Chosen by Fate, Rejected by the Alpha

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Trinity

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I waited for Reece to get home that night so I could ask him about what Ella had said. He had left last night and was gone until morning when he came back for breakfast, a shower and change of clothes. After leaving this time he was gone all day, it was now well past dinner time. Whatever it was that he was doing it was definitely important. Still, I wanted to talk to him and see him.

I know I was being selfish by wanting to see him, he was busy and all, but couldn't he at least call me to let me know what was going on. I was getting worried with everything that I had heard from Ella earlier. Was he already in too deep? Did he know where the kids were already? Was something wrong? Am I just being paranoid? I'm sure at least one of those questions could be answered with a yes, but still.

I was sitting in our office waiting for him, doing assignments for my classes simply to have something to do. I was done with at least half of the scheduled assignments for the semester already, in a way online classes did have its benefits.

I had been waiting for nearly three hours, doing assignment after assignment, when I smelled him coming down the hallway. He was going to the office, had he already checked the bedroom? He must know that I was in here already.

Something seemed off though. I could smell his scent, his rich robust scent that was mixed with the smell of the forest, but it seemed like he had an underlying scent today. It was the scent of exhaustion, it was layered over him so thick that it obscured his normal scent. 

'Would he be able to tell I was in here if he was that tired?' I knew that our senses would be dulled if we didn't rest enough. Exhaustion would cloud our minds just the same as it does a human's. I listened as he seemed to be dragging his feet down the hallway.

The door to the office opened and Reece stumbled into the room. He looked like he was a zombie, dead on his feet as he shuffled into the room. The sight of him looking so tired was a shock to me. He must be working hard and pushing himself too much.

"Reece?" I called out to him in shock after seeing him looking like he was going to drop at any moment.

"What are you doing in here Little Bunny?" He asked me surprised. I knew it, his sense of smell was running slow due to being too tired. 

"You can't let yourself get so tired Reece." I scolded him. "What would have happened if you ran into an enemy when you were like this?"

"I can still fight, I'm just not paying attention right now." He made excuses. "Besides, I didn't sleep much the last few nights."

"You didn't sleep last night at all."

"I know that, but I didn't sleep much the two nights before that either." His suggestive tone was boasting about why he, and I, had both been kept awake a good part of the night recently. I may have been able to rest last night to recover but he hadn't.

"Reece, you need to take better care of yourself. I know you're looking for the missing kids and all, but what good are you going to be to them if you make yourself sick or too tired to fight for them?"

"Who told you about that?" He seemed shocked that I knew what he had been doing.

"Obviously not you." I snapped at him. "The women and children of the pack are my responsibility, why the hell didn't you tell me what was going on?"

"It's not like I wasn't going to tell you." He seemed like he was trying to backpedal when he hadn't even said anything yet. "I was going to tell you tonight but I was out longer than planned."

"What was wrong with this morning?" I demanded.

"I didn't want it to ruin your whole day. It's not exactly a pleasant topic, I didn't want to see you so upset. You've been so happy lately."

"Reece." I said his name as a sigh and a curse. "I love you, and I'm glad you're trying to keep me happy and all, but this is pack business. I don't want you hiding anything from me. I am the Luna, if I can't be trusted to know anything, what is the point?"

"It's not that I don't trust you." The look in his eyes was one of fear and heartache, I think he thought I was going to pull away from him again and things would be like they were before.

"If you trusted me then you wouldn't hide the truth from me." I wanted him to understand that I needed to know everything that he knew when it came to the pack.

"I will tell you everything, anything you want to know. I promise, Trinity. I don't want to hide anything, I wasn't like I was trying to hide it from you, I just wanted to wait until tonight so I didn't upset you."

"Then why did you come to the office instead of going to our room?" I saw the surprise spread across his face as he stared at me.

"I honestly don't know. I have been working on the case all day and night that I didn't do any actual work, I think subconsciously I thought I had to do some work before bed. I just followed my feet here, I hadn't intended to."

"Fine. Then tell me now, tell me everything." I commanded him.

"Yes, I will tell you, I'll tell you all of it."

We sat together on the sofa in his office. He held my hands in his as he pulled me to sit next to him, and kept his hands on mine as he looked at me. He stared at me for a moment before he decided to pull me into his lap instead.

"Reece." I scolded him.

"Having you near me gives me energy." He retaliated.

"Fine, as long as you talk."

"I will." He hugged me gently, pressing his lips to my neck briefly before pulling away, his arms still looped around me.

"Last night, Noah came to tell me what had been happening in town. The first pack cub to go missing was Sammy Taylor, at first everyone thought he was just taken by one of the rogues that left the pack after everything that happened last month. There was a rogue that had been particularly close to his family and we were all working under the assumption that he was involved."

"So, you were hiding his disappearance from me?" I asked him. 

"It happened right after we got back and were training all the time. It's not that I don't trust you, it was because we were so busy and I just forgot to mention it."

"Uh huh. Yeah, sure." I scoffed at him.

"I swear Little Bunny, I wasn't trying to hide it." He was pleading again.

"Fine, I believe you, so keep talking."

"The last two pack children that were taken disappeared this week, I never knew about the children in town until last night."

"So eight children have been taken, what are your thoughts about all of it?"

"You want my honest opinion?"

"No Muscle Mutt, I want you to keep lying to me." I snapped again, I was getting fed up with him and even the dark look in his eyes didn't make a difference.

"How do you know so many dog characters?" He growled at me.

"I do special research just for you." I growled right back.

"You're going to regret that one day." He threatened.

"I highly doubt that, now keep talking or I'm leaving." His arms tightened around me with a look of loss already in his eyes.

"In my honest opinion," he stared at me with a strangely reluctant look, "is that Edmond is involved." I didn't even blink.

"That doesn't surprise me at all. My thoughts led me straight to him as soon as I was told about the kidnapped children."

"Who told you anyway." He looked curious.

"Ella." 

"Who?"

"Gina's daughter, and Sammy Taylor's sister." Realization dawned on his face.

"I didn't think they would be working. I told them to do their best to hold themselves together, but I didn't know Gina was back at work already."

"Her son was taken almost two weeks ago, right? The shock will not not go away, but I imagine she knows there is just nothing that she can do about it right now. She is leaving it in your hands."

"I've had a group searching for that rogue since the boy went missing, he still might not be one of the true victims."

"No, he is, and if I had to make a guess, I'd say Edmond isn't done yet. He might not take anymore from our area, but I'm sure he is going to take more children. Probably four more."

"Why do you say that." He wondered as he looked at me with a hard glint in his eyes. "Did he tell you anything while you were there?"

"No!" I yelled at him. "But I just have this feeling. It's like I can guess what he's planning to a certain degree."

"Hmm." He hummed to let me know he heard and understood what I said, but didn't say anything.

"What?" I asked him. 

"Nothing, just trying to think."

"About?"

"Everything." 

"Are you going to share?"

"When I can figure it out." He smiled at me. "Right now, I'm too tired to think it through."

"Let's go to bed." I said as I looked at the clock. "It's after midnight after all." I squeezed him tightly. 

"Can I just hug you for a little bit first?"  I thought he was aiming to do something else at first, but he really just sat there holding me against him.

I sat there, his arms wrapped loosely around me and his head resting on my shoulder with his face pressed against my hair. My arms were also around him holding him to me. After a few minutes, I noticed how steady and even his breathing was, and how still he was. I didn't want to move to check, but I was pretty sure that he had fallen asleep sitting up and holding me.

I quietly disentangled myself from him just enough to lower him onto the sofa. When I tried to get away to lay him down better and let him sleep, he pulled me to him and wrapped his arms firmly around my waist, my head resting on his shoulder.

"Reece?" I asked him, certain he had to be awake. But he didn't answer. He was still sound asleep, holding me hostage in the office. That's fine, I would lay there with him until he woke up enough to go to the bed, he needed sleep after all. I relaxed against him and felt my eyes grow heavy right away.

We didn't wake up until morning.