Chapter39
Valen POV
I couldn’t sleep; all night I tossed and turned, knowing they were both over there and so close yet out of reach. It gave me a little comfort knowing Tatum was there with them, yet everything screamed I should be the one protecting them. How I had failed. No wonder she hated me. I would hate me too if our roles were reversed.
Now a few past incidents made sense, why I could never hold a relationship to save my life, why I had trouble with my sex life, the sudden bouts of depression seeping into me. Now it made me wonder if I knew all along on a subconscious level, and it was my body trying to stop me from making the idiotic decisions I sometimes did.
She felt it, felt it all, and didn’t say anything. When she kissed Marcus, the pain that she caused was brief yet painful all the same. How did she endure years of my infidelity? I may not have known about her, but she certainly knew of me, which made me groan at how stupid I had been. The countless brothels, the women, and she endured that pain over and over for countless long years.
Five years, for some reason, that number kept popping up in my head as I tried to dredge up any memory that would lead me to her. Why was that number so significant? Besides the obvious, of course. Yet something nagged at me, tugged as it
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should matter to me, Five years, five years I mutter under my breath when I feel my breath leave me altogether, and I gasp, nearly choking on my own spit as I lurch upright.
The Alpha meeting, the fairy girl, the girl who snuck out on me the following day, Could that have been her? I was pissed off that she left before I even woke, something told me it was Everly, yet I never saw her face, and Marcus woke me the following day, and she was gone. He said he passed the girl and I remembered it irritated me because I was angry he didn’t stop her.
That girl has remained in my thoughts for five years already and was one of the many things that got me through each night. Finding myself often thinking of the girl dressed as a fairy, yet I could never explain why she would randomly pop into my thoughts.
Marcus had told me to look for her, yet when I checked the registry, I could never find her name, which now made sense; she was underage. She wasn’t supposed to be in that side of the hotel, which was for only adults and …. and future Alphas. She shouldn’t have been where I was, and I always thought it odd when I went over the registry of attendees. I could never find anyone that even resembled her. No ID had me jumping the way Everly did.
I had spent weeks searching the hotel database, yet she would have been in the kid’s section. I cringed at that mental thought, don’t go there. Creepy as hell, yet I kind of remembered that night, even though I was wasted. I
remembered how I was drawn to her, and no matter where I
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turned, I found myself in her vicinity again, drawn to her like a moth to a flame. It had to be her, and it made sense why she would have run. I spent weeks angry that she ran out on me, but it suddenly made sense because if Alpha John was her father, I could imagine the trouble she would have got in if she had been caught with me. That meant that Ava… the girl my father was trying to mate me to… was Everly’s sister.
That was back right in the middle of a brutal war when land was being divided again after we brought out half of Silverstone Pack lands, they fell under hot water with debts, and we settled those debts in exchange for a good size chunk of their territory giving us ownership to half the city. A war ensued, and too many lives were lost to violence in the streets, constant attacks, though my pack killed just as many as John’s did, we weren’t completely innocent.
Alpha John was furious, and our feud only became worse. It added fuel to the fire, so it made me curious what changed between my father and John that they were now willing to marry me off to his daughter.
What were chances I would be mates with one of his daughters, just not the one they were trying to make me marry? Nothing made sense, my father, hated Alpha John, but now they seemed amicable, friendly, and it made me wonder what John had over him. My father was not a man to back down to his rivals, more like stomp on them and kick them to the curb.
My phone buzzes beside where I lay, and I glance at it to see Tatum’s number pop up. Quickly opening it, I answer the
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phone.
“Everything okay?”
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“Yes, Everly went for a run. Should I follow her or stay with your son?”
“Um, do you know where she went?”
“I asked, but she said it was none of my business and walked out.”
“Just give her space; if she isn’t back after an hour though, ring me.”
“Okay, boss,” Tatum says, hanging up.
Going through my phone contacts. I quickly ring her, hoping Everly would be more talkative on the phone, then face to face. We only seemed to argue when in each other presence, but I was slowly starting to understand why.
“What? Valen,” she answers after the third ring. She sounds tired, her voice strained.
“Tatum said you left the apartment.”
“Zoe is there, I didn’t leave him by himself, and I figured your friend would watch over him unless there is a reason I
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shouldn’t be leaving Valarian with him?”
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“No, Tatum is fine. He is safe. I was just concerned where you were going this late at night.”
“The reserve, however, I am headed back home because someone fixed the damn fence again. I had it reopened yesterday afternoon, and someone keeps fixing it,” Everly curses, and I hear her kick the mesh. I pressed my lips in a line knowing it was my fault.
“Ah, that may be my fault. Marcus told me the fence was broken. I sent someone out to fix it.”
“Of course, it was you,” she sighs.
“Well, I will stay on the phone with you, make sure you get home okay. How was I supposed to know it was intentionally opened?”
“I am capable of getting home Valen, and it’s fine, a lot of us use it as a shortcut, it is fine I can wait until tomorrow or something,” she says though she sounds like she was almost breathless.
“Please, this doesn’t have to be an argument just don’t hang up until I know you’re back with Tatum. Do you always go running this late?”
She doesn’t hang up on me, so I figure she was giving in.
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“No.”
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“Then why are you running so late?”
Everly doesn’t answer straight away, and I glance at the phone to make sure it is still connected. “Because I need to,” she finally says though it sounds more like a murmur and like there was more meaning to it than that.
“What do you mean?”
“It doesn’t matter, Valen. Anyway. I am at my door. Your bodyguard is staring at me because I look like a drowned rat from the rain. Can I go now?”
“I just want to make sure you are home safe.”
She groans, the noise sounding annoyed.
“Oi, BFG, tell your boss I am home,” I hear her say before I hear Tatum.
“She is home,” I hear in the background and sigh with relief.
“You might as well come in. It is pouring. I can’t have you sleep out here; you can stay on the couch,” I hear her tell him.
“Ah, just one second,” I hear murmured before I feel the mind-
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link open up.
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“Are you for real right now, are you seriously asking permission?” I vaguely hear Everly say through the phone before Tatum’s voice flits through my head at the same time she snaps at me through the phone.
“Either he can come in, or he leaves. I won’t be able to sleep knowing he is outside freezing on my doorstep,” Everly snaps at me through the phone.
“I take you got what she said?” Tatum asks through the mind- link.
“It’s fine, I say to him and out loud so Everly could hear too.” | cut the mind–link and hear Everly sigh.
“I will grab you a towel, and if you get beaten in the morning by a petite girl with an angelic face, it is just Zoe, I live with her,” Everly warns him, and I can only imagine the amused look he would have had at that. I hear Tatum grunt, and I smile, amused that she would warn him she lived with someone, he already knew, he would have noticed the extra
scents.
“Okay, can I go now? Tatum is sleeping on the couch, and I am tired.”
“Yes, Everly goodnight,” I tell her, and she hangs up. I sigh. Now to convince her to let me mark her.
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I stare up at my ceiling; I can’t help but smile despite the fact she still hates me. She still named our son after me. Valarian was my middle name and my father’s middle name. All the men in our family had the same middle name, well, except Valarian, obviously, which made me wonder what it was. Yeah, my dad definitely had a thing for the letter V.
Valen Valarian Solace, what a mouthful that was growing up, yet I knew he named me also in honor of my mother Valarie with a mix of his name too.
We had the Alpha meeting coming up soon, it wouldn’t be long now, and I would have to put everything out in the open. I just hoped Everly would let me mark her within the next week. I wasn’t so sure I could actually go through with forcibly marking her, not after everything I had already made her endure, and I didn’t want to give her more reason to hate me.
On the plus side, I now have more excuses to see her since we share a son together. I never gave much thought to being a father, I have always wanted kids because it was expected, but I never really pictured children. However, meeting Valarian, it is all I wanted to be now, fuck everything else; I just wanted my mate and son. Wanted to be a part of his life and hers if she would have me. Rolling on my side, I set my alarm. I had a pinky promise to keep, and I had no intentions of breaking it.
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