“Andrei, he is not a bag for you to fling around,” Donnie says disapprovingly as I trudge back toward the house.
I can already hear everyone frantically racing around, securing everything for the storm. Jonah comes back to his senses as I step out of the treeline.
“Weeee!” Jonah squeals, holding his arms out to his sides like a plane.
I chuckle at him, of course, he would think being wedgied and carried like a piece of luggage is fun. I get a few stares as I step between the houses. Jonah is waving at everyone when Malik spots us.
Malik’s mouth falls open and his body tenses. He takes a few seconds to recover from the initial shock, but once he’s back to his usual self, his lips purse with determination, and he marches over to us. “Jonah! I have been looking everywhere for you. Where have you been?”
I place Jonah on the ground, and he scrambles to his feet, looking up at an angry Malik. “I was helping Mr. Andrei,” Jonah beams as he points his finger at me like I’m some animal.
I scoff and Malik’s eyes dart to mine nervously. He sighs, rubbing his temples, looking just as over and done with the tiny trouble maker as I am.
Malik opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it and shakes his head. He takes another moment to think before the mask of anger slips back on his face. It looks like he is fighting his own emotions on this one.
Malik groans and points his finger back at the house he shares with the twins without saying a word to him. Jonah hangs his head, looks at his bare feet, and walks to the house.
“And I thought Casen and Vince were a damn handful. That boy,” Malik grumbles and shakes his head. His eyes focus on me. “Any idea when you will put a call out for any family?”
I raise an eyebrow as I cross my arms in front of my chest. As fun as it seems to everyone watching from the sidelines, I am more than ready to get over this mess. We have had enough accidents around here already. “The Alpha meeting, but I will ring Kat and ask if she can send her doctor out to collect blood to see if anything comes up in the blood banks database.” I tell him.
“Yeah, hopefully, he wasn’t born a rogue, or they may not have any records or matches,” Malik sighs as he watches Jonah walk closer to the house. Lightning cracks, streaking across the sky, and the wind picks up.
“Sage?” I ask him.
“Casen took her home. I see you finally marked her.” The look on his face changes completely as Malik grins and nudges me with his elbow.
“Yeah,” I say, unable to contain my happiness. Even my lips tug up.
“So, what happened to your leg?” Malik points his finger at the blood-stained leg and raises an eyebrow at me.
I groan at the reminder of the adventures in the forest and run a hand through my hair. “Jonah happened, it’s fine. He thought he was helping, and it has already healed.”
Right as he parts his lips to speak, it starts to rain. I look up at the dark sky, everyone has finished securing everything. “You should head in, Malik. It looks like we are in for it with this storm,” I tell him. He nods, pats my shoulder with his hand and jogs home.
I head inside myself. I can hear Sage upstairs doing something, but instead of joining her, I head to the kitchen to retrieve my cell phone from the counter where I left it.
Taking it off charge, I dial Kat’s number. I need to ask her some questions about Jonah and the upcoming Alpha meeting that is supposed to happen in two days.
Besides, as much as I hate to admit it, I also want to know when my father is coming back. Hitting call, I listen to the phone ring.
Katya
I let out a heavy sigh as Andrei finishes the call. I haven’t heard from him for a few days and I was seriously starting to worry about my brother and his mate.
To be honest, I still worry about them. I fear so many different scenarios simply because I know all of them are possibilities. But what scares me the most is that Sage won’t let him mark her.
The issue I have is I don’t see any actual progress between those two just yet. Sure, there is some, but not enough to exhale in relief thinking things will work out. Time is slipping away. I can’t stop it and neither can they.
At this point, I just hope I haven’t signed my brother’s death warrant.
“Hey, what’s up with you?” Ezra asks, walking into his office, scaring the living daylights out of me.
I am sitting at his desk because I wanted some privacy during the phone call, but I didn’t expect anyone to look for me this soon. I haven’t got enough time to fully process the conversation with Andrei, let alone discuss it.
I glance at my mate and shake my head. “Nothing, it’s just I’m still worried about Sage and Andrei.”
Ezra moves closer to the desk and stands in front of it, bracing his hands on the surface. “You will see them at the Alpha meeting,” he assures me with a slight smile across his lips.
He is right. I am hoping I can catch Sage and talk to her while we are there. I’m pretty sure we can easily find a quiet place for that talk while the men busy themselves with their own discussions.
Ezra pushes himself off the desk and raises an eyebrow at me. “So, what did Andrei want?” He sits on the edge of his desk and peers down at me as he folds his arms over his chest.
The serious look on his face amuses me a little. I know he is trying to distract me from my worries and fears, and yet, here he is, looking like he is ready to fight the entire world if I don’t disclose the details of the phone call with my brother.
Although I might get irritated by his pushy attitude, all I do is smile and tell him the truth. “He took in some rogue kids. One of them was his Beta’s mate and one is orphaned.”
Ezra loses his cool attitude for a second, appearing to be just as taken aback as I was when Andrei told me this. I’m still surprised by the change in him. I feared he was still obsessed with torturing the rogues, but here he is, taking in a few and trying to help them.