Chapter 135: Don't send me that

Bella’s father had been right. Jessica didn’t mind turning the dinner into lunch, she was very understanding. As Bella needed distractions, she invited Mickey and Mavis up to her apartment as she cooked lunch.

Mickey talked about how it was taking care of Mavis and Bella got to laugh. Mavis had settled in and had gone back to being a happy baby that rarely fussed. She was lying on her blanket, surrounded by colourful soft balls that she grabbed and sucked on.

Bella sent her father to get Jessica and Mickey helped her set the table before collecting Mavis and heading out. Moments later, her father and Jessica walked in.

“Welcome,” Bella smiled at Jessica.

“Thank you, luna. It’s really unnecessary to go to all this trouble for my sake,” Jessica said.

“Nonsense, you helped us out when we needed it. We are grateful for that. Gray is sorry he couldn’t be here,” Bella said as she signed for them to sit down. She got the carrot soup and home baked bread and put it on the table.

“Please help yourself,” she said.

They talked about everyday things. Bella asked Jessica about her work at the nursery and what she did in her spare time. Turns out she was an avid hiker even in human form and loved nature photography.

“My dad loves fishing. When I was living in my old pack, he always asked me to join him. But I must confess, I’m terrible at it,” Bella smiled.

“It’s true,” her father smiled.

“I haven’t been out fishing since I was a little girl. I remember it being quite exciting,” Jessica smiled.

Bella smiled back at Jessica and then looked at her father.

“I would love to take you out on the lake sometime. George tells me there are plenty of fish,” her father said.

“That sound like fun. Are you staying a while longer?” Jessica asked. Bella smiled and made herself busy with her food.

“I am. I have nothing urgent waiting for me at home and peanut needs me here. To be honest, I really enjoy visiting the pack and are in no hurry to go back,” Bella’s father said.

Her father was quite smooth, Bella thought. After a little push in the right direction, he took the stick and ran with it. Bella relaxed and let him and Jessica do most of the talking. It was obvious that Jessica was interested in her father.

The lunch went better than expected and Bella ended up sending her father to walk Jessica home while she cleaned up. As she was clearing the table, her phone rang.

“Hi, love. How are things down south?” she answered.

“Hi, sweetheart. Hectic and messy. How are things at home?” Graham said. Bella could hear him smile, and she felt an intense longing for him.

“They are good. I think I managed to successfully pair my father off with Jessica. Not that I had to do that much,” Bella smiled.

“You have had dinner already?” he sounded confused.

“We changed it to lunch. I didn’t want to have guests so close to the mission start,” she explained.

“I get that,” he said.

“Did you call for anything in particular?” she asked as she went to lie down on their bed. She had planned a nap to keep awake most of the night.

“No, I missed you and wanted to hear your voice,” he said.

“That is so sweet. I miss you too,” she sighed.

“Did you get any sleep? I noticed you were awake at three,” he pointed out.

“I got a couple of hours. But I’m going to take a nap, so I’m fit for this evening. How about you? You are the one that is going to need your sleep,” she asked.

“I got a couple of hours on the plane and a couple after I got here. Thank you for giving me your t-shirt. It helped. A nap sounds good, though,” he told her.

“I wish we could nap together, but I would probably not be able to sleep,” she confessed. That’s when a thought popped into her head, and she smiled big.

“Really, and why not?” Graham asked.

“One moment, Gray,” she said as she walked into the bathroom. She didn’t want her father to walk in on her.

“What are you doing, Ellie?” Graham asked.

“Nothing, just keep talking to me. I have missed your voice,” she said as she was taking her clothes off.

“Really? What else have you missed about me?” he asked, amused.

“Let’s see. I have missed your hands, and your hugs, and your eyes, and the way you always give me the first bite off your plate, I miss how you wake me in the morning,” she started telling him as she tried to figure out a good pose.

She wanted to look sexy and hot, without being sleazy. She ended up taking her bra off as well and putting her phone’s camera on a timer while propping it up on the counter. She posed with her back towards the camera, leaning against the glass wall of the shower.

“Really? Sounds like you missed me a lot,” Graham said. He was definitely smiling.

“I have. What do you miss about me?” Bella asked as she changed her pose to be more from the side, covering her breasts with one of her arms. Well, covering most of them, at least.

“I miss your smile, and your scent, how you always do the little things for me, like straightening my tie or brush the lint off my sweater. I miss your lips and the way you feel in my arms when I wake up,” he told her.

“I take it you miss me too then,” she said as she chose her two favourite pictures and sent them to Graham while she got dressed again.

“I do, sweetheart, like crazy,” he confessed.

“Look at what I sent you. It might help,” she smiled. There was a pause as Graham looked at what she had sent him.

“Sweet holy goddess of the moon woman!” he almost shouted. Bella smiled. He had seen the pictures.

“You can’t be sending me things like that,” he said, sounding almost desperate.

“Don’t you like them?” she asked.

“Like them? LIKE them? Sweetheart, you almost made me cum in my pants,” he growled.

“Then I don’t see the issue,” she smiled.

“The issue, Ellie, is that I’m living with five other men in a tent. What am I going to do with myself after you worked me up like this?” he asked.

“I’m guessing you have showers?” she said.

“Communal,” he grunted.

“Toilet it is,” she giggled.

“Fuck, Ellie. I have half a mind to get on the plane and go back and teach you a lesson,” he said in a low voice.

“As much as I would love that, Gray. I believe you can solve this little, well let’s be honest, this big problem on your own. Just as I have to do. My dad is sleeping on our couch. It feels like I’m a teenager again,” she giggled.

“When I get home, you will be in so much trouble,” he threatened her.

“Can’t wait. At least you will have two aids to solve the issue,” she smiled.

“I love you, Ellie. You are amazing.”

“I love you too, Gray. Now go deal with your issue. Please be careful tonight. I will be there with you all the way,” she said.

“Thank you. And you will not be alone, right?” he asked.

“No, both our fathers have invited themselves and Bastian,” she smiled.

“Good. I’ll call you tomorrow,” he said.

“I’m holding you to that,” she said and smiled as she hung up.

She felt a little better after talking to him. After ten minutes, she got a text from him.

G: I took care of the issue, but I still want you. I’m addicted to you.

Bella smiled and tried to relax so that she could go to sleep. She needed sleep if she were to sit through the entire operation.

Bella’s father woke her up by gently shaking her shoulder.

“Time to get up, peanut. I have asked the kitchen to bring us up some food. We have time to eat and then we will meet the others,” he told her.

“Okay, thanks dad,” Bella said, getting up. She got ready, and they had a quiet dinner where Bella forced herself to eat even though she had no appetite.

“Are you ready for this?” her father asked, and she nodded.

“You don’t have to do this, you know. No one expects you to watch your mate going into battle,” her father told her.

Bella remembered how she had felt watching Mikka die on a screen, how helpless she had felt and how painful it had been. If it were Graham on the screen. Bella couldn’t finish the thought.

“I will be okay. It would be worse not watching,” she said and got up to wash her plate.

“Okay, peanut. We will be there if you need us,” he said.

“Thanks, dad. I really appreciate you staying for this,” she told him and gave him a hug.

They walked over to Bella’s office. It felt strange to do things like this in there. They always had these types of meetings in Graham’s office. But it would feel even stranger to be in his office without him.

Bastian and George joined them. The mood was subdued as they got settled in. Bella logged on to the alpha meeting and was met by the usual faces. Most alphas had at least one more person joining them, either their gamma or beta.

The meeting started, and they did around the table to get the status of each pack. When it was Bella’s turn, she reported the status of their warriors that were to take part. She also informed everyone that Graham was amongst the warriors going in.

It had been decided that Logan would be the one from their pack to go with the agent from the Mistvally pack. He would wear a body cam. Graham would be the one to wear the earpiece.

Luna Ann reported on behalf of her pack as her mate was also amongst those going in. For alpha Mikael’s pack, his beta, Benjamin, reported.

Alpha Richard would not be joining the fighting but would have a coordinating role, it was decided. Bella, and most of the participants, knew this meant that none of them trusted him in a battle situation. But he didn’t seem to mind.

It was time. All the small images of the alphas disappeared from the screen and were replaced by one. It was the feed from Logan’s body cam. As they would be the first group to set off, no one else’s body cam had been turned on yet.

Bella watched as a group of men and women dressed in black moved across a grassy field. They stayed hunkered low. At the end of the field, at the edge of a forest, there was a slim silhouette barely visible. It was a woman dressed in black with a black ski mask covering her face. The agent from Mistvally, Bella presumed.

They started moving through the woods and soon Bella could see the shape of a structure. As they got closer, it looked like an old factory with a chain linked fence around it. Bella could see that the fence had been fortified with corrugated metal in some places. There were guards patrolling the inside of the fence, and Bella thought she saw people up on the roof of the building.

Their group stayed closed to the trees and followed their woman leader around the fenced in building to a storm drain that was mostly covered with bushes and debris. The woman signed for them to head inside the drainpipe.

The warriors obeyed and Bella saw how Logan hanged back, making sure all of them made it into the pipe. When there were five of them left, Bella could see Logan become still. The camera had stopped moving. Then the picture was entirely made up of leaves and branches, as Logan must have thrown himself down.

Bella instinctively grabbed Bastian’s hand. What was happening?