Teaghan

🔹 Fourteen 🔹

After shifting back, Teaghan could only stare warily at her Alpha. She didn't know what to say or do after such an honor. Her Alpha had given her something no words could ever amount to. He'd given her his utmost respect.

"Teaghan," Alpha Steve began. He looked at her hesitantly, almost as if he were afraid of what she would say or do. "I owe you an enormous apology and a debt that I don't believe I'll ever be able to repay."

Teaghan, not having words kept quiet. She had wanted this, she had wanted some form of praise from her Alpha. An Alpha who had been like a second father to her as was Maria like a second mother.

She loved them and when Maria had passed, she had grieved just as she had when her own mother died. It hurt her even more, made her feel betrayed when Alpha Steve had basically turned his back on them, on her when she needed him.

Buried emotions rose. Teaghan's eyes misted and she refused to fight the feeling. She was allowed to cry damn it. She was allowed to bury herself in all the feelings of hurt that she at the time hadn't allowed herself to feel.

She had too much to do, to think about to feel such things at the time. She was just barely keeping her head above water and she had to make sure the pack was safe for Cecily.

"I have no excuses. I didn't realize that I had buried myself so deep inside as I did. I only wanted to escape the pain of losing Maria that I somehow had blocked everything outside out."

There was a heavy regret tinging Alpha Steve's voice, his eyes clouding with emotions. "Maria loved you and Cecily like you were her own children. When you came to us, she was so happy. We weren't able to have more children and she had always wanted a daughter. Then she got two."

Hanging his head, he admitted, "I have let you down. I've let the pack down and while I had been neglecting everyone to be in my own little world of pity you've been the packs' rock."

Teaghan could feel the tears sliding down her cheeks but didn't do anything to hide them, she didn't care. Having Reeve behind her, his hand on the center of her back and his thumb lightly making comforting circles.

"Alpha Reeve is a lucky man to have you as a mate. I'm proud of you Teaghan Reed and I thank you for watching out for our home."

The words washed over her like a warm blanket, lifting the weight she had felt for the past two years from her shoulders. Her head hung, she let out her emotions. She sobbed, non-to-quietly, while Reeve gathered her into his arms.

"Let's get you back and cleaned up. Your sister was going crazy when we left so I need to make sure my men still have their eyes," Reeve teased.

Teaghan snorted unladylike, then giggled because of it. She burrowed her face into the crook of her mate's shoulder and sighed, "I was so afraid."

"I was too," Reeve admitted quietly his arms tightening around her.

"There's so much I want to say and I will, but let's get back so I can assure Cece that I'm alive and well or else she'll be out here searching herself."

"I never got the story about the rogues you fought before," Reeve stated, curious. "You cut your sister off before she could finish whatever she had been saying."

Teaghan frowned, then sighed when she remembered. It was the first day he'd been here and though only a week had passed it seemed so long ago with everything that had happened.

"It isn't pleasant. I had been patrolling the borders and I was jumped. One, maybe two rogues I can handle depending on their size and their own strength, usually anyways." She cringed remembering.

"I was so tired that day, I had been up most of the night patrolling, the day before training. It was dark and the wind wasn't in my favor. I got jumped. I wasn't prepared and I was badly injured."

Teaghan unconsciously played with the collar of Reeve shirt while she told the story of how she almost died, "according to Cece, I was bleeding out. I don't remember much honestly. I woke up two days later," just as she finished they walked into the clearing.

She heard an unmistakable gasp after she'd finished her story and looked over Reeve's shoulder at her Alpha. His eyes were wide, ashamed and haunted by regret.

She tried to smile but knew it probably looked like a grimace more than anything reassuring. "I survived," she said to him and to herself. How many times would she get lucky though?

"Teaghan!"

Teaghan turned in Reeve's arms and smiled to Cecily as she ran toward her. Reeve put her down just before Cecily threw her arms around her.

"Oh thank you, thank you! If you continue to scare me like this, I won't survive to my seventeenth birthday!"

Tears wetted the front of Teaghans shirt and she wrapped her arms around her sister and just held her a small smile on her face. How could her sister think she'd leave her here alone?

Never. Teaghan would never leave her family behind. She would fight with everything in her to make sure that never happened. She would just have to be smarter.

"I'm okay, Cece. I promise." After a few moments, Cecily finally got ahold of herself and moved away.

"I will hold you to that," she lifter her face showing off her watery smile. Casually, almost too innocently, Cecily began to back away towards the house. "Besides, you and Reeve need to make me an aunt!" She shouted and then took off running.

Teaghans face went nuclear. Her eyes widened and she could see Joshua, Troy, Sean, Mark, and Gael smirking at her. She didn't even want to turn around and see what Reeve himself looked like and oh gosh, her Alpha!

She was going to kill her sister! She squeaked in surprise when she felt someone's hand land on her shoulder, squeezing gently, shyly she looked up and saw the bright smile of her Alpha.

"I wouldn't mind that so much myself," he said too calmly.

Teaghan's eyes widened even more as she saw the teasing glint in his brown eyes.

"Speaking of all of that, you will be leaving with Alpha Reeve won't you?" Her Alpha's innocent question brought up a lot of unresolved topics between her and her mate.

She needed to tell him her feelings, she needed to let him know a lot of things and she needed to do it soon judging off of the excited, yet, hesitant look he was giving her.

She did that. She made him have doubts about what her feelings were when it came to him all because she had been avoiding him. "I will have to speak with Reeve about it."

Seeming to get it, Alpha Steve nodded and gave her shoulder a comforting pat before stepping away. "I have a son to deal with and the men to work," his announcement made Teaghan's last bit of uncertainty disappear.

The Reed Pack would be fine without her and for once, she needed to do something that she knew would make her happy. Having Reeve as a mate, that made her happy and she was going to let him know it, right now.