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“Is she sick?” he asked.
“Did Tomas not tell you?” Markus asked. “Celeste is pregnant.”
“Madre de Dios. So this is why your guards seem so on edge when they aren’t actively guarding you? I swear I’ve seen them all pass by this door every time I’ve come near.” To prove his point, he pushed the door open, and Gabriel walked past the doors, looking inside as subtly as he could, making Markus laugh.
“They love their luna,” Markus said simply as we followed Diego. “I hope you know I told them we were safe inside the pack house.”
“It’s their instinct to want to keep their luna safe while not in their own land. Rest assured, no offense is taken. Now that I know she’s expecting a pup, I will double the guards at the gates,” Diego said.
“Pups,” Markus corrected. “We’re expecting twins.”
“A double blessing. Come on, cousin,” he said cheerfully to Markus as we arrived at the kitchen. “We will celebrate. Don’t worry about your mate. Mom will be doting on her hand and foot. She loves pups.”
Chapter forty-four
Markus
Thenextcoupleofdays passed by fairly quickly. Evergreen joined us the day after I called him with suggestions to digitize the records. When he arrived, he walked straight into the room of records, only to walk back out a few minutes later. He took my credit card to buy some generators and equipment and has only come out to eat and sleep. We went there a few times a day to help him, but it was like he was going through WiFi withdrawal. He was short-tempered and kept checking his phone, only to grunt and put it back down.
I was right. There was technology to digitize all the books and journals in the room already in existence. The journals and pictures were scanned, and the digital copy was to be stored for future reference while the software was also extracting the document’s writings and pictures. It would create a typed script of the page but could also translate it to whatever language you needed. An index was generated for an easy search function as each document was scanned. The whole process was impressive, but we were all scared to let him know lest he call us all primitive brutes and shut the door on our faces. Again.
I was hanging out with Diego and a group of his friends one morning when Gillian came and sat next to us a couple of hours before lunch.
“Someone will have to go grab him at lunchtime. I have been barred from the room for the rest of the day,” he grumbled, making everyone chuckle.
“What did you do? Last night, I was asked to leave very politely but firmly after I thought the machine was broken. He told me that he was not a miracle worker. He can only get so much amp out of the generators, and he doesn’t understand how someone can live without Netflix,” Diego said, taking a swig of his beer and shaking his head in amusement.
“I am apparently not to be trusted after he discovered I mislabeled a page under another index,” Gillian grumbled. “The only one that can do no wrong is the luna. He was all rainbows and sunshine talking about possible pup names with Celeste before I got kicked out.”
“I am beginning to understand my cousin has that effect on just about everyone she meets. Tomas hadn’t gotten his mom to come into the pack grounds in almost five years, and she’s come to the last two dinners,” Diego responded.
“She is fiercely protective of her loved ones and they, her. Everyone who gets to know her loves her. But man, wait until you’ve been on the other side of her temp—oooh h-hi Tuli. How’s the scanning going?” I quickly deviated my speech when I saw her coming out of the pack house with a glass of lemonade. Everyone at the table smirked at me knowingly.
“On the other side of my what, Markus?” she asked casually, not moving from the door.
‘Help me,’ I mind-linked Gillian desperately as my mouth bobbed open and closed while my brain searched for an answer that wouldn’t get me in trouble.
‘I’ve already taken shit from one moody wolf today. I don’t need to add hormonal pregnant she-wolf to my day.’ Gillian laughed.
Celeste raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to answer, when Lupe’s bike came out the rows of maize. She dismounted and walked up to Celeste, leading her back inside. They were beginning preparations for tomorrow’s full moon, as three other packs were coming. With every pack around here being small, having joint celebrations just made sense when trying to find their mates. I sighed with relief when I saw Celeste retreat without asking me to explain myself again when I heard her in my head.‘
If you think talking shit with the guys about your mate is something I’m going to forget, you’ve got another think coming, my love. Payback is a bitch.’
I groaned, and the guys started laughing around me.
“Are you in the doghouse, cousin?” Diego asked, laughing. “The big mighty American alpha, scared of a tiny she-wolf.” I noticed only the ones without mates were doubled over laughing. The ones mated had sympathy in their eyes.
“Yes, well, if I show up at your suite tonight asking you to hide me, you better fucking open the door,” I grumbled, looking back at the door to the pack house. “I can’t wait to hear how you guys tuck your tails between your legs when you find your mates.”
One of the older, mated males laughed at that and tipped his beer at me.
“Every male thinks they can handle a woman until they get mated to one. I always enjoy watching their faces fall when they realize who the weaker sex actually is.”
Diego’s eyes glazed over before he could answer back.
“Intruders at the river,” he said as he stripped, shifted and started off. We all followed suit.
The mountain pack had, for all intents and purposes, one way in and one way out, but occasionally, someone managed to find an underground river that provided them with a freshwater source. It took a lot of strength to swim against the river in order to make it to the only climbable entrance to the pack grounds. Diego told me it always made for either an easy capture or a frightening fight. Anyone who could make it up was either exhausted from fighting against the river or strong enough to do major damage.
