The Alpha's Mates: Family is all you need

Page 43

Something had awakened me. After the round we had I should have been out all night. Looking around I note that Iggy and Emmy are still asleep. I slide from the couch and slip my clothes back on. I start to head down for a drink and hear some crying. Worried I hurry toward the living room and find Mark. He's sitting there in the dark crying.

"Mark?" I hurry over to him. He's quickly wiping his face trying to look like he hadn't been sitting alone in the dark sobbing. I kneel in front of him and lay my hands on his knees. "Is it Ness?" He nods yes, then shakes his head no, finally he shrugs and sobs again. I sort of knew what he meant. Ness was in there and probably the catalyst for this but there was more bothering him. "Can I help?" He leans forward wrapping his arms around my neck and just cries into my shoulder. I sit like that for sometime before my knees start to protest. Deciding that he needs more comfort than this I scoop him up in my arms getting a startled gasp from him. I take him up to the guest room he'd been in and sit on the bed. With my back against the head board and him in my lap I just hold him as he cries. As he quiets I feel him go limp and realize he's gone to sleep in my lap. I carefully slip him down and under the covers and just stretch out with him to sleep. I might be pushing it to sleep here with him but I think we both needed the comfort.

I'm up early despite my long night. My dreams had been full of Ness and my other mates. I see that Mark is curled into my arms right where I'd put him when I'd gone to sleep. I start to pull back but his hands clutch into my skin. I smile. At least in his sleep he could really be honest about how much he wants me. I trail a hand over his forehead and over an ear. He's such a sweetheart at the core. Sure he had the big brother thing down pat, he was a great support for his mother. He helped anyone who asked. He'd had someone he cared for turn his back on him once and it had scarred him greatly. I wanted to find the guy and punch him in the nose.

Despite the pressure and the hurt he'd still become such a sweet man at the core. With my mates I always looked for that thing that brought them to me. Whether it was because I needed them or they needed us. Mark, despite the rocky path we've had was a sturdy shoulder. Had goddess brought me a man who could stand and be the support I needed through what was one of my worst nightmares, the death of a mate. I sometimes wondered if goddess knew bad would happen and chose to let it happen or did she not know that our choices and free will were leading us toward harm until it was to late to stop it. I wanted to believe the later. It was easier to think of her as being as helpless as us at times than to think she was deliberately cruel. Either way I had to say a final goodbye to a woman I loved. A mate, my wife, and a mother to my children.

I sent a prayer up to my mother, while you watch out for little Carissa, keep an eye out for Ness and our sons. I had to get up though. Doc and his helpers would be here early to place Ness in the study. I'd chosen a mahogany casket for her to be displayed in. I was placing her in the study where people could say a private goodbye and I didn't feel like I was making her a center piece or on display. I respected her, and loved her too much to let her wake be a fiasco. I pressed a kiss to Marks forehead and managed to get his fingers loose of me before I slid out of bed. Iggy and Emmy were still asleep in the movie room. The rest of my mates were asleep as well. I didn't hear my kids stirring either. I didn't think anyone wanted to wake and deal with harsh reality today.

After a shower and suit I went down and got out things for bagels, pop tarts, and made plenty of coffee. A caterer would arrive about an hour before the wake and remain until near evening. I also had hired a bartender. I didn't know if anyone else would want to drink but I sure as shit was going to. Iggy was the first dressed and in the kitchen for breakfast. When we heard kids stir we went up got them up teeth brushed, faces washed and into the suits and dresses Honey had bought them. They were subdued and stayed close together. My mates were quiet as well. I noticed that my mates and children gravitated to each other.