Saved By The Alpha
Chapter 14

I felt groggy when I got up the next morning. Even though Eli had only gone for a walk, just as he said, he was equally as unsettled when he got back. He was up and down all night, tossing and turning. Eli had told me he was just having trouble resting, but I was fairly certain he’d fallen asleep a few times, only to be startled awake by a dream — which in turn had me awake too. Asking about it hadn’t gone particularly well, but the silence didn’t seem to help much either.

At some point, I just gave up trying to get back to sleep. Light was filtering through the window, but Eli was finally peaceful. When I crept over to Bella’s room to check on her, she was asleep too. Deciding that shifting the day before had probably taken a lot out of the little girl, I opted to let her sleep. Moving down the stairs, I puttered to the kitchen, rubbing my eyes blearily when I realized Remus was sitting at the kitchen table already.

“Oh,” I said, feeling a bit dumbfounded. I glanced over at the clock on the stove, hoping it was later than I’d thought — but no, the clock read a little after six.

“Good morning,” Remus replied, looking up from a pile of papers spread over the table. “I hope I didn’t wake you up. I wanted to look over some things, and the house was a bit…loud.” He grimaced.

I looked at the time again and squinted. “The boys are up this early?”

He snorted. “I’ve been told it’s a sleep regression. I was trying to help Luna, but after she handed Rory over to me, he wailed for at least thirty minutes straight and kept Ryland awake. She banished me from helping after that.” He sighed. “Only their mother will do today, it seems.”

I gave him an apologetic smile. “Must be the moon or something. I slept like sh!t too. Eli kept having bad dreams.”

“Mmm.” Remus nudged the tray of coffee cups in the center of the table. “I stopped on my way over. I figured it was the least I could do if I was coming over unannounced. Yours is the bottom left. Luna always likes pumpkin spice when it comes out, so I thought you might as well…Texas doesn’t exactly have the class of London’s goods, of course.”

I snorted. “To be honest, compared to the current circumstances, London was a sh!tshow.”

Remus raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

I tried to hide a frown. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Oh well. I can’t take it back now.

I reached for my coffee Remus. “Well, we went over there because his as*sh0le uncle wanted to depose his father, so there was that,” I answered. I was fairly certain Nic had told Remus, but maybe the alpha was being polite. “It felt like the entire family was there the entire time, which was exhausting, and then his mother kept showing up.”

Remus chuckled. “Judging by the look on your face, she was less than a peach.”

“You could say that,” I replied, sipping at my coffee. “I’d call her a pretentious bitch, but whatever works.” Remus snorted, choking a bit on his coffee as I paused. “Don’t tell him I said that. I don’t think they get along, but — she’s still his mother.”

“Noted,” Remus grunted, clearing his throat. “I did not have the pleasure while I was there. Perhaps I wasn’t missing much.”

“Absolutely not.” I rolled my eyes. “Nic downgraded significantly after Fiona.” But then again, some people were just like that. They got with someone who treated them poorly after a bad breakup because they felt like they deserved it. Of course, I was just speculating. That was kind of my job, though, wasn’t it?

I eyed the other shifter. “Honestly, I’m not even sure how Viola and Eli are related — they both have a temper, I guess?”

“Well, if she’s as…” He paused, waving a hand. “…as you say she is, it’s for the best he took more after Nic.”

“Definitely,” I sighed. “I think we’re getting sidetracked.”

Remus shrugged. “We’re just talking,” he said. “From what you’re saying, though, it doesn’t seem out of place for anyone, especially Eli, to be having stress-related dreams. The issue with the pack alone would be rough mentally, much less, issues with family.”

I hummed, nodding. He had a point. “I don’t think it helped that said uncle and his mother’s mate tagged along, either,” I said. I glanced around the room, even though I would have heard if Eli had woken up or Nic had suddenly walked through the front door. I leaned forward, lowering my voice. “I’m not sure what Nic told you, but from the confrontation on the jet, they definitely invited themselves along. I’m really not sure why Nic went along with it. Maybe he thought they’d be less dangerous if he could keep an eye on them here in Texas?”

Remus narrowed his eyes a few degrees, rubbing his chin. “I had gotten the impression that everything wasn’t on the up and up there, even before Eli and Brock nearly got into a fight.” He nodded to the other room.

I snorted. “I haven’t had much interaction with Brock myself, but to me, he just seems like some self-important prick who loses his sh!t whenever he doesn’t get his way. He has a lot of ideas about how Longbow should be run.” I paused. “I think he’s pretty hard on Eli.”

I wasn’t exactly sure to what extent, but Eli seemed to tense whenever the man was in the room. Given how freely Brock had spoken to Nic as if the alpha didn’t have the power to banish him whenever the mood struck, I suspected he was the same way with Eli, too. Why wouldn’t he be?

“Hm,” Remus said, his brows furrowing. “Perhaps I should talk to Eli about it.”

My stomach dropped to my feet. I had thought Remus had been aware of most of this — maybe not the Brock part since he was only in the house for a few minutes, but…

“Please don’t,” I said, leaning forward. “I’ve barely gotten Eli to talk about it myself, and he didn’t tell me not to tell anyone, but…I don’t want him to feel like I’m talking about him behind his back.”

Especially to Remus, of all people. I kept that part to myself, though, not wanting to dig this hole any deeper.

Remus studied me for a moment before he gave a small nod, inclining his head. “Of course,” he replied, looking past me toward the stairs. “I know Eli can be a bit…hard to unravel. It took months for him to warm up to me at all, and it really didn’t improve that much until you got involved.” He looked back at me with a small smile. “Having something to work on together has changed things for the better, I think.”

“Yeah…” That could be said for Eli and me, too, but…I pushed that thought into a box, storing it away for later.

“Look,” Remus said, straightening. “I’m only going to give you one piece of unsolicited advice— sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is to just be there for them. Forcing someone to talk rarely works out, as I’m sure you know. But as long as the room is there for them to talk when they’re ready, you’re leaving the door open for that.”

I frowned, working my jaw. I didn’t really know what to say to that. My first instinct was to argue simply because I hadn’t asked for his opinion, but — I sort of had, hadn’t I? I brought up my concern because I wasn’t sure what else to do at this point.

Remus took advantage of my perplexed silence. “I’m sure this is difficult for you. Being on your own has its pros and its cons — you don’t have to deal with other people and their problems, for better or for worse. But I think you’re doing a good job, for what it’s worth. As I said, I didn’t have much of a relationship with Eli until you came along, and that certainly means something. And Eli…well, I think he’s doing exactly what he needs to be doing. See the world. Meet wolves from different packs and different cultures. In a way, I wish I had been able to do that too, but…”

He trailed off with a shrug. “My father died when I was quite a bit younger. I had to take over the Silver Streak Pack, ready or not. Hopefully, this experience allows Eli to avoid some of the gaffs I made early on when he takes over Longbow someday.”

I rolled all this over in my head. “That makes sense,” I said, taking another sip of my drink. I didn’t want to talk about Eli any longer — he could come downstairs at any moment, after all, and I felt like I might have said too much as it was. My eyes fell to the table, and I pointed to Remus’ pile of papers.

“So, what are you working on? Did Agent Foxrun send some more information over?”

Remus eyed me for a moment. I knew my change of topic could be blunt at best, but after a beat, he glanced down at his papers. I let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m reviewing potential homes for Bella once all this is said and done,” he explained, nodding toward the files.

My heart stuttered, and an unexpected pang echoed through my chest. “Homes for Bella?” I knew, absently, that she’d need a family once we were sure she’d be safe from Project Night Moon, but that had felt impossibly far away until this very moment.

“Mhm,” Remus said, the corners of his mouth pulling down. “Unfortunately, we’ve had no luck at all locating potential family members or even pack members. Seff and I even got Agent Foxrun involved in case there was some sort of protection program or something, but it seems they don’t exist — and if they do, they’ve wiped all traces of themselves clean. I thought it would be best to find her a family within my territory, as we’re forced to assume she was kidnapped from this area.”

“That makes sense,” I said, suddenly feeling quite distant from the scenario. I had wanted more than anything for Bella to be reunited with her parents, no matter how unlikely that seemed. The likelihood that they had survived decreased every day, and I knew it was foolish to even hope, but… I just don’t want her to grow up like I did.

Remus seemed to sense my thoughts and cleared his throat. “She will be placed with a family we screen,” he said. “You can be involved with the final interview process if you’d like.”

“I, uhm.” I shrugged, taking another sip of coffee to try and distract myself. It tasted like swamp water in my mouth. “Yeah. Sure, I guess.”

Remus narrowed his eyes. “Iris…do you want to formally adopt her? I can stop this process right now. I didn’t think you were interested.”

“Oh, no.” I shook my head hard — harder than I needed to. “I mean, I can’t. I don’t have a home. I don’t even have a steady job, not really. I just go from client to client. If no one needs me, well.” I shrugged, suddenly feeling extremely awkward. “That’s that, really.”

“Hmm.” He studied for a moment. “A home is easy enough to remedy,” he said, flipping a hand. “And I will make sure you are paid appropriately when all this is over. Demi Smith was your client, wasn’t she?”

“Yes, she — F**k.” I had forgotten somewhere along the line that I wasn’t going to get paid at all. I’d almost forgotten my client had been killed.

“I’ll pay you,” Remus said, cutting off my train of thought before I could start spiraling. “No, let me correct that. The Silver Streak Pack will pay you. Without your help, who knows how long these traitors would have kept operating within our territory?” He was clearly fighting back a snarl.

I frowned. “You don’t have to,” I said, not wanting Remus to feel pity toward me.

He leveled me with a dark look. “I do not like being indebted or owing favors, Iris Walker,” he said, voice steady. “So, I am going to pay you what your time and effort are worth, do you understand?”

“I…” Even my wolf stirred, slightly taken aback by Remus’ sudden alpha presence. “I understand,” I replied, even if I didn’t like it. “But I’m not doing this for a payday. I just want that to be clear. I’m doing this because it matters.”

Remus nodded and then motioned back toward the papers. “Which is why you would be the best choice for Bella if you were interested. You have a good heart and having someone who loves her is the most important thing.”

I froze up again. Even if Remus did pay me, I still didn’t have an official home. I was single, sort of, and I hadn’t the first clue on how to raise a child. “I don’t know,” I said, l!cking my l!ps. “I can’t think about that right now, anyway. We have to make sure she’s safe from these monsters before anything else.”

Which was true, but it also wasn’t.

Fortunately, Remus just raised a brow and inclined his head. “As you say,” he said, sighing. “I’m hoping we can resolve this quickly, but…there are no guarantees.”

“No, there aren’t,” I said hurriedly. “Let’s check back in with Agent Foxrun to see if she’s learned anything since last night.”