Chapter 26

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Roma came down to the living room in the afternoon, she had slept through the whole morning. She felt as if it's been a while since she slept this well.

She came down from her room suppressing a yawn and looked around in the living room, Alex was still passed out on the couch, deeply snoring. It looked he would not be going anywhere for a while. How much did he drink anyways?

Before she could think any further, she smelt delicious smell of food waffling out of the kitchen and her stomach rumbled in response. She quickly moved to the kitchen to see Sebastian busy at the stove.

"Good morning" he said busily stirring something "I made us some brunch" he said indicating the food on the table.

She walked over to the fridge and pulled out some juice, she went to the shelf and asked while pulling out a glass "you want some?" she asked.

"No, I am good" He responded putting the batter he was mixing on to a pan as it sizzled.

"Ok" She responded and plopped down on to a chair.

A moment later he presented her an omelet and some toasted bread. Evelyn was eying him weirdly.

He saw her look "What?" he asked.

"Nothing" She said shrugging and added "You are acting all domestic" she said.

"Yeah well, I gathered you and that sleeping beauty out there" he said indicating to the living room where Alex was passed out "could use some food and besides I was thinking and working helps me think."

"Uh-oh" Roma deadpanned. Plopping a crumb of bread in to her mouth.

"Funny...real funny" He said breaking a few eggs and pouring them on to a pan.

"So, how did the talk go" He asked, "What do you think of Lockbourne's granddaughter?"

Roma took a bite of the omelet and chewed slowly figuring out how to answer that one.

"She reminds me of me" She told him.

"Oh-Uh" Sebastian parroted her earlier expression.

"Jerk!" She threw a bread crumb at him which he easily dodged.

"But seriously, he hates werewolf politics more than I do. She wanted nothing to do with pack stuff that's why grandpa kept her out of it, giving in to her demands I guess." She added.

"So how will she deal with the whole mate thing?" He asked her, concern in his eyes for Alex.

Roma sighed "I kind of gave her an ultimatum...more of reality check of choices she had in front of her. I hope she makes the right choice." She hoped.

"Talking about choices" Sebastian said joining her at the table with his own plate "We need to make a few decisions really fast."

"Which are?" She asked.

"We need to be prepared when the American wolves come" He said.

"Will they come?" she asked, "What if we get the girl on our side." She hoped.

"They will come, oh they will, be sure of it" He said with certainty.

"Ok, what do you have in mind?" she asked knowing that was what he had been cooking up in his mind.

"War is coming and we need to be ready for I intend to win it" He was direct to the point. No point in beating around the bush.

She took a sip of her juice "I am listening" she told him, knowing there was much more to come.

"We need to get more men of ours to state side and weapons, we need to get weapons. We make our stand here in Colorado where we know the lay of the land and wait for them to come."

"And when they come?" She asked.

"We show them what we have got, show them the damage we are capable of inflicting and hope that senses prevail and the conflict ends quickly with minimal bloodshed." He explained and added "We own a weapons company in the US, American Avionics. They have been working on some experimental weaponry, over the last few months they have been moving them to a facility close by, I want them to be moved here." He said.

"Ok, what else?" She asked.

"Men, we need more men, I want us to get at least a few hundred more, let's start to fly them out from Roma." He said.

"Ok, makes sense. How many men do we currently have?" she asked.

"Around two hundred of our men camped in this pack and about five hundred of Nick's men" He told her.

"Nick has five hundred men?" she asked surprised. The last she knew back when she was part of his pack was they were less than one hundred pack members.

"A lot of wolves came out of the woodworks once the rogues were decimated. All the surviving wolves of the Colorado packs who were in hiding came out and a lot of them joined Nick."

"Wow!" was all she said. Nick was now managing a huge pack.

"We need to whip them in to shape and our guys here have been doing that in the last few months. Training them with weapons and how to fight using them. They show promise" he told her.

"Good, so let's get this done." She agreed with him. "However" she added "While you are doing all this I want you to send out a peace offering to the American wolves"

"I don't think that's a good idea Roma, they will only try to exploit it to their advantage" he cautioned.

"That may be true" She agreed "But I was the aggressor, I killed their council head and I would prefer if we could find an amicable solution" He offered.

"Do you really believe that?" He asked curious, he really wanted to know if she believed that.

"Maybe, I don't really know but I need to try this for my sanity and conscious" She explained. She would try everything in her power before she went to war.

"Ok" he sighed resigned "But we continue to make our preparations, right?" he asked her. He didn't want to be caught unprepared.

She nodded in agreement.

"good" he nodded happy that she was at least ready to be prepared "I will talk to Adrian and get things moving."

"How is he doing by the way? I feel forever since I spoke to him." She told him.

"Everything is quite back home. The bloodletting we did pulled all the other alphas in line and we have no trouble. We have merged the packs of the dead alphas with the loyal, most transitions went without a hitch." He explained.

"Good, I will talk to him" She said distracted and added hesitantly "Any change?" hope seeped in to her voice. For most days, she managed to block the thought of him from her mind, the craziness surrounding her helped. It still hurt, just thinking about him. The bond twisted in agony.

He breathed out loud "No" he told her in short and added "The doctors are confident thought. He is just in a coma, not sure why. They tried to induce him out of it but it didn't work and they don't want to take too much risk, he just needs to wake up and the doctors are sure he will but when is the questions."

She nodded.

"He is secure and is well taken care of Roma" He assured her.

"I know. Thanks" She whispered, still trying to gather her emotions. She was saved further misery by a loud groan.

Sebastian straightened and got up "looks like our sleeping beauty finally got up."

There was a loud thud. Alex had tried to roll over and promptly fell flat on his face on to the floor from the couch.

"Fuck!" he moaned and got up and stumbled in to the kitchen. He looked like shit.

"You look like shit man" Sebastian told him.

"Screw you" Alex mumbled and stumbled his way to the fridge. He pulled out a bottle of water and gulped in down in one go, spilling some all over his shirt.

He turned and moaned.

"Roma" He groaned out a crappy greeting.

"Alex" she greeted him back "Why don't you go take a long shower, you reek of alcohol" she told him.

He stood there for a moment contemplating and trotted away.

Sebastian and Roma watched him disappear in to one of the rooms and Sebastian looked at her and asked "How do we deal with this?"

"He needs to talk to his mate" She declared.

"Easier said than done" Sebastian quipped.

***

Alex had come down after taking long and hot shower. He promptly sat at the table and started gobbling up everything in his sight.

Sebastian and Roma sat on the other side looking at him.

"W-at?" Alex said chewing rapidly noticing them looking at him "-am Hu—ry" He said busily chewing.

He looked at their impassive state and gulped the food he was chewing "What? What are you staring at? Do I have something on my face? My teeth?" he asked.

Everyone knew what he was doing. He did not want to deal with that proverbial elephant in the room.

"We need to talk" Sebastian started

"About your mate" Evelyn finished

....and the fucking elephant was no longer imaginary.

"You know" Alex said his looks darting between them "You sound like parents giving the talk to their kid."

"I spoke to your mate" Evelyn announced, knowing she would get his attention.

His jaw dropped "What?" he whispered.

"Last night when you were busy passed out I went and spoke to her." Roma told him.

Alex just looked at her wide eyed

"You need to speak to her Alex, she is your mate" Evelyn gently nudged him "She is all alone here without a family, you need to be there for her as her mate."

"What are you talking about?" Have both of you gone mad?!?" Alex finally responded "How do you think I can go and talk to her...I put a gun to her head! A gun! I was going to fucking kill her." He spat bitterly. "What do I tell her, listen, the gun thing let's just forget it and now that we are mates shall we get to the interesting bits?" He was on a roll now "And don't worry about us wiping your family...the reason you are all alone...all that is in the past now" He said "Yeah! I can see how it is going to work out, really, rainbows and unicorns up ahead." He spat.

All of them sat in silence, reeling at his words.

"How can I face her Roma" Alex said slowing.

"By manning up" Sebastian answered "We don't expect you to kiss and make up in a day but ignoring her is not the solution. This situation is not going to disappear Alex you need to face it and the sooner the better, that's what we are asking you to."

And with that Sebastian got up "need to make a few phone calls" he said and walked out. Leaving Alex and Evelyn behind.

Both sat in silence.

"What did you make of her?" Alex asked, curious about his mate.

"She is lonely Alex, lonely and afraid. She is not her grandfather. I saw a little bit of myself in her. She is confused and scared and not sure of what to believe. She could definitely use you at her side." She said, "Just think about it all right?" she told him gently and walked out as well.

He was not sure how long he sat at the table but he eventually decided they were right the more he delayed the more difficult this situation would be, he needed to face it head on and face the consequences.

With a resolve, he set out but by the time he made it half the distance his resolve gave way to turmoil, now his heart was beating erratically and he was sweating buckets and unconsciously his pace slowed, he was now dragging his feet as if he was going to meet his firing squad.

The only question in his mind was would she ever give him a chance?

He realized he was close to the house she was being held in and a pit formed in his stomach and he suddenly froze.

The door opened and she appeared.

His mouth agape he was frozen in his spot, his body refusing to move.

She felt a presence and looked at him her eyes wide with panic, she too froze in shock.

Both stood there frozen in time looking at each other, both trying to see what the other would do.

With tremendous courage Alex knew not where it came from he took a step towards her and her eyes widened. Was it panic? Was it fear? He did not know for she quickly disappeared behind the door and slammed it shut.

It felt as if she shut the door on his face, it broke him and his body sagged.

He got the answer to his earlier question...His mate ran from him. What did that tell him about chances? More than he wanted to know.

He stood there dejected as his wolf howled inside him for his mate.

Misery...meet, Alex.