Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
“Thank you, dear. You have been a great help,” Bell said with a cheerful smile.
Ellie nodded and walked away.
“See?” Bell said, looking back at Peter with a wide grin. “You have always overworked yourself.”
Peter looked annoyed at Bell but couldn’t deny what she was saying.
“Fine,” he sighed. “You’re right. I have always tried to keep myself busy.”
“And…. What’s changed….?” Bell asked teasingly.
Peter didn’t respond.
“Peter…” Bell called to him, but he remained quiet, looking only at his charts.
Bell pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. She stared at him for a long time, but still, he didn’t even look at her.
“Peter…. Peter….” She called again.
When he did not react, she crossed her arms and raised a brow.
“All right,” she said with an exasperated sigh, “you forced me to do this.”
Peter furrowed his brows, wondering what she could possibly mean.
Bell took a deep breath.
“Peter! Peter! Peter! Peter! Peter! Peter! Peter! Peter! Pete–!” Bell shouted his name in rapid succession until he finally cut her off.
“All right!” Peter shouted, looking up at her with more than a small amount of annoyance. “What are you, five?”
Bell stuck her tongue out before replying to him.
“Spill,” she said.
Peter took a deep breath and turned his attention to her.
“If you must know,” he sighed. “Myka and I have agreed that we need to make more time for each other in our days. Especially now.”
Bell smiled.
“Why now?” she asked. “I mean, it’s great either way, but Myka has been here for a few months, and you didn’t change your ways. So, what finally got you to wake up?”
Peter smiled and looked up at her.
“Myka and I talked about it, and we decided to adopt Sadie and Stefan,” he said.
Bell gasped excitedly.
“Are you serious!” she shouted.
Peter laughed and nodded. Bell jumped at him, hugging him tightly with a delighted laugh. Then she gasped and pulled away.
“Is that why you wanted my house?” she asked. “For the extra room?”
Peter nodded.
“Oh! That is so great! Oh, Peter… I am so happy for you and for Sadie and Stefan.”
They smiled happily together for a moment when Bell had another thought.
“Wait,” she said, “but if you need my house before you can all be together, why are you hurrying to clear your schedule? You know I still have a few more weeks at least before I leave….”
Peter looked away, and Bell saw a blush creeping onto the tops of his ears. She bit her bottom lip to keep from giggling as she understood the reason for the rush.
“Because we… want to…” he whispered. Then quickly added. “Once we move back home, Sadie will be coming to live with us, so we just wanted to take a little time…for ourselves… first.”
Inside, Bell giggled and squealed like a schoolgirl. She hopped and jumped and danced around Peter as she poked fun at him until he was beet red and fuming with embarrassment. But externally, she took a breath and smiled at him.
“That’s an excellent plan,” she said.
Peter furrowed his brow and looked up at her. He expected her to mock him and poke at him until he was so embarrassed he would need to run off to hide until he could calm down.
“I’m really happy for you, Peter,” Bell said with a genuine and kind smile. “You and Myka deserve your time together. Your life with Sadie and Stefan will be great, but the precious moments that the two of you get to share now are important too.”
Peter was both touched and dumbfounded by her words. He stood up and put the back of his hand to her forehead, feeling for a temperature.
“Are you all right?” he asked. “Are you sick? Did you hit your head?”
“Shut up!” she laughed, pushing his hand away. “I am just saying that I am glad that you are happy. It’s really great to see you like this.”
Peter laughed and then smiled at her.
“Thank you,” he said. “I really am, and I appreciate you saying that.”
Myka, too, needed to make time for Peter.
He talked with Alice to let her know that he would be available if she needed him but that he would not be coming around every day. She had laughed at him and told him he worried too much, assuring him she was okay.
While he was glad, he was still worried and made sure to arrange for Stefan and Sadie to continue to visit her for lunch most days, even if he could not.
As he looked at his schedule, Myka wasn’t willing to lessen his time with the children. They had all made excellent progress in coming out of their shells and being more willing to talk with others. However, he was concerned that if he was suddenly less available, it would set some of them back or make them feel abandoned.
This left only one more area where he could free up some of his time.
In truth, he had been thinking about it for a while, even before he and Peter had discussed making time for each other.
Myka wanted to help Selene. He wanted to give her hope and find some solid leads on how they might be able to bring Alexander back. He truly believed it was possible and that Alexander wasn’t dead. But unfortunately, he hadn’t found anything to prove that, or that might lead to an answer.
He spent hours every day hiking around the mountain near the portal, listening for even the slightest change. Selene questioned him over and over, but he was never able to hear anything different. He spent hours looking through old files from Spring and history books from Winter. He found many stories about the gates, but they were all just stories or theories on how the fae used them.
More and more, Selene had been pushing to go to Spring, but every report that came in said it wasn’t safe. As much as he wanted to help her, he didn’t think risking their lives on a gamble was right.
It was time for Myka to pull away from the search. But, unfortunately, there wasn’t much more he could do to help her right now.
He knocked at the door and then opened it. She rarely answered but always left it open for him to come in.
It was still early, so he wasn’t surprised to see Selene sitting in the living room with several maps on the coffee table. She would search for a route into Spring and then look again through the history books before heading up to the mountain to begin the exact search she performed daily.
Selene looked up from the maps, her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair was disheveled. Myka looked at the side table and saw three mugs of coffee. It was obvious that she hadn’t been sleeping.
“Myka!” she called out. “I’m glad you’re here… look, I think I may have found a way in!”
Selene shoved the maps in his direction, knocking over several papers and crumbled wrappers for oatmeal bars.
‘Is that all she’s been eating?’ he wondered.
She pointed excitedly to the map. There was a spot along the water lines that she had written notes on and was now tapping aggressively with her finger.
“Here… it’s pretty far south,” she began, “but if we come up from the territory below, we can probably climb up the mountain and cross the river to get in.”
Myka glanced at the area she was talking about. He shook his head.
“Gorn covered that side of the mountain with pitfalls and spiked traps,” he said. He pointed to the water lines above where Selene had suggested they enter. “And these waters are home to alligators.”
He saw the look of disappointment quickly settle over her features. Then, finally, she sat back on the sofa and sighed heavily.
“There has to be a way to get into Spring,” she whispered.
“Selene,” Myka said, “I don’t know if Spring is the best option. Even if we find a way in, the mountain is covered in fae.”
“And why are they there, Myka?” Selene asked, sitting forward and staring at him. “Why, of all places, are a large group of fae concentrated there? At the very place where the Dark Queen’s mound was? Because they feel it, they feel the ley line.”
Myka took a deep breath.
He had already tried to explain to her that the fae creatures did not have the same kind of connection to the ley line as the ancient fae.
The Dark Queen, the Goddess, and the original Lunas had a direct link to the ley line. So they used its power and actively sought it out.
But the creatures didn’t. When he had connected with the frog, he felt it. They followed orders forced on them by the Dark Queen, not by the ley line. They were drawn to the places that she sent them. It was far more likely that the creatures gathered in Spring saw it as their territory and were simply choosing to stay there.
Unfortunately, Selene was not willing to hear that. She believed Spring held the answer to finding Alexander, and she wasn’t ready to let the idea go.
“Selene,” Myka called out softly. “I need to talk to you. Can I have a seat?”
Selene looked up and motioned toward the chair covered in pages of the Spring files. Myka picked them up and set them on the ground.
“What is it?” she asked. “Did you hear something? Is it the portal?”
“No,” Myka shook his head. “Look, I want to help you find Alexander. I do. But I don’t think going to the mountain every day is getting us anywhere.”
“That’s why we need to go to Spring!” she shouted with frustration.
Myka sighed.
“I don’t think you’ll find your answers in Spring, either,” he said softly. “I think it’s best if we take a break.”
Selene furrowed her brow and looked at him. Then, her expression darkened, and she turned away.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?