~~
Reece
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The entire time that I was driving home from the university, I thought about calling Shawn or Dietrich. I needed to tell them about their daughter and how she somehow managed to find her mate. And that she seemed to have forgotten to tell them. I was even wondering if her siblings knew about him.
However, I didn't call either of them. Mostly because I was also lost in thoughts about finding this boy named Clovio and ripping him to pieces. I mean, my little girl, my little Rika, that was just a tiny and adorable little baby, was telling me that she thinks that this boy was her mate. That this strange boy who I had never met was going to take her away from me and.. and.. and he was going to do things to her.
“RRRAAAWWWRRRGGGHHH!” I roared ferociously in the car the moment that I pulled into the underground garage at the castle. “NO BOY THAT I DON'T KNOW IS GOING TO COME AND STEAL MY LITTLE GIRL AWAY FROM ME! I'LL KILL HIM BEFORE I LET THAT HAPPEN!” I snarled the words angrily. I already hated this Clovio. I already wanted to make him regret the day that he was ever born. I wanted to end him.
The entire walk to the elevator, the entire ride up to the floor where my office and Trinity's office were located, all that time I was seeing red. I was so pissed off and all that had happened was the equivalent of my daughter telling me that she liked a boy. DAMMIT! Having daughters is the hardest thing in the world. I needed to lock Rika and Talia away until they were over one hundred years old. And when Zaley started getting interested in boys, then I would lock her away as well. They needed to stay my precious little girls forever. I couldn't lose them. They were my babies.
.....
“Damn, what the hell happened to you?” Noah asked me the moment that I stormed into Trinity's office.
“Rika said that she thinks this boy at university is her mate.” I glared at the desk as I flung myself into Trinity's chair. She wasn't back yet.
“Oh, shit!” I heard Noah's voice as he pulled a chair closer to the desk. “She isn't sure if he is? Or does she truly think that he might be?” He was trying to help me work through my red fogged brain.
“She didn't sound certain.” I shook my head trying to clear out the fog.
“She's already eighteen. If he was her mate, then she would know. So, I think that it might just be a case of her having a really intense crush.” His words softened the red glow in my vision just a little bit.
“Yeah, maybe you're right.”
“What's he right about?” Dietrich asked as he and Shawn walked into the room.
“Ahh, just the men that I needed to see.” I felt that anger rising in me again. Alyssa isn't my daughter, but I have known her since she was a week old. She is like a niece to me for crying out loud. I wasn't about to let this slide for her either. She was family and pack, and that meant that she was my responsibility as well.
“What is it?” Shawn asked as he saw the anger in my eyes.
“You won't believe what Rika told me this morning. And I am betting that this is going to be a major shock to you.” The feral monster inside of me was imagining that it was Warrick that I was destroying now.
“What? What happened?” Dietrich was starting to get worried now. I could see the looks in both his and Shawn's eyes. They were almost the same as they worried about what might have happened.
“Rika said that little Alyssa has a mate.”
“WHAT!?” Noah shouted at the revelation.
“IMPOSSIBLE!” Dietrich's voice was just as loud and intense as Noah's.
“I'LL FUCKING KILL HIM!” Shawn snarled loudly.
“Whoa! What the hell is going on in here?” Shane asked as he came striding into the room.
“Who is he? Who is this boy that thinks he can take my daughter?” Shawn was growling ferally.
“What the fuck, brother? What is going on?” Shane could tell that his brother was truly upset about something. “What happened?”
“ALYSSA HAS A MATE!” Shawn forced the words through his teeth.
“Wait! Really?” Shane was having a hard time believing it as well.
“It just can't be.” Dietrich was shaking his head. “She doesn't know what it means to be with someone. She doesn't know that this boy is her mate.” Dietrich was a lot more pale than he usually was. “It just can't be true, can it?” He was looking at Shawn with panic and worry in his eyes.
“No. It can't be. She is just a baby. She is just a little girl. Sh..sh..she can't have a mate. She just can't.” I saw Shawn with red rimmed eyes as he looked at his husband. “Tell me that it's a lie, Liebling. Tell me that it's just a cruel sick joke.”
“I wish it were a joke, Shawn. But I am serious. Lyssa seems to think that this Warrick is her mate.”
“Wait, Warrick?” Dietrich looked at me with wide wondering eyes. “What's his last name? Do you know?”
“Abitz. His name is Warrick Abitz.” I spat the name like it was something disgusting. “Why?”
“That is a German name.”
“Congrats to you, Dietrich.” Shane didn't sound like he was joking, despite the words. “Your future son in-law hails from the same origins as you.”
“Ha ha ha.” Dietrich's sardonic laugh held absolutely no humor. “I mean that it is a German name. And we're investigating a group of murderous Germans. At the moment, anyone that hails from my native country is a suspect in my mind. And if this 'boy',” Dietrich spat the word like it was filled with disgusting poison, “is really from Germany and not just of German descent, then he is on my suspect list too. And that means that this boy is going to get one hell of an interrogation sometime very soon.”
“Shit!” Shane's eyes went wide.
“Fuck!” Noah matched him.
“He better fucking not be part of this.” I snarled. “I'll kill him twice.”
“My sentiments exactly, Reece.” Shawn's words were cold and venomous.
“I need to protect my little girl.” Dietrich added as he seethed with rage.
For several moments, the five of us just stood there and let the anger and rage burn inside of us. I don't know about the others, but I was imagining what I was going to do to this Warrick and Clovio. I was thinking that maybe dismemberment, disembowelment, and perhaps cutting them into ribbons with my claws. And that would just be a start. These were our little girls that those boys were trying to take from us. They were too young for this. They were not ready to meet their mates. They needed to give it some time, see the world, learn and grow. Maybe a few hundred years or a millennium, perhaps that would be enough time.
“What the hell happened to you lot?” Juniper asked as she came into the room with Paul and Cedar.
“You look like someone just stole the last cookie and you all wanted to fight over it.” Paul laughed.
“Shut up, moron.” Cedar snapped at him. “What happened, Reece? Were there more murders?” I guess our rage would lead them in that line of thinking.
“No.” I snarled out angrily.
“It has nothing to do with the case.” Noah added to the snarled words.
“My daughter Alyssa thinks that she has met her mate.” Shawn growled.
“And Rika thinks that she might have hers as well.” The others hadn't known about Rika. Only Noah knew. This led to a whole new round of questions and snarls from Shawn, Dietrich and Shane.
“Look, I get that you're upset, I really do.” Juniper was almost laughing at us as she spoke. “But this is going to happen. They're getting older. They're adults now. And that means that they are going to get their mates, have lives of their own. And they might even be getting married soon. I mean, they're the same age that Trinity was when she mated with you, Reece.”
“That was different.” I snarled at her.
“Oh, OK Cujo, tell me how it was different.” She crossed her arms and looked at me with humor filled eyes.
“Trinity wasn't my daughter, she's my wife. And I say that my daughter is too young for this.” I gave her my reason and she started to laugh so hard that she nearly fell over.
“Ha ha ha ha ha. You have got to be kidding me. Get over it, Reece. You too, fang boys. They're adults. I will be sad when my daughter tells me she is mated, but only because it means that she isn't a kid anymore. They're grown up. They're on their own. Let them be.” She was trying to make us see reason, but I didn't want to.
“She's right, you know.” Cedar added in his sister's defense. “They are adults, they're going to find their mates when fate tells them that it's time. Whether we like it or not, it's going to happen. I have several kids, you know that. And I know that it's going to be hard to hear when the first one comes home with their mate, but as parents that's just what we need to deal with. They're going to move on and live away from you eventually. The sooner that you accept that, the sooner that you can move past this and be happy for them.”
I hated that both Juniper and Cedar were trying to make me see reason. Reason was overrated in moments like this. Still, their words did have somewhat of a calming effect on us all.
“Fine. I will accept it for now. But if either of those boys hurt our girls, they're dead.”
“Agreed.” Shawn nodded.
“Agreed.” Dietrich added as he took Shawn's hand.
I wanted to continue to seethe in rage for the rest of the day. I felt like I was going to have a hard time just getting myself to think about anything other than killing one of those boys. Or both of them. But I also knew that I needed to settle down and get ready for the meeting. We had those computer specialists coming in soon. They were going to tell us more things and look at the information about the names in the files. It was going to be a busy day, and I knew that I couldn't brood. But dammit, I really wanted to brood.
