She stopped moving for a second. “More than that, the whole pack would have suffered. Thank you.”
Alex ran her hand along the back of his head. “Yes, thank you.”
Contentment spread through him. Everything was okay again. Better than okay.
“You’re welcome.” Chris reached up to grab Alex’s hand. “Can you get my cell?”
“You’re going to call someone?” Alex said.
“My parents.”
Alex gazed at him then nodded. “Of course. I’ll be right back.”
It was time they knew about his mates. And he finally felt sure the trouble was over. It was safe to tell them.
Sophia finished taping a bandage onto his leg wound then moved to his back. She had him scoot to the side so she could work on him.
A few minutes later, Alex returned with his clothes and his cell, which had been in the car. She handed him the cell then set about folding the clothes.
“I’m just going to put those on again,” he said. “No need to fold them.”
“No need for them to get creases in the meantime,” Alex said. “Besides, I’ve got nothing better to do.”
To each their own. He could think of a hell of a lot of things better than folding laundry. Like, sitting on a bench doing nothing, for instance. He dialed his parents’ home phone.
“Hi, Chris,” his mom’s voice said.
“Hey, Mom.”
Before he could get another word out, she said, “We haven’t heard from you in a while. Everything okay? We were just talking about coming down this weekend to check on you.”
Typical. They could have checked on him by picking up the phone, but were considering driving several hours instead. “There’s been a lot going on, and I’ll explain it all to you later, but I wanted to give you some good news first.”
He could almost hear Mom holding her breath.
“I found my mates.”
She squealed. No other word for it. Chris pulled the phone away from his ear. No need to have blood coming out of there, too.
Sophia slid a needle into his back. From the nearly instant relief, it must have been a local anesthetic.
“Oh, I can’t wait to meet them!” A couple of male voices talked in the background, not quite loud enough to be understandable. Had to be his dads. “He found his mates!”
Pops came close enough to the phone so Chris could hear him. “When are we going to meet them?”
“I was thinking next weekend,” Chris said. No way would they wait that long, but he had to at least try.
“Nonsense. We can be there for breakfast,” Mom said.
Breakfast? “Like, tomorrow?” When he was still covered in bruises and bandages and hurting so bad he couldn’t move?
“Yes, tomorrow.”
“It’s late, Mom. Why don’t you come down on the weekend. It’s not that much longer to wait.”
She must have covered the phone, because he heard the three of them talking but couldn’t make out the words.
“Hi, son,” Dad said. “We’ll be there for breakfast. Shall we meet at that Weeping Widow restaurant?”
Chris’ eyes met Alex’s, which were a little wide. He shrugged at her, then wished he hadn’t when pain radiated up his back.
“We have some pack business we’ve got to take care of in the next few hours,” Chris said. “I know this’ll seem strange, but could you meet us at the bar? Mary’s Tavern? Or wait a couple of days…”
“We’ll meet you at Mary’s Tavern,” Pops said in the background.
Mom was still squealing excitedly when they hung up.
Alex had her hands on her hips. “We should really go back to the house where you can start to recuperate. Not go to the bar.”
A mischievous feeling grabbed him. “You’re right. Sophia can take me back to the house and you can go to the bar to wait for my parents. Ben’ll join you when he’s through kicking the rogues out of Marysburg.”
Her eyes grew wider. “You want me to meet them…alone?”
He did his best not to bust out laughing. “You did say I should go home to recuperate. And you were completely right.”
“Well.” She shifted from one foot to the other. “Don’t you want to oversee what’s going on tonight? It would be easier to do that from the bar.”
Sophia sat back on her haunches. “Don’t believe him for a second. He won’t go home tonight. He’ll want to be in the middle of everything. The hard part will be keeping him in the bar, because he’ll want to join the hunt.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Is that right?”
He couldn’t stop himself from laughing. Until the pain reminded him why it wasn’t a good idea to move. “Yes, Sophia’s right. I was just teasing you.”
Alex shook her head at him. “I’m going to have to keep my eye on you.”
“That and every other body part,” he said.
She blushed. “Let me know when you’re almost done,” she said to Sophia. “I’ll go drive the car over here so he doesn’t have to walk far.”
“You can do that now,” Sophia said. “I just need to look at that gash on his cheek and then we’re through.”
Alex walked toward the parking lot. Matt, Nick and Ben showed up a few minutes later. “We’ve got everyone organized,” Nick said. “Groups are heading out now. By morning, we’ll make sure every last rogue is gone from Marysburg.”
Kicking loners out of town like this was extreme, but this situation called for extreme measures. And he knew if other pack Alphas heard about it, they’d agree that he’d made the right decision. Jake, too. Stonewall pack had joined with Roanoke to make sure every last one of these rogues was gone.
“I’m going to the bar to monitor things from there,” Chris said. “Check in regularly and let me know how it’s going. Particularly if you run into any snags.”
“Don’t worry.” Ben cracked his knuckles. “We can take care of any snags.”
Nick and Matt laughed.
“All right,” Chris said. “Happy hunting.”
While the other two headed off, Ben hung behind. “You were right, you know. Everything did turn out okay in the end.” He put out his hand as though he was going to touch Chris, then let it drop. “We aren’t my parents. I see that now.”
Chris grabbed his hand. “I’m glad.”
“I’m proud you’re my mate.”
Chapter 20
Warmth spread through Chris. “I’m proud you’re my mate, too.”
As Ben stepped away, Chris said, “Oh, by the way. My parents are coming to meet you two. They’ll be here for breakfast.”
Ben turned back. “Breakfast…tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I called them a few minutes ago and told them.”
“You weren’t kidding about them dropping everything when they heard.”
Chris chuckled.
“All right,” Ben said. “I’ll try to get back by breakfast. Where?”
“The bar.”
“Interesting spot to meet the in-laws.” Ben grinned. “I’ll be there.” He loped off to catch up with the other wolves.
Sophia applied the second and final wing bandage to Chris’ face just as Alex drove up in the car. She went very slowly but it still bumped its way across the uneven ground. He hoped he wouldn’t have to take it into the shop after all this.
Alex stopped by the picnic table and got out.
“Thank you, Sophia,” Chris said.
“No problem. You need help dressing?” she said.
“Alex will help me with that.”
“Of course.” Sophia packed up her bag.
Alex pulled a bag out of the trunk.
“What’s that?” Chris struggled to stand.
“Sit, sit.” Alex plunked the bag down on the seat next to him. “I brought some extra clothes. I thought these might be more comfortable after the fight.” She pulled a pair of sweat pants out of the bag, and then one of his very old, very soft t-shirts.
Oh, wow, did he love he
r. Trying to wear jeans over the injuries in his leg and back would have been painful at the least. He grabbed her wrist. “Thank you.”
Alex smiled. “Let’s get these on you.”
* * *
An hour later, Alex and Chris sat at a table square in the middle of the bar. Shortly after they’d arrived, they’d ordered thick burgers with all the fixin’s. Alex wanted to get as much meat into Chris as she could.
A waitress had just cleared their plates. Mike had already agreed to let the wolves use the bar as their base of operations through the night, and was working on finding wait staff and a cook who could work a few extra hours.
The door to the bar opened. Wolves had been stopping in every few minutes. But when she saw the woman and two men who stepped into the bar, Alex froze.
“What is it?” Chris said. “Who are they?”
Alex couldn’t say anything for a minute. Then the woman saw Alex and cried out, putting her hand to her mouth.
“My parents,” Alex whispered.
Chris put his hand on her back, pushing her up. “Go to them.”
Alex stood, her legs wobbly. Her parents walked toward her slowly. Mom had tears in her eyes. Alex started in their direction.
Why were they here? What did this mean? After all the rejection, she didn’t think she could stand going through it in person. Not again.
A few feet away from them, she stopped. “Hi.”
Mom had been shorter than Alex for quite a few years. She looked even smaller now, and older than Alex remembered. Mom reached out toward Alex’s face, then touched the side of Alex’s arm, finally grabbing her and pulling her into a hug.
Like a dam had broken, both her dads wrapped their arms around her too.
Alex realized she was crying. They still loved her.
Dad pressed his lips to her temple. “We were so worried.”
Mom pulled back enough to look up at her. “Why didn’t you call for so long?”
Alex sniffled. “I was waiting for you to call me.”
Mom smacked her shoulder. “How could we? You changed your phone number.”
“But I left it on your machine. You had it. I figured you didn’t call because you were still mad.”
Papa rubbed the back of Alex’s neck. “We weren’t mad for long, Lexxie. But then we couldn’t find you.”
“There wasn’t any message on the machine,” Dad said.
Mom took a deep breath. “The storm. There was that big storm, remember? We lost power. I thought there was a message on there when I got home that night but after the power came back on it was gone.”
Oh, God. Had this all been because of a stupid power outage? That, and her pride. She could have called sooner, kept trying.
“We hired a private detective but he couldn’t find you,” Papa said. “I’m so glad you called.” He kissed her forehead.
“But that night when I called, you didn’t answer. I thought you were avoiding me.”
Dad rubbed her shoulder. “We were away. Your sister Tara started college at Tulane and we had to drive her down there. Everyone went, and we stayed in a hotel that night on the way back. We got your message the next morning.”
Yet another stupid misunderstanding. And she’d missed so much. “Tara got into Tulane?”
“Yes. She’s thrilled,” Mom said. “But we can catch you up on that later. Is that one of your mates sitting over there?”
Alex turned to see Chris watching them intently. “Yes.” She led them to the table. “This is Chris. Ben isn’t here right now.”
Chris gripped her arm. “Help me stand.”
“No. You’re too injured to stand,” Alex said. “He was just in a challenge. The third in a row. He won again, but he’s very…sore.” He’d hate it if she enumerated his injuries. Even to her parents.
Chris tried to push to his feet.
Dad stepped forward. “None of that. Just by looking at your face, we can see you probably shouldn’t even be sitting.”
Wasn’t that the truth?
Dad put out his hand and Chris reluctantly settled back into the chair before taking it. “We’re so glad to meet you,” Dad said.
“Likewise. Alex means a lot to me,” Chris said. “I’ll do everything in my power to keep her safe and happy, I promise.”
Papa and Mom both shook hands with Chris as well, while Alex pulled up an extra chair so they could all sit.
“Three challenges in a row?” Papa said.
“It was Brett.” Might as well tell them all of it. “It was all a lie, from the beginning. He and this other guy wanted to take over the two packs here in Marysburg. They wanted a woman who was Chris’ type, who could distract him, so they chose me. That’s why Brett approached me.”
Chris put his hand over hers. “Of course, they had no idea she was really my mate. They also underestimated her. As soon as she realized what they were doing, she did the right thing, told me everything. Without her, things could have gone very wrong.”
He had to be kidding. “But they still challenged you. Nothing I did changed that.”
“They were trying to erode my support in the pack. You stopped that cold.” Chris squeezed her hand. “Challenging me was their backup plan. Maybe they suspected it wouldn’t work.”
She looked at his wonderful, beat-up face. “They underestimated you, too. I don’t believe for a second they could have convinced your pack to turn on you. They love you.” She loved him, too. But she didn’t want to tell him for the first time in front of her parents.
The conversation moved on. Dad and Papa wanted details on everything that happened, all the way down to the fights and injuries—particularly Brett’s injuries. Then Alex told them Ben’s parents had passed away, mostly so they wouldn’t say the wrong thing when he was feeling so raw right now.
When Mom found out Chris’ parents were on their way, she got very excited. “Your mother and I can plan the wedding,” she said.
Chris’s eyes met hers and he smirked, probably remembering what she’d said about being happy to visit the justice of the peace. Looked like that wasn’t happening.
All the while, wolves came in and out and called Chris constantly, updating him on the progress as one rogue after another was rounded up and driven out of town.
Alex tried to convince her parents to get a hotel room somewhere and meet them again in the morning, but they wouldn’t leave her. Instead, they tipped the waitress extra to keep the coffee coming, and talked long into the night.
* * *
When Ben entered the bar it was nearly eight o’clock in the morning. When he’d checked in a few hours ago, Chris had told him Alex’s parents had arrived, and Chris’ parents were due any minute.
Ben was pretty sure he looked like he’d been up all night. He needed a shave, a shower, and a clean change of clothes. He wasn’t going to get any of those, so he’d have to make due. He shoved a breath mint in his mouth and straightened his shirt.
Still, he paused by the door. A woman who looked like an older miniature version of Alex stood talking with a taller woman who looked remarkably like Chris. Clearly, Ben was the last to the party.
All four of the fathers sat with Chris talking. Alex stood next to her mother, their arms around each other’s shoulders.
It looked like a beautiful family scene. And it was missing something. What wouldn’t he give to have his parents here, too? Mom would have been so thrilled to meet Alex and Chris. Dad would have jumped in to help Chris, one pack Alpha to another. And Papa could have given Ben tips on being mated to the leader of the pack.
Right at that moment, he felt their absence more acutely than he had for a long time. But he also knew it was all in the past. The challenge Dad had lost, Papa’s murder, Mom’s suicide. It was all in the past. And Chris, Alex and Ben didn’t have to repeat that past. Instead, they could make their own future.
“Ben!” Chris called from across the room.
As Ben walked toward his mates and their parents, he h
eard the women talking about a wedding. One of the dads pulled a chair over for him next to Chris.
Ben didn’t know if he believed in life after death. But if he squinted, he could almost imagine his parents were right here.
The conversation stopped as the fathers looked at him. Still standing, Ben extended his hand to the father in front of him. “I’m Ben.” After he’d been introduced to all of them, he sat down and slid his hand into Chris’. “All done.” Ben squeezed Chris’ hand.
“The rogues, is that what you’re talking about?” one of Chris’ fathers said.
“Yes, sir. We rounded them up and escorted them out of town. They’re all gone.” And they’d better stay gone, too. Ben and the others had made sure to get that message across.
The other man laughed. “You don’t have to call me sir.”
“Sorry. Force of habit. I was in the military for a lot of years.”
“Alex told us your parents died,” said a man with black hair who looked a lot like Alex. “We’re so sorry to hear that.”
“Thank you, sir.” When the man raised an eyebrow, Ben said, “That is, thank you. I know they’d have loved to have been here now.”
Chris squeezed his hand.
The black haired father nodded. “I wish I could have met them. I just want you to know, you can turn to us if you need anything.”
The other three fathers started nodding.
“Anything.”
Ben’s eyes felt a little moist but he blinked it away. He’d gone from lost and alone to having not just mates but twice as many parents as before. He couldn’t ask for more.
* * *
Later, much later, after they trundled the parents off to a hotel and caught a few hours of sleep, Alex woke sandwiched between her mates in Chris’ not-quite-big-enough bed. Chris had insisted they sleep together in spite of his injuries. He hadn’t said it, but she knew he wanted them close, wanted to feel their touch soothing him while he slept. So they’d snuggled together, did their best not to press on any of his wounds, and fallen asleep.
Now she blinked at the ceiling. The late afternoon sun painted patterns on the walls. It took Alex a few minutes to remember why she was sleeping when it was light out. Then she felt Chris’ hand rubbing her thigh.
Fated Mates: The Alpha Shifter Boxed Set (12 Book Bundle) (Insatiable Reads) Page 112
