Chapter 43 - Hiding in plain sight.

ALARIC PACED HIS OFFICE to the point of near insanity. Maybe Rebecca was right? Maybe he was seeing things where there wasn’t anything to see … He sighed, pulling his fingers through his hair for the umpteenth time before deciding to go back.

He shifted without thinking and returned to the coven grounds sniffing the air. He quickly found their tracks from before, as well as the small tracks in the sand that looked like a race track. His eyes snapped up and he carefully scanned his surroundings, but besides the tracks there was no sign of life on the coven grounds. Could someone else have come here? He walked around sniffing the air but there was no sign of anybody around and those tracks were too fresh. They were made fairly recently. It had to be Lena, it just had to be.

LENA WATCHED ALARIC’s wolf carefully as he walked around the camp. Her mind raced to remember if she ever told him where her house was. She was almost sure she did and all she could do now was pray that he didn’t remember or hadn’t come to her home.

She had been pondering moving into one of the other houses where the roof was more stable, and maybe it was time to do that. She couldn’t afford for Alaric to walk in there and find that someone had actually been living there. Her head whipped around when her son shifted around on his chair and she closed her eyes for a split second as she sent up another prayer in the hopes that Alaric hadn't heard. His black eyes were carefully studying their home and it felt as if he was looking right at her for a moment before he turned and took off in the direction of the pack house.

That was just too close to comfort! Lena breathed a sigh of relief as she flopped down on the floor and tears started to stream down her face. What was she thinking? She couldn't stay there with her son! Alaric was bound to find them! But where else would she go?

“It’s okay, mommy. I’m here.” Her son's little hand stroked the side of her cheek as she always did for him whenever he had a nightmare. He handed her a soaking cloth she had been using earlier while cleaning and she smiled at him. She wiped her face, fighting not to pull a face. The cloth didn't smell clean after all the cleaning she did that morning and she pondered going down to the river for a swim, but after their exciting morning, it wasn't such a great idea. No, they had to be extra careful.

Lena looked through every window to make sure there was nobody outside. Gripping her son’s hand, she stepped out of the door and gasped. Alaric jumped out from behind a bush and their eyes met for a moment. She was frozen in time and only felt her body come back to life when her son screamed in horror. It took yet another moment for her to realize that he probably thought the black wolf had come for them and she quickly rushed to pick him up and comfort him. Just a couple of feet away, Alaric was shifting back into his human form while Lena tried to explain to her son that he wasn’t the beast.

“Lena,” A multitude of emotions crossed Alaric’s face, but the only thing Lena was feeling was fear. They had been hiding for so long. Things were going so damn well!

“Mommy, he isn’t wearing clothes.” Her son giggled, hiding his little face in her neck and she sighed. She had her hands full just a couple of months back trying to explain to her son why it was necessary to wear clothes!

“I know, baby. He is a werewolf. Remember mommy explained about werewolves. When they shift, they don’t have clothes on.” The little boy nodded and Lena knew deep down inside that she had better introduce them. Her son was a carbon copy of his father. He had black hair and beautiful eyes, just like Alaric. There was no hiding it anymore.

“Alaric, this is your son ... Benjamin, but he likes to be called Ben. Ben, honey, this is your father.” The moment she said the words she could see she had undone everything she ever taught her child. One of those things being that his father died. Little Ben surprised her when he took a step forward and held out his little hand to Alaric. It completely disappeared in Alaric’s big hand as he shook his son’s hand and then his eyes found Lena’s again for a moment.

“Were those your tracks?” Alaric pointed at the race track her son built in the sand just that morning and she rolled her eyes. Of course, that would be what unwrapped all of this! They found some old books and toy cars in one of the houses and Ben loved playing with his cars outside after reading about racing. He wanted to become a race driver one day and Lena had her hands full in trying to teach her son that they had to hide there from the beast.

The same beast that seemed to have found them ... She watched as the two men in her life walked over to where Ben had built his little race track and he explained in detail how each turn and corner needed to be navigated. He even surprised Lena, since they didn’t have a television and he could only get his information from the few books they had.

Lena knew Alaric was going to have questions, but for now it seemed he was completely engrossed in their son. She made them some of her favourite tea and took it to the two who were sitting at the track discussing what car would be best to race on dirt. Lena couldn’t smile at either of them because while she was making the tea, her nerves started to eat away at her. What was Alaric going to do? Would he demand that he wanted his son? What would she do without him?

ALARIC WAS POSITIVELY in love with his little one. He was furious that Lena hid it from him and he wondered if she knew she was pregnant when she took off. His mind was all over the place when he was meant to focus on only one thing. He needed to get to know this amazing little boy who seemed to love cars and racing.

When Lena appeared with some tea it almost felt as if she was intruding and Alaric fought the urge to growl at her. The last thing he needed right now was for Ben to be frightened of him. He grew up possibly only knowing his mother and nobody else.

“So, tell me about this beast Ben has been telling me about. He thought I was here to kill him and that I was the beast.” Lena’s eyes grew wide for a split second before she recovered.

“It’s a story my parents told me when I was small. I told Ben to keep him safe.” She sighed and hid half of her face behind a chipped cup as she took a sip which told Alaric she was lying. He couldn’t very well call her out in front of Ben, forcing him to let it go until he could speak to Lena alone.

“Well,” Alaric sighed, getting up. “I can’t hang around naked all day. Grab your things and let’s go.” He waved in the direction of wherever she had come from and when she frowned, he knew he was going to have a fight on his hands. Did he really think she would go back to the pack house with him? Yup, that was what he was hoping for. “Lena, don’t make this more difficult than it has to be. You and I won’t share a room, but I will be damned if my son is going to be brought up in the middle of the wilderness! Where is he going to go to school? Does he even know what electricity is?” Alaric finally lost it as he started to name all the things they clearly didn’t have.

“Mommy, please can we go with Alaric! Please!” Ben stepped in between them before Lena could say anything and she sighed. She seemed to think about it for a moment and then nodded. Ben squealed with delight and ran into something. Alaric couldn’t see where he disappeared off to. It looked as though there was no building he disappeared into and Alaric looked at Lena for a moment before deciding to investigate.

The moment he noticed the door, he realized how they had been hiding from the pack all this time. It was some kind of invisibility spell and he had been right. They had home-made candles and there was a steel tub in the middle of the living room which told him they also had no running water. How the hell did she raise a baby like this?! He had to admit that he was impressed, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to say it out loud.

Ben showed Alaric his room while he packed all his toys into a small bag. By the time they were finished, they found Lena in the dining room. She was packing the last of their fresh supplies into a basket and Alaric took it from her. Outside, he shifted into his wolf form and Ben took a step back, forcing Alaric to lower himself so he didn’t look so ominous. Lena took Ben’s hand and she lifted him up onto Alaric’s back. She was about to start walking when Alaric shoved his nose into her back and tilted his head to one side, which made Ben laugh.

“NO! I’m not riding you!” Lena frowned, only realizing the mischief in Alaric’s eyes after she said the damn words. She sighed and climbed onto Alaric’s back behind Ben. With her bag over her shoulder and her basket in one hand, she could hold on with the other. Ben squealed in delight as Alaric took off and Lena felt as if she was going back to prison.