Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
At night, when we weren’t in that conference room, we were focused on our families. All of us had been. And that was because we all knew that we were getting ready to leave them. For the first time in almost fifteen years, my guards were leaving their families. For the first time in almost fifteen years, Joaquin was going to be leaving on more than just a business trip. And for the first time in almost eleven years, I was leaving my family.
Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley had never been without both me and Joaquin. Hell, they had never been without me. Yeah, OK, they had stayed the night at my parents’ house, and at Grandfather and Lila’s house, but they had never had me leave them like this before.
It was hard for me. Seeing the looks in their eyes and wondering why I was going away. And it wasn’t just Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley that were looking at me like that. Reagan and Rika gave me those looks too. They remembered when I was gone in the underworld. They remember how hard it was when I wasn’t there.
…..
And let us not forget about the person that would never forget it. Talia, the girl that never forgot anything at all. She remembered what it was like to have her mommy leave her. Only back then she could still see me. They all could. They just couldn’t talk to me.
This time, while Joaquin and I were gone, I was going to be calling them every night. All seven of them. I didn’t care if I had to make seven individual phone calls, or three, or one. If they were all together good. If I had to call the quadruplets, then Talia, then the twins I would do just that. I would do whatever I needed to do to make sure that I never ever abandoned them again.
Over the couple of days leading up to when we were all leaving for the investigation, Joaquin and I spent a lot of extra time with the kids. We made some arts and crafts with Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley. Things that they insisted that we take with us 鈥榮o that we 鈥榙idn’t forget about them’. That had been their words. Well, close enough to their words anyway.
“I could never forget about you. You are my babies. All of you. Not just you four either, but Talia, Reagan and Rika as well. All of you are my babies and I love you all so much.” Zachary, Zander and Zayden seemed to be taking things the best of them all. Zaley, though, was a little more sensitive than the boys, and she was a lot more attached to me than the others were.
“Why do you need to go, Mommy?” She crawled into my lap while we were working on the various projects that night.
“Well, Zaley, it’s a little complicated for me to explain at the moment, but I will try my best.” I wasn’t going to tell her everything, that would be wrong, but I thought that she, and the others, deserved to know why we were leaving them here alone. “There are some people that have been hurt by others. And, you know how Mommy and Daddy are very important to the people in our kingdom? Well, being important means I have a lot of responsibilities.”
“You’re our mommy, but you are also their queen.” She looked up at me with her eyes that were so much like my father’s.
“That’s right, sweetheart. And to a lot of them, I am more important than their mommies and daddies are. And just like you and the others need me, they need me too. I have to go there to help them all. I have to make sure that they are safe and well cared for, just like I do with you.” I leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. “I love you. I love all of you guys. And that will never change. However, I have responsibilities. I have things that I need to take care of for the people that look up to us and put their faith and trust in us.”
“I know, Mommy.” She let her head fall to the side then. It thumped against my collarbone as she just snuggled into me. “I know that they need you, Mommy. I do. But I love you and need you too.”
“I know, sweetheart. And that is why I will call you every night. And I will come back as soon as I can. I just have to help with the people that have been hurt. I have to make sure that the bad guys don’t hurt anyone else.”
“Mommy and Daddy are going to be like superheroes. They are going to catch the bad guys and put them in jail. But don’t worry, Zaley, we will be here for you.” Zayden rubbed his sister’s shoulder as he comforted her. “We will protect you and keep you safe. That’s what Zachary, Zander and I are here for.” He truly was a thoughtful and loving brother. And I could see that Zaley was already feeling better. She was lifting her head and smiling at her brother as he rubbed her arm gently.
“I know you will, Zay. You are the sweetest brother ever.”
As I watched, she perked up and hugged him. I was glad that the four of them had each other, that extra special relationship that multiples tended to have. They would be able to help each other and protect each other all the time.
Over the couple of days that we had before we left, Joaquin and I finalized some details about the castle while we were away. Mom, Dad, Lila and Grandfather were all going to be staying in the castle while we were gone. Noah, as Joaquin’s former beta and right hand man, would be staying to run things while we were gone. Gabriel, Vincent, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane and David were all coming with us. Jackson and Rawlynne would be running things from the conference room in the castle, a room that had been effectively renamed the command center for the time being.
I was leaving the running of the castle itself to Roisin, Abigail and Peter. They were the head maid, the head cook and the head butler. They all also worked personally in my royal tower. Everyone would answer to either Noah or them.
As for the protection and care of my children, well I was leaving that mostly up to the grandparents as their attendants. However, they also needed their guards as well. Reagan and Rika were going to be going to college, they were leaving the house and doing things on their own. They wouldn’t be alone though, they were going to have their friends with them and were advised to never be alone at all. I was paranoid about these killings. They weren’t local, yet. But they could be at any time.
As for the quadruplets, they were going to be having a handful of their own soldiers assigned to them. They would have two each at the moment. Zachary was assigned Silas and Ethan. Zander was assigned Gregory and Killian. Zayden had Julius and Annie. And Zaley had Holly and Winston.
Talia was a lot easier to assign soldiers to. She had already been assigned the men that were going to be with her. They had been with her since she was four. Alexio and Rudy. They were the demons that came back with me from the underworld almost eleven years ago. They knew her. They know what to do. And they would never let anything happen to her. And they were also going to be put in charge of the new soldiers that were assigned to guard the others.
I had no qualms about leaving at the moment. I knew that everything would be taken care of and my children would be safe and protected. All that was left now was to tell all of the kids goodbye. Which we did when we hugged them each about a thousand times, kissed every inch of their faces, and promised to call them several times a day while we were gone. I was just sad that we were leaving before the official first day of school for them all. They were going to be without us for it, and that was heartbreaking.
Aside from that though, we were able to head out with considerably less guilt than we would have had before. I just hoped we weren’t gone for too long. The last thing that I needed to come home to was an entirely different life than the one that I had left behind.
Joaquin, Gabriel, Vincent, Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David and I traveled to Wales via a magic door that I had made. However, we also had the plane that we would be using for other things, and for taking all of our luggage over there for us, fly off first thing in the morning. We took an overnight sized bag with us to hold us over until everything else arrived, then, we went on our not so merry way.
****
Rika
****
Well, Mom and Dad left last night. I know that they had to go. I know that it was important and all that. But that doesn’t make it any easier on all of us. At least they hadn’t left for more than a night in over a decade. And Mom hadn’t accompanied Dad on those trips, so she has always been there for us since the little ones were born. Not that the Z’s were little anymore. They were ten going on eleven. Man, time sure does pass before you know it.
They were leaving now, though. And none of us knew when they were going to be back. I know that my brothers and sisters, the younger ones that is, were upset about it. Talia, only fifteen right now, was putting on a brave face through it all. I think that was because she was preparing to pull away from our parents soon. She would be going to college with us next year and then after that, not sure when but eventually, she would be moving to the underworld. If she was overly attached now, then all of that would probably be hard for her. I felt sad whenever I thought about my sister leaving, but I knew that it was something that she chose to do, so I was going to let her make her own decisions.
Today was the first day of school for me and Reagan, and tomorrow was the first day for the other kids. The five of them still attended school in Riviana Falls with all of the other nonhuman kids in the area. That had been where Reagan and I went to school as well, so I had no problem with it, it was a good school after all.
I was glad that tomorrow, I didn’t have classes until later in the morning. It meant that I would be able to take my siblings to school on their first day. At least it wasn’t their first year in school. They were going into fifth and twelfth grades.
…..
Today though, I was a lot more worried about myself. Well, me and Reagan. We were going to be going to class for the first time. We were going to be meeting with a lot of new people. And we were going to be getting a lot of weird looks, just like our mom and dad had. I mean, us and all of our group that were attending the school, were going to be living off of campus. That wasn’t usually allowed for freshmen unless they lived right in town. I guess that even though we were in the next city over, they gave us a pass because our parents always donated money to the school. That and there were a lot of other nonhumans working there.
I spent hours getting myself ready for my first day of class. Despite what my idiot brother might have thought, I was not going to be dating Clovio, and that meant that I was still single and open to new experiences. And because of that, I made sure that my outfit was perfect and my makeup was even better. Oh, and my hair, which was long and hung down to the middle of my back, was styled in a simple yet fun way.
OK, my hair only looked simple, it took me forever to style it so that it was in a high ponytail with a pair of braids going down the side and twisting around the ponytail only to end seamlessly in the ponytail itself. It looked cute though, and that was all that mattered to me.
After getting ready, I went down to have breakfast with everyone before heading off to school. I didn’t drive in with Reagan, he was going with Levi, Luka and Rowan. I was heading into school with Ilana, Lyssa and Alexa. I guess even now, when starting school, we were more interested in being with those that we had always been friends with.
When we got to school, we decided to just walk around a little bit before we had to go to class. Since we were living off of campus, we didn’t get to spend as much time with the other students and that would make it harder for us to spend time with them. To be honest, I really thought that we would all be better off living in the dorms like the rest of them, but it wasn’t what our parents wanted for us.
