A Phone Call
2016 Words
*Gabriel*
“Hey.”
“Sup man?” Esen smiled. I knew he knew.
“Shut it.” I sneered. But a smile grew on my lips. He met me with a sly grin himself as I fell back into my chair. I took a quick sniff of the air and caught a bit of Ariellas smell on the desk. I gave it a curious look before shaking my head and looking back up to Esen. He has his feet kicked up on the edge of my desk, leaned back in the plush armchair on the other side. A thin box sat beside him and he flicked it with his finger nail.
“New monitor.” He responded as he saw my eyes fall to it. I nodded.
“Makes sense.”
“Since you turned the other into a “was” figured I’d get you another.”
“I appreciate that. Thanks.”
“So… what’s going on?” He asked.
“I don’t know…” I responded. “She… hasn’t told me why…”
“Well… how long has she been back?”
“A few hours. I think she got here maybe around 3?”
“Anything strange about it?”
“I mean… the whole situation is weird but… she’s back, which means I don’t have to destroy every door in that hotel…”
“At Least, you look better.”
“Ya think?”
He shrugged, “Mate bonds will do that to you.”
I scoffed once more, rolling my eyes and shaking my head. I had always thought it was mumbo jumbo, but even just being with her a few hours had helped my hand heal, and I felt leagues better than I had the last few days without her. I had energy, didn’t feel as groggy, my mind felt clear, and my chest didn’t ache. “Guess there is something to mate healing after all.”
“Told you.” He teased me.
“Yeah yeah, f**k off.” We chuckled together.
“Here. Open this.” He said lifting the monitor box to my desk.
I began peeling off tape and ripping the box open as a knock radiated into the room. I recognized the rhythm of the knock as my sister. She always knocked in a little show tune way.
Gwen entered without waiting for me to answer, her eyes lighting up as she saw me. Ivan stumbled in behind her, seemingly hung over.
“Why didn’t you tell me as soon as she got here!?”
“Yes, good morning to you too!” I rolled my eyes, letting them fall back to Esen, he gave a nervous shrug. “Goddess, You and Beth have big mouths.”
“Gwen had said she saw her last night at the hotel when she called this morning, and Beth came in right as I was on the phone and told me she ran into her in the kitchen so she heard.”
I shook my head “Keep it down you guys.”
“What, why?” Gwen said, raising a perfectly plucked brow.
“Ari doesn’t want the rest of the staff knowing she’s back yet…”
“Why?” Esen said.
I shrugged. “She didn’t say…” I sighed as I yanked a plastic bag from the monitor. “She said she would tell me after I came back…”
“That’s… weird…” Gwen noted.
“You don’t think I know that?” I asked, irritated.
“Why didn’t you make her tell you?” She asked.
“I just got her back. The last thing I need is to aggravate her and drive her away…”
“I mean, she is your mate isn’t she?” Gwen asked.
“Yes.” I responded. “That didn’t stop her from rejecting me once, and I still have to find out why that was to begin with… I’m trying to play the calm game…”
“Yet before you said you’d break down every door in the hotel to find her…” Gwen reminded me.
“Weren’t you the one who told me I needed to relax and not rip her out of her comfort zone?” I rolled my eyes at her.
“Well yeah, but I wasn’t expecting her to come back on her own free will…”
“Well. The world is full of surprises I guess…”
“Speaking of…” Esen started, “Have you talked to her about the ultrasounds?”
I shook my head and sighed. Finally plugging a cord into my new screen that ran to the laptop. “No… I didn’t want to spook her… I’m going to wait to bring it up…”
“You’re really going soft for her huh?” Esen jested, “You’ve never given up on a topic so easily…”
“I’m not giving up…” I retorted, “I just… I don't want to scare her… Like I said, she already rejected me once. And technically she hasn’t taken it back… until she rescinds the rejection our bond is still fragile…”
“I just feel like you’re-…”
Esens' voice was cut off by my office phone ringing. It sat on a slim, tall table on the wall nearest the bathroom door and hardly ever rang. Beth used the phone number for calling applicants for jobs and that was just about it. If we weren’t hiring the phone could sit for months on end without being used.
All of us looked at it perplexed, even Ivan who had taken up one of the chairs and was dozing off had woken up to the odd ring of the phone. In the almost 12 years of him being married to my sister and visiting our house, even when my father still held the Alpha title, he had never seen that line ring before.
I walked over slowly and looked at the small screen. It was older but looked practically brand new. It said “unknown caller”
I took a deep breath. A nervous feeling washed over me as I looked at the unknown caller ID.
“Belford residence, Gabriel Speaking...”
“Gabriel! Hola viejo amigo. ¿Cómo estás?”
I froze as the sinister voice greeted me. It sounded familiar, like a voice I knew from my past, but I couldn’t pinpoint the name. It slithered through my ear and caused a nauseous feeling to take over my body, starting from my throat and sliding into the pit of my stomach.
“Sorry, who is-...”
“I hear you have something that belongs to me… I want it back.”
I slammed the phone down on the receiver, my eyes widened as the realization hit me. I wanted to throw up.
“Gabe…” Gwen started.
“Gabe… Dude…what just-...”
“We need to leave.” I responded.
“Wait, what…” Esen rose to his feet to comfort me, but I dodged his hand and went to my desk.
“Increase security around the house.” I ordered as I stepped back up to my desk, whipping open one of my drawers and pulling old files from the desk.
“But… why?”
“I think that was Armin… He knows Ari is here…”
“What? How!?” Gwen asked as she stepped up to the desk next to where Esen had come to stand to watch me pull the false bottom from the bottom drawer.
Inside the drawer was a plain black wallet with paper bills. My father had always kept a stash of emergency funds in case he needed to leave the house quickly. Taking cards would mean that he could be tracked if he needed to purchase something, and I thanked my father for constantly being a nervous nutcase. He told me how to keep off the grid in the event of an emergency, and it was exactly what I needed to do to keep Ari safe from Alpha Armin and the Red River Pack.
“I don’t know…”
“Wait but-.”
“Esen.” I looked up to him, my vision darkened as anger boiled through my body. He waited for me to continue but I paused with my mouth agape, beginning a sentence that I was afraid of anyone hearing. My eyes pierced through him as our gazes met. I opened up the mindlink between him and I.
“Increase security, nobody unknown comes in or out. I am taking Ari to the north house. Nobody else but you knows where I am going. Do you understand?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Gabe, C’mon how am I supposed to know what is going on? I-.” Gwen began to complain. I shot her a stern look and her voice dropped off.
“I am taking Ari out of the Pack borders…” I responded as I shoved the wallet into my back pocket.
“But, Why…?” Gwen responded, “Isn’t she safer in the pack house?”
“I don’t know how Red River found out so quickly that she was here. I don’t know who told him, if it's one of my own employees, then she is not safe. The only way I will know she is safe is by taking her to a place only I know about.” I came around the desk and turned toward the office door.
“But, Gabe, We can help…” Gwen hooked her hand on my arm as I walked away.
I turned, pulling my arm from her and meeting her eyes, like looking into a mirror. “You can help by helping Esen.”
“Do you not trust me?” She asked, offended.
I sighed and raked my hand through my hair, “It’s not that I don’t trust you Gwen…” I responded, “I just got Ari back… I won’t risk anyone hearing something until I know who it was who leaked that Ari was here.”
“But Gabe…”
“Gwen, Please.” I sighed, “Just… Help Esen with security. I will relay information to him, and he will relay info to you as needed…” she still held her ground beside me, not yielding. “Gwen… I can’t lose her again…” I relented in a soft voice to her. “She’s… she’s special to me… And if she's pregnant with my child…” I paused, horrible scenarios invaded my head as the words came out. “I have to keep her safe… She means so much to me…”
I could see tears well in my older sister's eyes. She scrunched her mouth and nose at me but gave a hesitant nod as she took a step back, seeking Ivan for comfort. He put his arm around her waist and cooed something in Russian as I stepped from the office.
I made my way back up to my bedroom, carefully opening the door so as not to spook Ariella. She was curled up on her side in the middle of the bed, just one of the sheets covering her, she hugged one of the pillows to her chest and had her face buried into the pillow, breathing lightly. She looked serene. The cream colored sheet sucked up to her body, showing the curves of her back, down to her bottom and her legs. Her long brown hair fell in a messy pile around her head and face. Her naked shoulders heaved with a deep breath as she adjusted. Her face became uncovered from the pillow, her cheek squished against the pillow and her plump lips fell open with a contented sigh.
I finally noticed that the bracelet I had given her before the Silver Falls Gala was still hooked around her wrist. I almost hated that I needed to wake her up, she looked like an angel.
“Ari…” I whispered as I knelt at the bed. “Wake up… We need to go…
- Writer
