Chapter 14

Dinner was quiet, they ate in silence for the most part, except for Emilia fussing once in a while, Lori had brought over the baby carrier so she could be put in while they ate their meal comfortably.

Lori went to her room to shower afterwards, Gabriel and Emilia stayed in the living room, with Gabriel setting up the mamaroo for Emilia before opening up his laptop to work a bit.

Lori was grateful for a few moments to herself, even if it was going to be minutes.

She ran to her room and practically peeled off her clothes. She checked her phone and saw no new notifications, not that she was expecting anything much, but a small part of her had wished that the Fullers called her.

Maybe she should let it go, she thought as she sighed.

Maybe she didn't need closure, maybe she didn't need to see her son’s grave, it was the words that kept coming to her all day after seeing Mrs Fuller. The literal anger and disgust on the woman's face.

They would always blame her and for some reason, they thought that hiding him away was a punishment for her, a consequence for her actions.


In the shower she scrubbed all her tirednesss and frustrations away, she really hoped Emilia slept through the night because she was looking forward to having a full uninterrupted sleep. But somehow, she knew it was not going to be possible, she thought as she got out of the shower, her hair was wet and her body was dripping with water.

Back in her room after drying off, she picked up yet another night shirt and decided on not wearing a bra, she would be breastfeeding the baby soon, she didn't need a bra.

With the nighshirt and nothing else underneath she stood in front of her vanity and combed her hair, wishing she had a hairdryer to get it drier fast so she wouldn't have to sleep with wet hair.

Soon she heard the hungry cries of Emilia and approaching footsteps and braced herself for the knock on the door.

And there was a knock.

Lori walked towards it and opened the door, Emilia was wailing.

Lori quickly took her from Gabriel's hands, ignoring the look on his face.

"She's hungry."

She said and Gabriel nodded.

"I was going to ask you to hold her while I make her a bottle."

She said and Lori shrugged.

"No need. I'll just breastfeed her."

Gabriel's cheeks tinged pink.

"I will give you privacy. I'll be back."

He added as he quickly closed the door behind him.

Lori chuckled at how embarrassed he looked.



He had no plans of letting Lori take care of Emilia for the night, but when she started to get fussy and he searched for a bottle to no avail, he took her upstairs so he could ask for where the bottles were kept.

He was a little rusty, when she was days old he used to take care of her night feeds and now he couldn't even remember where the bottles were kept.

When Lori opened the door and he saw her, the first thing he could see was her her nipples and the outline of her breast visible from the night shirt. That was the first thing he could see and as foolish as it was, he was struggling to take his eyes off her.

Lori had simply smiled and took the baby off his arms, looking up at him with her large hazel eyes as she casually mentioned breastfeeding. It took him back, back to that morning when he walked in on them. He imagined that one breast that was out with the rosy nipple.

Oh it was too much, all too much for him, her being his mate only made things worse, conversations awkward and hiding the whole thing was even harder.

He left the room before he further embarrassed himself.

She was probably thinking that he was being weird for no reason. And she was probably tired, he would wait till she was done so he could take the baby from her and continue for the night.



Emilia was hungry, ravenous even, but after a while, she started dozing off on her boob and Lori was relieved. Very relieved, because she was so tired. She burped her and then carried her in her arms and left the room, she would try and tuck her in as fast as possible and go get some sleep, perhaps she would be able to get in a few hours before she woke up fussy.

In the nursery, the door opened quietly and Gabriel walked in while she was wrapping her in a blanket.

"Go. Go get some rest. I'll watch her for this night."

He whispered quietly as he pointed to the door.

Lori looked at him incredulously.

"Really... but.."

Gabriel shook his head.

"I already figured out where the bottles are and there's formula so I'd feed her if she wakes up again, you can get some rest."

He said and Lori nodded.

"Thank you Gabriel." She said in relief as she backed away from the crib.

"It's no problem. She's my daughter."

He said as he ushered her out of the room.

Lori happily skipped to her room and landed on the bed with a groan.

Oh! Sweet sweet relief! She thought as she snuggled into the covers.

She sighed once again and closed her eyes, quickly falling asleep.




The baby monitor woke her up. Weird. Because she didn't remember it being in her room before she went to bed, but perhaps someone had dropped it in there. The baby monitor detected activity and voices. Lori shot up awake and realized that it was morning, the gentle rays of the sun was penetrating her room.

God, how long did she sleep? She asked herself as she picked up her phone and checked the time.

It was a few minutes after eight.

Shit!

Emilia was usually awake around six.

She shot out of bed and bolted out of the door, straight into the baby room where she found Grace playing the the baby on the rocking chair.

Grace looked up at her with a grin on her face.

"Hey! Good morning!"

"Grace! You're back."

She said and Grace nodded.

"Yea! Did you miss me?"

She asked and Lori shrugged.

"Well, to be honest I did."

She confessed as she sat on the sofa and Grace nodded.

"I got here very early this morning, as early as I could. I saw Mr Gabriel and he was about to leave, Emilia was already awake by then."

"He watched her all night! Can you believe it? I was so tired! I didn't even wake up for a second!"

"That's great! You need the rest! I heard you ran out of diapers? I'm so sorry. I'll go out and get more."

Lori nodded.

"It doesn't have to be now. I actually got quite enough for a few days."

"But enough about me or the baby, how was your day off?"

She asked and Grace shrugged.

"It was quiet. I went to the park for most of the day."

Lori crinkled her nose.

"That doesn't sound very fun."

Grace scoffed.

"When you're my age you'd be grateful for a little sunlight and a chance to feed ducks at the park."






"Is there something going on with you?"

Draco asked his Alpha as they walked the long halls of the Council. The United Council for Werewolf affairs to be precise, also more known by it’s Latin name Invito. They were quite famous for settling conflicts between packs and very good at it too, that and the fact that they kept the balance. They dealt with werewolves who threatened the safety of all other werewolves and they meted out appropriate punishments to omega wolves and bitten wolves that had no pack.

As famous as the Invito was, many packs, especially the old ones were very skeptical of them, they didn't like the presence of the Invito and loved their own autonomy. Gabriel's own father didn't like the Invito but had acknowledged their importance.

They were important to maintain the balance, that was good, that counted for something.

"What do you mean?"

Gabriel asked as he adjusted his suit. He didn't get much sleep, at all, he wondered how Lori did it. He forgot how fussy Emilia could be in the night. Luckily, Lori had slept through it all, he had only snuck into her room to drop off the baby monitor and he found her completely knocked out even that early in the morning.

Her hair was all over her face and she was snuggly under the covers, he could barely see her face.

"Elliot tells me you got Emilia a nanny. Why didn't you tell me that?"

Gabriel shrugged.

He clenched his jaw. This was why he didn't like Elliot in his house, or anywhere near him, he had a loose mouth. He was getting around to that, he was getting around telling Draco about all that.

"And that's not even all, Elliot tells me she's human. What's up with that? Why get a human staff?!"

He asked and Gabriel glanced at him.

"Now's not the time Draco, we have more pressing matters to attend to."

He said calmly and Draco narrowed his eyes at him.

"Fine. We'll talk about it after the council meeting."

Gabriel wasn’t planning on having that talk.



Finally at the end of the long hall, they stood in front of the long carved door where there were two guards right in front of it.

"Can we go in?"

Gabriel asked and one of the stoic guard shook his head.

"Alpha Sabine has to be present before the proceedings can be initiated."

Gabriel groaned, he checked his watch and drowned. He was early, she wasn't. Of course, how could he expect someone like her to keep to time.

"Well where the hell is she?"

He murmured as he looked around.

"I can direct you to a waiting room."

The other guard said and Gabriel shook his head.

"No, thanks."

"There she comes."

Draco whispered as he turned to look at Sabine approaching them, the sound of her heels could be heard all through the hall. There was a silly smirk on her face and she was flanked by her second in command Vara.

Vara was even worse than Sabine, in cruelty and in looks, the woman was pure evil, one could tell with the long thick scar that marred the left side of her face.

A scar many said she had gotten as a teenager during her first shift, how she had gotten into it, nobody knew the details, only that it happened on the night of her her first shift.

"Gabriel. You came this time."

Sabine purred.

A delectable woman, Sabine Reinhardt could be described as many men's dream. She was the perfect human specimen. Tall, slim but athletic build, long wavy blond hair and a small heart shaped face, unfortunately Gabriel was very immune to her looks, especially when she had such a nasty attitude.

"Sabine. Can we get this over with? I have things to do."

He said as he looked at his watch.

Sabine raised her eyebrow.

"Oh yea. I heard. Congratulations by the way."

Gabriel raised his eyebrows.

"Excuse me?"

He asked and Sabine smiled sneakily.

"Oh! You thought I wouldn't find out? I heard about your little illegitimate daughter."

"Congratulations on being a father."