Chapter Twenty-Eight: Friendship

Demetri’s POV

Ever since I apologized publicly there’s been a lot of talk among the pack. Ultimately, I’m their alpha and they're loyal to me so I wouldn't have to deal with even a fraction of what Freya did. My pack was clearly disappointed in me but they didn’t question me.

Gabriel insisted that we eat breakfast at a restaurant in town so that's what we were doing. Funny enough I had eaten there a lot because it was Freya’s favorite when we were younger. “Dad, can I have this?” Gabriel asked, pointing at the chicken strips meal on the kid's menu. I nodded and continued browsing the menu.

There was a lot of lost time to make up for with Gabriel.

“Are you and momma mates?” Gabriel asked as he pressed the menu to his face and leaned against the table. “My friend said moms and dads are mates.”

I scratched the top of my head. “They’re not always,” I said, not sure how to explain our situation to a four-year-old. “Right now we’re not mated, no.”

The waitress came by with a big smile and I gave her our order. Gabriel moved on pretty fast from our previous conversation. “I think I’m going to be Alpha.”

My son’s declaration warmed my heart. It was what every alpha wanted to hear from their son. “It’s not easy,” I said.

“Lots of things aren’t easy,” Gabriel said and I chuckled. He was a good kid, and Freya was doing a good job.

The waitress brought our food out fairly quickly. She was probably so eager because of who I was. “Enjoy your meal, Alpha Demetri.”

I nodded to her and we started eating our food. Between bites, Gabriel went on and on about what he liked better about our pack compared to his last.

Toward the end of our meal, he asked, “Do you love Mommy?”

I nearly choked on my steak, caught off guard by his question. I swallowed my food before answering, “Yes, I do a lot.” There was no doubt in my mind that I was deeply in love with Freya.

Gabriel smiled with ketchup on the corners of his mouth. “I loved somebody one time too but she ran too fast.”

I held back a laugh as I packed up leftovers. “Then you need to learn to run faster son.”

Gabriel laughed and jumped out of the booth. “Did you learn to run faster?” he asked.

I shrugged and said, “I’m still learning, it’s not easy.”

“I told you lots of things aren’t easy!” Gabriel exclaimed humorously with his hands on his head.

I rubbed the top of his head, roughing up his thick long hair. Then, I ordered food to go, paid the bill and we left.

When we got back to the pack house I mindlinked Freya. ‘Gabriel’s ready for you.’

‘I'm in the east longue.’

Hearing Freya’s voice in my head again was divine.

I brought Gabriel to the east longue and handed Freya the bag of takeout. “Is this Gabriel’s leftovers?”

“No, I ordered that for you.”

Freya raised an eyebrow and opened the takeout container. She gasped with big eyes. “No way.” She looked up at me. “I used to order this all the time. When I went they said they took it off the menu.” They did but as alpha, I was able to make a special request. “Wait.” She closed the top and squinted her eyes. “I can’t accept this.”

“Don’t overthink it,” I said. “Gabriel asked to eat there and I couldn’t help but think of all the friend dates we had there and that you’d order the same thing. It only felt right to get it for you now. I don’t want anything in return.”

“Okay then,” Freya said with caution. “I’ll take it.”

I left and when I got back to my room I began throwing a bunch of stuff away that Sasha left. It was getting more normal not having her here. In a way I was happy she wasn't so we could both move on.

The next day was going to be busy for me since I needed to take a trip to The Cold Lighting Pack’s territory for the meeting with Alpha Cornell.

In the morning I saw Mom was with Freya in one of the lounges. Freya was writing down notes in a notebook as my mother spoke. It didn't seem like she was enjoying it at all so I walked to them, interrupting my mother. “Did you forget about our date?” I asked Freya,

Freya shot me a questioning look. “Date?” she and Mom said in unison.

“So you two are trying to make things work?” Mom asked.

“No, it’s not an actual date. Since we have a kid we thought it would be a good idea to spend some time discussing our parenting so we’re on the same page,” I explained and Mom was satisfied.

“Go, go,” Mom said, nudging Freya in my direction. “That’s a great idea, we want to make sure Gabriel is raised to be a well-rounded alpha so you should come up with a game plan together.”

I put my hand on the small of Freya’s back, guiding her out of the lounge with a nod to my mom. Freya blushed as she pushed my hand away and said, “So what specifically do you want to talk about? Gabriel’s schooling? Your mom wants to put him in private school but I don’t love that idea.” I hadn’t even thought about school since Gabriel hadn’t even started preschool yet.

“What? No, I have other plans,” I said. “I just said that 'cause you looked miserable.”

“Oh, thanks I guess,” she said and then started laughing, laughter I missed.

I raised my brows. “What’s funny?”

“It just reminded me of when we were kids and made stupid excuses to get each other out of stuff,” she answered. “Like when you wanted to skip piano class so I said we had a last-minute report on chickens for our science class in middle school.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, and my instructor bought it even though we weren’t in the same grade, let alone in the same science class.”

Freya looked away, trying to hide her smile but I had already got a good look at it. Our childhood memories weren’t ruined for her. Freya cleared her throat and straightened herself out. “Gabriel wants us all to spend the day together because that’s what he thinks we’re supposed to do,” she mentioned. “We can take him to the park and get lunch on Saturday if you’re free.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m free.”

We went our separate ways and In the afternoon Brandon and I set off for the Cold Lightning pack’s territory. I didn’t bother asking Kyle to go because he’s been upset with me ever since I admitted that I was the one who framed his family.

When we got there It felt off to be in our enemy’s territory.

As soon as we got to the packhouse we were greeted and escorted to the conference room

“Freya Roman," I said once we all got seated. "The blessed wolf is no longer a part of the Blue River Pack and is now a member of the Blood Moon pack, so you can stop harassing them.”

“Great," Alpha Cornell said. "So we can focus all of our efforts on your pack instead.” That would be a real headache but I’ve already figured as much.

“Do you really want to rage war over this?" I asked. I knew Cornell wanted power but to this extent? "What do you want, to kill her? Force her to join your pack and keep her prisoner so she can power you all under a full moon against her will?"

Cornell shook his head slowly and corrected me, “We want a wrong righted.”

“And how have you been wronged?” Brandon asked.

“Of course, neither you don’t know," Cornell started. "A baby was kidnapped for our pack over twenty years ago. At the time we didn’t know by who or why. With some digging, we found out that it was by your father and it was because the baby he kidnapped was prophesied to become a blessed wolf.”

That was what Ginni was talking about when she mentioned the truth about Freya’s adoption. Our pack kidnapped the werewolf who was promised to become a werewolf blessed with a gift and it was Freya.