Chapter 71: 71

Rue's POV

Honestly, I couldn't have asked for anything more. Twenty years have passed already, and I can't feel nothing but pure gratefulness at how my life had suddenly turned out. Who could have thought that I would actually have a kid, and that he would be so grown up all of a sudden? I knew with each passing day that the responsibility became greater for me and for my husband and mate, but it was comforting and especially delightful to see how he progressed. There he had been, a little toddler, but now he was all grown up and able to make decisions for himself. It of course meant that he was going to also provide a lot of trouble for us, but I was up for it. It was part of parenting after all, and I couldn't be more happy about where this would lead.

I looked beside me at Karl and gently slipped my hand into his for a second with a contented smile on my face. He hugged me tighter as we watched through the window of the tower, looking down at the fields with my son—our son—in it, practicing soul fighting with his best friend.

"Jax is getting more and more powerful every day," Karl said with a strong tone of pride in his voice. I completely understood why he would be very proud of his son. He was his son, after all, and the future of the entire pack. He was to be the alpha. What's more, he was the only son right now, so it made sense that he would be the delight of both his parents.

"Yes," I responded, "he's getting stronger and stronger. I only wish he'd get a little more mature."

"He is pretty mature right now," Karl countered with a frown on his face, turning to look at me. "I would say I wouldn't expect much more from a 20-year-old boy like him. He's still growing, after all, and needs a couple of experiences in order to be much wiser than he is right now, but I think he's decent."

"Of course you think that," I responded, rolling my eyes. "I wonder what it would take for you to see a couple of flaws in this boy."

"Well, I see them perfectly. I just..."

"You just what?" he asked me, seeing that I had stopped, with a frown on his face.

"It's nothing much," I said. "I don't... it's not that I think that he's not wise. I just wish that he got smarter at the rate he's getting stronger. Now, that would be pretty cool to me, because strength without wisdom is not balanced at all."

He was silent, with a frown on his face, and for a couple of seconds, he hummed a tune before he eventually spoke. "I understand you. You just have to give him some time for that, and some training. Maybe send him on a couple of missions to get experience."

I looked at him, my eyes glistening in anticipation. "Now that's something," I told him, seriously contemplating it. "We can send him on a couple of missions to get wiser."

He looked at me for a second, staring intently at me, as if trying to figure out what my true intentions were. I did my best to look neutral, because from the past twenty years we had spent together, he could pretty much tell what I was thinking by looking into my eyes for a couple of seconds. Right now, it was getting more and more difficult for me to hide my emotions from him, and hide my true thoughts, so I did my best to obscure it this time, and hoped that it would work.

"Tell me the truth," he said with a smile tugging at the edge of his lips. "Are you planning to send him away just so that you have a break for a while, or you really want him to get wisdom?"

My hand came to my mouth, subconsciously, as I stopped myself from exclaiming. This was completely insane. How could he possibly figure out my second reason for jumping at his sudden idea? Now he could easily blame me. Could he? It was a very nice way to kill two birds with one stone. I could have a vacation from parenting for just a couple of days while he's on a mission, and he could also get some experience to make him wiser than he already is. I actually thought it was a win-win, but I didn't like how he caught me immediately, and that would make it unable for me to do it without anyone knowing.

He didn't wait for me to answer. Apparently, my reaction was enough answer for him. He turned back to the window to watch his son. "I thought as much," he said. "Don't worry, soon you'll get a break. I'm pretty sure he's going to find a lady for himself sooner or later. Right now, we just have to give him time. Maybe soon he'll get wise on his own."

"Which means you don't plan on sending him on any kind of mission, but just want him to get wise on his own?" I asked, wondering why he had suggested it in the first place when he was just about to discard the very same suggestion. Now, it wasn't me that thought about it, but I really thought it was a good idea, and that he should follow through with it. Of course, my motives were a bit biased, but it wasn't that bad, now was it?

He glanced at me before replying, "Well, if any suitable one comes, I won't hesitate to send him, but right now, we should just continue living our lives."

He stopped talking then and froze as Jax looked up at us with squinted eyes in order to catch our faces. I was surprised to see Karl waving at him vigorously and looking as if he was about to start shouting out encouragement to his son.

"Hey, pull yourself together and compose yourself," I told him. "Feeling a little embarrassed, and here we are talking about how mature your son is. You don't seem too different from him right now."

He glanced at me but obviously decided to ignore me as he continued waving until his son turned back to continue the fight. It was probably round two now, but then again, I wasn't really keeping track since we started to talk with each other.

"Well, forgive me for wanting to encourage my son and feeling very excited about his win and enthusiastic for him," Karl told me, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Don't you think that that is exactly how to be a supportive parent?" he questioned.

I didn't know how to exactly answer him because personally, I thought that the alpha of the entire pack should be cool and collected and shouldn't easily display emotions. But then again, what did I know? This was very much different than all the other rings I had heard about in history. It was different in so many aspects, especially in terms of the lore, because he judged in such a way that made everyone happy. When it came to it, he was basically rewriting history, so maybe this kind of relationship with his son, instead of a rather forceful one, was better and would end up well, though the conventional way was to go along with fear in order to keep his son in line.

I looked down at the boy and noticed that he was fighting considerably better than before after the little encouragement from his father. Obviously, his morale was much more boosted knowing his parents were watching. Good. He was pumped up in order to give us a show we would be watching.

"Everything is so peaceful now. It's actually very surprising and very comforting," he said, before looking excited, and his voice went a pitch higher. "My reign might be the most peaceful reign in the entire history of the pack," he said. "How cool would that look in history?"

I narrowed my eyes at him with a smile on my face, shaking my head after a couple of seconds. "You weren't supposed to say that," I told him. "Now you jinxed it. I'm pretty sure it's not going to continue like that since you suddenly pointed it out. You should have just left it at that and put it in your mind."

He looked at me and frowned, obviously not believing what I said and thinking that it was ridiculous. "That can't happen," he said. "My thoughts on the matter don't actually matter. This reign has been the most peaceful so far, and as long as it continues like this, it's going to be more peaceful until we die, and the next generation takes over. It's already happening, and I don't see anything changing it. So, once again, this is the most peaceful reign in history. It's amazing."

I shook my head at him once more, happy despite the fact that he was ignoring my heartfelt advice to keep everything in his mind and not say a couple of things to annoy the forces governing the universe. I shrugged it off after a couple of seconds, deciding to instead watch my son and feel the blooming joy within me, blossoming with every attack he made, successful or not. If I had known, I would have thought a little more about it and requested Karl to take back his words. As it happened, he couldn't be any more wrong.