Rush nodded thoughtfully and rested his chin on his fists.
“How soon would you expect him to make his move?” I asked.
She looked down, counting days in her head. “Honestly? I’m surprised he didn’t come when you were taken, and the pack was vulnerable.”
“So, what does that mean?” I looked to Rush, who had stood up from his chair in the office, pacing back and forth.
“It means he’s waiting for something,” he mumbled. “Something more important than your absence.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I know as much as you do,” Rush said sassily. I rolled my eyes.
“If I may.” Emily pushed her chair back and stood up. “They don’t know that I helped you escape. I disconnected the cameras before I came in; there would be no way to know if I was taken prisoner or if I helped you. Let me call him.”
Rush and I both stiffened at her suggestion.
“You want to call him?” I asked, more unsupportive than I intended to sound.
“If I could convince him that you had me captive, I could maybe weasel some information out of him. Maybe he would tell me what his plan is.”
“Not now,” Rush said, leaning across his desk, looking at me. I scrunched my face in confusion. “Not until your stronger. Haz-Emily’s call could push him to attack us earlier, and I’m not having hunters on our land while you are still recovering.”
“Okay.” Emily nodded, sitting back in her chair. “We can wait until the end of the week.”
“Just a few days,” I warned, sitting back in my seat, gently tracing my protruding stomach. “That’s all I need.”
Rush and Emily exchanged a glance at my stubbornness but nodded, nonetheless.
“Alright,” Rush declared, clapping his hands together loudly. “We’ve finally got a plan.”
Five Days
“Daddy, please, you have to help me,” Emily pleaded over the phone. Rush and I sat silently next to her, biting our tongues. The five days to Sunday were long, and we were shaking in impatience.
“Hazel, where are you?” his gruff voice answered.
“Please, dad. They said they would hurt me,” she whispered again.
“Hazel, you have to tell me where you are. I’m going to kill those mongrels.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “I don’t know where I am. Are you coming to find me?”
“Haz, we’ve been trying to find you for a whole week,” Harrison grunted. “Joel and Dean have been searching day and night. You have no idea where you are?”
“No,” she responded. “I’m scared.”
“Well, pull your panties up and figure something out,” he nearly shouted back. “We’re doing all we can, you’ve got to give us something.”
Rush scribbled something on a piece of paper and pushed it over to Emily. She scanned it and pressed the phone to her ear again.
“They keep talking about someone attacking. Daddy, are you coming to attack them?”
“Hazel, we can’t just stop everything we’ve been working towards to come and get you. When this is all over, we’ll find you.”
“Dad, please,” Emily’s voice started to get sadder and more desperate. “You can’t just leave me here.”
“Just wait five days,” he hushed. “Can you wait five days?”
“Yeah,” Emily smiled brilliantly. “I can wait five days. I’ll try to hide.”
“Good girl,” he praised. Someone shouted in the background of the phone. “Hazel, I’ve got to go. There’s a situation. Just remember five days. Don’t talk to any of those beasts.”
“I won’t, daddy,” she assured him before hanging up the phone.
“I’m surprised he didn’t ask you how you got a phone,” I mused.
“If you haven’t noticed, my father is not the brightest person.” Emily chuckled.
We walked Emily back to her room quietly and locked her in. Rush, and I had decided that until she could be properly introduced to the pack, it was safest for her to stay in her room with a guard at the door. She hadn’t met anyone besides Cordelia and Hollis, who welcomed her lovingly.
There was a formal pack dinner later in the evening to announce our pregnancy and Emily’s presence. The pack was unaware of the meaning of the dinner but gathering in the dining hall happily.
Rush and I entered later, dressed in coordinating outfits. Cordelia insisted that it was important to appear as a united front in troubled times, and things as simple as clothing should not be left to a whim. Each pack had a color that why responded well to; the Valkyrie pack’s color was dark blue.
The dress I was wearing was loose around the stomach, hiding the small curve of my belly. Rush donned navy slacks and white button-down. The loose dress did little to protect me from the jaded stares of pack members, curious to my brief disappearance and changing scent.
Rush pulled out a chair at the head of the table for me, pushing it in slightly as I sat. The pack remained quiet, staring anxiously at us as Rush took his seat next to me. I smiled cheekily as we nonchalantly began eating the roast.
“Alpha,” Jonah piped up from a few seats down. Rush raised an eyebrow. “Is there anything that you and Luna would like to tell us?”
Rush, and I turned and shrugged our shoulders happily.
“Yes,” Rush said, taking another bite of beef.
“Would you like to tell us now?” Jonah asked again, chuckling.
“Oh my gosh,” I mumbled, taking a sip of water. “If you won’t tell them, then I will.” I stood up from my chair, placing my hand affectionately on Rush’s right shoulder. “I would like to announce that Rush and I are expecting our first child.” I grinned, glancing down at Rush, who bit his lip, looking down.
The pack began cheering and chattering loudly, yelling their congratulations to the both of us.
I sat back in my chair, happy that half of the news was taken care of before the meal. Cordelia waited with Emily in her bedroom until the meal was over before bringing her down to the main level.
Emily walked in Cordelia’s shadow, wringing her hands as
