and Neo returned and ended up laying on the grass not far from us, being silent as they linked to each other and pointed things out while the teenager occasionally texted.

After a while more, we left to get lunch before heading home. We dropped Alex at his grandfather's house and Neo begged to stay over so we let him and drove home. I turned to Karabo as I parked the car with a smirk.

"So... No kids. This day is perfect."

He gave a bashful chuckle punching my chest lightly only to grab my shirt and tug me closer to him I chuckled as our lips met in a much more passionate kiss than any we shared at the park. I really just wanted to pull him closer but the gear was in our way making it impossible so I reluctantly broke away when I needed some air to tell him we should head inside while brushing my thumb over his plump lower lip.

"Let's go," he mumbled before I could say a word.

"Uh-huh."

We climbed out of the car and headed to the door but I paused just when I was about to grab the handle. There seemed to be the lingering scent of one of our pack members that weren't either of my daughters at the door.

'Someone's here?' Karabo linked to me. I shrugged. Didn't our daughters say they were headed to the mall and then that party? I figured they would not be home until much later at night.

I grabbed hold of the handle and twisted it very carefully before pushing the door, it wasn't locked confirming that someone was inside – probably one of our daughters, but the scent did not belong to either of them. I walked into the living room with Karabo behind me, neither of us making a sound. He began to point towards where the scent seemed to head but we both stopped walking when we heard a voice.

"Angel, they're are going to kill me."

I looked at my mate as he narrowed his eyes. We both knew who that was. Angel?

"You're being dramatic, it'll be fine." We followed the voices down the hall and came to a halt just outside the lounge that we usually only used to watch TV.

"Am I being dramatic though? What happened the last time you mentioned liking someone or finding your mate?"

"Um..." she drifted, "It's not the same. They like you, they know you."

"They like me because they know we're friends and our fathers are basically brothers. You think they're going to care about all of that when it comes to you? You should have seen the look Alpha E gave me in training this morning. I thought he was going to rip my head off right there in front of everyone," the boy let out what sounded like a shudder, "They suspect me. Oh god, why did you have to have two Alphas as parents? Not even one."

"Keanu, I have to tell them. It's so weird keeping something from them, they know something's up."

"Let's break up!" he said. I opened my mouth suddenly feeling incredibly offended but he spoke, "Then we don't have to tell them anything."

"Fine." I smiled at her reply.

"No, I didn't mean it," he whined.

"I didn't take it seriously anyway," I looked at Karabo hearing a giggle and his face looked surprised. Nyra didn't giggle. Ever.

"I know you want to tell them, but I'm not ready to die yet." I smiled automatically as I heard Nyra's familiar laugh fill the room.

"Babe, it's –"

"Babe?" I spoke up shocked as I stepped into the room. I watched Nyra immediately straighten up, shoving away from Keanu who she appeared to have been hugging. He just seemed to freeze completely. I wanted so badly to just burst out laughing at how scared he looked but was still too surprised by what she called him.

"Uh – P-Papa. Hi. When..." She glanced towards the opening behind me probably wondering why she had not heard me enter, "Um..." she drifted.

"A little comfortable, aren't we, Keanu? What were you doing?" Karabo moved to appear beside me and leaned against the door frame.

"What –? We – No-Nothing! I wasn't – we weren't –" I shot my mate a glare when he started laughing and Nyra's worry seemed to disappear as she just shook her head at us while Keanu's terror mixed with confusion.

"Since when?" I motioned between them looking at our daughter.

"A few months..." she mumbled.

"Mmm... more than twelve?" I asked.

"Maybe," she mumbled.

"So... this is kind of serious?" I didn't want to ask, so I was glad Karabo did. The pair looked at each other, Keanu still afraid to say a word. "You know it's over when you find your mates, right?" he asked carefully. They both looked like that sentence gutted them and I sighed. I didn't want to say it or accept it, but I felt like I knew.

"I think they've already found their mates." Like Tamia and Ashton. Even though they had not officially found their mates until he turned sixteen since his birthday was before hers, they always knew.

Nyra and Keanu stared at each other almost smiling. Obviously, they hoped I was right.

Karabo seemed as disappointed as I felt. It wasn't that we didn't like Keanu, he was great. But she was our little girl even if she could beat the crap out of him, no one was good enough to be her mate. But there we were. I couldn't seem to understand how she grew up so fast.

No matter how much I didn't want any of my kids to find their mates, it was inevitable. I sighed as I purposefully took a seat right between the pair.

"Papa," Nyra groaned sounding incredibly embarrassed. I looked at Keanu narrowing my eyes.

"We will kill you." I didn't elaborate on why because just saying that made him look even more scared, "Don't you guys have a party to get to?" I asked flatly, for once unable to hide how I felt as the sourness seeped into my voice. Keanu widened his eyes and nodded more than ready to get out of our house.

"Thank you," I clenched my jaw feeling Nyra hug me tightly. I didn't move as both of them got up. Keanu tensed as he greeted Karabo and tried to stay as far away from my mate as he could on the way out which only made Karabo more amused until Nyra tried to greet him with a hug and he frowned down at her.

"Nothing weird. You're not officially mates yet and I don't want to be a grandfather in the next one hundred years." I smiled hearing Nyra laugh and noticed that it made Karabo smile at her too, "You know how to knock him out, right?"

"Yup," she grinned.

"Good. Have fun and make sure your sister stays out of trouble."

"Okay, Daddy." She hugged him again before the pair left and he plopped onto the couch beside me with a heavy sigh. I frowned at the blank TV as I dropped my head onto Karabo's shoulder. Why did the room suddenly feel incredibly empty and the house seem unsettlingly silent?

"I need a drink," he mumbled.

"Same."

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