Alpha Raphael’s Second Chance Mate

Chapter 19

NORA

I'm in my room going through the files Damon dropped off when the knock comes.

Alpha Raphael.

He stands at the doorway with that uneasy expression he always has. It's always old. Unreadable.

His eyes move around the room briefly and then settle on me.

"Can I come in?" he asks.

"Yes," I say.

He walks in and stands near the window.

Like he always does, whenever he enters my room.

I go back to the files on the desk and wait.

"Iris spoke to you at breakfast," he says.

His voice was calm, collected and not as icy as it was before.

I look up at him. "Yes."

"I heard what she said."

I put the files down. "Who told you?"

"It doesn't matter," he says. His voice is calm. "It won't happen again."

"I handled it," I say.

"I know you did."

"Then there's nothing else to discuss," I say. "I don't need you to go after her on my behalf."

He looks at me. "I'm not going after anyone on your behalf."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Making sure my pack conducts itself according to its own rules," he says. "That applies to everyone here. Including Iris."

I stare at him.

Our eyes met each other for a few moments and my heart fluttered.

"She's been here longer than me," I say.

"She knows this pack and the alliances and the history. She said it herself."

"She said it to make you feel unwelcome," he says.His eyes were on me the entire time.

"I noticed," I added.

"And you handled it," he says. "I know. I heard that part too."

The room is quiet for a moment, only the sound of our heart beating against each other could be heard.

He's still standing near the window and I'm still at the desk and neither of us moves.

"The founding ceremony," I say. "She mentioned I'd need to know the full pack history going back four generations."

"You have time," he says.

"That's what the older woman told me this morning."

Something moves across his face. It was not a smile exactly. But I guess,it was close to one.

"Adela," he says. "She's been in this pack for forty years. She knows more about the pack than anyone else”

"She was kind," I stated.

Truly she was, even when she didn't need to.

She could have supported Iris, blindly.

"She's straight forward," he says. "There's a difference."

I look at him. "You think those are different things."

"In this pack yes," he says.

I pick the files back up. He's still standing there.

Not moving toward the door.

"The pack members who were at breakfast," I say. "They saw what happened."

"Yes."

"And they saw how I handled it."

"Yes," he says again.

"That matters more than you going to Iris and telling her to stop," I say. "If you fight this battle it stays your battle. If I handle it myself it becomes mine. And people here start to see me differently."

He's quiet for a moment.

"You're right," he says.

I wasn't expecting that.

He says it plain and simple with no reluctance around it. Just acknowledges it and moves on. Kael would have argued.

He would have found a way to make my point his point. He would have turned it into something about him.

Raphael just says you're right.

I look back at the files.

"I still spoke to her," he says. "Not about you. About pack standards."

"Of course you did," I say.

"Is that a problem?"

"No," I say. "Just predictable."

He almost smiles again. I caught it this time. Just the edge of it at the corner of his mouth before it goes back to flat.

"The meeting with Alpha Marcus tomorrow," he says. "Damon gave you the files?"

"Yes."

"Do you need anything explained?"

"I'll manage," I say.

He nods. He looks at me one more time and I look back at him and neither of us says anything and neither of us moves toward the door and the room stays quiet and then there's a knock.

Damon's voice comes through the door.

"Alpha. The elder's council is asking for you."

Raphael looks at me.

"Tomorrow," he says.

"Tomorrow," I replied .

He goes to the door and opens it. Damon is standing there with papers in his hand and that look he gets when he has something to say but he's not going to say out loud,but in private.

His eyes move from Raphael to me and back to Raphael and he keeps his face very carefully neutral.

"The elders," Damon says.

"I heard you," Raphael says.

They walk out together.

The door closes.

I put the files down and lean back in the chair.

My wolf has been quiet through the whole thing.

And I wished she could keep this up instead of nagging about what just happened.

Of course, that was a mere wish. Her voice came just after I made a wish.

'He came directly to you,' she says.

'He came to make sure his pack follows its rules,that's different Sera' I say.

'He came to you first. Not to Iris. To you.'

'Sera.'

'I'm just stating what happened.'

'I know what happened,' I say.

'Do you understand what it means though.'

I pick the files back up.

'I'm working,' I tell her.

She goes quiet but she's pleased about it and I know she's pleased about it and I'm not going to give her the satisfaction of acknowledging that.

I go through the first file. Alpha Marcus. Moon pack.

The meeting details are straightforward. A project. Resources. Alliance terms. I read through it carefully and make notes on the side the way I used to do back when I handled documentation for Kael's pack.

Before everything fell apart.

Before my pup was taken.

Before the forest and the snow and all of it.

My son is in the room down the hall right now with Wren watching over him. I checked on him an hour ago. He was sleeping. His small face completely relaxed. Those caramel brown eyes closed.

Those eyes.

Something about those eyes is still sitting in the back of my head in a place I haven't looked at very well yet.

Wren mentioned it.

Damon mentioned it the day we got my pup back, Raphael himself went quiet when he first properly looked at the baby.

I'm not ready to look at that yet.

At least I am glad I get to have my pup.

I could still remember how hard he fought to get our son.

I turn to the next page of the files.

The meeting is tomorrow. I need to be ready. I need to be useful. I need to show this pack and Raphael and everyone watching that I'm not here to take up space.

I'm here because I'm supposed to be here.

I go back to reading.