When the Sun meets the Moon

6.

"We were just playing." Jordan interjects.

My savior !

"Hope was telling us about one of her stories." Another kid adds.

"And we were having lunch." Yet another explains showing the empty plates now scattered around.

I can't believe my ears. These kids are more trustworthy than half the people I know.

"Why aren't there any adults here ? Where are your parents ?"

Dude, what about me ?

"Because it's a secret place." Sydney informs him.

I laugh and she smiles brightly at me, the fear disappearing slowly from her eyes.

"Leo, you and Steven bring the kids back to the pack house." Nate instructs Jordans father.

I wave dismissively at loser number 2 at the back as he starts to guide the kids out of the place. Before leaving Leo stops in front of me and thanks me for protecting his child.

"No problem." I shrug awkwardly. I'm not used to people thanking me.

Two other men accompanied by three wolves take the rogues away. Nate orders two wolves to join the scouts and make rounds on the territorys borders to see that there are no other unwanted rogues left hiding somewhere, leaving only Jared and him in the clearing with me.

"So what happened ?" The alpha askes once again.

"We were playing when these two rogues came. They were targeting the kids." I tell them.

"Were there others ?"

"No, just the two." I shake my head. "I would have smelt it if there was anybody else."

"What did they want ?"

"I didn't really take the time to ask." I bite back. "As you probably noticed there were two rogues and more than ten kids in here and none of your fighters." I continue aggravated, my temper rising each passing second.

'Here we go.'

"Where were you ? Huh ? Playing cards ?" I stop to smell at the air around Nate, "Having some fun ?" I ask in utter contempt and see him glare at the implication. "Do you have any idea what would have happened if I hadn't been there. They would be dead. All of them. I thought you tightened the security, I don't even want to know how it was before." I laugh bitterly, feeling myself become hotter.

Jared trots to us and turns back next to us, to communicate more easily. I take no heed of his nakedness, uninterested, not even a little.

"Hope calm down." He says putting a hand on my arm.

"No." I shake him off. "You were late."

"Thank you." Nate says calmly.

"What ?" I ask, not understanding what he's talking about.

"Thank you for protecting them. You are right, we were late." He admits. "This place is actually hard to find. That's no excuse but it didn't help either. You saved them so thank you."

"We will interrogate the rogues and find out what they were after." Jared starts to put a plan in place, organize his thoughts, his strategy. "I'll go ahead." He adds before leaving in a hurry.

We take our time going back. I marvel in the moment. It's almost been a week since I have seen him and I missed him. I find him more handsome than in my souvenirs. All the heat, all the stress of earlier is replaced by butterflies in my stomach.