20 Truth

"So are you gonna tell me what the money was for?" Alic asks as soon as he is seated a at his desk. I remain standing unable to calm my nerves enough to sit.

"Promise you won't get mad?" I plead delaying telling him the truth.

"I can promise that I will forgive you if you've done wrong. I can promise to fix any problem you may have found yourself in. I can promise I will always love you... but by the look on your face I'm going to hate what you are about to say so I can not promise that I will not get mad at first... I can promise to get over it as quickly as possible if that helps." He says with a smirk.

"Well... I guess I should start with my Poppa's death." I state and he nods telling me to go on. "I saw the man who was fighting him... I didn't see him die but I saw the rouge that did it."

"Aaron said he killed them all. Hunted them down after Brayden was killed." Alic cuts in.

"Well he also thought I was dead." I say and he stops and asks me to continue. "I remember the man's face and I never thought I'd see him again... the day Felice was born I saw that face again on the training grounds." I hear him growl but continue my explanation. "After she was born he stopped me outside the hospital."

"When I found you upset against the side wall. You were upset because of him." Alic states and I nod.

"He threatened me. He said he just wanted a peaceful life and I didn't want any trouble so I decided to leave him be but I kept an eye on him. I still didn't trust him and didn't want to risk him hurting us or our pack."

"He is one man. If you would have come to me..." Alic starts but I cut him off.

"I was trying to avoid conflict! I didn't want any of this!" I yell and he shuts up. I take a deep breath and continue. "Apparently he saw me watching him and thought it was only a matter of time until I told you. Well I guess he was right about that." I let out a humorless chuckle. "He threatened me and our pup. He said the man who was responsible for the attack on my pack is still around and wants me. He said our pup would be worth alot on the black market. He said to give him the money or he'd take me." I ramble out as quickly as I can.

A growl ripps through the office as Alic's fist comes down on his desk cracking it.

"Seriously Bella!" He roars. "A man threatens my mate and pup and you think the best course of action is to pay him off behind my back, cross your fingers, and hope he goes away? If he wants money what's stopping him from taking the money and you? Did you think about that? You need more security now that I wouldn't know you needed if you wouldn't have told me this! Do you realize how broken I'd be if someone took you? Did you think any of this through?"

"I thought I was protecting you." I whisper.

"Protecting me?! It's my job to protect you! I'm the Alpha! Crap I'm the frickin' Alpha King! I. Protect. You!" He yells

"And I'm the Luna! The frickin' Luna Queen! I wanted to handle this on my own! He is MY problem! He killed MY poppa! And I just want him gone! I don't care where he goes as long as I never see his face! I didn't want any harm to come to my family and did my best to ensure their safety!" I yell back. Alic takes a deep breath before responding.

"I get that." He sighs. "But you are my mate. Your problems are my problems. We should handle these things together. If anything happened to you I wouldn't have even known where to start looking. When you keep things from me it hurts us."

"Like your completely honest with me." I scoff.

"I'm an open book." He says holding his arms out offering himself to me. "What have I ever kept from you?"

"That you were my mate." I fire off.

"That, my little wolf, was your own doing and you know it. I flat told you that there was something I couldn't say. I never tried to hide it. It was your wolf that caused that so try again, little Bell." He says.

The more I think about it he's right. It killed him to keep things from me but it was my first thought to keep this from him.

"I'm sorry." I whisper.

"All is forgiven... now can we deal with this together?" He asks and I nod. "Good! Now first thing, I want you to look through the files on the rouges we have accepted and tell me who I need to kill."

°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Brandon

It is such a common name. I've met a couple pups that go by that name. It seems so innocent. That name, however, also belongs to the man who killed my poppa and threatened my family. It's funny how the meaning of a name can change based on who carries it.

"Brandon Drezdon, open up!" Alic roars as he pounds on the door.

Soon the door to his room in the pack house is splintered and lying on the carpet. One of the trackers comes in as soon as the room is cleared.

"His scent is about 3hrs. old. If we hurry we might be able to catch him." The tracker says.

"Lead the way, Mic." Alic says as he heads for the door. He stops in front of me.

"Go over to my dad's. He and Aaron are gonna keep an eye on you until the threat is taken care of. Stay safe, Bella." He tells me with a kiss to my forehead and then to my stomach. Alic quickly turns and runs after his men. A moment later I hear his howl calling for a hunt. With a deep breath I make my way to my father in law's house.