Chapter 69 – Gabriel POV
As I watched Sera, I thought of Ava... of Katie... of the little girl that Chelsea was... fear... she looked down, and we could no longer see her face, but we could observe as her tiny shoulders shook, still there was no sniffling, no crying sounds... she cried silently. That oddly brought an ache to my heart. What you child cried silently? Held in the extra pain to not make a single sound? I hated the answer I came up with, one that was scolded for crying or thought it would be best to not show emotion. I held Chelsea closer, flexing my arms, "Mhmm" I hear and it startles me some.
I pulled my head away looking down, wanting to check her face but her soft delicate hands are now holding onto my shirt and soon Chelsea buried herself, her face into my chest, burrowing as if trying to force her head into my sternum. My chest expanded, "I've got your sweetheart," I whisper softly and she calms, stills. Pride fills me unexpectedly. My voice has the ability to calm her, she feels protected in my arms. I exhale again, tightening my hold. I really regret nothing I did to get her back. She's where she belongs. In my arms. Safe. And I know that I'll do anything to make her happy. Not because she's my mate, but because once again I know inside that making her happy, makes me happy.
Pulling my attention, "Is – is the new Alpha nice?" Sera whispered, I look up as she's ringing her hands on the table in front of her. They're shaking, and she lifts her head to look at the speaker. There's a look of terror and sadness that's there but shouldn't, it's all too much for her young face. But she was brave... they all were... I hoped they knew that.
Despite her sister telling her to leave, she could have stayed, afraid of the unknown, but she chose to come. She was braver than she knew, and I made a note to mention that when she was at the house.
"He – he won't – won't hurt us like – like... Alpha- Alpha M-Monet?" she whispered shuddering, eyes beseeching. Drawn with dark circles that didn't look right, she looked like a racoon.
"Well... I think your new Alpha is kind; his mate is nice as well. They have a daughter, she's only five years old though... but Alpha Gabriel won't hurt you or your sisters..." the voice answered and Sera looked away again.
"Can we stay together? Thana, Sasha and Iliana and I... we can all share a room right? We brought our sleeping bags?" Sera asked again hopeful. Sleeping bags? Really?
"I'm not sure," the voice said and Sera frowned but still nodded. Shaking my head in disbelief I rested back, Chelsea in my arms, I sighed, nothing was going as planned. Despite going with my gut about these girls I had a small dilemma. Where or how to room all the new children? I thought deeply, dropping my head down to Chelsea's hair, inhaling the vanilla and cocoa, instantly soothing my rolling thoughts. Chelsea would wake up and we would decide this together...
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"Alpha... Alpha..." I heard from the same guy in Marx pack, assuming he was talking to Marx, but when Jack began waving his hands and nodded at the same guy, I looked, "Oh... sorry..." I didn't know his name.
"Ralph," he offered.
"Yes?"
"I was just wondering if you were doing this with the boys houses as well?" there was something there in his voice, I cocked my head to the side, "Yes, the homes in Montana and North Carolina," Ralph nodded.
"Good," he replied turning away again looking outside, I flicked my eyes over to Marx... 'Not my story to tell,' was all his face said, I was curious though, "Do you have a relative there in one of either home?"
"No, but Lady Sonia she picks boys from those two houses," he said blankly, who the fuck was... "Lady Sonia?" I asked, not sure I even wanted to really know.
"She's a Domme," again no emotion, but that replied made me realize that I needed to know. I was transporting young men from these homes and Ralph was giving me information on young men I was bringing into my own home and pack. Still all I could see was another way in how the Elders failed, like what I knew already wasn't enough.
"If she gets you young, that's the worst... you have a debt that's impossible to pay..." wait, what the fuck?
"What are you talking about?"
"She trains young men into submissives... not just werewolves though..." he blanched, "the Elders found out, and let her stop 'adopting' boys, then she started sending Rogues to adopt for a price. Then they deliver boys over to her. Some can be bought; many others work in her club. You're suffering in those wolf homes, the option she gives you sounds good. You don't know what you're really signing up for..." the Elders actually stopped something?
"Why not just leave?"
"Sonia is half witch-" I started laughing. What the hell? Honestly how had all this shit happened? With Chelsea? With Angel? Ralph? Rainy? Sera? What have the Elders been doing all this time I asked myself once again... I've had Chelsea and uncovered all this bullshit in only three months time, shit that's been going on right under their nose.
Forget vampires and Hunters... our own kind were viciously, physically, mentally and emotionally screwing each other over. It was one thing to be strong, serious and strict, as an Alpha but a whole other thing to actually condone such violence and blatant abuse... ruling with fear, then it hit me, "How do you know all this?"
"I was 14 when my parents died in an attack, it was just my little brother and I, he was three and he was sick... we had no money so I went with her stupidly begged her to take him along as well. Had me until I turned twenty... I worked off my debt in her club... my little brothers' debt as well. Rich and I left her grasps when he was eight years old; we've been with Alpha Marx since then, for three years."
"So you're one of the lucky-" I stopped abruptly when his blank face turned murderous.
"I'm still learning to shift age," he spat. I was confused; and none of Marx men would look me in the eyes.
"I don't..." I started to tell Ralph, "Sonia forces you to shift, then beats the shit out of you continuously... it goes on until she can't force you to shift because you don't want what she unleashes after," again void of any emotion. It's as if he were giving a seminar on statistics to a room full of suited up business men, "I'm telling you because... many in the home won't be able to shift, they have wolves but cannot shift... they're too afraid to. Also... Lady Sonia, she takes boys around age 12 and if they aren't working out for her, she returns those two or three years later, she would say that they had behavior problems..." I breathed harshly, it changed nothing I would still bring them to my pack, but it would surely change how things were handled in many cases. We would need more than a handful of professionals, men and women like my mother. I couldn't help think that maybe I bit off more than I could chew...
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Chelsea... baby... can you wake up? I thought over the link, wanting to see those green eyes of hers, but not wanting to rush her. The silence dragged on until Angel's whimpering got louder, "Her contractions are about 20 minutes apart Gabriel," Nonno said from the spot besides her, as though I'd know what he meant.
Hurt... Mate... Rusty... Home... Angel whined and I caught fleeting thoughts and images, mostly all of Russell... wondering if we were going to him... on the one hand she was afraid to be surrounded by so many men, but was slightly placated be Declan and how I was holding and caring for Chelsea. Declan, though he calmed her, it was nothing to how Russell could I suspected.
Tuning everyone out I listened, focused only on Angel, checking her thoughts, heard her wolf trying to calm the human in her, but Angel's thoughts were starting to scatter.
"Gabriel!" Nonno said with a hint of worry, listening again I thought of something.
"Declan, call Russell, and - just tell him we can't calm her but nothing else," I said, wishing Chelsea would wake; she would be able to calm Angel. I really had no idea how to handle this situation but since I could see her thoughts I could see him time and time again calming her in bouts of panic. It was the most promising assumption, that he could calm her now, in this instant. Declan quickly dialed. Only one ring before Russell answered, groaning. I didn't understand until he muttered, 'oh god that hurts,' and I could only smile thinking he was going to feel the pain of Angel's delivery.
"Did you find her!?" he demanded to know after, Russell seemed worried.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Declan answered dryly.
"No. No. A man, a few of them stopped by, said that she's pregnant," Russell whispered, I could hear his distress, but who came to him? We hadn't left any men behind, a heart started to race, listening, focusing I could tell it was Jack.
"Is – is she? Is the baby okay? Is Angel okay?" Russell questioned rapidly, his voice not sounding like the man who I had just met hours earlier; he seemed to actually care about Angel.
"No, that's why I'm calling... she – she's not in a good place Russ, we thought maybe it would calm her if she heard your voice?" Declan asked, I had the idea but I really wasn't holding my breath.
"Of course!" Russell said eagerly. Oh. What the hell? Where was the man that I met only a few hours ago? Had he gotten his head on straight? Catalena knocked some sense into his head?
"Russell baby... who's on the phone??" I heard Amara in the background, voiding my earlier thoughts and hopes. Angel hearing the same thing growled.
"Hold on," Declan pushed the phone right near Angel on the floor, "Go head Russ," Declan moved away but like myself I knew he was listening to what Russell would say.
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"Angel honey?" he crooned sweetly and Angel actually whimpered.
"Oh, sweet girl, you're okay... you're okay," Zeroing in on the phone I could tell Declan hadn't muted the incoming sounds from our end. I could get angry though, because while hearing Russell at first made Angels' heart rush faster, the more he talked, the calmer – for someone in her condition – her heart became. Until Nonno, gave me an encouraging smile and nod. For the next thirty minutes, or so minutes we heard Russell keeping Angel calm, as she experienced her contractions, he would groan aloud as well. Once, smiling Declan asked him what was wrong, Russell replying that he must have ate something off. When the bus stopped at Chelsea and my gate to get onto our property I sighed happily, but Declan seemed off.
"Russell," he picked the phone from the ground, "we're about to move Angel-"
"Tell me where you are! I'll come – we will come right away! She – she needs me Dec; I want – no – I need to be there!" Russell said and Declan didn't even check with me before answering, his face screwed up angrily.
"Russell... I can't tell you what to do," Declan started solemnly, "But I will tell you this... you cannot have both Angel and Amara. Your future, it can only have one of them. If – if Angel were like you... maybe you could have your kid and a family with Amara and Sana. I would be able to tell you where we are, where she is and you could move there. Be with Amara and still see your child grow up. However. That. Will. Never. Happen!" He gritted.
"I will not let you do that to Angel! I can't, won't sit by and watch while you hurt her, as it is right now, your whole family needs to move, get new identities and just disappear. The people that came for her, they will come again and you guys need to be gone when that happens, they will kill you, but not after using you all as bait," Declan paused, resting his head on his palm, sighing, "Just do as Catalena says!"
"Declan-" Russell tried to interrupt, Declan wasn't having it.
"Stop! The only way you can have them both around, is if you don't pursue any type of relationship with Amara. Angel was always your priority, but since we've been back, you've behaved as though her feelings don't matter. What she can't talk and speak to herself therefore she has no feelings? You pushed her aside for someone so selfish she can't see how important your bond, your relationship with Angel is? Using Sana as some type of pawn!" Declan spat; huh... he saw things my way...
Russell did a little pathetic human growl, "She doesn't do-"
"Yes. She. Does.... She's practically been encouraging, her child to call you 'daddy,' it's been four months alone... eight since you've been back. She told that child about you, more than anyone in the family... she lived in the states and since you weren't back she never returned only checking in on your through them. You go home and she rushes-"
"She came back because Cody is sick!" Russell shouted.
"God! Russ... tell me I'm wrong, didn't Sana tell you not two weeks in, that her 'momma loves you like gramma Rachel loves grampa Miah?'?"
"Sana is innocent in all this-"
"Exactly! Where do you think she gets those ideas from then? You may act like her father... but Amara adopted her alone. But she returned with the idea that you would raise Sana together. Why? Because she can't have children, but you can Russell... in fact you're having th – nevermind! But Angel... you never told them about her, I asked you not too, to keep her safe... they told her you were alone... because you told them you were alone. Amara expected a single man to return, not you with Angel!"
"She's understood about the situation!" Russell defended Amara, Declan stood from his seat pacing, looking around wildly, while I sat with Chelsea in my arms.
Declan began laughing humorlessly, "How many times has Amara invited you and Angel to her home? How many times have you taken Sana to the park and brought Angel along? Anything Amara suggests means you leave Angel with Catalena. Why can Cody be around Angel but not Sana? Everyone welcomed Angel, but Amara just tolerates her? DO you remember what she was like when we first found her? All the standards and goals she's met... your family... believe she can be more... that she can grow, even your father... the pride he had when he heard the whole story... they all did. But not Amara," silence. Thank fuck! Russell was finally silent, having no comeback to Declans words.
"Look... I've been away since you've returned to Port Huron but I went looking for someone, the person that made it hard for Angel to speak... she just whimpered Russell... think about that... and while you're thinking about that, think about this. Amara's been making you choose between Sana, her and Angel. She's made it quite clear that you had to pick, and now I'm tell you flat out that you have to pick. I'm not gonna hide behind a child, or trick you. Straight out Russell... Angel or Amara?-" Declan stopped abruptly as the bus came to a stop right in front of the house.
"Look, I've got to go, call me when you figure out what the hell you want to do," Declan said, Russell cleared his throat, "Keep me updated?" Russell whispered, I growled, he was probably around Amara.
"Yeah," Declan answered distractedly, hung up and then stopped pacing,
"We can't stay here!" Declan said turning to me as the doors opened and Nonno lifted Angel.
I agree... Max commented.
"Why?" I asked them both.
"You just killed a pack-"
"Not a whole pack," I blurted out, and its back to idiotic Max snorted.
"This place is going to be attacked," Declan answered pointing at Chelsea and my home, just as Ava beckoned, "PaaaPaaaa!" she shrieked happily.