Chapter 7 - Rael
Rael liked to have his coffee at six in the morning.
He liked it with one cube of sugar and two drops of milk.
He was usually up by five thirty a.m., went on a quick run, showered, and had his usual morning coffee.
He'd had this routine for as long as he'd lived alone, which was the entirety of his adult life, and he liked it.
But since Alanis started living in his house at his pack, things had changed.
On the third morning, he came downstairs a few minutes past six to find Alanis already at the counter with her back to him, wearing one of his shirts that hit her mid-thigh, revealing creamy smooth skin, which he would very much like to have wrapped around his face, and a pair of leggings that belonged to his sister, which he’d left in the dresser.
Alanis turned around, having heard his footsteps—he realized she was much more observant than he thought.
She held out a mug without a word, and Rael silently took it, nodding in appreciation.
Then, she went back to whatever she was reading at the table—a book she took from his bookshelf. He quietly sat across from her and drank his coffee in surprisingly comfortable silence. It was like they were a couple.
Alanis ate at irregular intervals. Sometimes, Rael would wake up in the middle of the night and find her eating a snack.
Sometimes, she had nothing but a sandwich all day.
He could barely keep up. She rearranged the things on the kitchen counter, and when he moved them back, she did it again.
She was also mapping out all exits in the house.
He noticed because he was watching her. He suspected that she was keeping something from him.
He hadn’t figured it out yet, but she was wound too tight to let anything slip, and he was not going to push her on it.
She had every reason not to trust him yet, and forcing information from someone who wasn't ready to give it was a bad idea. He was good at waiting.
He also found out just how much Alanis loved to argue.
The other day, they were arguing about whether to keep the blinds in the room open or closed at night, and she firmly held her position about keeping them open.
Something about natural light. It was the opposite of what Rael wanted.
But he always found himself looking forward to their next argument, and his wolf had no restraint.
His wolf was clear about what it wanted, but Rael knew that Alanis wasn’t ready for the kind of intimacy that happened after bonding. But he could admit it was hard watching her prance around the house, resisting the urge to sink his cock inside her.
***
The next day, she came downstairs to find him at the table with files strewn around. They were files on his mission.
“So, you’ve really been on this for almost a year.” She stated after taking a seat at the table and going through the files for the past thirty minutes.
"Yes."
"And your pack was being framed for it the whole time."
"Yes."
"That's why you went to the auction, because you needed evidence of who was actually running it to clear your pack's name."
"Yes."
She pressed her tongue against her cheek and told him, “You’re good, but you missed a layer in the third shell company chain.”
"Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
***
His brothers arrived a week later. He was in the yard when they pulled up with two trucks coming from the south.
Silas—his older brother and the Alpha and ruler of the pack—was the first to step out.
His dark blonde hair shimmered under the sunlight.
Elle, his mate, and Luna followed behind him with a small smile on her face.
Silas looked at him the way he usually looked at things when he had several questions and was deciding which one to lead with.
But he was also Rael's brother, which meant the look he was giving Rael right now was less Alpha-to-pack and more older-brother-to-younger-brother-who-has-done-something-requiring-explanation.
He walked forward and gripped Rael’s shoulder. “Brother. We need to talk.”
Rael nodded and watched as Javi climbed out of the second truck with their sister, Sara, and Elle’s adopted brother—August Jones, behind them. Javi was the youngest Weston brother. His hair was a light shade of blonde, almost white, and his dark blue eyes were always full of mischief and rage.
"You blew the venue," Javi said as he walked closer.
"Yes."
"Tell me you at least got the coordinator."
"No."
"Rael. We've been at this for a year. A year. That auction was the closest we've been to—"
"I know what it was." He gritted out. "I was there."
"Then why—"
"Because there were women in a holding area who were about to be handed to buyers." He looked at his brother. "That's why."
Javi held his gaze for a moment, then exhaled and looked at the sky. He wasn't wrong to be frustrated. Rael understood the consequences of his actions.
August Jones—dark-haired, dark-eyed, came to stand near Silas.
He and Rael exchanged a nod. Sara attacked him with a bear hug.
“Oh, thank goodness. You’re alright.” She stepped back and looked at him.
"You blew the auction and went off the grid for days after sending that text to Silas. What were you thinking?”
"That," Elle said from behind her, "is probably what we're about to find out."
Elle Jones had a gift. She could detect auction locations, read the energy signature of events that had occurred in spaces, see visions, and provide them with valuable information. But the auction location Rael found was too far to her gift to work. “Tell us what you found, Rael."
Rael led them to the house and laid it all out on the kitchen table: the surveillance timeline, the venue details, the partial intelligence he'd collected before he'd moved on to the venue. He told them what he'd seen, what he'd done, what he'd lost.
"The women you freed," Silas said when he'd finished. "Where are they now?
"Free.”
Silas nodded. "And your cover?”
"Burned.”
"So…we've lost the buyer identity you built."
"Yes."
Javi pushed back from the table. "One year’s worth of work down the drain.”
"I know.”
"We still don't have the coordinator. We don't have the location chain. The pack is still being framed, and we have no—"
"I said, I fucking know Javi! I messed up. I know! Now, shut the hell up.”
The room went silent. It was unlike Rael to lose his cool. But it was also unlike him to ruin a mission. He was going crazy.
"You said there was something else,” Silas asked.
"There is," he said, then looked at the stairs. Alanis was standing at the bottom.
She had come down quietly or had been there for some time, deciding whether to make her presence known, which was equally likely, given what he'd observed of how she moved through spaces. His brothers, sister, Elle, and August followed his gaze.
Silas's expression was unreadable, which was its default setting. Javi looked at her and then at Rael. August went still. Sara's eyes moved between Alanis and Rael, while Elle was smiling.
"You were going to tell them about me, right?”
"Yes, I was.”
"Good." She stood and walked down the stairs. "Then introduce me properly. We have a lot to talk about.”