Number 19
Roman traipsed with eyes searching for the house that matched the address on the paper. He was determined not to delay in searching for her. He paused at a particular house with the number house twenty-five on it.
“This must be it” he muttered under his breath and moved closer to it.
He glanced at the paper in his hands, in which the Nanny’s address was scribbled on top by the Luna to be sure he was in the right house. After confirming the address given to him, he knocked on the door to receive a come-in from whoever was inside.
He sauntered into the house with Xander sleeping peacefully in his arms. After he left the place of the Luna he hadn’t bothered going back home but headed straight to the Nanny’s house with Alexander. The house of the nanny looked a lot shabbier than he had expected, for someone who was a spy for his father she had a low taste. What was she doing with all the money she must have been receiving for perfecting such fabulous snitching work if she couldn’t get herself a befitting place to stay?
“You? How? What are you doing here?” She questioned surprised to see Roman in her house. “Have you come to drop Xan…”
“Cut me the pretense, Nanny Ivy. I know you are the spy but what I don’t understand is why you switched from being a Babysitter to a spy for my father. You have always been the perfect example of goody two shoes but you switched up so fast. For what? For a little bag of the penny. All this charade and pretending to love Xander was to monitor my activities right?” He uttered with a tight tone that was filled with repressed anger cutting whatever acting she wanted to display short. He didn’t have time to pretend anymore, the life of his mate was at risk and it was because someone decided to be a snitch. Someone who he definitely wouldn’t have expected, he must commend his father for being so smart as to use the only person he considered to be his mother.
Her mouth went agape on hearing Roman speak “You can speak! You can speak. You aren’t mute.” She muttered tearfully, face-palming this cheek affectionately.
“Caught me some slacks with this pretense, You are trying so hard to confuse me as hell now, what would make you think that I couldn’t speak?” He inquired his eyes furrowing in confusion.
“I- I mean we all thought that you were mute now.” Ivystuttered still unable to believe that he wasn’t mute but was pretending for god knows what reason. He’s pretending to be mute for two years, who wouldn’t think he was mute?
“What do you mean by us?” He questioned air quoting we. He was trying hard to fathom whatever she was trying to insinuate. Did this mean his life and everyday activities were monitored and reported back to the whole pack as juicy gossip?
“Everyone from Crimson Fangs thinks you are mute now. The news of you being unable to speak has spread all corners of the pack like wildfire.” She explained, falling back on the chair. She felt weak in the knees from all the shock she was getting today.
“What did the Alpha say, I mean what did my father say about this?” Roman questioned Ivy. To say he wasn’t expecting that would be a shock. News or rumors spread the pack quickly, so he wasn’t that surprised at all.
“The Alpha also thinks you’ve become mute now. With the rumors spreading so fast, it was hard not to believe it anyways.” Ivy stated patting the chair beside her for Roman to sit on.
“Even he wasn’t left out. I guess my acting is so good then.” He muttered with a lopsided smile and sat down on the sofa with a peaceful sleeping Xander.
“You scared the hell out of me with this acting of yours you know, it was more of the reason why I came running down here to see you myself. I was worried sick knowing that something so disastrous as being mute was happening to you.” She uttered her eyes glistening with the affection that she had for Roman. She raised him and watch him grow to like her very own son, even though he wasn’t.
“You speak as if your main purpose wasn’t to spy on me.” He scoffed, some people are just so great at pretending but Nanny’s Ivy was much more than he could have expected.
“I’m not the spy, I didn’t even know they were a spy.” She pipped out trying to elucidate herself from Roman’s accusation.
“How am I going to believe you? How am I supposed to believe whatever you say?” He yelled breathing hard causing Xander to stir in his sleep uncomfortably.
“I’m not the one, Roman. You need to believe me. You know how much I cared for you, do you possibly think I could snitch on you? I feel utterly disgusted that after raising you for so long, you still didn’t trust me and what I can do. And you might want to lower your voice to avoid waking the sleeping Xander in your arms, okay?.” Ivycalmly stated.
Roman sighed, her words had pulled the strings in his heart. She was his favorite person before, he didn’t have a mother but she took him as her own. Showering him with in-depth love that had no limitations. “I- I don’t know. If you are not the spy why didn’t you tell me earlier about your identity, about who you are? Finding out this way makes everything you are saying looks pretentious in as much as I want to believe you.”
“Remember the story I told you when you were younger?.” She asked recalling the good old days she had with little Roman.
“The story about the young prince?” How could he possibly forget that? He used to make her read it to him before he slept in the night. Forgetting such a memory would be a felony.
“Yes. It’s time to put the lessons learned from that story into reality. Believe whatever you think is right, if you think I am the spy then I wouldn’t question anything you say. Just uphold whatever you think is right at all times .” She stated, even though Roman was an Alpha’s son, she had trained to stand by his words at all times.
“With such a broad heart, I now doubt my accusations of you being able to spy on me. Thinking about it, it would be too reckless of a father to use someone like you- nice and all.” He sighed… “I’m sorry I misjudged you, you really couldn’t be the one.” he still remembered how she took care of him with so much care when he was a kid, she was like the mother he didn’t have.
“You don’t need to be sorry, I’m just glad you had trust in me, even though all clues would point me out as the spy. Thank you, Roman.” She appreciated bowing her head at him and he replied with a hum. He was embarrassed by how he acted towards an innocent person as his nanny Ivyand it made him feel guilty deep within.
“Oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t even offer you something on your first visit to my house. Permit to go get you some crunchy snacks that you could bite on for the main time.” She acquiesced getting up.
“I have something to tell you,” Roman uttered softly, he wasn’t planning on doing this but he believed this he was going to do would be the right thing, no doubt.
“But I- I wanted to got get….” She stuttered unable to complete her sentence because of Roman’s serious gaze.
“The snack or whatever could wait, I need to tell you the truth. At least I need to get Xander back home for his siesta, so telling you now is the right time.” He said in his usual low but the monotonous tune.
Ivy sat back down, patiently waiting for him to tell her the truth he was talking about.
“But before I start you need to promise me not to tell anyone. This piece of information I am about to disclose to you shouldn’t be shared with anyone, promise?” He quizzed, waiting for her reply, and she did a hand gesture of saying mouth sealed.
“I’m not mute, I was just pretending…” Ivy nodded, she knew that already didn’t she? " I was just doing it to find something’s out on father’s order….." He narrated all the truth leaving no piece of information out. He also told her about all his experiences throughout his years out of the pack.
“So you went all through this just to figure out some plan or whatever for good two whole years? And since you already know what Star moon pack and dead pull pack are scheming why didn’t you return home and continued pretending to be mute? You are an Alpha’s son and it’s more than mediocre to act mute on your part.” Yes, he was acting mute for a reason before but what she didn’t understand was why he kept on with the act.
“Lorelei, she’s my mate and I don’t know. I think the truth might hurt her a lot, given that I lied to her. I don’t know how to bring the news of being able to speak to her.” He let out a deep sigh, he was only staying back because he wasn’t planning on hurting Lei, her tears weakened him and it tug on his heart painfully. She had been through more than enough and he wasn’t willing to cause her more pain.
“I’m indeed very happy that you found your mate, it’s indeed a thing of joy but you should be cautious, especially now that you have Lorelei. The Alpha doubts your ability at the moment, he thinks you are mute and probably must be feeble. If anything delays your return back the Alpha might replace you with your brother Oscar without two thoughts. You know the Alpha doesn’t give a damn about anyone but his way to power.”
“I understand everything you just said, father cares only about his quest for more power but you have to promise me something now, that you wouldn’t tell anyone about what I just told you. It should be kept a secret between us. Nobody knows about it and you are the first I’m willingly telling, so promise not to say a word about it to anyone, Nanny Ivy.” He urged holding one of her hands because the other was occupied since he held onto Xander who was sleeping.
“I swear I won’t disclose it, trusting me with this vital information of yours warms my old heart deeply. It shows how much you trust me and I can tell you how much your trust means to me.” She smiled a tear out.
While coming here, he was full of slithering rage and a fit of tenacious anger that someone he considered dear to his heart was backstabbing him because of money but who knew he would come to realize that she wasn’t even the one that was spying on him? And he even ended up telling her every one of his secrets and the truth about it all to the same very person. But something was ringing in his mind ever since he realized he made a mistake about her. ‘If she wasn’t the spy, then who was?’ His father was cunningly smart, it was not easy getting to find out what he thought in that devious head of his, it was something they both had in common. The only thing that could be attributed to both of them was the way they thought.
‘Be cautious’ he remembered Ivy’s words from a while ago, he had to be cautious to avoid regrets.