Running From The Big Bad Wolf

20.

I stared intensely at the ground. I refused to look up at him. If I open my mouth, I will start rambling and Axel knows that I do that to cover up a lie. He just told me.

"I see." He said quietly. "Did you know when you left here?"

I shook my head. Honestly, no, I didn't know.

I heard something slap down and I flinched.

"You left and had my son!" Axel roared at me and I snapped my head up to him.

"I was protecting him!" I yelled back.

"Yeah, you did a fucking excellent job at that. That's why he ended up in my rivals hands."

I stilled, Axel was right. I fucked up in my judgement of character. I put Rhydian at risk. I felt like shit. Like I failed as a mother.

"What's his name?"

"Excuse me?" I coughed out.

"What is my son's name?" Axel gritted out.

Should I tell him his actual name? I thought to myself. No. I can't. I can't stay here. But I have no chance of leaving with Rhydian.

When I first heard the name, I was seven months pregnant, talking to a coworker. Her accent was thick and I had to get her to write it down. But to my ears, how she was saying it, it sounded like another name.

"Ryan." I answered him. "His name is Ryan."

"Ryan what?"

I sighed out. Rhydian Elijah Tremaine Stewart. That was his name on his birth certificate. "Ryan Tremaine." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the full truth. I could hear Rhydian running around and giggling, his hyper attention starting to kick in for the day.

"So he doesn't get my name?" I knew Axel would be pissed as all fuck but I couldn't care less.

"No." I stated. "I don't want him growing up in this world. I want a normal childhood for him. Not of crimes and murders and drugs and guns. Yes, don't look too surprised. I know what you are all about, Axel." I chastised him. "You didn't get a say at all. And it is staying like that."

"I wasn't an absent father, Caitlyn! You kept him away from me!"

"I didn't even know I was pregnant when I left!" I screamed back at him.

I felt something tugging at my leg and looked down to see Rhydian holding me.

"You left! You had three years to come back!" Axel growled and I gave him a pointed look.

"I'm not doing this in front of Rhy." I stated as I picked him up and walked out of the kitchen. I sat Rhydian down with me in the little reading nook in the sitting room and pulled out my old kids books.

I wanted to avoid Axel but there was really, no where to go. I was once again, trapped in my own house.

I read a book to Rhydian and the whole time I felt Axel watching me.

"Stop staring!" I told him as I closed the book, getting up. Rhydian stayed on the corner sofa and opened the book and I felt myself being pulled away.

"Will you stop it!" I snarled at him, taking my arm back.

"No. You need to listen and listen good. You reckon everything you do is to protect Ryan so protect him."

"I'm trying to do that now!"

"You are no longer a minor, Caitlyn. You no longer have my protection."

I frowned at his words. Was he threatening me? I wasn't sure so I asked him.

"I'm not threatening you. But you are in danger. So is Ryan. You are both in serious danger."

"Then protect him!" I yelled at Axel, pointing in Rhydian's direction.

"I can't!" Axel snapped at me. "I can't protect him. I can try my damn well hardest but I can't garauntee it."

I blinked, staring blankly at Axel. "Why can't you?" I asked him softly, my voice cracking. "Why can't you protect him?"

Axel took my hands as I started to worry. "I am trying to protect you both, Caity."

"I don't want protection, Axel. I want my son safe!"

"Our son!" Axel growled at me.

"Whatever! I want him safe. I don't care about myself, as long as Rhy is safe!"

"Well I do care!"

I froze, staring at Axel. He cares? Why would he care?

I took a deep breathe. "How can we protect Rhy- Ryan?"

Axel stayed quiet but he wasn't looking at me. I turned around to see Rhydian by the door, looking slightly scared. I bent down and let him come to me as he snuggled in to my chest, turning back to Axel.

"Well, Axel? What is your plan? Everything I did in the past three years, I did for Rhy. Yes, I screwed up with Eric, thinking he was a friend not a foe. But I don't care, as long as Rhy is safe, then I've done my job."

Rhydian held me tightly and started to fuss, letting me know he wanted me but he also wanted down.

I gripped tighter at Rhydian till he wiggled out off my arms and I placed him down, watching him run around the room, yelling and laughing.

"So tell me, Axel, what's your plan?" I raised my voice over the loud noises of Rhydian.

"My plan is simple and takes minutes. All you have to do is sign a couple forms then done."

I felt something twist in me. This wasn't good. "What forms?"

"A change of name form for Ryan."

My eyes went wide. "Why?"

"So he can have my surname and that there will protect him."

"Change his name?"

"It will happen either way. Even if he isn't mine by blood, my name will protect him."

I gasped. "Even if he wasn't yours, you would do that, for me?"

"That's just one of the forms." Axel said in a blank manner as I watched him look over at Rhydian.

"What's the other?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"You will have to change yours too." He told me before looking back at me. "Through marriage."