Chapter forty-one

Xander carries me through the front doors of the packhouse.

"I can walk by myself you know" he just gives me a blank stare, he looks so tired, he must have been so worried about me.

"I'm sorry Xander, I shouldn't have run out like that, this is all my fault" I choke on my words as I start to tear up.

"Don't ever say that, I love you and I'm just so happy you're here safe with me." he places a kiss on my forehead before placing me on my feet. We make our way towards the living room, I look around to see the concerned faces of my friends and family.

"Iris!" Kris comes barrelling at me, engulfing me in a hug.

"I missed you so much" she cried into my shoulder. I held her close to me, taking in her scent and just basking in the fact that she's real, and I'm really home.

"I missed you too" I cried, I pulled her back to place a long hard kiss on her forehead.

"I'm not going anywhere ever again, I promise" I whisper with her forehead against mine. I slowly turn my attention to my parents who both have glossy eyes, my mother opens her arms for me and I instantly fall into them.

"oh my baby, I'm never letting you out of my sight again" my mother cries and I rub her back soothingly.

"I'm okay mom, I honestly don't remember much of it" I say trying to relieve some of her obvious stress, but her brows just turn down even more.

"Listen guys, I'm honestly pretty tired, I need to get some sleep we can talk about this tomorrow" everyone frowns at me, but slowly nods their heads, I make a swift exit with Xander right behind me..I really need to talk to him.

We enter my room and I plop on my bed, I stare down at myself and notice I'm still in that vile nightgown. I quickly discard of it, changing into one of Xanders shirts and a pair of boxers, like usual. 

I stare in the mirror hanging on the door, more specifically at my stomach, where my child is. I subconciously start rubbing my stomach in slow circles before I feel a pair of arms wrap around my waist. I slowly turn to face my extremely attractive mate, who's eyes shined bright with love, I wrap my arms around his neck playing with the hairs at the base of his neck.

"What's on your mind kitten?" He whispers, there's no need to be loud with the quietness that fills the room and the proximety of our bodies.

"Everything" I answer honestly, not even knowing where to start. 

"Tell me about it" he says bringing me to the bed where he sits leaned up againt the bed post and me crisscross in front of him.

"I missed my birthday, that I'm sure of. I missed graduation but that doesn't matter since my dad un-enrolled me in school. and coronation still needs to be set and handled, and you just killed your dad and it doesn't seem to affect you" the last one sort of tumbles out of my mouth, me not being able to contain it.

"That man wasn't my father, he hasn't been for a really long time Iris, I was hoping I could save him but he couldn't be saved, not MY dad anyways. that man?" he said giving me a hard stare, one I've only seen reserved for the people who held a very special place in his heart...a place of deep hatred.

"that man treated you like a dog. So I put him down like one" he says practically growling and I couldn't help but feel my heart pick up the pace because of his protective words.

"I'll never be able to show you how grateful I am to have you in my life" I answered teary-eyed as I crawled onto his lap.

"I already know kitten, don't worry" he smirks back before placing his lips on mine in a slow, agonizingly so, kiss, until I felt something come up my throat.

I quickly made my way to the trash, just in time to empty out my stomach contents, loudly might I add. after a couple of minutes of dry heaving, I finally plop down on the ground. Xander rubs my back comfortingly.

"are you okay? do you need me to get the doctor?" he asks, touching my forehead to check for a fever, the gesture made my heart swell.

"no, I'm okay, everything's fine" I say grabbing a bottle of water from the mini-fridge, I chugged the water to finally get the taste of puke out of my mouth.

"Are you sure?" he asked almost tentatively, I sigh exasperatedly.

"yes baby, I'm sure, just a stomach bug I'll be fine" I say giving him a peck on the cheek, he takes the kiss and says no more about it.

"did you wanna talk about, what happened?" he asks slowly almost like he's walking on eggshells.

"not really, not much happened anyways, I was knocked out most of the time" I say trying to get him to catch on that I obviously wasn't in a mood to talk about the obvious elephant in the room, my abduction.

"Alright, fine I'll drop it" I give him a thankful nod.

"so what did I miss?" I asked getting comfortable in the bed, watching Xander strip down to his boxers as he talked.

"not much, most the time was spent looking for you. Other than that though, your sister and Chase have finally got together for real" he says with a breathy laugh and I smile for my sister, she finally got her wish.

"Same for Quinn and Jasper" he says after and I roll my eyes, I knew that was gonna happen, hopefully Quinn is out of her breakup funk since she's with Jasper now.

"good for them, glad it worked out" I said nodding my head, Xander was already next to me in bed with his arm wrapped around me and my head on his chest.

"Xander" I whisper after a while of comfortable silence

"hmm" he answers back, practically asleep already.

"I can't wait to start a family with you" I answer, sliding my fingertips down his cheekbone. I can't believe this man is my mate, this amazing, handsome man who would travel the world for me, is all mine.

I wait for an answer but it doesn't come, signaling the fact he must have fallen asleep, I get comfortable and soon fall asleep to the sound of his heartbeat.