Eternal Chains

EC 32: She's a jealous mate

For the next days, it become his routine to play with the children whenever he was free and has nothing to do. He also received calls from Carl and Xerra during those days. He was playing with the children of the pack when he noticed that there were children hiding among the bushes watching them and on the next day they were there again.

While watching the children play, Xander stood up and excused himself while telling the aunties that he had forgotten something in the house. He also told them that he would be back. Xander looked back and when he was sure that he could not be seen from the lake, he made a detour. After passing through the bushes and tall grasses, he finally found a group of children crouching on the ground and hiding behind the bushes while they watched the other children play.

"Aren't you going to play with them?" he spoke up from where he stood.

The children were startled at the voice that spoke behind them. Five pairs of eyes looked behind in fear and saw the man who was just sitting with the women. One of them already had tears on his face because he was afraid that this man would get angry with them for peeping.

Xander did not expect the children to have a strong reaction at his appearance. One of them was about to cry too. He stepped forward and took the child in his arms then he patted his back gently. "I'm sorry if I frightened you. It was not my intention." He directed this statement to the others as well who seemed to be shaking because of fear.

"You-you're not going to get angry with us?" one of the children asked as he stopped himself from shaking.

"No," he shook his head. "I came here to invite you out and to let you meet new friends. But I think I scared you." His warm smile calmed the children a little bit.

"Really, are you really going to let us meet new friends?" another child got the courage to ask. They were only new to the place and had been staying in the house when they decided to go out and play until they found this place. They were too shy to go out and join the others from playing so they could only hide behind the bush and watch them.

"Yes, there are also some delicious snacks in there, do you want to come with me?" he asked while still holding the child who by now had stopped crying.

The children nodded vigorously, they really wanted to play with them. Xander stood up and started to wade through the bushes with the children following behind him. They walked towards the aunties and the children who were having their snacks.

Their group caught the aunties attention and even the children had stopped eating when they saw Xander with a child on his arms and four other children following behind him. The aunties could only smile at their direction.

"Can they join us? I know it is a bit out of place for me to ask this since I'm not the one who prepared the food," his face turned a little bit red in embarrassment because he had not thought it through but he was sure that the aunties will not turn him down.

"Yes. You don't have to worry about those details," one of them laughed and gestured for them to sit down. "Come, don't be shy. We have many snacks here enough for all of us."

The children closely followed Xander and sat beside him. They looked at him as if asking for approval if they could eat the food in front of them. The aunties chuckled when they saw this interaction and it only made Xander sigh.

"Pick anything you want to eat." He gestured and with that the new addition to his brigade started to eat. After they ate, the children from the Ceurian pack showed curiosity towards the five kids who came with their favorite person. They flocked towards Xander's direction and one by one asked the new kids and after just a few words, all of them quickly became friends.

When they were comfortable enough with each other, they started to run around as well. "They must have been the children from the Yulian pack," one of the aunties commented. Rogue attacks were never clean, they would surely leave the dead on their path. After knowing about this, some of the people who had known this fact felt sympathy for the pack.

Xander sensed the pity on her voice while she was looking at them, "Did something happen to their pack?"

"You must have not been informed of the reason why these children were sent here," the aunty started, "it's because their pack was attacked and they had suffered casualties that they asked our pack to help them. Alpha Amber agreed so she took the children in for the mean time while Yulian was sorting out their matters."

He was confused for a moment before he looked at the children and felt his heart ache for them, "Then I hope that they would be able to return to their families." He thought for a while and wanted to ask about the details of what happened but he did not want to ruin the mood further.

Time passed by as he stayed in the pack, Xander had gotten used to it and his relationship with the Alpha had steadily progressed. Both of them had gotten used to each other's presence and they had become comfortable with one another. Even the project they had under Mr. Alvarez was progressing smoothly and no major problems had come up.

His company was also being well managed and he was able to let the board of directors know that he was still alive to crush down any of their desire to take over. Even from where he was, he would not let anyone take advantage of the company that his parents had established.

Though Xerra missed her brother greatly, both of them still enjoyed the company of each other even though they were only seeing each other through the screen. His daily life consists of talking with Carl every morning regarding the progress of the resort then taking time to talk with Xerra after that he would go out and play with the children. After that he would join the other pack members during lunch where he had learned many things about them.

There he learned that aside from the Alpha, there were the elders who acts as Amber's advisers, the Beta who was responsible with the other works related to the pack that the Alpha could not face and there was the Gamma who was in-charge of the pack's security. He did not expect that Zael and Zayier held both positions respectively. Whenever he went out during the morning for his morning run and exercise, he would come upon the pack warriors who were training or having warm up on the training grounds, which he accidentally discovered.

It was refreshing to see something new and different from the normal world he had grown up to. This was a new experience to him and the people around him had grown a significant place in his heart.

"Good morning, sir!" an overly cheery voice greeted him from the back after he was done with his run. He turned around and saw that it was Shiey, one of the women who was sent by Alpha Gidou, who had greeted him.

During his interaction with the kids from the Yulian pack, he had come across the adults who came with them and one of them was Shiey. She was always smiling thus giving him a good impression of her.

"Good morning too! It is still early what are you doing here so early in the morning?" he asked as he looked around and saw that she was alone.

"Oh, I was having an early walk before the children wake up and happen to see you," she answered with her usual smile.

Xander nodded, "Alright, you should go back now because the sun had risen, the children might have woken up already." He was expecting her to leave immediately but she lingered and seemed reluctant to leave. "Is there a problem?" he asked with concern.

"I-" she was about to say something when she was cut off by another voice coming from behind Xander.

"Xander is right, you should return. It is your responsibility to look after the children so do it properly," her cold voice and the glare she was giving her stopped Shiey from further speaking.

"I-I'll be going now then," she turned around and left. She did not expect that the Alpha would show up when she had something to say to Xander.

"You scared her and why is your face like that?" he looked at Amber and saw that she was frowning. He also saw that she was glaring at the direction of the woman who just left. "What's wrong?" he asked with concern.

"I don't like her," was her only answer. She grumbled to herself before focusing her attention on Xander who fell silent after he heard those words. He was speechless at the blatant dislike she showed towards the woman.

He sighed, "Why don't we just go inside and have breakfast together." Xander entered first then Amber followed. Her mood did not improve even after the breakfast which made Zael's work even more difficult.