Asher watched Rooch slowly reach towards his boot and from the back pulled out a-
"Is that a gun?" he hissed. Rooch didn't look at him, his gaze focused on Jacob. Jacob's eyes flicked from Raven, to Asher, to Rooch, and back to Raven.
"Who the hell is that?" demanded Jacob, trying to push the door wider and sticking his foot inside, and Asher grimaced as the slight stench of alcohol caught his nose.
"No, I think the question is who the hell are you and why are you in my house," said none other than Raven. "I have a bottle of pepper spray and I'm not afraid to use it," she warned, hand reaching into her pocket and taking out the tiny bottle.
"Raven I thought I told you the pepper spray was for emergencies-" began Asher, voice rising.
"This is an emergency!! Some wackjob is trying to break into our house!!"
Rooch stepped towards Jacob. "Sir I'm going to need you to leave." he warned, slowly pulling out his gun. Jacob puffed up his chest.
"I'm not going anywhere," he snapped. Raven waved her hand around.
"Ahem. Pepper spray right here. And a gun. And my dad can turn into a wolf and chew your face off," Rooch walked even closer.
"Look- I don't know who you people are but I just need to talk to Asher," pleaded Jacob again. Asher felt his chest tighten.
Suddenly, Rooch had gotten close enough, and pushed Raven away and swung the door open, wrapping his arms around Jacob.
"Got you now, you fucker," he said with a heavy breath. Jacob squawked and flailed his arms, as his face slowly started turning an alarming shade of red.
"I-I- I am an Alpha! You shouldn't be treating me like this! I'll be telling Alpha Wyatt about this-" he rasped. Rooch grunted.
"Sure you will. He was the one who ordered me to protect him from you. I'm going to count to three and on three you're going to get your ass off of this property. You got me?" he threatened. Jacob wheezed, and after a moment nodded.
"One," Jacob tensed.
"Two."
"Three."
Practically throwing Jacob out onto the front lawn, Jacob tumbled down to the ground. Asher watched for a while as Jacob gasped for air, stood up, and turned around.
"Asher. Please. Just- just talk to me sometime okay? Here's my number. Call- call me ok?" taking a crumpled piece of paper out of his jacket pocket Jacob moved forward to hand it to him, but was stopped by Rooch's glare. "I'll... just leave it here instead," he said, setting down the paper.
Turning to leave, Asher and Raven watched his back as he walked out of the driveway. Stopping by their mailbox Jacob turned around.
"And Asher? I can treat you five times better than whoever that is," he said, motioning toward Rooch, whirled around, and promptly climbed in the passenger seat of a sleek black car.
"What a pompous jerkhole," muttered Raven, then turned to Asher. "Are you okay dad? You're pretty shaken up," Asher gasped and every breath in felt painful.
"Fuck- fuck-" he said, over and over again as he noticed his hand was shaking. This time it was Rooch who spoke.
"Asher- listen to my voice. Listen. I need you to breathe in and breathe out with me ok? Here- sit down. Sit. In. Out. Focus on me, just me. In. Out. In. Out."
One breath after another, it felt easier and easier to take in air. Finally, after long, tense moments, Asher looked up.
"I- I'm ok now. Really. It's fine," he insisted. Rooch glanced at him.
"No... it is not. I'm going to call Alpha Wyatt right now. Raven, wait for Minty and food to arrive ok?" walking away from Raven and Asher Rooch pulled out his phone.
"Hey- Wyatt, oh Jeremiah I need to talk to Wyatt. Yes it's about Asher," he said, voice drifting away and down the hallway.
Turning, Asher looked at Raven who still had her pepper spray gripped in her hand. After a moment, she said,
"Hmm. I was really hoping I would get to use my pepper spray," Asher gave a small laugh. "So that's the guy that Asher's protecting you from?" she asked. Asher nodded.
"... yes, he's the alpha of the Litwood pack." Raven looked at him, as if waiting for him to say something else, but Asher remained silent.
"... alright." she said, voice suspicious but let it go instead. "No wonder. Seems like a real jerk. Come on, let's get back to what we were doing."
Taking up the remote Asher glanced at the TV and flicked through a few channels, no longer interested in what he was watching. His stomach churned and it seemed like any appetite he had was gone.
Raven had picked up her book and went back to reading, but she sat facing the door this time. Settling on a channel that was playing some sort of nature documentary, when the really Minty did ring the bell everybody tensed up for a few moments, until Asher went to carefully open the door. Minty pushed herself inside and wrapped her arms around Raven.
"Oh my gosh!! Are you ok?? I heard what happened from mom who was on the phone with Uncle Wyatt," she said with a rush. Raven awkwardly lifted the other girl's arm off of her.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she reassured, shooting a glance at Asher, before lowering her voice and murmuring something to Minty. Minty's eyes widened and she looked at Raven, to Asher, then to Raven again. Then, abruptly, stood up and grabbed Raven by the arm.
"We're just going upstairs!" she said cheerfully, "nothing suspicious happening at all, don't disturb us," and promptly marched Raven up to her room. Asher looked at Rooch who gave him a shrug.
"I dunno, teenage girls I guess. Beats me," he said, and Asher eyed the gun now tucked into his pocket.
"... right. Care to explain why you brought a gun without my permission into my house?" asked Asher, the shock of the situation slowly starting to fade. Rooch winced.
"Look, Wyatt told me to protect you, and that's what I was doing. And a good thing to, since that asshole showed up," he said, picking at some arm hair. Asher sighed, and internally he knew Rooch was right, but he didn't like or approve of it.
"Maybe. But next time just... ask me or at least let me know," he said with a breath. Rooch paused for a few moments, then nodded.
"Alright, and I'm sorry, I really am," he said, and it looked as if he was about to say something, but conveniently just at that moment the doorbell rang.
Rooch tensed up again and motioned for his gun but Asher simply rolled his eyes and mouthed, it's probably the sushi, yet peeked through the peephole just to make sure.
Dinner was served, and the rest of the night passed by uneventfully, when Asher was disturbed from a rather interesting news article about supposed rouge sightings near the town by Raven clearing her throat. He looked up.
"A-hem," she said, with Minty behind her urging her on to do... something. Asher glanced at Raven.
"Ye-s? Is there something you need?" he asked, arching his brow. Raven and Minty both sat down on opposite sides of the kitchen table.
"Minty and I- I mean I am having an intervention with you," she promptly announced. Asher felt a wave of amusement rise through him.
"Oh? And what would this intervention be about?" he asked, humoring the two teenage girls. Raven and Minty glanced at each other for a moment.
"First, Rooch needs to leave. Go do a perimeter sweep or something guard-y," Minty said to Rooch, who was doing a very obvious job of eaves-dropping. He rolled his eyes and held his hands up, with a muttered alright and something about teenage girls, and headed out.
"It's about Jacob-"
"Ass-hat Jacob-"
"-yes ass-hat Jacob," and Asher stilled. Well, here we go, he thought with an internal sigh.
"Mmmm. What about him?"
"Is he my dad?" and the world seemed to come to a stop. Mic-drop, record screech, stop. Asher dropped his phone and fumbled around with it for a few moments, until he spoke again.
In a (rather ridiculously) high voice, he asked, "and why would you say that? Why would you even assume that? He's just a friend, an old roommate, I barely even knew him-" but Raven cut off his rambling by leaning forward and saying,
"I'm not exactly stupid dad, I know that your mate- well ex-mate's name was Jacob, and grandmam and grandad are from the Litwood pack. It's not hard to put two and two together," and Asher blinked. His little girl really was growing up so fast. Sighing he leaned back into his chair.
"Alright. You're... correct. Alpha Jacob Litwood was my mate, and your father. What else do you want to know?"
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Look who's back? Going to go back and fix grammar and rewrite some older chapters. Won't be big changes, just smoother wording etc. etc.