An Alpha's Duty

Chapter 42

Lenah, Ryan, Akari and Ajax walked through the pack house, looking for Poppy and her parents. Ryan led them all upstairs to the family part of the house where he knew they would have taken her to help her calm down.

He knocked on the door and waited. It wasn't long before his sister popped her head around the door. From her red eyes, Ryan knew she'd been crying, he hated seeing his sister upset when there was nothing he could do about it. He just hoped Lenah could help.

Without a further word, she stepped aside and opened the door for them all to step inside.

Poppy's room looked like any other little child's room. The walls were painted in a neutral yellow with one pale green wall against which Poppy's bed stood to resemble the colour of the trees outside her window. Here and there, Tilly had allowed her to draw butterflies and birds across the wall, further reminding everyone of the forest outside.

The little girl was buried under her duvet and surrounded by stuffed animals, as if they were the ones guarding her from the terrors that lurked in the night rather than her parents. Her red eyes seemed to mirror her mother's as she looked at the newcomers gathered around her bed.

She shuffled slightly and everyone watched as a small blue bunny fell from the pile of toys to the floor. For a moment everyone watched as it simply hovered in the shadows before Lenah walked forward and grabbed it, settling it once again beside the girl.

To everyone in the room, it was easy to see how much more relaxed Poppy looked with Lenah stood next to her. Most children were nervous of the dark and shadows that flickered in the corner of their eyes. To them she controlled those things and because of that they thought in her presence they would be protected.

She only wished the dark was all she had to protect Poppy from. The girl was in much more danger than she released, and she hoped that Poppy would remain blissfully unaware for as long as possible.

"Poppy, can I ask you a few more questions before you go to sleep?" She whispered so as not to spook the little girl further.

She tried to seem reassuring and calm when her heart was beating loudly in her ears. It was times like this when she was grateful for Poppy's lack of powers, although every other werewolf in the room could no doubt hear her nervousness.

Poppy looked timidly towards her mother and father, who then knelt down by the side of her bed and began stroking her arms in encouragement. Everyone else followed their examples and lowered themselves to the floor.

As Ajax and Akari were still unknowns to Poppy, they hung back and rested their backs against the adjacent wall, so that she didn't feel crowded. If Lenah's powers weren't a little out of control she and Ryan would have requested they stay outside but in reality they needed them. Lenah wasn't too sure what Poppy would say or what she would reveal and somehow she felt less nervous knowing the two of them were close by.

Everyone looked at Poppy whilst she tried not to fidget under their gazes. She bit her lip in nervousness but nodded her head towards Lenah, a sign she was ready for whatever Lenah wanted her to ask.

Lenah smiled at the little girl before clearing her own mind. She knew there was only so much that Poppy would take, so she ordered the questions in her head into the most important and the easiest. They had to do this in the least stressful way if they wanted the most answers.

Having decided what she wanted to know, Lenah took a deep breath.

"Do you remember when you first dreamt about the bad woman?" Everyone held their breath with Lenah as Poppy nodded her head.

"The first night I saw her was after the scary men had left." Everyone watched as the little girl shivered at the memory and Ryan couldn't control his own small shiver.