Athena Crimson ✓

CHAPTER 25

(Victor's POV)

Today's the day the Crimsons are making an appearance in my pack. I feel restless, but I guess it's a good kind of restless, given that I want them to accept me. Athena is human, she may be in love with me, but it would have been much stronger if she was a wolf. The mate bond pull alone would have been enough to secure her love for me. But now, I will need to go the extra mile, to ensure she loves me- forever. I will stop at nothing and would love to make her fall for me over and over again, but I honestly don't want to get in the wrong books of her parents, who could potentially rip us apart.

"That's the 23rd time you're groaning" Athena tells me and I let out a sigh. I walk towards my beautiful mate, who's wearing a cute, yellow sundress, that reaches her knees, and pull her into my arms, pressing a kiss on her collarbone.

"I'm just stressed-out love, it's your parents who are coming, and I don't wanna mess things up"

"I know, but you stressing out is not going to help us. Just think of them as clients in your business and you should be fine"

"Athena, I am not a very friendly customer-oriented business man, I do whatever helps my pack, that's all, plus they are family. You would understand only if I got my parents to meet you" I tell her and she visibly pales and swallows hard.

"Touché" she raises her hands in surrender and I laugh.

My eyes glaze out, "Victor, what happened?"

"Z mindlinked me, your parents have entered the pack border and will be here in about 20 minutes"

"Oh okay, I must warn you Victor, I haven't had boyfriends before, so my father could overreact. My mother on the other hand would be more amicable."

We go downstairs and watch some TV while we wait and I hear the car pulling up in my yard. "They're here"

We walk to the door to greet them, Athena runs to her parents and hugs them, while I wait, completely invisible to them.

Finally when their eyes land on me, "Welcome to the Cage estates Mr. and Mrs. Crimson, I hope you had a pleasant journey"

I give a firm handshake to her father, and put my hand out for her mother who swats it away, making Z gasp. It's a sign of disrespect. But before my wolf tries to make an appearance by growling, she pulls me into a hug, surprising me, and I hug her back, only for Mr. Crimson to clear his throat, and pull her away. "Oh! stop it Roger" she tells him and looks at Athena, and points at me "Oh honey... Victor's a good catch" she winks.

Z starts to laugh, I am not sure how to react, but I kind of feel proud that her mom approves of me and at the same time a little bit embarrassed.

"Mom!" Athena whines and Roger is glaring holes at me.

"Please come in", I direct them to the living room "have a seat" I motion for them to sit down. After sitting in an awkward silence for a few minutes...

"There's no way someone would have targeted Athena, we have no enemies, so maybe someone mistook her for someone else or you are just lying" Roger says accusingly.

"Come on Roger, why would he lie. I'm sure, whoever it was they mistook Athena for someone else. I really want to thank you Victor, for putting your life on the line to save our daughter. Words cannot explain our gratitude. Let's put the past behind us, So... tell us how you both met? How long has it been? Did you lie that you are going out with Betty when you were with him? My girl has grown up so much..." her mom beams at us.

I am surely taken aback by the fact that they are completely trying to avoid discussing a possible intentional attack on their daughter.

Z mindlinks me – I told you something's off about Luna's parents Alpha, they just evade the topic so easily. Or is it just me?

I give him a look that would tell him that we will discuss that later and turn my attention to her parents.

"No mom! I wasn't lying. I only met him this week. Well, as you know, I came with Betty for a trip and met him in the resort..." Athena drags.

"So, you have known him for less than a week and you are in a relationship already?" her dad says vehemently before pointing to me and "You said, you took a bullet for my daughter and here you are without a scratch. Care to explain?"

"Dad!" Athena exclaims.

"Sir, THERE IS NO REASON TO LIE, the bullet scraped my chest, I escaped luckily with very minimum damage. If you would like it, I can remove my shirt and show you the bandage..." I spit out, her father is getting on my nerves. Athena holds my hand giving it a squeeze trying to calm me.

"Oh God Roger, we got married within a week of us meeting and they are just dating, besides, scratch or not Victor saved our Athena, so quit it. And Betty, where is she, isn't she getting married real soon" Ruth speaks trying to lighten the situation.

Knowing that it'll be too hard on Athena to tell them, I start, "Ummm, Unfortunately, she's dead"

"What? How?" Ruth asks thoroughly shocked.

"Well, we already told you that Athena was targeted, though you find it hard to believe, but what you don't know is, Betty's fiancé Max, was trapped with a threat on Betty's life, he was asked to give information about Athena's whereabouts and stuff. When he was caught by the local authorities, Betty was killed by those people who threatened Max, who maybe thought that Max would plead guilty, and they were right. And before you ask, we know that Athena was targeted as a fact, because we, ourselves heard Max confessing, and Max too got killed later the same day by those people." I tell them and give them some time to process whatever I just told them.

Ruth immediately rushes to Athena's side and hugs her tightly and starts sobbing.

Roger is equally shocked at seems to be at a loss of words. Which he quickly masks.

"Sir, I'd like to have a word with you" I tell him, looking at Athena and her mom. He nods and we move to the further end of the room, with Z hot on my tail.

"Sir, Z is the officer in charge of this case" I introduce my Beta to him, as I and Z had discussed previously, to avoid any suspicion.

They exchange a few words formally, then Z begins, "Sir, Alpha... I mean Victor here is a VIP, so we will not be treating this case ordinarily, it will all be confidential, and I wont be troubling you with the usual formalities either, but are you being honest with me, when you tell that you don't have enemies? Your daughter is in danger and I cant help but feel that there is something you are hiding from us."

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