Chapter 2

**Molly** “Where do we even send them?” I ask Seth as he closes my office door behind me. “I’m not sure,” he says, pulling out a chair for me. “My uncle would probably let us send them to his pack, but we’d have to tell him why.” I nod, placing my hands over our growing pup. He's been moving around more recently and, well, this little guy is strong. “I think we’ll have to tell the Alpha wherever we send them. I’m not even sure they’ll willingly go, though. We’re taking them from their home.” “What choice do we have, though?” he asks me, taking a seat across the desk from me. “Alex is clearly afraid of Lucas, and whoever the other guy is… we need all the information we can get. Lucas is still playing nice, acting like he’s completely out of this, but we both know he’s not.” I sigh, knowing he’s right. The whole situation is awful, but Alex is the one who got himself into the mess, dragging his family in with him. “Can you call him? It’s Austin, right?” “Yeah, I can,” he tells me with a nod. “The only other pack I’d feel comfortable moving them to would be Blood Moon, but they’re so close to the rogue lands I don’t think it’s the best idea. Pink Moon is pretty far from the outside border. They’ll be safer there, and less likely to be found.” “We need everyone to think that Alex is dead, that Della couldn’t make it through the loss of the bond, and we took the children to family elsewhere,” I say, thinking it’s the best way to remove any suspicions that Lucas may have. It’s taken so long for Alex to tell us ANYTHING, surely he doesn’t see him as a threat. Seth nods in agreement. “That’s probably the best way. Della’s parents will have to stay, though.” I wince as the pup kicks me, hard. “It’s an absolute miracle that Andrew didn’t hurt Cora in here. This one is so strong Seth. So strong.” "And still nameless." He smiles at me, standing to walk over and kneel next to me, placing his hand on my stomach. “We need strong boys to take care of their special sister.” “She has you,” I tell him with a giggle as he kicks again, right at Seth’s hand. “Goddess, he IS strong,” he tells me surprised, but smiling so brightly. He’s so proud of his strong son, even if he is hurting me. “A few months, Love. You can make it. Go lay down and rest. I’ll call Austin and see if we can make some kind of arrangement.” ---------------------------------- **Seth** We walk down to our meeting with my uncle. Molly takes a seat at the table, this time remembering she’s the Queen and sitting without speaking to him or the man he’s brought with him. “I don’t recall your father ever letting Audrey sit in on a meeting,” Lucas tells me, raising an eyebrow. “I am not my father,” I say with a shrug, sitting back in the chair as casually as he is. “And I don’t LET the Queen do anything. She makes her own decisions.” “No offense was intended,” Lucas tells me and turns to my mate. “I’m quite glad that you’re here. You’re far more level headed than my nephew.” She smiles at him sweetly, but I can see that his words upset her. “I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met,” Molly says to the gentleman Lucas has brought with him, completely ignoring my uncle. “I’m Queen Molly, and this is King Seth.” “This is David,” Lucas tells us. “He’s who I would like to name as Alpha of the new pack.” David. No last name, nothing else. He just introduced him as David. I look at the man, trying to figure out exactly what he’s playing at. He’s large, but not as large as many Alphas. His blonde hair is clean and well kept. His blue eyes are staring straight into my mate, but not in a lustful way, but as if he’s searching for something. “You have the Alpha gene,” Molly says and after she says it, I can sense it. It’s can be hard to sense it when you’re a royal, but Molly unknowingly grew up with it. She can sense it easily, perhaps better than I can because she has it, or perhaps it’s from her magic. “I do,” he confirms, smiling at her in a way that I really don’t like. “Then why are you not serving as Alpha?” I ask gruffly. Perhaps he’s the third born, but it feels strong. He looks at me, sizing me up, like he has any chance against me. “A misunderstanding long ago,” he says flippantly, and his eyes return to my mate. “You really have magic?” She nods at him, not giving a single emotion away, but I can feel through our bond how uncomfortable he’s made her. “A little,” she says softly. “Things happened. It’s not as strong as it could have been.” He nods, accepting her answer and not asking more. Can HE sense how uncomfortable it made her? She’s hiding it so well that I highly doubt it, but her answer was unusually vague. “Seth,” Lucas says, bringing me from my thoughts. “David is well respected among my pack. They will follow him happily.” “It’s not your pack, Lucas” Molly speaks up, causing a smile to tug at my lips. “It’s not a pack at all, right? That’s what you told us.” Lucas suppresses a smile, his eyes looking down to Molly’s stomach. “I’ve offered numerous times to have you visit to see for yourselves, but my nephew refuses to let you while you’re pregnant. Clearly you two value your family more than these lost rogues.” Altair tugs at me, trying to come forward, but I pull him back. “You know that isn’t what’s happening.” The audacity of this man. We’ve opened our home, let them get to know us. He’s using his knowledge of my girl’s heart to play against us. “If you remember, many attempts have been made, by YOU, to hurt my family. We can’t possibly sit on the thrones safely without an entire line of heirs.” “Your family has nothing to worry about,” he reassures me with a smile, but I don’t trust him. David leans forward, folding his hands together and leaning on the table. “I’m not interested in hurting your mate or your pups. In fact, I can’t. I owe her mother a life debt. No harm will come to her from my hands, ever.” Molly wrinkles her forehead, clearly unable to hide anything now. “My mom? How do you know her?” I find it hard to hide my surprise as well. I look at the man again. He does seem to be around the same age as my uncle, who is just a few years younger than my dad. It makes sense he would know Celeste. “I know your mom very well,” David says with a smile. “You look so much like Lily,” he tells her and her worry grows even stronger. “She was kind to me at a time that I needed it. I didn’t have anyone or anything, but she shared what she had and helped heal me.” Molly nods at him, listening to what he has to say, not interrupting him. He glances over at me, but immediately back to my love. Lily isn’t the mom that I expected him to know, and I’m sure that she’s thinking the same thing. “When I was cast out as a rogue, I was attacked and injured. Lily took me in, cared for me, nursed me back to health. She didn’t cast me out once I was healed, either. She let me stay until I had regained enough strength to take care of myself,” he says, his eyes never leaving my mates. “I hadn’t realized she was your mother until we were attacking and I saw her holding a protection spell over the cabin. I immediately called everyone off, realizing I couldn’t hurt her daughter. I assume you were the added source of the explosion of magic that happened before we could retreat, though.” Don’t let him know it was Cora, Molly tells me through the link, her voice filled with panic. “I did what I could,” she says to him sweetly. “I was a bit pre-occupied at that time giving birth without a doctor and all.” “I am sorry about that,” he says, and he looks completely sincere. “If I had realized at any point that you were Lily’s then I would have called everyone off far sooner.” She nods once, not giving any indication about he feelings about it, but all I can feel through the bond is her complete and utter confusion. "I'm sorry, what was your name again? I'm so terrible with names. It's probably my worst trait." He smiles at her, and it seems genuine. "No worries. I'm sure you meet a lot of people as Queen. I'm David, David Mingan."