Filed To Story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
I grinned. “Thank you. Now I have two more tasks for you.”
Joey raised his eyebrows. “What would those be?”
“First, I want you to find out if Sheila is really pregnant. And if she is, I want to know who the baby daddy is “
Joey visibly gulped. “If she is pregnant, do you plan to do something to the father?”
“It depends on who he is. Why do you ask?”
Joey rubbed his neck. Seriously, I need to get him to work on his “tells.”
“There is a possibility that Aiden is the father.”
“Aiden, as in guard Aiden who went with us to Hawaii?”
“Yeah, that Aiden. I kind-of convinced him to sleep with Sheila in order to keep her busy. And then I begged him to keep doing it when you did not come back right away.”
“Is Aiden bad news?”
“No, Sir. That’s the thing. He is not part of the movement, but he also isn’t a horrible guy. Or at least he is ny more horrible than I am. He is a friend.”
not any
“Is he on Margie’s payroll?”
“Not to my knowledge, Sir.”
“Then do not worry about it. If he turns out to be the father, I will adjust the plan accordingly. But first let’s confirm she is pregnant at all.”
Joey nodded. “What is the second thing?”
“It is more of a question than a task. I was thinking about everything that we were talking about last night, and I realized that there is a massive missing piece.”
“What is that, Sir?”
“Where has Beta Robert been in all of this? Does he know what Margie and Stephanie were up to?”
“I do not know, Sir. I am new to the movement, and the main times I have heard Beta Robert’s name come up have been to say he was on a business tri or not home or busy. I really do not know what he knows.”
“Then let’s call it a task after all. I need to know how he fits in to all of this. Lily adored her father growing up. Before we take him out, I want to know if he was worthy of that love, or if he is just as bad as everyone else.”
“Got it, Sir. I will see what I can find.”
“While you are at it, I would like you to find out about Nick and Jenny, too.”
“Will do.”
(Alpha Brady POV)
I have been having absolutely the best time with Sammy. Despite the fact that I hardly get to see him, Sammy is very much a mini-me. He has my mannerisms, my sense of humor (minus the sexual innuendos ), and many of my same tastes in food, movies, and activities. Since he arrived at Black Moon for his winter break, we have spent every waking moment together, with the exception of 60 minutes each day that I devote to dealing with pack paperwork and other duties that my beta cannot handle.
If it was not for me worrying about Lily, this would have been the best break with Sammy yet. Evelyn had even agreed to extend Sammy’s trip by a couple of weeks, citing construction at his school that was going to allow for a longer than normal winter recess.
Unfortunately, Lily’s disappearance does continue to weigh heavily on me. I have tried not to let it show when I am around Sammy, but it is always gnawing on me at the back of my mind. One of the things I do during my 60-minute work sessions each day is check in with the trackers.
So far, my trackers still have not found anything out about Lily or where she went, and she has not reached out to me either. It angers me a little that she has not reached out to at least let me know that she is safe, but at the same time I understand that she had her reasons to leave, and that she probably has her reasons to not reach out.
In retrospect, I wish that my father and I had just told her what the risks are. We did not do so because my father is convinced that Lily needs to mark a mate voluntarily, and not because she feels rushed to mark someone before the enemies find her. That is why Rose has not told her either. The sad reality is though, until Lily marks a mate, she will continue to be in danger. Lily’s value to our enemies largely depends on them finding her and getting her to mark them before she marks any other male. Now that she has turned 20 and is at prime mating age, the enemies are understandably getting desperate to find her.
Once Sammy leaves, I have decided that I am going to go out and search for her personally myself. I briefly considered reaching out to my father to see if he had heard from her, but I know if he had, he would have already come here and raged at me for allowing my security team to fall so short. Not only would I prefer to spare myself my father’s rage while Sammy is here, but also I think it would be difficult for him to rage at me without drawing unnecessary attention from any enemies that may be watching the pack.
(In case you were wondering, both sets of grandparents regularly visit Sammy in Canada so that I can have as much uninterrupted time with my son as I can when he is at Black Moon. That is why my parents are not here now.)
Speaking of my security team, I have started to wonder if I made the right decision when I blanket-fired all of the 18 guards that had been assigned to Lily. Now that the shock of Lily leaving has started to wear off, I have realized that Lily sneaking out of the pack was probably fairly easy for her to do regardless of who her security team was: Lily is smarter than anyone gives her credit for, and Rose has many gifts and powers as well.
Of course, the guards absolutely should have noticed that Lily was not coming out of her room, but given. the regular shift rotations and the fact that they saw me go up there every night, perhaps it is not as much as surprise that they missed it as I originally thought. I should have assigned someone to coordinate the shifts and track security notes so that sort of thing could have been noticed more quickly.
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With the exception of losing Lily, the guards had not done anything to cause me to worry about their dedication or fitness. Even though my instincts told me (and still tell me) that something was wrong with my security team, I wonder if I should have been more strategic about who I let go instead of blanket-
firing all of them.
It has been difficult to replace 18 guards all at once, especially given that packhouse assignments at Black Moon require special training and clearances. The same guards who were assigned to watch over Lily would have also been assigned to watch over Sammy, and it has been making me a little nervous to have new guards responsible for his day-to-day supervision and safety.
I will have to think about it some more. Perhaps once Sammy leaves and I do the alpha-order interviews, I will bring some or all of the fired guards back.
I am absolutely sure that my father would agree that firing them was the right thing to do and that he would think re-hiring them would be a mistake even if it was nothing more than incompetence and my own errors that led to the situation- but I do not necessarily want to be the same kind of alpha that my father was. Ruling by fear worked well for my father, but it is that really who I want to be?
Sammy and I were just returning from a long afternoon run in the woods -Sammy loves riding on Kalen’s back when I saw a face that I had not seen in person in years. She was waiting for us on the steps of the packhouse.
I froze. She was even more beautiful than the last time I saw her.
“Mommy!!!!”
Sammy yelled happily as he ran up to Evelyn and gave her a huge hug.
“Hi, Baby! Have you been having fun with your dad?”
“So much fun, Mommy! Kalen just took me for a run in the forest!”
“Hmmmm… That explains why you smell like you have been eaten by a grass field,”
she joked as she tickled his tummy.
Evelyn glanced over at me. “Baby, why don’t you run upstairs and take a shower while I talk to your dad, okay?”
“Okay, Mommy. I love you!”
,
“I love you too!”
With that, Sammy headed upstairs and Evelyn fully turned her attention to me.
“Hi, Brady.”
“What are you doing here, Evelyn?”
I hate to be cold to her, but seeing her still impacts me far more than it should. Despite the lack of a mate bond between us, just seeing her makes my heart ache.
“I always come with Sammy on these trips. You know that.”
“Yes, but you spend the time visiting with your family and avoid me like the plague. It has been years. since I have actually seen you face to face. What are you doing here now?”
Evelyn sighed. “It has not been years, Brady. Your memory is faulty. Regardless, though, we need to talk.”
“I am listening.”
“Not here. Can we talk in your office?”
“Are you sure you are willing to be alone with me? Would Andrew be okay with that? I did not bite before, but I like to bite now.”
1
“Brady, stop it. Do not be inappropriate. We are grown adults and we have a child together. Put a shirt on and let’s go and talk in your office.”
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?