Filed to story: Goddess's Design His Fated Mate (Willow & Reuben)
In the lobby of the airport, everyone’s phone displayed the same news as their incessant chatter found its way to the CCTV control and monitoring room of the airport.
I sat in front of hundreds of monitors displaying nothing but corrupted CCTV footage of the airport.
“How did the CCTV cameras get hacked?!”
My Beta Oran barked at the staff standing in a row, holding their breath, their heads lowered in terror. Everyone working my airline, from lower to higher ranks, were werewolves and members of my pack. It was my own little fiefdom that I had established among the humans.
The wolves remained silent and trembling, but Oran noticed my emotionless gaze fixed on the blank passenger manifest. Sudden panic surged in his heart as he yelled at them, “We can’t even find the passenger list! Are you all courting your own death?!”
Just five minutes earlier, a virus infiltrated Emerald Bright Airlines like poison coursing through blood. Before the company’s top security specialists had the chance to contain the situation, the virus had already obliterated not just all of that day’s footage but also the passenger manifests. All that remained were the blank monitors in front of me, while another wolf connected it to a phone belonging to a blogger who had been recording in the airport. Nearly every person in the terminal had their phone playing the recording, that was the final one.
“All Alpha ”
Finally, the head of security gathered his courage and stepped forward to respond, his heart pounding like a drum, everyone in Emerald Bright Pack knew that there was a zero-tolerance rule when it came to mistakes. This incident was no less than a crime that took place, “Alpha we we’re truly sorry. It happened so suddenly please, give us another chance. The footage will be ”
“Oran,”
I called for my Beta in a low yet resonant voice. The wolf that served as my head of the security immediately bit his tongue, as the entire staff broke into cold sweats. Their hearts pounded like drums in their chests, the sound echoing in the room.
“Alpha,”
Oran stepped closer to me, awaiting orders.
“Banish them all,”
I commanded, without looking at any of them. I continued to stare fixedly at the video playing in front of me.
“ALPHA!”
Every wolf standing in a row fell to their knees in horror. They instantly turned into rogues without a pack. “PLEASE DON’T DO THIS TO US ALPHA ”
The room filled with their collective pleas and cries. “PLEASE HAVE MERCY!!”
Crying and begging, they crawled closer to my feet, but before they could touch, Oran had the other wolves drag them out.
The other wolves were chilled down to their bones as they watched my emotionless eyes remain stuck to the screen. They did not move until I spotted a familiar figure on the video playing on the large screen in front of me.
“Pause,”
I growled. The wolf operating the video was startled and immediately pressed the button. “Reverse,”
I ordered. As the video rewound five seconds, I ordered again, “Stop.”
Everyone glanced at the video holding their breaths where the blogger’s face was prominent, but my focus was on a figure in red at the back of the lobby, “Zoom in and resume.”
The man nodded, following my instructions. As the video played once more, I rose from my seat, observing the tall stunning figure exiting the airport. My wolf appeared in my eyes and as soon as she turned to look back causing her face to come into my view.
I clenched my fists, standing mere inches away from the screen, watching her flee from me. She had truly been here, right in front of me, but she ran away. Her hair had grown longer, her figure a bit leaner, but she was as beautiful as ever.
Slowly, I placed my hand on the screen, touching her rosy cheeks. I knew it. I knew she wasn’t a figment of my imagination. She just ran away from me My eyes darkened as I scraped my claws along the screen while watching her fleeing back on the video. “You shouldn’t have run away from me, Willow ”
I whispered.
Willow
Standing under the shower, I felt each drop on my skin, clear and cold, yet my mind was still enveloped by thoughts of Reuben’s piercing green eyes. His heavy resonating voice as it called my name continued to echo in my ears.
How likely was it that upon returning to America after six years away, I encountered the person that had been the reason I left the country to begin with?
After a long shower, I dressed and headed to the room where Wyatt and Lori were engrossed in playing a video game. When they saw me they raised their heads, “Mommy, why did you come in the taxi? Why didn’t you come to the hotel with us in Uncle Ken’s car?”
Lori asked as she blinked her big blue eyes.
I paused for a moment not expecting this question. I had opted for a taxi to obviously avoid drawing attention by being seen with Wyatt and Lori. There was no way I could let anyone find out about kids. Concealing my scent, I had quickly left the airport in a taxi instead of traveling in Beta Ken’s car. Later, we rendezvoused at the restaurant connected to the lobby of this hotel, where we had lunch together before coming up to the room.
“ ”
Before I could respond, another voice chimed in, “Your mom forgot something, so she went to retrieve it,”
Beta Ken entered the room, holding two cups of coffee. “Now go and play your video game. Your mommy has only allowed you to play for an hour, right?”
he suggested. Wyatt and Lori quickly returned to their game as Beta Ken placed the cups on the table.
“Care for some coffee?”
he offered.
“Absolutely,”
I smiled, taking a seat opposite him.
He took a sip of his coffee and said, “You and the kids must be tired from traveling. How about getting a few hours of sleep before the Alpha Ball? The ball starts in the evening, and you still have time to rest,”
he suggested.
I shook my head, “Once they start playing video games, they won’t stop, and they won’t be able to sleep right now,”
I chuckled and took a sip of my coffee. “After dinner, I’ll put them to bed and head to the ball. I need to prepare for the Alpha Ball and review the peace treaty documents, so I won’t be sleeping either,”
I said, placing the coffee on the table and picking up the envelope of documents that he had brought with him.
“Hmm, the ball isn’t for kids. It’s a den of greed, treaties, and profit. Wyatt and Lori would be bored to tears,”
he agreed. I just smiled as my real intentions for not taking my kids with me were something else.
“Then I should be going. The Alpha is not there so I am overseeing the pack. If you have anything you want to ask, just give me a call,”
as he rose, I placed the papers on the table and stood up.
“I understand and thank you for your help earlier with the CCTV footage, Beta Ken,”
when we were leaving the airport, I had contacted Beta Ken to erase the CCTV footage as quickly as possible. Hearing Rueben calling for me, I had the realization that he wouldn’t rest until he found me. The good thing was our pack, the Wade Moon Pack, was powerful and had effective approaches with hackers. Beta Ken dealt with the footage quickly and efficiently.
“It’s not a big deal,”
he chuckled, but paused at the door, turning back to me. “Well, who did you run into at the airport that you don’t want to find out about you?”
His eyes gleamed with curiosity.
In the Wade Moon Pack, no one knew much about me beyond my name. When I joined the pack, I kept my past a secret, even from Alpha Benjamin. He did not know which pack I left or how I had lived. The only thing he knew was that I did not have anywhere to go. He didn’t push me to share, but the pack members were always curious about the father of my children.