Book 1: Chapter 31

*** Silas POV *** 



“Alpha, I was hoping to get you to take care of these before the end of the day.”

Sam walked into my office. He wasn’t paying attention but pulling out a few pages from the bunches he had in his hands. When he looked up, he froze. Eros was the one sitting at the desk, pen in hand, doing paperwork.

“I…um…Alpha…”

“Yes, Gamma?” Eros voice came through low as he smiled at Sam.

Sam stuttered. “I…I just…we were…is…”

“Gamma, spit it out if you want me to do any work by the end of the day.”

He cleared his throat. “A few of the guys would like to trade positions from morning patrol to night and vise versa. I’ve made the list of names but there is an odd man out for the switch so someone would either not get it or someone from the night would need to switch in the mornings.”

“Understood. Place it here and I’ll take a look at it.” Eros tapped the top of the pile of papers to his right. “Anything else?”

“Um…I…yes. Is everything okay?”

Eros raised an eyebrow. “Everything is fine, Gamma.”

“It’s just…I mean…no offense but you don’t seem the type to want to do paperwork. Alpha, he…”

“Doesn’t like to do it either?”

Sam snorted. “Well yes, but I can’t even nail Renji down at a desk, let alone have him actually do something related to paperwork.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t do it, Gamma. We are two halves of a whole. I know what Silas knows and visa versa. Except the times that we are able to lock away our minds or we lock away each other.”

“I mean…I know…but…”

Eros rose from his seat, making Sam step back a couple steps. Walking around the desk, he stood in front of Sam, towering over him. Sam was tall, taller than even Nate but he shrunk down in the face of 6’7” Eros. He started to shake as Eros let slip a little of his Alpha presence. Shutting his eyes tight, the papers in his hands crumbled and Eros smirked.

“Oh, little Gamma…there is still so much you need to learn.”

“I…I’m…sorry…Alpha…” Sam struggled and as his knees gave out, I reached out to hold him up.

Chuckling, I lifted him up. “Sam, come on. Snap out of it.”

Sam whimpered, looking up at me. “Alpha…”

“Sorry. I heard Eros cackling a little too late.”

Taking a deep breath, Sam righted himself and adjusted the now slightly crumpled papers him his arms. I stepped back, leaning against my desk but I was smirking. Eros apparently had decided to mess with him a little for implying that he couldn’t do paperwork.

“Is everything okay? I don’t think I’ve seen Eros take over like that.”

I hummed. “I’ve got a lot on my mind, Sam. Sometimes it takes me stepping back for a moment to think about it. With the mountain of paperwork you give me, I can’t very well just ignore it.”

“Right.”

“What was the other thing? Besides the patrol switch?”

He took a breath. “Are you avoiding Beta?”

My eyebrow quirked up. “Avoiding? No. Why?”

“He just…he asked me to speak with you about the church project since he hasn’t actually been able to speak with you. For a week.” Sam was now eyeing me. “That’s a suspiciously long time to not be speaking to him.”

“We had an argument the other day. I just thought I would lay off a little bit, that’s all. I’ll speak to him about the project later once I get the pile of work done.”

Sam clicked his tongue. “You guys always have arguments. About everything. You don’t lay off. You guys just ignore anything each other says till the next time. What is really going on with you, Alpha? You’ve been off…”

“Sam, leave it.”

“How can I leave it? If something is going on with you, between you and Beta, shouldn’t I know? I mean that’s what…”

My voice rose and I stood up from my relaxed lean on the desk. “Sam, stop.” His mouth promptly shut. “I won’t ask again. Leave it.”

He nodded slowly. “Just talk to him. Honestly, I think he’s a little lost when you push him away like this. He’s been in his office more than I think I have ever seen him in there.”

I chuckled. “Oh, so he’s actually doing work? Maybe I should let it be then.”

“Don’t you dare.” Sam turned on his heel. Before he shut the door, he looked back at me. “You can tell Eros that it wasn’t funny.”

Snorting, I rolled my eyes as he slammed the door. Sitting back down at my desk, I took in the paper Eros was last working on.

*'Did it help? The couple hours?'*

Picking up my pen, I started to write the final notes and put it in the pile on the left. '*Yes and no. The last thing I want to do right now is leave for another month. Especially with Aelia actually here but I don’t know how to get out of it. Get out of not finding my mate for a month in a different pack territory.'*

*'Your fear is that you don’t have a mate. Why not ask Aelia now? She’s not gone, she can still see them I’m sure. You could ask.'*

I signed the next three papers. *'Maybe, I could just ask her to connect me to someone. Someone here.'*

Eros snorted in my head.* 'Oh yeah? Like who? That she-wolf Victoria?'*

*'Valarie and no. Someone Aelia would choose. She’s always been good at that.'*

He sighed. *'You can try but I don’t think it will go well.'*

I paused, staring down at the paper in front of me, with the list of guys that wanted to swap their patrol times. *'Thanks, Eros. For giving me that time.'*

*'Gamma made it worth it.'* He cackled in the back of my head and I rolled my eyes.

Working for another hour or so, I leaned back and cracked my neck. Picking up my phone, I scrolled through the contacts until I reached Solaris. She’d given it to me after I dropped her off at her bike. I’d kept it as Solaris just in case Nate decided to borrow my phone, since he had a habit of losing his. Pulling up a text message, I stared at the blank message.

        ** ‘I had a question for you.’**

There was a minute but a reply popped up.

         ** ‘Shoot.’**

I stared at the message and sighed before I started texting.

        ** ‘If I asked, would you match me with someone from the pack?’**

There was a long silence. So much so, I put my phone down and worked on a few more pages of signatures before my phone vibrated again.

        **  ’No.’**

I stared at the reply. Eros snorted in my mind, expecting it but I furrowed my brow.

         **‘Why?’**

She didn’t reply. I put my phone down again and after an hour I realized I probably wasn’t going to be getting a reply either. From when we were young, I knew she didn’t have an issue with messing with the people closest to us. Though, she never did touch our father, me or Nate. She was already Nate’s fated so she would need to break that connection in order for her to alter that. A question popped up in my mind and I lifted my phone again, pulling up my messages.

          **‘Why not just break the bond between you and Nate?’**

It was a moment of silence before she replied.

     **‘You ask too many questions I can’t answer, Sil.’**

Growling, I lobbed my phone into the couch in my office. Nate happened to be opening up the door timidly at the point and his eyes watched it bounce on the cushion then fall to the floor.

“Bad time?”

“No. Just…what’s up? Sam said you wanted to talk to me about the church reconstruction project.”

He came in and shut the door behind him. “Yeah. I managed to keep everything under the budget that you requested. However, the construction crew found an issue with the plumbing. Frankly, it’s the plumbing of the whole street. Apparently, lines are crossed and it’s not only inefficient but state law requires it to be a certain way. I was wondering if you needed me to submit another separate project that you can take a look. Since it’s the whole of Main Street.”

Rubbing my eyes, I nodded. “Let’s do that. Provide me the details of the original piping, the new proposed, see if we can’t get a couple more estimates since these guys were only for the church project, and then I’d also like the state law as well.”

“Okay. I’ll do that. Is there anything else you would like me to do?”

“No, I think thats fine. Thank you for staying under budget. That’s a monumental task considering the size of the new building going up.”

Nate didn’t say anything for a moment. “Look, I know lately has been rough. I just…”

“I’m not avoiding you, Nate. I’ve been busy as well. Honestly, I don’t know of a way to get out of the Elders sending me for another month to another pack only to come up empty handed and irritable.”

He chuckled. “I mean, you never know. Your mate could be there. Would that be so terrible?”

“Yes. Now I don’t need any more idiocy out of your mouth. If you aren’t going to help, then just be prepared to take over my desk for a month.”

“Sam did a great job last time.”

I sighed. “You can’t disappear like you did last time on him. That’s not fair to him or the pack.”

“I only follow up when I hear news. That’s it. It happened to be local that time. So I just left for a little bit.”

“Nate, I am asking you. That’s all.” Looking back down at the paper in front of me, I picked up my pen again.

He lingered for a moment before heading out of my office. I couldn’t really fault him for leaving anymore. Even though I could tell him it was ridiculous. Tell him he was looking in all the wrong places now. But that would require me to explain how I knew why suddenly I wasn’t continuously repeating to him that she was dead.

Nate had been right all along. After going home that night, I stood in the shower feeling overwhelming guilt flood into me. I’d listened to my father over the one person who was always there for me. His feelings and his connection he had to her, were stronger than I realized. More importantly, after my father was exiled I should have questioned everything, including Aelia’s death. But I didn’t.

I’d thought she would be angry at me for it. Especially after hearing about what she went through after we had given up. She wasn’t though. Her only anger was that I’d let my father seep into me, that the Alpha he raised me to be was coming out in my anger and lashing out at rogues. Never angry that I let her go.

Getting up, I grabbed my jacket and headed out of the office. Sam was in the kitchen on his tablet and I slammed my hand down on his shoulder, startling him.

“I did as much as I could for today. You can grab the paperwork on the left side of the desk. I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going? Will you be back in time for dinner?”

I shook my head. “Out. Taking the truck. And no, just eat without me.”

“You sure you’re okay?”

Smiling at Sam, I nodded. Turning, I grabbed my keys and headed out the door. Pulling up my phone, I dialed the number I’d last texted.

“Meet me at The Crossroads.”

Hanging up without an answer, I jumped in my truck and pulled out of the driveway and down the road.