Chapter 204
Chapter 204
Travis
I crouched down next to my daughter, Kinsley, as she babbled something completely incoherent, her tiny fingers jabbing toward one of the many cork boards lining the hallway walls of the training center. Her eyes sparkled with excitement, even though I had no idea what she was trying to tell me. The boards were cluttered with flyers, schedules, handwritten notes, and other evidence of how far this place had come. In the last two years, Rue has transformed this facility into an efficient and full encompassing training center. Complete with two full gyms, a fully outfitted boxing area, both indoor and outdoor obstacle courses, a cafeteria-style kitchen that could feed a small army, multiple classrooms, a daycare center, even a compact two-room clinic staffed and supplied well enough to handle just about anything the pack threw at it. It was all paid for through the center itself. It truly was efficient, practical and impressive as hell. I’ve told her repeatedly how damn proud I am of what she built.
Kinsley reached up and tugged on one of her raven black tufts of hair that Rue or Ellie had sectioned off with tiny rubber bands. I’d tried my hand at the intricate little bands more than once but for some reason they snapped between y fingers like dry spaghetti. No matter how careful I was. Every time it happened, It makes the kids and Rue laugh like it was the funniest thing they’d ever seen. As frustrating as it is; it’s worth it to see everyone smile.
I looked up from my toddler’s wild story telling and caught my incredible mate standing a few paces away, her arms crossed and her yees locked onto me with that sharp, silent intensity that always managed to cut right to the bone. She wasn’t yelling, screaming or scolding. She didn’t have to. The weight of her stare alone told me exactly where this conversation was once again headed towards.
Her intense glare really doesn’t have the intended effect because no matter how long we’d been together, or how deep in the trenches we’d gone side -by-side I still thought she was the most stunning woman I’d ever laid eyes on. Our bond remained strong, even when she was clearly ready to flay me alive with nothing but her glare. I exhaled knowing that she was about to start up our discussion over the boy I’d somewhat saved. We’d been dancing around it for days and I could see her chomping at the bit to have a proper discussion about it. When I gave her the small accepting nod; she didn’t hesitate.
“I just think that there was a better option.” Rue pressed, her voice clam but firm.
“I agree with you.” I stood and meet her gaze without flinching. I rarely had to defend my choices but Rue was my partner and she deserved open and honest communication after all the misunderstandings we’d had in the past. But there were certain things I wouldn’t say out loud or even to myself. “I’m not saying that what happened was the best course of action but Marcus didn’t leave me with much choice.”
We felt like a broken record at this point because it was round and round with the same sentences, same words, same tone, just different day. We couldn’t find acceptance. Rue’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Travis.” She said in that warning tone of hers and a scolding look, “There are always choices.”
“Yes, my love,” I nodded once, slow and deliberate in my actions and words, “There are… and I made the best one for the situation. If I was placed there again I would do it the same way.”
“We have an interrogation room here. One that wouldn’t have ended in Lucas being stabbed.”She picked up Kinsley with practiced ease, even as our daughter let out a squeal of protest while kicking her little legs in frustration and a desire to continue waddling away down the hall. Rue adjusted her grip, pressing a kiss to Kinsley’s temple without breaking eye contact with me. Her shoulders were still coiled tight with tension when she started to bounce and sway to calm Kinsley down. I hated seeing her that tense. I tried to come up with a solution that would release that tension.
“Babes,” James popped up from where he was laying out on one of the benches in the hallway, stepping in with his usual good intentions but poor timing. “It really wasn’t his fault. You don’t know—“
Rue didn’t even look at him. She flipped her palm up like a damn stop sign and cut him off mid-sentence, “I definitely don’t want to hear a word out of your mouth, James.”
Jame’s mouth snapped shut like he’d been slapped and his eyes dropped to the floor as if it physically pained him to look at her. He sat on the bench, shoulders hunched slightly, guilt and hurt obvious on his face. Since their blow up in the backyard, Rue has been very cold to my cousin. She’d barely said more than two civil words to him and I couldn’t say I blamed her.
James had always been like a brother to me; but now that the title of Alpha rested on my shoulders, I’d learned fast what kind of man Marcus Knight truly was behind closed doors. And it wasn’t pretty. James has never said anything to me while we grew up but I had my suspicions that his life hadn’t been the rainbows and sunshine I’d thought went along with the golden-boy’s life. The signs were all there-quiet flinches, the way he always tried to laugh things off, or the way he looked at Marcus like he was both terrified, desperate for approval, and murderous. I was too blinded by my own life to see it but now I’d been on the receiving end and could see clearly.
“Marcus was going to take the kid either way.” James started again. “Travis was able to step in to protect Lucas the best he could.”
“Oh thank the goddess you two were there to protect Lucas.” Rue’s eyes finally snapped to him. She shifted Kinsley on her hip, her tone dripped with sarcasm. “Lucky him that you were there to make sure he only got stabbed.”
That one stung. I really had tried everything to properly protect Lucas, but it was still my fault and my responsibility to handle the fallout. Kinsley struggled again, asking to be put down. I take a step forward but I could feel the storm still building behind Rue’s cold exterior. She was spiraling down into fight mode. Realization hit me like a ton of bricks; this wasn’t just about the boy. It was about trust, about choices, about everything we were trying to build and the very ugly entities that still clung to us from the past.