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“Yes, alpha.” She mumbles, putting her head down.
“Oh, and one more thing. Tell the pack to make themselves scarce for a few days, yourself included.”
“As you wish.” She replies between gritted teeth as she hurries out the door.
Chapter Thirteen
LEI
It’s been nearly a week and there’s still been no word from Xan.
No messages. No phone calls. Lying on my bed, I’m starting to think that maybe he has given up. That he has realized he can’t get to me in Redwood.
"Come on, Lei, I need your help." Riley calls out.
Smiling, I push myself up from the bed as I hear Riley and Corbin laughing and whispering downstairs. They’ve been like this the past few days, ever since the pack left, and I love it.
Following the sound of their voices I find them waiting in the den.
"What the—"
"Merry Christmas / Birthday!" Riley says, kissing my cheek.
"It's not either of those things." I say, confused as I look around the room at the pile of wrapped presents.
"Yeah, well, to be fair, we didn't think we would ever get to celebrate it with you again."
"Where did you get these?" I ask, frowning, wondering when they had managed to go into town.
"We already had them."
"You mean—"
He nods. “Every year, we still bought you a gift in case you showed up."
"Don't," I say, holding up my hand as Riley starts toward me. "If you hug me right now, I swear to god, Riley, I will cry all over you."
Coming to a stop, he smiles. "So, you like?" he asks, tipping his head to the side as if trying to gauge my reaction.
I nod. "Yes." I choke out. I’m not lying to him. I can't believe that they still thought of me every year.
"Good, now come here and open this one from me. It's handcuffs for tonight. Only joking." He laughs. "Or am I?" he continues to tease, and I can hear the heavy sigh from Corbin behind us.
These guys are like chalk and cheese, but I wouldn't have them any other way. Where Corbin is ice Riley is fire, and they balance each other perfectly.
As I open my presents from Riley and Corbin, I can't help but laugh. Some of them are from Christmas, including a Santa hat, reindeer ears and a fluffy penguin. Whilst others were more serious, like books by my favorite authors and a knitted scarf.
Once finished, I turn toward Corbin, sitting on the couch with a lone box in his hand.
Suddenly I'm nervous. Corbin has never really been one for gifts, and I know most of them in the room are from Riley, but this one in the box, I know exactly who it’s from, and it terrifies me.
"We got this four years ago, the summer before you left.," Corbin speaks.
I nod, not wanting to spoil this moment with words. He's already looking nervous as if he's ready to bolt from the room.
Going to sit beside him, I wait for him to be ready. I can feel Riley watching us from the other side of the room, and I can tell he's nervous too.
"Here." He finally passes it over—a beautiful blue square box wrapped with a red bow.
