Twice Blessed ~ Matthew’s Story

Matthew’s POV ~

We discovered our pup is, in fact, a little boy. I am over the moon. Our heir will be here soon, and we have been scrambling to get everything ready.

Ella had refused, flat out, to do anything with the nursery until we knew the gender. Now she’s become a slave driver.. and wants everything done yesterday.

Maverick is returning today… with his mate. And my mate has been bouncing off the walls in excitement. We also discovered, when Peaches came out of her shell.. is quite excitable, as well. Ella calls her butterfly. If you ask her why, she will tell you it’s because Peaches was locked in a cocoon by the hunters.. and now she has broken free.. leaving behind a beautiful, ethereal butterfly.

We all know that’s not it. Ella can wrap it up with a pretty bow.. but she calls her butterfly because she flits from sofa to chair to floor.. never sitting still for more than two minutes. Entirely too much energy. I will even admit to using my calming powers on her.. like I do Calvin. The pair of them are exhausting!

We are standing on the front steps.. awaiting Maverick’s arrival. Then we have to prepare for Edgar’s execution. I will be relieved to see him die. The man hasn’t shut up in the entire three weeks he has been in the cells.

We watch as Maverick parks his truck. He stepped around to the passenger side and helped a woman out. She was taller than Ella by several inches.. with dark eyes and light brown curly hair.

They met us at the porch and Maverick said “Alpha Matthew, Luna Ella.. allow me to introduce my mate Charlene..” I held my hand out to her, welcoming her to the pack.. while my Luna squealed… hugged her.. bouncing up and down the entire time.

I cracked up and told Charlene “I honestly don’t think there is a better welcome to our pack.. than being tackled by a highly excited Luna.” Charlene laughed “And here I was worried about being accepted.”

Two hours after lunch, everyone was gathered in the backyard. Edgar had been led up to the platform.. and I walked him over to Uncle Damien.

I stood to the right.. behind the King.. my father to his left. Damien addressed tge crowd “This man abducted and paid to have abducted our she-wolves.. in order to impregnate them. His blatant disregard of our sacred mate bond, alone, is reason enough to execute him. He personally raped and beat every woman he had in his custody. That definitely warrants death. This vermin will be put down.. today! Any last words, Edgar.. before you slam into the gates of hell?”

Edgar started laughing.. loudly “Killing me won’t stop the movement. Executing me won’t prevent the hunters from their vengeance. My son! MY SON will avenge me! He is but a boy, now.. But he is being raised in the ways of the righteous! He is being taught who he has to kill.. He will know who is responsible for the death of his parents and will seek retribution! Be aware, LUNAAAA! He will come for you!”

Damien snapped his head from his neck and I leaped to the ground. Pulling Ella close to me, holding her tight. She asked “Does he have a son? What information do we have in him?”

I told her “We are still processing everything we confiscated. There weren’t any reports of children being at any of the camps. And there should have been. We need to go through all the reports the women drafted for us.”

She snarled “He raped every one of them. For all we know he could have twenty kids out there, somewhere.”

Maverick said “He said the boy would know who is responsible for the death of his parents. Parents… plural.. We didn’t kill any women. We don’t do that.”

Calvin responded “Well. Technically, we kind of did. One woman died in our custody.” I growled “What? Who? And where the fuck was I?”

He spoke lowly “Ella’s mother.. the Goddess took her wolf and she died.” Ella looked at me.. eyes wide.. “No! No way! I could have a brother out there? He’s a child! Just a child. And he’s being brainwashed to hate his own kind?”

I looked at my inner circle “We start looking for any information we can find. If there is a compound of children being groomed as hunters, we need to locate them.”

Ella said “It’s actually something my mother would do.. if it would save her life. She’d spit out a kid a year.. as long as she didn’t have to raise them.”

The search for Ella’s brother has begun.