Mateless and Home Bound

Chapter 41: A Day of Truth

"Victor, it's okay," Charlie comforted him. "You didn't know what to do."

"I just saw him leave and I was in so much shock that I didn't tell anyone," Victor shook his head. "I'm an idiot."

"Don't say that, Sweety," he hugged him. "The good news is that he's safe now. Don't beat yourself up over things that you could have done."

It had been an hour since they had brought Sage back home. He wouldn't even talk to Reggie at this point, which was making them all more worried. Something had made him want to leave, though. And, for some reason, Charlie couldn't even get Victor to tell him.

They still needed to talk to him about what happened too. It had been frightening enough having those men so close to their home. Then he heard from Max that they had three strangers, one of which was that vampire, that Sage knew too. There were things in this forest that were connecting, but Charlie just didn't know how to start connecting them. That was another reason why he really wished Sage would talk to them.

Alistair was the one who had told them that he was walking away from the pack house. As soon as he sent that through the mind link, Reggie had started running over there. He was on patrol, but that didn't stop him from forgetting it entirely. And, when they realized that Alistair had gotten hurt, that made the rest of the warrior's rush with him.

Nick was a mess as soon as he felt him get hurt. Right when Alistair came back, he ran over to hug him. Both of them were so busy with their day to day lives, but they were always close with each other whenever they were in the same room. Alistair held onto Nick tightly as he came in, a smile on his face.

Max wanted to question Alistair on what happened, but Charlie wouldn't have it. Nick had been too worked up for them to wait on hearing his side of things. When Max was about to argue with him about it, Charlie just said that they would wait to talk to Sage when he was finally ready to talk.

"We have some time, Max," Charlie told him. "Everyone's safe, thankfully. Let's just try and let them all calm down first."

Max sighed and pulled him into a tight hug.

"You aren't leaving here any time soon, Apple," he told him.

"I know," he smiled and hugged him back. "You don't have to worry about me, Max. We already have enough on our plates."

Sage had locked the door and wasn't letting anyone in. He was sure that the poor boy was shocked at what he had just seen, but he was worried that it was something else as well. Something about this just didn't sit right with him. And the fact that Victor was afraid to tell him wasn't helping things either.

He walked down the hallway to the room to see Reggie sitting on the floor by it. His face was buried in his arms that rested on his knees.

"Sage, please talk to me," the hurt in his voice broke his heart. Charlie hadn't seen Reggie this sad before. He was surprised that Sage didn't answer to that at least. They had been so in love before all of this. After Reggie had taken that day off, they both seemed a little happier. Reggie decided to finally tell everyone about their relationship that day. Most of the pack wasn't surprised at that point. It was pretty obvious just by seeing how the two talked to each other.

Now they were both so upset.

"Why don't you let me try," Charlie got Reggie's attention. When those purple eyes looked up, Charlie pulled out something shiny from his pocket. "I might be a little more convincing."

"I don't know," he told him. "I don't want him to feel suffocated by us or anything."

Charlie knew what he was talking about. There were plenty of times when he could have used that skeleton key in the house when someone had locked themselves in their room. Most of the time, he'd wait until they were ready to come out. But he had a bad feeling about this. Sage didn't seem like himself. If it was something that they had done, then Charlie could try and fix it.