Chapter 67 Reaper 44

Chapter 67 Reaper 44
“I leave for a few hours and you shoot someone!” Requiem was laughing at her and Bethany scowled at him.

“I'll shoot you as well, where were you?” She asked, bringing her coffee mug to her lips. Savoring the taste. Sweet coffee, fuel for mothers everywhere. The last twenty fours had been crazy, and she had barely slept. Which seemed to be a common occurrence these days.

Running with shifters was dangerous. Especially, it seemed like, these shifters.

And she missed Reaper, who had phoned the night before to tell her that he needed to sort out some problems between his sister and their parents.

Just another thing she was totally confused about.

“Working.” Requiem's eyes dropped to the table.

“With your sweet-sounding tech helper?” She couldn’t help teasing him.

“She helped, yes,” Requiem added. “But it's not like that. I’ve never even seen her. So, stop looking at me like that.”

“Hey sharpshooter.” Jude, Roman’s younger brother, slid himself into a seat. That seemed to be her new nickname in the pack. They all called her sharpshooter now. Amazed that a human, any human, let alone a female, would pick up a gun and defend them.

“Hey.” She saluted him with her coffee mug.

“Did you really shoot a wolf?” Requiem seemed to find it hard to believe.

“I didn’t kill him,” she pointed out. “But you keep teasing me and I might kill you.”

Requiem barked out a laugh. “You are such a badass Bethany.”

“Perfect mate for Reaper, he’s a bad ass as well. The perfect killer couple.” He laughed at his own joke. “Where is the lover boy?”

“Sorting some family stuff.” She shrugged, going for, and failing, to look nonchalant. Jude laughed. “I’m happy here, helping out Rory with Noah.”

“Liar.” Jude laughed again. “It's probably killing him as well, you know. Being away from you. It’s a mate thing”

“Bethany,” Rory appeared at the door. Her face was worried. “Have you seen Liv? She’s not in the house anywhere. Did you say she could go out with the others?”

Bethany frowned. “No, I swear if she’s snuck out, I’m going to…” She shrugged. Pack lands were the safest place for them all right now. Their main threat had been neutralized, and Roman had doubled the patrols. “She’s probably outside playing with the others, let's go and find her.” She smiled at her friend. “Don’t look so worried Rory, she will be about somewhere.”

“I’m coming too.” Requiem stood up, making a move to follow them.

“Req, we are going to look in the garden. We don’t need a guard.”

Sometimes it was suffocating, the way the men tried to guard them at all times. Bethany frowned. Hadn’t she proven to them that she was more than capable of taking care of herself?

She looped her arm through Rory’s, and they stepped out into the sunshine.

“Crazy to think only yesterday…” She trailed off. It didn’t need to be said. Yesterday the lawn had been littered with bodies, blood staining the grass red.

“I’m just glad it’s finally over, Byron has become a friend of this pack… I just hope he doesn’t have too much trouble getting his own pack under control.”

“No hard feelings there then?” Bethany had been wondering. Less than a year ago Byron had been ordered to mate Rory by force. He had almost gone through with it. Almost.

“No, he didn’t want to do it. He was following his Alpha’s orders. And by the way he kept looking at Imogen, I’m guessing he’s glad he didn’t as well.” She chuckled.

Bethany frowned as they stepped under the cool shadow of the trees that lined the lawn. “What do you mean?”

Rory waved a hand, “I might be wrong.” She smiled wistfully. “I don’t think I am; I’ve seen that look on a wolf’s face before.”

“You mean Byron and Imogen? Do they even know each other?” Bethany’s voice held a note of disbelief.

“I guess they have the rest of their lives to get to know each other. Now where is this child of yours?” She raised a hand to her face, cupping her mouth. “Olivia!”

Bethany joined in, as they walked further from the house. But the forest was silent around them.

“We should head back” Bethany paused, fishing her phone from her pocket as she frowned at the screen. It wasn’t any number she recognized.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is that Bethany?”

“Yes, who…”

“Its Mae, Reaper gave me your number. I hope that’s okay. He wanted to tell you that his parents took Olivia for ice cream. They are so sorry that they didn’t tell you.”

Bethany frowned, and Rory mouthed “What’s going on?”

“They really should have told me… Wait, why is Reaper not calling me himself?”

“His phone battery has died, are you able to go and pick Liv up? It seems his parents’ car has broken down right on the edge of pack lands.”

Bethany groaned.

She would be having words with all of them. Severe words.

“Yeah where are they?” She listened with her head cocked as Mae gave her directions.

“What’s going on?”

“Eric and Anita have Liv, and they have broken down. Fancy coming with me to pick them up. I’m kind of carless.”

“Sure,” Rory dangled a set of car keys off her ring finger, the silver catching the light. “I always keep a pair in my pocket these days, in case I need to make a quick getaway.” She giggled. “Just let me drop Requiem a text though, so he can tell Roman when he gets back.” she started walking back towards the house. “He will worry otherwise.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just drop in and tell him?”

Rory gave her a look as if she was crazy. “Have you met them? It would take about half an hour for them to scramble a guard together, and we can be there and back before then.” She reached out her hand and Bethany passed her phone over. Watching as Rory’s fingers flew over the screen.

“There.” She opened the door of a sleek silver sedan. “Hurry up, will you, before they come out and stop us.” She giggled like a schoolgirl.