Chapter 6 Settled #2
Ara let out a rueful sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a scoff, before catching herself and looking around once more. She busied herself with hanging up the bedding, but she beckoned me closer so she didn’t have to raise her voice.
“Well, it was true, they feared for their lives. In their absence, though, Rufus’s lies were able to fester and spread unchecked. He managed to convince a significant portion of the pack that the death had been patricide.”
“Rather than fratricide,” I murmured.
Ara shot me a sideways look. “Yes, but don’t go saying that too loudly. Many of Rufus’s loyalists are still around. They all pledged allegiance to Felix, but you can never be sure…”
I frowned. “But Rufus isn’t Alpha. What happened? Did he die and pass leadership to Felix?”
“You could say that,” Ara said with a cheeky grin.
“Two years back, Felix had finally had enough. He’d bided his time, strengthening alliances and preparing to avenge his father.
When he was confident in the mastery and powers he had amassed, he and Hunter came back and challenged Rufus for leadership of the pack.
They led a small group of shifters from their mother’s pack, and despite being outnumbered, and by some miracle, they defeated Rufus and reclaimed the Redrow name.
Felix became the Alpha leader, and Hunter became his Beta. ”
Her dreamy reminiscence was infectious, and I found myself wishing I could have seen Felix in all his glory. But then something occurred to me.
If Felix had just become Alpha two years ago, then that explained why Hunter hadn’t come for me when I became of age.
My father’s alliance had been made with Felix’s father, not with his uncle.
It was a surprise his uncle hadn’t just abandoned the terms of the treaty when he’d assumed the title.
Guess the Redrows had still needed my pack’s resources.
Now that Felix was Alpha, it seemed he wanted to fulfill the terms laid out by his father, and carry out his legacy.
“Interesting,” I mused under my breath. “And Felix’s mother? What became of her?”
“The Alpha’s mother fell ill shortly after he resumed leadership. She passed a few months after.”
“Oh…” The sigh slipped out before I could catch it, as my chest held just a little tighter around my heart. I was thinking of my own mother. Though I lost her when I was only a child, the loss had never left me. I knew how hollow that absence could feel. “That must’ve been hard on him.”
Ara nodded but didn’t seem eager to dwell on it, and I didn’t want to push.
Instead, I helped her hang the bedding and then we went to the backyard to beat the dust out of some rugs.
I was surprised at how therapeutic the simple, repetitive work ended up being, and I decided to assist Ara more in the future, especially if I got to hit something in the process.
Nice little outlet to get the tension all out of me.
The physical activity felt good—what’s more, it allowed me plenty of time to digest through everything I’d just learned.
If nothing else, this new knowledge certainly put Felix’s temperament into perspective.
No wonder he worked so hard to ensure that all was proceeding smoothly in the pack.
He’d been run out before, so he probably felt the need to prove himself and, in the course of that, to obliterate any would-be coup in its tracks so history wouldn’t repeat itself.
However, there were still some missing pieces that Ara probably couldn’t provide, and I doubted Felix would trust me with such personal information anytime soon. I might have to deal with never knowing, even as my curiosity gnawed away at me.
“Shall we start our visits?” I asked, once we had finished our tasks.
Ara dusted off her palms against each other and took a step back to regard her work; at last, she gave a satisfied nod. “Sure, let’s just get changed. And I am not going to let you carry everything this time.”
The daily visits were probably the biggest surprise after getting married, and a purely positive one at that.
When I’d been an Omega in the SanGraal pack, I’d happily visited with the elders of the pack, delivering them anything they might need.
I’d figured that I wouldn’t be allowed to do that after taking up my new position, but Felix had freely encouraged me to perform the same duties for the elderly members of my new pack.
If I were being optimistic, I’d even say that he had seemed pleasantly surprised by my initiative and willingness to help.
Ara and I changed out of our dirtied clothes then gathered several baskets that we’d prepared in advance.
It was mostly nonperishable staples and linens, but there were a few handpicked treats here and there as well.
Once I familiarized myself with all the tenants of the estate, I hoped I’d be able to pick delightful little gifts tailored to each of their tastes.
For now, I had to rely on Ara’s knowledge.
However, when I mentioned that to her, she laughed.
“Come on, you already know half of them like you’re old friends,” she chuckled through a broad smile, as we made our way down a rustic dirt path that wound between clusters of cottages.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re exaggerating.”
“I’m not,” she said crossly. “And I’m just now realizing that you have somehow managed to carry the majority of the load yet again! Will you please let me serve you? I’m sure Felix will be annoyed if he finds out that his husband is carrying the load while his servant skips merrily along.”
To that, there was only one response. I stuck out my tongue at her, and was rewarded with a very sisterly pout.
I missed that. I missed Nena.
“But honestly, I didn’t even need to remind you that Old Gray has a wicked sweet tooth, or that his wife keeps trying to hide his candy from him.”
“So I got him sugar-free alternatives. Just don’t tell him, I think he’d refuse to eat them on principle.”
“That’s what I mean!” Ara cried. “How do you already know exactly how to handle these wolves? It’s like you have an uncanny gift.”
I snorted. “It’s not a gift to remember that the wolf with one yellow eye likes tougher cuts of meat. That’s just having a good memory, and one yellow eye isn’t easy to forget. Other people are far more gifted, like Felix.”
“If you say so,” Ara grumbled. “But I bet it won’t take you much longer than a month to get to know every member of the pack better than they know their own siblings, spouses, parents, Goddess, probably better than some of them know their own children.”
It had taken Ara several days to warm to me and reveal her true nature.
At first, she had appeared meek to a fault, afraid of ever voicing a contrary opinion.
However, after just a couple afternoons of me butting in and helping with chores regardless of how much she protested, she was quick to reveal her own grumbling side.
Once more, I was struck by just how similar she was to my sister beneath the surface. And similar to Felix too, now that I thought about it. What a peculiar combination of wolves, yet so delightful in practice.
I was smiling absently in fond recollection when I felt Ara nudged me with her elbow. I hadn’t realized, but someone else was coming down the path from the opposite direction, and they were heading right for us.
I recognized the person instantly, though it took me a few moments to remember his name. I had seen him around the house plenty of times in passing, but he was often reporting directly to Felix and couldn’t be bothered to spare me more than a grunt of acknowledgement.
Wyatt. That was his name.
As he drew closer, I realized that he was frowning even more ferociously than he usually did. It was difficult to tell with this pack, as so many of them seemed to be in a perpetually foul mood, but he was definitely giving me a very suspicious look, full of mistrust.
“Hello, Wyatt,” Ara said at my side, her tone having decidedly cooled.
He didn’t acknowledge her, only planted himself right in front of us, folded his arms over his chest, and eyed our bags intently.
“And just what are the two of you up to? Did you get lost?”
My spine stiffened at the snide accusation in his voice, not to mention the implied insult.
“We are making our daily rounds,” I said, a little more sharply than necessary. It was astoundingly easy to look the Beta in the eye. Now that I regularly dealt with Felix in his moods, I found everyone else much easier to handle in comparison.
“Daily rounds?” He frowned. “You mean to say that you’ve been leaving the house each and every day?”
“Yes, Wyatt. Now unless you’re going to help us carry these, please get out of our way,” Ara shot back, her chin tilted up in defiance.
“You can’t mean…” His eyes widened, as if he were truly shocked. “Goddess, just wait until the Alpha hears of this.”
After throwing his hands up in disgust, he stalked past us, muttering something about “security concerns.” He must have grumbled even more loudly once he thought he was out of earshot, because it wasn’t until he passed over a small hill that his belligerent blustering finally faded away.
“What the hell was that all about?” I mused. “I think that’s the first time Wyatt has even spoken two words to me. He’s always just ignored me before.”
Ara laughed as we continued on our way.
“He was probably just surprised to see that you weren’t cowering in your room.
I think that’s what most of the pack expected from you, if I’m being honest,” she said.
Her face turned pensive then, and she fell quiet for a moment before she spoke.
“You know, he might have been assigned to watch you. To track your whereabouts.”
I stopped in my tracks. “You’re kidding me.”
Ara shrugged her shoulders. “That’s what I think judging from his behavior.”
Dread began to churn in my gut, and any moisture in my throat evaporated to dust as soon as I tried to speak. “Assigned? By who?”
To my surprise, Ara laughed again, a sweet, clear sound that bubbled up and echoed through the trees.
She gave me a quizzical look, as if I had just asked her whether the sky was the one above us or beneath us.
“No, I mean Felix probably told him to monitor your whereabouts. To make sure you’re safe. ”
“Oh.”
I would have said more, but I was instantly gripped by the striking mental image of Felix standing at the window, watching me each time I left and returned home.
It was silly, of course, and not just because Felix rarely spent time at the pack house anyway, but for whatever reason, my body shivered at the notion.
But really, I doubted he monitored me because he felt some sliver of care for my wellbeing.
I was more willing to bet that he didn’t trust me, and wanted to make sure that I was behaving.
Whatever the hell that might mean to him.
“I see. That would explain Wyatt’s irritation,” I muttered, trying to drive the distasteful scenario from my mind. “Do you think he’ll be punished for his failure?”
Ara shot me a sideways glance. “Would it bother you if he were?”
I opened my mouth to reply that of course it would bother me if I were the reason for someone else’s punishment, but then I thought better—worse?—of it. “I suppose not. He was quite rude, wasn’t he? Besides, I don’t believe Felix would be cruel in his punishments… would he?”
“Of course not,” Ara answered quickly, though I noticed that she herself was watching me even more closely now.
Goddess knows what she saw, because my innermost feelings must have been plastered plain on my face; I wanted nothing less in that moment than for Ara to ask me why I suspected that Felix might not be particularly cruel.
“What about Hunter?” I asked a little too nonchalantly, trying to change the topic a bit more forcefully this time. “Has there been any word from him?”
“No. No one knows where that silly wolf ran off to,” Ara said with a scowl so fierce that it took me aback.
Only now did I realize that we’d never actually talked about Alpha’s brother before, so I had assumed that she’d be loyal to him.
If anything, she seemed to bristle at the thought of him, more than even I did, and that was saying something.
Maybe I’d let that topic go for now.
As we finished our rounds, the conversation drifted into more familiar, less fraught terrain.
In the companionable silences between topics, I found my thoughts drifting more and more toward Felix, and the idea of him constantly watching over me like the Alpha wolf he was.
Somehow, I didn’t feel as terrified as I should have.
Maybe he did have good intentions, but I would never be able to figure that out if I didn’t get to know him better. Maybe I could start with doing something for him. Lending my efforts to the members of the pack was one thing, but surely there were also ways for me to serve him directly.
If I were extraordinarily lucky, perhaps I could even convince him to sleep on something more comfortable than the floor. If I were extraordinarily bold, maybe I would point out that the bed was big enough for two.
Ara gave me a questioning look as I chuckled quietly to myself at just how ridiculous that idea was. I couldn’t find even one scrawny sliver of remaining hope that Felix would ever get into bed with me.
For any reason.