Hiding from the Beta

Chapter Sixteen

Timothy’s pov

“Heads up!” I yelled as I dropped the last board of plywood down to the ground.

I climbed back down the ladder and saw Tahlia was standing in front of the house. I walked over to her and wiped my brow. “This place is gorgeous.” She whispered.

I looked at her and my heart skipped a beat. I never realized how gorgeous she truly was. “So gorgeous.” I said, as I kept my eyes on her.

She turned to me and smiled, “what should we do next?” She asked excitedly.

“Maybe we should go back inside and take a good look through the house. Get an idea of what you want to do.” I said with a smile.

Her eyes grew bright and she nodded her head. “That is a brilliant idea!” She squealed before she took off running to the front door.

I took off after her, she beat me to the door and ran inside. I ran inside and found her in the kitchen. The kitchen was a mess. There was a solid layer of dust on everything. She looked around with a big smile. I don’t think I had ever seen her smile before.

“This kitchen is going to be gorgeous.” She walked over to where the counters should have been. This space is a good size. “Picture it, an island here, the stove top there, oh a double oven over there!” She gasped.

I laughed, “well okay there, first we need to clean this up.” I told her as I motioned at the space around us.

She nodded and circled around looking at the kitchen space. She smiled and pointed at the door. When you looked at it you could see that there was a mark to put in a larger door. “Do you think we could put in a bigger door?” She asked.

I crossed my arms and smiled, “we can.” I looked at my watch and saw that it was after eleven. “How about we head back to town, we can go to the diner and talk about what you want to do over lunch.”

She smiled at me and nodded her head, “yeah, I think that is a great idea.” We walked out of the door and she turned and locked it.

“What was the point of locking it?” I asked her.

She looked at me confused, but I pointed to the window that wasn’t there right next to the porch. “Oh, guess I am in the habit of locking doors now.” She laughed.

“Alright, come on.” We walked back to town. She was talking about paint colors, trim colors, cabinets and backsplashes, flowers and benches. We walked into her hotel room and she froze.

“Who are you?” She growled.

I moved in front of her and pulled her back from the two people that were sitting on her bed. “Well finally we found you.” The woman said.

I could tell she was a witch and he was a warlock. “You were looking for me? Why?”

“That’s hard to explain, but long story short we are your aunt and uncle. Your other aunt couldn’t be here, she was attending to some other business.” The woman said.

“What?” She asked, confused.

“Look, we need you to come with us.” The witch said.

Tahlia took a step back, “no, I don’t need to go anywhere with you.”

The man stood up and walked towards Tahlia, “yes you do. We can keep you safe, more safe than any alpha could.”

“I don’t even know you, why would I go with you?”

“Tahlia, we just want what’s best for you. Your mother wouldn’t have sent us if it wasn’t important.” The witch said.

Tahlia took a step back, “my mother sent you?” She turned so I could see the side of her face.

“Yes, your mom-“

“No, I absolutely will not go with you. She had years and thousands of chances to do the right thing. I can take care of myself.” Tahlia growled.

The next second the man was right next to Tahlia and grabbed her arm. I reached for him but Tahlia shoved the palm of her hand against his chest and he went flying across the room and through the wall that led into the bathroom.

The witch stood there shocked momentarily before she ran to the man. “Mykel, are you okay?” She asked the man.

I turned to Tahlia, “are you alright?” I asked her.

She shook her head, she grabbed her sweatshirt off the floor and took off towards the diner, leaving the two strangers alone in her room. As she stormed ahead of me towards the diner, Doris walked out of the office. “What’s wrong?” She asked.

Tahlia kept walking but turned to her and quietly said, “I am sorry.”

Doris looked at her confused as she stormed away. “What happened?” She asked me.

I looked at her and shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t know. But now I understand why they want her kept safe. You’ll need to fix her room.” I said before I turned away and took off after Tahlia.

I walked into the diner and saw her sitting in a booth, she now had her sweatshirt on and was crying into the neck of it. I sat down in the dark red booth across from her. “Tahlia?”

She shook her head, “I don’t know what happened.” She said as she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

“That’s fine, we will figure it out. I am sure your wolf didn’t mean to do that.” I said.

She was about to answer when a middle aged woman walked over and asked us what we would like to drink. Tahlia ordered a chocolate milkshake and water, I ordered a strawberry milkshake and water too.

Once he had disappeared the said, “it wasn’t Daphne.”

I looked at her confused, “was it the witch part?” He asked.

I nodded my head, “I don’t know why but that very new part of me is telling me to stay away from him. That warlock is bad news, uncle or not.” She said then leaned back into the booth.

“Are you sure? I mean it’s all so new to you.” I told her.

She nodded, “I don’t know how to explain it. All I know is that when he touched me I just meant to push him away. Something else took over and it was like a surge of electricity just rushed out of me.”

The man came back with our drinks, we gave him our order. She ordered a double quarter pounder cheeseburger with bacon and the works with fries. I ordered the same thing, but wanted barbecue sauce on it too. He rolled his eyes and walked away.

“Well when we are done here we can go talk to Doris.” I told her.

She shook her head, “I doubt Doris will want anything to do with me after this. I destroyed that room. I will have to pay for her to fix it.”

I shook my head and chuckled, “Doris can fix that kind of stuff pretty quick. She doesn’t really need my help, she just calls me for the little things to make it look like she isn’t special.”

“How long have you known she was a witch?” She asked.

“Since the day I got here, I knew she was the second I met her. I was careful to make sure people didn’t know who I was. It wasn’t long after I arrived that the alpha learned about it.”

She sighed, “I didn’t grab my notebook.” She said, sadly.

“That’s fine, we can just brainstorm. What color do you want to paint the house?”

She smiled, “maybe grey with white trim. Or blue with white trim, or black trim. Oh what about a cobalt blue door with a beautiful stained glass window?” She asked, a smile on her face.

I smiled back at her, there was just something about this woman that I loved. I felt a jolt in my stomach, did I really love this girl? She just lost her mate, I couldn’t compete with that, could I? No, I will just help her with this house, see how things go. I am sure she has a second chance mate out there somewhere. “So cobalt blue? You like the cool side of the color wheel don’t you?”

She nodded, “yeah, I guess so. One of my favorite colors is purple. Not lavender, like a really dark rich purple.”

“That’s good to know. Do you want new shutters? We can’t keep the ones that are there, they are in pretty rough shape.” I told her.

She nodded her head, “absolutely, but I also want little window garden boxes. It would be nice to have a mixture of color all over the place.”

“Okay, there seemed to only be one good window in the house, are we going to keep it or not?” I asked as the waiter set our food down in front of us.

“I think we should just replace them all. I think it would be best, I wonder what happened to all the windows.”

“From what I understood that was Cullen’s doing. After his mate was killed he went berserk and trashed the place. He cleaned it up the best he could, but he still had to completely gut the house. That’s why they just used plywood to board it up.”

Her face suddenly became gloomy, “I know the feeling.” She said barely in a whisper.

“There are five bedrooms upstairs, that includes one master bathroom and bedroom. Upstairs there is also a seperate bathroom. Then there is a guest room on the main level. The living room is actually split into two rooms, half is a dining room. But we don’t need to use it as such if you don’t want to. Next to the living room towards the back of the house is a room that is a guest bathroom. That small room we walked through to get to the back door is a mudroom and laundry room in one.”

She nodded her head, “you really know a lot about that house.”

“Yeah, I helped try to clean it up. It is a gorgeous place.”

She dipped one of her fries into her chocolate shake and ate it slowly. After a while she sighed, “could you help me with part of the project I want to pay for?” She asked.

“Sure, but Cullen did say he would pay for whatever we need.” I told her then took a large bite out of my burger.

“I know, but I want to do something as a thank you to him. This is a huge risk he is taking.” She said, as she dunked more fries into her chocolate shake.

I eyed her suspiciously, “okay, shoot.”

“I want to make a huge butterfly garden and turn the entire area around the grave into a gorgeous, peaceful area.” Her cheeks flushed as I looked at her.

“I can do that.” I told her softly.

“Perfect, where do we get all this stuff?”

“I have a huge catalog, we order what we need from there and then it’s typically delivered in two or three days. The small grocery store and the hardware store will have a few things to get us started while we wait.”

“Wonderful, once we are done here let’s head over to the store. We need cleaning supplies. We should probably order a dumpster too.”

I watched as she dunked more fries into her shake, “what are you doing?” I asked her.

She looked at me, then the fries then at the shake. She took a big bite then said with a mouthful of food, “don’t knock it ‘till you try it.”

She pushed her milkshake towards me and I picked up one of my fries. I dunked it in and then put it in my mouth. I was surprised that it tasted so good. It was a combination of sweet and salty. I sat up and twisted in the booth. I waved at the waiter and he walked over, “can I have a chocolate milkshake please.” He nodded his head and walked away.

I looked at Tahlia, she had the biggest grin on her face. “What?” I asked.

She shook her head, “told ya.”

“Yes, you did. I am sorry I judged it before I tried it. Now, hurry up and eat. The sooner we get back out to the house the better.”

It wasn’t long before we walked out of the store, arms full of bags with supplies. “Let’s go get my ATV, it will be easier than carrying this through the woods.”

“Okay, where is it?” She asked as she readjusted a bag that was falling from her grip.

“I keep it at the police station, I keep it there in exchange for cheap repair work.” I told her.

We walked making small talk all the way to the police station, I set the bags down and pulled out my keys. I grabbed the small one for the gate. “Wait here, I will be right back.” I told her.

I ran to my ATV and ripped the cover off. I hopped on and drove it to the gate. Once through I closed up the gate then opened up the storage area, “a couple of the bags will fit in here, the other bag you will have to hold onto.” I told her.

“Okay, no problem.” She said as she climbed up.

I handed her a helmet and she took it. I watched as she struggled to fasten the buckle. “Here, let me help.” I grabbed the strap and was overly conscious about how soft her skin was. I fastened the buckle as quickly as I could, “okay, hang on tight.” I told her.

She wrapped her one arm around my waist and the other held tightly onto the bag in her arm. I loved the feeling of her arm around my waist. I smiled as I drove us over the bumpy ground of the forest.

Too soon we were back at the house. I looked at my watch and it said that it was nearly two in the afternoon. She climbed off and quickly took off the helmet. She set it down on the seat and looked at the house. “I think a medium toned grey with white trim and a cobalt blue door would be the best.” She said as she looked ahead.

I smiled at her back, “I think you’re right.”

I grabbed the other bags and followed her inside. We set everything down on the floor, “we didn’t grab a broom or a vacuum.” She said as she stood up.

“That’s okay, I think I saw a shop vac in the shed. We can use that for practically everything.” I told her.

She nodded her head, “where should we even start?” She asked.

“Well, why don’t we start by using the shop vac and just vacuum up all this dust. I can go searching for the breaker and see if there is still power to this place.”

“Okay, I will go find the shop vac. I bet the breaker is in the basement.” She turned and strode to the back and out of the house.

I sighed and went searching for the door to the basement. It didn’t take me too long to find, it was right under the stairs that led to the upstairs. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight before I walked down the narrow steps and smiled when I saw what was there.

The basement wasn’t touched. There was a desk on one side with some filing cabinets, there was a lamp with a glass lampshade that was green sitting on top of the dark desk. The walls were painted a white with two sets of handprints. One was purple and much smaller than the other which was a light blue.

The other side of the room had a large table. On the table was a sewing machine and a large embroidery machine. I walked over to it and saw there was one finished baby blanket in a light blue color. The embroidered corner stuck out and read Jonathan Jameson ‘JJ’. Sitting next to the embroidery machine was another blanket, but in a soft pink. This one had the start of a name on it. Klairece Jame, I could see that she had been picking off part of the name to fix something she didn’t like.

I walked away from the table in search of the power box. I moved my flashlight around the walls, and finally I found it. I walked to the opposite wall and opened it. The main breaker had been flipped off. I flipped the switch and sighed when I heard the common hum of electricity start to flow.

I walked over to the stairs and flipped on the light, I jumped when my phone started to ring. I looked down and saw that it was Cullen. I quickly answered it. “Hello.”

“Hello Timothy, are you still with Tahlia?” He asked.

“I am, we are still at the house. I was kind of surprised about a room I literally just found.”

“You must have gone to the basement.” He said, a note of sadness in his voice.

“Yeah, how’d you guess?”

“It’s the only room that is complete. That was our work space, I completed that room so that she could work here while I worked on the house. I didn’t like her being far from me at the time, it was also the only room that stopped me in my tracks. Her scent lingered there for so long, eventually I had managed to move on with help of a witch. Anyways, I wanted to make sure she was okay.”

“Yeah, she is fine. Did you know about a witch and a warlock being in town?” I asked.

“Yeah, they wanted to try and convince Tahlia to go with them. Told them I would not force her to go anywhere. Let me know if you have any questions, also let me know what you need, or I could just give you my card and you can make the purchases.”

“No, we will come over the day after tomorrow and let you know what we need for starters.” I heard the vacuum kick on upstairs.

“Okay, well good luck.” He said,

I hung up and walked upstairs, I walked in and saw her vacuuming the floor in the furthest corner of the living room. She turned and saw me, “I think we have to get rid of this carpet, maybe a nice wood floor would be nice.”

I smiled and nodded my head, “anything you’d like.”

She smiled, bent down, grabbed the corner of the carpet and yanked as hard as she could. She turned and looked back at me with one hand on her hip. “Wood it is then.”

I walked towards her and grabbed the other corner, “wood it is.”