The Alpha King Call Boy
Chapter 249

Fiona

I stopped my anxious pacing for a moment when I was right in front of Nina. She was sitting cross-legged in one of the armchairs by our café table. "Am I crazy, Nina? Am I being really extra about this?"

"No," she said firmly. "Fi. You're not the one who's crazy here. I have looked in that bitch's eyes now and I believe more than ever that there is something really weird going on with her. She's twitchy and suspicious as f**k. And just... off. When someone's eyes go all crazy big like that, where you can see the whites all around? It's freaky. I don't think it's crazy to be creeped out by her, babe. And there's no harm in being overly cautious till Alex can get his a*s back here and get her gone."

I returned to pacing, hugging Lexi to my chest perhaps a bit too tightly. She squirmed and made a small, squeaky sound of disapproval.

It wasn't super easy to adjust my hold on the baby when I was trying not to let our skin make contact. I hated doing that- holding my sleeves over my hands while I cradled her little body against mine

-but it felt necessary when I was feeling like this. I've read multiple sources that emphasize skin-to-skin contact is super important for babies. But Lexi's gift just made it more complicated.

All the breathing exercises in the world couldn't remedy my horrible mood right now. I'd lost my grandfather this morning.

Alexander had not called yet to tell us how the mission had gone, and I was getting more and more worried about him every minute. Andthe Iris thing...

The hair was standing up on the back of my neck and I could not stop my feet from moving. I was circling the room over and over and over again. I felt my wolf pressing at me from under my skin, feeling more awake and eager to shift than I'd felt in a long, long time. Since before my pregnancy-

I don't know how to explain why I felt like this. I just did. I just knew danger was on its way to me. I felt it coming

And though I was being careful with how I was handling my baby, I could not put her down for one moment. The animal instinct to protect my cub was cranked up to one hundred.

Maybe she felt that. Maybe Alexis could sense that I needed to hold her right now, could not put her down; maybe that's why she was tolerating my anxiety being so near to her, and not crying. Or maybe she just enjoyed the physical sensation of my nonstop pacing. She always did enjoy going for a walk.

"Why hasn't he called, Nina?" I looked out the window as I passed it. It had been gray and gloomy all day. And now the cloud-covered sky was starting to darken ever so slightly. Sunset was coming, and after that, night...

"I dunno, honey. I'm sure he will..."

Nina's vague reassurances were unconvincing. Her voice continued on but slipped right into the background of my consciousness.

I looked down at my watch. There would be less than an hour of sunlight remaining in the desert, where my husband and our pack were right now, infiltrating a vampire nest. Surely it did not bode well if they were not through with the job by now.

If everything had gone according to the battle plan, the vampires would be slain by now and the pack would be up in the fleet of helicopters that had come to extract them out of that damn canyon.

And if they were in the helicopter, Alex would have called or texted to tell me. That had been the plan. And my Alpha always stuck to our plans. He was never late to call or text or meet me once we had a plan in place. "Fiona?"

I whipped my eyes over to Nina. "What? Sorry -did you ask me something?"

"I asked if you want me to try reaching out to Kayden," she said meekly. She waited a beat before continuing. "He and I didn't talk about connecting after the.. thing. I could try him, though, if you want."

She held up her phone like a visual aid.

My mind finally regained control over my body, with which my wolf had been running amok all day, with all this pacing...

I sat down on the edge of Alex's side of the bed, facing Nina. "Not yet," I said with a sigh. "I told Alex I would not call. So you please don't do it either. I will not be a distraction while they are still working any aspect of the mission. That was the deal. For that reason, as soon as he could, he would call me."

Nina nodded slowly. "Yeah. I'm sorry, babe -I wish there was something I do to help you feel better."

That last sentence was more helpful to me than Nina could have known. Because it actually forced me to snap out of an internal pity party.

"My feelings aren't what matter right now," I said, hearing my voice turning a little colder with every word.

I hissed out an exhale and shook my head. I was reprimanding myself.

"I just need to pull it together. I am going to pull it together. I've been spiraling out all day. But all of this -Grandfather, Alex, Iris-it's too much, it's going to make me crazy if I just stew on it, if I keep letting it all..."

I did another big inhale and exhale, letting my eyelids hover closed for a couple seconds.

"I have to put it aside for now," I said measuredly, blinking my eyes into focus. I was looking at Nina but speaking to the both of us." The guys are doing something important. My job is to be patient. And Iris..."

My eyes darted to the bedroom door. I tried to listen carefully and could just make out some slight sounds of movement and low, quiet male voices coming from nearby in the hallway. We had two of Alex's guys standing watch out there so that Iris would not show up on the doorstep to surprise us with any kind of menace.

"As much as I do hate feeling like I am a prisoner in my own home, I do feel relatively safe as long as we three camp out in here until Alex gets back and can deal with her."

Nina's face, formerly a portrait of tension, loosened into a slight smile. "How are you always so strong, Fi?" she asked quietly.

I didn't know how to answer her. I only shrugged.

Something had gone wrong with Alex's mission. Suddenly I just knew that. But it did no good for me to fall to pieces before I even knew exactly what had happened

And Iris was up to something, too. My paranoia about her was getting worse by the minute. There was no more use denying it and overthinking it. I was accepting now that it was just true.

Something was about to happen here. That's why Nina and I couldn't settle ourselves. That's why Lexi was being so compliant, clutching onto her momma quietly-she could feel danger coming for us, too.

But unravelling emotionally was not going to help me deal with either of these things.

No-the time was now for me to be a fucking Luna Queen. To keep calm in the face of danger, to stay in control and simply be ready for whatever was coming next.