Keeping Him (Learning To Love Him book 2) (Boyxboy)

Chapter 29.

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*Izabella*

I watched as Eli, Tamia and Ashton played silently, definitely linking to each other so that I wouldn't hear a thing, and even though Eli and Tamia were really good at neutral faces – something they undoubtedly got from our Beta, Ashton wasn't the same way and I could read my son's face. It clearly showed that whatever they were linking about upset them.

I was trying to figure out what it was...

Corey, Sean and a few of our guys had gone to find Jayden yesterday, they hadn't called to update us on their situation at all yet. We didn't know how far they were, but I trusted they were alright. They were an incredibly strong group of wolves, after all.

"Mommy?" I snapped out of my daze that had left me staring at the kids and found them all watching me.

"Yes?" I asked looking at Ashton.

"Can we get pizza?" Eli asked.

I smiled. They hadn't eaten all morning. I was ready to feed them pretty much anything as long as they were willing to eat it. "Sure, where do you guys want to go?" I asked.

"I wanna play." Tamia looked back at her dolls before her eyes moved to me again.

"Yeah, Annie can watch us," Ashton said.

"Will you get it, please?" Eli inserted looking at me sweetly.

I frowned. Annie – or Annabelle – was a teenager that lived next door, well, before our houses were destroyed. She usually watched Ashton while Sean and I were out but I knew she didn't do that great a job, she was still young but at least he never got hurt while under her supervision, which is more than I can say for his father.

"Fine. Are you sure you don't want to come with me?" They all nodded their responses at me before turning back to their toys looking slightly less upset. I got up grabbing my bag. "Behave yourselves." I gave the kids a smile and left to call Annabelle before I went to get their pizza.

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I glanced at the pizza contemplating eating a piece before I got home but restrained myself because I knew Ashton had a weird obsession where he always wanted to see the pizza as a whole before he took a slice. I had no idea where he had gotten that from.

I sighed pushing my hair behind my ear wondering if the others had found Jayden yet. It did not feel good, none of them had called to update us. Had they gone to the wrong place? No, Marcus's magic was never wrong...

I pulled over to the side of the road as the ring tone I'd set specifically for Annabelle began to blast. I'd set it just in case Ashton ever drove her crazy enough to go into a state of panic where she would absolutely need to call me. It had never happened before and usually, she just called to update us when someone came by urgently looking for us.

Despite never needing it, I still kept the ringtone, especially now with all three kids together. I mean, Ashton alone sometimes pushed her to the edge just for fun. I felt bad for leaving her with them all at the same time, but they were in a packhouse with a lot of other wolves so she could call for help.

"Hey, what's up?" I answered my phone.

"I-I-I was watching – I mean, I went downstairs for just a bit because-because I heard – I thought I heard someone calling, b-but –" She was stuttering and I could barely make out what was being said as she ran through her words.

"Annabelle, calm down." I tried not to smile, "It can't be that bad, what did they do?" I asked.

"They – They're gone, Izabella." I opened my mouth to give an automatic 'it's okay' reply but stopped as I realised what had been said.