Chapter 87

ANASTASIA MULBERRY

Due to just how much she wanted to march over to the pack house, grab her mate by the balls and demand that he makes everything right, she was glad that it wasn’t an option.

The fact that Marcellus wasn’t at the pack right now had spurred her on to driving over to the Lupum Griseo pack and spending some quality time with her best friend and his family; eager and excited to see little baby Alistair again even though she had visited them twice already this week. With the perks of still being on maternity leave mixed in with the fact that Marcellus seemed to have a lot of business with the Red Howler pack this week, was more than enough for Anastasia to take advantage and make the most of the situation while she still could.

Surely, it was only a matter of time before he banned her from the pack for denying him.

“Why do you keep zoning out?” Raphael asked as he plopped himself down on the sofa next to her.

Anastasia blinked and shook her head to force herself out of her thoughts. When she turned to face Raphael, she shook her head before accepting the bottle of milk. Turning her head to glance down at the hungry boy in her arms, she cooed gently before softly pressing the nip of the bottle to his little mouth.

The pair of them all but melted as Alistair opened his little mouth and accepted the bottle. Every time he kicked out, he hit his dad but Raphael didn’t care, finding it cute and quite humorous instead.

“Are you thinking about him again?” Raphael asked softly as he played with Alistair’s feet, rubbing his thumb gently up and down the soft skin there.

“Who?” Anastasia asked with feigned innocence even though she knew exactly who he was referring to.

Raphael sent her a pointed, deadpan look, rolling her eyes at her poor acting skills.

“Please, babe. Don’t act like you don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?” She continued the act, choosing to pull faces at the baby rather than having her friend continue to analyse her behaviour and read into everything just as he had been trying to do since the moment that she told him and his mate the truth of her and Alpha Marcellus; two mates that couldn’t be more wrong for each other.

“Babe! You can’t be serious right now!”

Before Anastasia could respond with another innocent act, a laugh sounded from the doorway of the living room and as they both glanced up, they spotted a one Justas Constantine who had a mug of coffee for all three of them.

“You’re a lot of things, Anastasia Mulberry, but you’re not an actress.” Justas chuckled as he placed the tray of coffee and snacks on the coffee table in front of them before taking a seat on the single arm chair in front of the fireplace, a soft look in his eyes as he stared back at some of the most important people to him, Anastasia included.

“That’s not fair. You guys always gang up on me about these types of things.” She huffed as she pulled back the bottle lightly, Alistair having pushed it out with his tongue. After a few seconds of him squirming in her arms, she tried to get him to suckle on the nip again but Alistair merely turned his head away and cried out, clearly not hungry anymore.

“He hasn’t finished it all. There’s still about half of the milk left.” Anastasia hummed quietly as she handed off the bottle to Raphael so she could burp Alistair, not wanting him to choke on the milk that he had just drunk.

“That’s okay.” Justas hummed quietly as he rose to his feet and took the bottle from his mate, wanting to wash and sterilise it for the next feed even though they had a few other spare bottles. “We’ll just try again in an hour or two.”

“Have you spoken to Alpha Marcellus since ruined your date with Harvey?” Raphael asked curiously.

“It wasn’t a date.” She was quick to deny, genuinely meaning it despite the fact that no one seemed to believe her; not even Harvey himself.

While she had intended to throw out both Harvey and Marcellus from her house that day, the Alpha wolf had made it so that only Harvey had left; leaving the both of them alone. She may not have agreed with Marcellus’ antics, behaviour or attitude toward the situation, she couldn’t help but see where he was coming from. In fact, she had felt the same way when she had learnt that he was tinkering around the idea of taking a choice mate even after finding out that they were mates.

The fact that Harvey had allowed Marcellus to provoke him, even going as far as to claim that he hoped to take Anastasia as a mate in the near future despite the fact that she had never encouraged him to think or feel that way, had really done it for and in the moment, she was glad to see him go.

However, after some thinking and time to calm down, she had texted him and they had met up for breakfast the next morning. While it had been awkward and tense at times, an uncomfortable silence being the third wheel on their friendly brunch, they had both apologised for their behaviour their previous day and decided for there to be no hard feelings between them. Since then, they had continued to text back and forth but there were no imminent plans to meet up again.

“But I haven’t spoken to Marcellus since then.”

Raphael hummed in response, now playing with Alistair’s sleepy fingers while staring up at his best friend with a soft, concerned look in his eyes.

“Do you want to know what I think?”

“Always.” She hummed in response.

“I think you deserve to be happy.” He murmured quietly. “And I can tell you that no one will make you as happy as your mate can and vice versa, but that also doesn’t mean that your mate should be able to get away for all the bullshit that he’s trying to pull.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

“It isn’t my place, babe.” Raphael shook his head gently. “I don’t want to tell you what to do, but I just want you to know that whatever you choose to do, I will stand by you and support you all the way. No matter what.”

Anastasia sighed and nodded her head, glad that Raphael was being honest with her while also not trying to sway her opinion either way. Despite the fact that they were best friends and she trusted him with her life, Anastasia had feared that he would attempt to work in favour of his Alpha and push her to forgive him but staring back at him now, she knew she couldn’t have been more wrong.

When Justas next returned to the living room, Alistair was asleep in Anastasia’s arms so he picked up the little guy and placed him down in the baby bassinet that they kept downstairs as he would be able to sleep there for longer rather than in her arms. Not to mention that it would become uncomfortable for them both after a little while.

“I think I’m going to head home now, guys.” Anastasia announced as she rose to her feet and stretched her arms above her head. “I want to finish another chapter tonight after dinner.”

“You’re not going to stay for dinner?” Justas asked with a light frown on his face. “We were thinking of making tacos.”

“That sounds amazing.” She grinned. “But I really want to get one more chapter done tonight and if I stay for dinner, I just know that isn’t going to happen.”

Justas and Raphael shared a knowing look but neither of them protested further as she slipped her coat on and laced up her boots.

“Are you leaving because of what I said?” Raphael whispered as he pulled her in for a hug after having walked her out to her car.

“No, of course not.” Anastasia denied with a small smile as she squeezed him back before they pulled away from the hug. “I’m glad you told me truthfully what you were thinking but honestly, I don’t really know what I’m going to do about him.”

“Just give it some time, babe.” He murmured quietly and pressed his lips to the crown of her head, genuinely torn up inside at the thought of all that she was currently going through, and he was helpless to help out in any way, shape or form. “I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but everything will fall into place eventually. You just have to ride out the bad waves.”

“I know, Ralph.” She murmured back. “I love you.”

“I love you too Ana.”