Alpha Mates

Chapter 64

"What do we have here?" I say walking in making both their heads snap up to me.

"Just helping him out." He says proudly as the boy throws his head back to look at Julian who makes a silly face that makes Levi's lips twitch slightly into a wavy smile before disappearing.

"Well I got some clothes here for you, they're not new but we'll buy you some tomorrow or something." I say throwing them his way, he catches it with ease. He gets up, dragging the towel around his waist before running into the bathroom to change. "Don't get attached Julian." I say watching Julian who's eyes were filled with an unfamiliar joy as he looked at the boy run away.

"I know." He mumbles fiddling with his fingers, before I can say anything else, Levi returns heading straight for Julian who picks him up without hesitation. I'd be lying if I said the sight of Julian with Levi on his hip wasn't making my heart beat a bit faster, he seemed to fit perfectly in the picture my mind was painting of the two of them.

"Okay, what type of pizza do you want?" I ask as Julian sets him on a high stool in the kitchen while we stand on both sides with a tablet in front of the three of us, searching online for a pizza recipe. He just shrugs making me frown, I got that he was closed off after what he'd been through, but I mean speak for food at least. "Meat or veggie?"

"Me..veggie." He says making Julian smile widely. He was going to say meat but changed when he saw the disappointment in Julian's eyes.

"We can make both." I say making his eyes light up, I give him a slight nod before we find some recipes and start taking out the ingredients. We follow the recipe to the T giving Levi the reigns over rubbing out the dough, that wasn't a good idea really because he just punched it to death, Julian took it away from him after that. We let him do the toppings which he did well, coating the meat pizza with every meat known to man. We pop them in before cleaning up while he watches us intently, he didn't talk at all through the whole thing but I could tell he was having a good time.

"Can you tell us your age?" Julian asks sitting besides the boy as I wash up the last few dishes. He holds up his hand with all fingers to show that he was five which we'd already expected. Julian was gushing over the boy while I felt my rage rising at his answer, I was taken at seven not five. The whole thing must've been ten times as scary for him, no wonder he was basically mute, I had a strong urge to go take out my frustrations on the man who caused it but right now these two were more important than Reon. We pull out our pizzas not too long after with proud smiles as we cut them up into equal slices before moving to our usual table, but this time we had a guest with us.

"Well kid, dig in." I say as I pull out a slice for myself, he watches us eat the food for a while before stretching over the table and taking a slice, he devours it within second before moving onto the next one. I get him a cup of orange juice, a bit scared that he'd choke at the rate he was going. His stomach must've been a black hole because he only stopped eating when there were no more slices, Julian and I had about three each while he gobbled the rest up. He sat back rubbing his stomach with a faint smile that warmed my heart, Julian and I leave him for a second to clean up.

When we return, he's sleeping soundly in the chair almost falling out, I pick him up without thinking as I cradle the small boy in my arms with Julian watching him right next to me. We don't say a word as we take him to the room and lay him down in the large bed, tucking him in before leaving him making sure to leave the door open incase of an emergency. We stay in silence as we lie down in our own bed, we were thinking the same thing but none of us were brave enough to say it, I pull Julian against my body as we slowly are overtaken by the exhaustion that'd been knocking on our door for the whole day.

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"All of them?" I ask in disbelief looking up at Beckett and Emitt who were seated on the study couch while Julian was scrolling through the laptop with me standing behind him.