25. My Russian Bear: Dylan's Pov (yes, he's still alive for a reason)

QOTC- anyone miss Charlotte's Pov?

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Fuck Maddison Beck.

Fuck her, her slut of a sister, and her sister's mate too.

One by one, my most loyal pack members have been escaping this prison with the assistance of Maddison and the wolves she works for. My Beta was killed while he was trying to escape, my Gamma successfully left without trying to help me as well, and my traitor of a Delta turned out to be the one who let the Lunar Shadow pack into my territory.

I don't know the name of the guard who has been aiding in our escapes, but I know that he and Maddison work for the same people. That bitch who sold me Charlotte hasn't contacted me in over a week. I know that Maddison hasn't been captured, she would've been sent down here to the slaughter-house if she was.

"I need food." I dramatically whine, knowing that it annoys the guards. They despise me... Everyone except for the young man who has been helping my pack mates escape.

"Silence." one of the female guards snaps. Lillian, I think the bitch's name is.

"If you don't give me food-" my words are cut off when I start coughing up blood. After my short coughing fit, I continue speaking, "If no one gives me food, I'm going to starve to death, you know your Alpha won't want that. It's been two months-"

"You starved the Luna for ten years. You deserve to pay for what you did to her." Lillian glares at me, her eyes filled with remorse and hatred. Nearly everyone here wants me to die a torturous death for no reason. She and all the guards call Xander and his bitch by their titles. It's fucking annoying hearing that Charlotte bitch being called a "Luna".

All I did was treat a weak-link of the werewolf species as it was supposed to be treated and now I'm the most hated man in this pack. "Chain him to the wall, Alpha Xander and Beta Brody will be down here soon." Lillian nods at the man who has been helping with the escapes.

The guard waits until everyone else is out of earshot before saying to me, "I'm injecting you with numbing sedatives, you won't be able to feel any hits that you'll be receiving. The others and I will be waiting on the other cellar levels tomorrow night to get you out of here."

"How am I supposed to get out of this stupid cell?" I ask as I feel the prick of the needle in my arm. Lillian and the other guards don't think anything out of the ordinary when they see the syringe puncture my skin. They always inject with something that keeps me awake so that I don't pass out from the pain that Xander and his Beta inflict on me.

"I'll let you out on Monday, that's in five days. We would've gotten you out of here sooner, but you're the most heavily guarded wolf in these cellars. The others and I all picked the night-shifts for Monday night, so we'll have no trouble getting out."

"How are you going to keep Xander and border patrol from stopping us?"

"I'm close to Xander, he trusts me. I'll just tell him that there's an emergency in the cells that needs to be handled.

"And if that doesn't work?"

"They can't stop us if we hurt Charlotte. They'll need to save her life before going after us."

Xander's Pov

"You all are dismissed." I wait until all seventeen of my elite-guards to go out into the slaughter-house entrance hall. Like I asked, a guard has already chained Dylan up against the wall. Charlotte just wants him out of her life for good; she isn't too keen on the idea of having a slaughter-house or torturing prisoners before they die, but that's how it works in Lunar Shadow. Whoever has been releasing the Red Stone prisoners has been doing it for a reason. Dylan might know what that reason is.

"Where are the former Red Stone wolves escaping to?" I don't open the metal door, I stand directly outside of it and ask for the answers that I need.

"They are still my pack members." Dylan immediately replies. "I am still their Alpha-"

"The Council stripped you of your title months ago. The Red Stone pack doesn't exist anymore."

"Yes it does!" Dylan shouts as I open the door to his cell. He glares at me, but I don't do anything about it. I came here for answers; I know that I'll get too distracted if I hit him right now. "You can't take away my pack! I'm an Alpha! You can't treat me like this-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I angrily shout through gritted teeth. I feel my canines begin to extend, but I refrain from lunging at Dylan's exposed neck and taking the kill. This bastard starved and abused my mate for nearly a decade and he thinks that his former title of being an Alpha still matters. He thinks that he won't be punished for the things that he did to Charlotte; that's the only reason why he's still alive right now.

No one wants their mate to be worried about this type of stuff. Charlotte prefers it when I don't mention the name of Dylan Jones and the rest of the people who have tormented her over the years. She doesn't feel safe walking around in her own home knowing that they're nearby. It doesn't matter if they're locked up in cells, some of them are free and might even be in our territory.

Border patrol has been tripled, but there still hasn't been any reports of anyone trying to leave the territory. The only thing different is that there have been more rogue attacks; Brody thinks that the rogue attacks are being used as a distraction to stall us from the main problem, I believe that there's a possibility that the rogues are grouping together and have a wolf on the inside who's helping the Red Stone prisoners escape, and Theo thinks that the rogue situation hasn't worsened at all. He usually works as my main border control/patrol leader and guard-work, so he knows how many rogues we usually encounter. His explanation for the seemingly increased rogue appearances is because we're simply paying more attention to it.

In this whole Red Stone prison break/Lunar Shadow traitor situation, there are way too many "if"s for my comfort. We don't have any idea who is the traitor, who he or she is working for, who the traitor works for, or what's the goal of the people who want the Red Stone wolves out of the Lunar Shadow cellars. The normal Red Stone wolves who were accepted into the pack have allowed me into their minds to prove that they are worthy of certain positions in the pack. None of those wolves have any intentions of betraying Lunar Shadow.

It turned out that most of the wolves in Red Stone didn't support the abuse that Charlotte went through. The reason why no one rarely did anything to help her was because Dylan had the power to harm their loved-ones and things like that. It still infuriates me that no one even tried to anonymously contact The Council for help. They knew what Dylan was wrong. They knew that they as a pack were all abusing a girl for no reason.

Charlotte was only eight years old when she was abducted by them!

Maddison's story about selling Charlotte to the Red Stone pack is true, but there were some parts that she left out. After starting the fire that killed most of her relatives, Maddison separated Charlotte from everyone else and collected the money from Dylan. Maddison had been working with him ever since.

Charlotte wasn't just any random girl to Dylan and his pack either; the men and women who abused her claimed that it was because she was a "disgrace to the werewolf species" and that she "brought it all upon herself". None of those reasons are valid, though.

My mate is the kindest and most compassionate person who I have ever encountered. No one deserves to be treated the way she was. Yet after it all, even with the constant nightmares and horrid memories that will always stick with her, she doesn't want revenge. She never screamed at Dylan for being her tormentor, she never lashed out on Maddison for selling her to those horrible people, and she never asked for additional punishments for any of her former abusers. All she wants is for them to be out of her life; dead or not, she just doesn't want to be associated with them anymore.

No matter what a person does to hurt or provoke her, she doesn't ever lose her temper or show that she has one at all. She is never mean or rude to anyone because she's lived through it all. She knows how hard the real world is because that's how she was raised. The only things that she can remember about her childhood are the insults that were constantly thrown at her and how she was used and treated as an object.

Charlotte didn't have anyone to depend on; she didn't have someone who would help her up when she fell. I was supposed to be that person in her life.

Brody and I didn't "rescue" her from the Red Stone pack, she escaped on her own. She and her wolf both led themselves back to their true home without the assistance of anyone.

"Clean him up." I snap out of my thoughts when I realize how many times I struck Dylan. He has blood running down the corner of his mouth and cuts littered over his torso and chest area, but he didn't groan or scream when I was hitting him. I need to get away from him before I lose control and go for the kill.

*** (an hour later)

"Ti amo." I read straight off of the English-to-Italian translating app on my phone. I watched this YouTube video about the top ten sexiest accents in the world; Italian is number-two on that list. I love Charlotte's subtle accent when she speaks, I want her to love the way I speak too. What I love about her speech the most besides the sound of her voice is that when she says something while laughing or is speaking fast, her accent is more prominent.

The only special thing that I do when I talk is growl when I get mad.

"You sound weird trying to speak Italian." Charlotte giggles, the melodic sound brings a smile to my face.

"Ti amo." I repeat, knowing that I'm not pronouncing the two words correctly. The "T" in "ti" is hard instead of being mixed with a "D" and I pronounce "amo" as "ammo".

"Ti amo anch'io."

"Can you spell that, sweetheart?" I ask, getting ready to type the foreign words. This is another reason why I regret taking French instead of Spanish in high-school. Spanish and Italian are similar... I think.

After Charlotte types in her phrase, I find out that she said, "I love you too.".

"I'm gonna learn Italian. I'll have an accent, just wait."

"You don't need an accent." she says, as I put up my stack of papers.

"You said you like guys with accents, I need to be one of those guys." I grumble. Charlotte doesn't realize how much I want to sweep her off her feet. Her mood is always content, I want to do something that will make her feel happy and I want to show her how special she is to me. The Valentines Day plan didn't go too well and I have yet to do something romantic for her.

"I was pl-playing around, Xander." she tells me.

"But it's true isn't it." I frown. "You do like guys with accents."

"I said I was playing around. It was a joke." she doesn't sound like she's joking.

I don't say anything, I just sit with my arms folded and stare at my mate. She looks up from her work a few times and makes eye contact with me, but she quickly looks back down and pretends that she doesn't know that I'm staring at her. "Something's bothering you." I state, taking note of her tense form and the way she bites her lip. Her lip bite drives me crazy.

"I'm just a little stressed." she answers. I internally smile at the fact that she didn't try to lie and tell me that nothing is bothering her again.

"It's the Red Stone situation, isn't it."

"That too."

"What's on your mind, sweetheart? Whatever's stressing you out, I'll try to fix it. You should be relaxing right now." I gently take the pen out of her hand and put away the papers that she was working on. Charlotte does too much pack work, that's saying a lot coming from an Alpha. She can't go a day without doing some of it.

"Life is stressing me out." she sighs, leaning back so that her body is against mine.

"Come on, talk to me. Explain what's stressing you out." I urge.

"I don't want to r-rant."

"I don't mind, sweetheart."

Taking a deep breath, she starts off with asking, "What if Alpha Dyl-"

I cut her off with a growl. She does not have to call anyone Alpha. Not me and definitely not Dylan Jones. "What if Dylan..." just like every other time she says his name, she pauses and fearfully takes hold of my hand. "What if he e-escapes? The wolves might come after the pack for revenge. P-People can get h-hurt."

I thought that she would be afraid of being taken by Red Stone again, but that's not what she fears; she's afraid that our pack will be the ones getting hurt. "The wolves that escape won't be going after the pack. They'll be going after you." I don't sugarcoat anything. Charlotte is in danger and she needs to know what's going on. If she were clueless about this situation, then it would be easier for our enemies to hurt her. "That's why Theo is your official guard, so that the traitors in our pack can't group together and hurt you."

"You said traitors. Plural." Charlotte turns around, looks me in the eyes, and asks, "There's more th-than one?"

"Yes." I sigh, remembering that I haven't told her that yet. "We have one elite-guard and seven other guards in the cellars who's loyalties don't lay with our pack."

I watch for her reaction to the news.

No words leave her mouth as she turns her back to me again and tries to get the stack of papers, but I stop her. "It's gonna be okay, sweetheart. I won't let anyone take you away, you've gone through more than enough pain already."

"What else is stressing you out? I know there's something else that's bothering you."

"Life." Charlotte lets out a frustrated groan.

"I shouldn't have told you everything like this, it's making you stress." I say, referring to how every time I give her information, she begins to work more often and more intensely.

"N-No." she shakes her head. "I want to know what's going on with th-the pack. I don't want to be kept in the dark."

"I'm not talking about that." I tell her. "You're bearing our pup right now, it's not healthy for either of you to be under so much pressure. You won't be kept in the dark about anything, sweetheart. I just don't want you to worry so much, you should be relaxing right now."

She doesn't reply.

"Let's spend the night in the cabin." I say with a smile on my face. "Just you and me, no pack-work to do."

"We're Alpha and L-Luna, we can't take days off." she reminds me.

"We both finished all of the paperwork for the next six months, it'll be fine. I'm thinking about staying there for five days together to get away from everything. We'll be back home on Sunday, rest up, and then go back to our normal schedule on Monday."

"What about the Red Stone wolves escaping?" she asks. "It's too risky to-"

"The Red Stone wolves are slowly being caught by my patrol-runners. Our guards know what to do, the traitors can't do anything to you if we aren't at home. Being at the cabin will throw them off, it's in an area that no one ever visits in the territory." I cut her off, not liking the fact that she has so many excuses not to go to the cabin for a few days. We have the Red Stone situation and the traitors to handle, but they want to harm my mate. Nothing will happen to her if the two of us are together and outside of our house, they'll think that we're moving somewhere else or something like that. Or they'll think that we're doing our work in a new office.

"You want to go to th-the cabin because it's s-safer?"

"No- Yes... That's a smaller reason why I want us to spend a few nights in the cabin together. You need to relax, sweetheart. It's usually you who's always calm and happy all the time. When you're stressed out, it means that you have to relax." I explain to my mate. "I don't want you to feel like you're under too much pressure, especially since you're carrying our pup. It's only five days, six nights. Sweetheart, you know that all we need is some alone-time away from everything."

Charlotte looks at the incredibly large amount of shredded papers in the paper shredder, the amount of organized manilla folders on the desk, and the extremely organized file-cabinet filled with financial papers. All of this she did during this past month. "O-Okay."

*** (two hours later)

"That was a bad idea, Xander." Charlotte whispers as she buckles her seatbelt. I hand her a bottle of water and mutter another apology for being so stupid before starting the car again and driving back onto the dirt road.

"I forgot that pregnant people get carsick easier." I say.

After packing a duffel-bag things that we would need (clothes, toothbrushes, etc.), Charlotte and I got into the car and began the forty-five minute drive to the cabin. It was all good until ten minutes ago.

Flashback (ten minutes ago)

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" I ask, noticing my mate rubbing her temples out of the corner of my eye.

"My head just hurts, it n-nothing." she dismisses, slightly shaking her head. I lower the volume of the radio so that it doesn't worsen her headache and take my eyes off the road to look at her every few moments. She leans against the car door and closes her eyes, discomfort clear on her facial expression.

"You sure?"

"Mmhmm."

A couple songs play on the radio as we drive in a comfortable silince. After three songs finish playing, Charlotte suddenly sits upright and tells me to pull over.

"If you need to pee, the cabin is only ten minutes away-"

"Pull over."

"We'll be at the cabin in ten minutes, sweetheart-"

"I feel s-sick." her strained voice says. The second I pull over and stop the car, she's outside, bending over, and clutching her stomach. 'No one else can see mate bending over.' my wolf growls, paying no attention to the current situation.

I quickly get out of the car and rush over to my mate. She isn't vomiting like I expected her to be, but she looks like she's about to. "I got... I got c-carsick." she breathes out. She closes her eyes for a few seconds and I gently pat her back.

Flashback Over

"Are you feeling better?" I ask, putting a hand on her knee and keeping the other on the steering wheel. "I should've pulled over sooner."

"It's okay." she waves off, taking a sip of water. "Don't worry about it."

Neither of us talk for the rest of the ride. I park the car and quickly get out so I can open Charlotte's door; but I'm not fast enough. By the time I get to the passenger side of the car, she's halfway outside. "Wait." I tell her, gently nudging her body back into the car.

"Wha-"

"Get back in."

I watch as she gets back in the car, confusion written all over her delicate facial features. "Hi." I open her door with a goofy grin on my face.

"You're such a dork." she laughs, shaking her head at me.

"But I'm your dork."

*** (tomorrow morning) (A/N I was gonna stop here, but I need to add some stuff so the chapter title makes sense)

"I'm gonna shower." Charlotte says, grabbing a towel. "I feel icky."

'It might be because of last night.' my wolf suggestively howls.

"I just read on Google that morning sickness is a healthy thing." I tell Charlotte before she grabs a pair of clothes to change into. "It means that your hormone levels are very high and it's good for our pup."

'Hormones.'

"It makes me feel bad." she shivers. After waking up and rushing to the bathroom this morning, she repeatedly brushed her teeth for ten minutes straight. It turns out that the reason why she has been feeling crappy for the past couple days is because her morning sickness has begun.

Even though it's called "morning sickness", people experience it any time during the day. Charlotte started early in the pregnancy because she's a wolf and bearing the child of an Alpha. Add in her Beta genes and you have even more hormones with the pregnancy... I think.

"I can shower with you, right?" I ask, just to make sure. We shower together numerous times and have both seen each other's bare bodies, but I always ask for permission before joining my mate in the shower. I don't want to just barge in and make her think that she has to shower with me all the time. "I promise I won't drop the soap this time."

She nods.

As we both undress, I can't help but stare at my mate as she steps into the shower and closes the screen door. "Why did you close the door?" I ask, stepping into the shower and wetting my hair.

"I wanted t-to get wet before you came in." she answers before quickly adding, "That sounded wrong."

"I wasn't thinking dirty until you said that, sweetheart." I chuckle, adjusting the shower head so that I'm not blocking all the water from hitting my mate. She says that whenever we shower or take a bath together, I'm either too tall and block the water or I'm too big and take up all the space in the tub.

"Don't hide yourself from me." I growl when she turns her back to me and uses the body wash to cover her body. She turns to look at me, but still uses her hands to cover herself. I lean down for a kiss and gently pull her arms away from her body. "You're beautiful, don't forget that."

By the time we're both out of the shower and completely dry, her cheeks have a pink tint and she tries to use her hair to cover her face. I'm not sure why, but she always acts like this whenever I've recently seen her bare body. I like seeing the effect that I have on her, but I don't like it when she shies away from me. "What do you want for breakfast?" I ask once we're both in the kitchen.

"I'm not hungry- I'll t-take a Poptart." she quickly corrects herself, sitting on a stool and subconsciously putting a hand over her stomach. I've noticed that she's been doing that a lot lately; she always keeps our pup in mind when she makes decisions.

"I can make you eggs, bacon, sausages, and stuff. Whatever you want, sweetheart." I offer, but she scrunches her nose in disgust when I list the foods that I'm willing to make for her. "Pancakes? Waffles? I know you like pancakes."

"No thanks." she quickly declines, disgust evident in her tone. "A Pop Tart is fine."

"You don't like my cooking?"

"I just want a Pop Tart."

"Be honest."

"I'm just not f-feeling a big breakfast right n-now."

"You shouldn't ever feel food." I narrow my eyes and shake my head. Why the hell would Charlotte ever do that?

"It's an expression."

"Even if you did feel your food, you wouldn't do it right now because you hate my cooking."

"I don't hate your cooking."

"But you don't like it either." I state, watching her reaction intently. "I won't be mad if you don't like my cooking. I just want to know how you really feel about the food that I make for you."

"I love your cooking." Charlotte dramatically gushes.

"You don't have to lie. I can take criticism." I shrug.

"I'll make my own P-Pop Tart then." she hops off of the stool that she was previously sitting on and walks over to the pantry where all of the food is. There isn't a lot in there since no one really comes here often; it's mainly things that don't expire or spoil easily.

"I got it." I say, grabbing the box of Pop Tarts that I purposely placed on a higher shelf. Knowing Charlotte, she would've tried to climb up to get it.

Popping the pastry in the toaster, I look at my mate and tell her, "If you didn't like my cooking, you should've told me-"

"I do like your cooking." she snaps, her Italian accent making more of a presence. "I just want a freaking Pop Tart."

'That's the closest that mate has ever come to cussing.' my wolf muses. 'We're annoying her.'

'She's funny when she gets annoyed.' I inwardly laugh when Charlotte impatiently stares at the toaster.

"We would be eating right now if you let me make you breakfast." I lean down and whisper into her ear. "Eggs, bacon, pancakes-"

"No." she shakes her head and closes her eyes for a couple of seconds. "You're gonna m-make me sick."

"Sick as in throw up?" I ask and she frantically nods, opening her eyes when she hears the toaster pop.

"When a girl says she wants a Pop Tart, it means th-that she wants a Pop Tart."

*** (two days later)

"How about Xavier?" I suggest.

"It sounds too m-much like your name." Charlotte shakes her head.

"You don't like my name?"

"I'm not doing this again, Xander." she playfully glares at me, referring to other day when I said that she didn't like my cooking.

"Sorry, sweetheart."

"Why do you call me th-that?" she asks.

I answer almost immediately, "Because you're my sweetheart. I'm the only one who gets to call you that."

"You're the only one who calls me Charlotte."

"I know." I smile. I've taken notice that no one else in her life calls her "Charlotte". Everyone either calls her "Char" or "Lottie".

"You do that on p-purpose, don't you?"

"Yup." I say, popping the 'p'.

After a couple minutes of looking at things on my phone, I ask, "Sweetheart, my name means 'to defend'. What does yours mean?"

"Here." she hands me her phone with a smile on her lips and motions for me to read out loud.

"Charlotte is a girl known for being beautiful both inside and out. Usually on the shy side- Who the hell sent you this?" I glare at the phone in my hands, hating the fact that someone sent this to my mate.

"No one s-sent it." she tells me, leaning closer to calm me down. "It's in the Urban Dictionary."

Giving her phone back and taking out my own, I Google the definition of my own name is this "Urban Dictionary". "Xander is the kind that has a lot of emotion. He's most admired for his bravery and emotional strength. To be a Xander is to be unique."

"According to my phone, Xander m-means a Russian bear."

"What?"

"You went on th-the website. I went on th-the app. It's the fourth definition d-down." she explains, showing me her phone again.

"But I'm your Russian bear, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'm fine with what my name means." I shrug, wrapping my arms around her waist. For the last two days, we've been swimming and doing lots of things that are outdoors; today we're just going to stay inside the cabin and enjoy each other's company.

"I kind of like Blake."

"Who the fuck is Blake?" I growl, pulling Charlotte even closer to me. "Is he trying to talk to you? I need to know where he lives-"

"I meant th-the name." she says. "Blake, f-for our baby."

"Blake Reynolds..." I trail off. "I like it. Now we have think of a middle-name. How about Blake Nathaniel Reynolds? I think it would be nice to have a short first-name and a longer middle-name."

"Okay." Charlotte nods. "Blake Nathaniel Reynolds."

I think about suggesting Alexander for the first-name of our child, but I refrain from doing so. "According to the internet, guys who are named Blake have big feet. You know what they say about guys with a big shoe size, right, sweetheart?"

Charlotte doesn't say anything, but I know that she knows what people say about guys and their shoe size. "Our pup is going to inherit that from me." I say with a smug smile. "You know it's true."

***

"Let's stay for another night." I tell my mate, looking at her tracing invisible patterns on my bare chest. I can only see the crown of her head, but I know that there's a small smile on her lips. "We can just drive home Monday night."

I love seeing her so happy and at peace instead of stressed. "We have work." she says. "We can't d-do that, Xander. The pack depends on us."

"Just one more night, sweetheart. Everything will be back to normal Tuesday morning. Monday night is just going to be resting time for us." I tell her my plan for staying another night. Off-days and vacations are a rarity when you have a high position in the strongest pack in North America, I want this one to last as long as possible for Charlotte's sake. "Brody is in charge of the pack right now, he can easily handle another day."

Knowing that she's now worried that her brother won't want to lead the pack for an extra day. "Go mind-link him."

Instead of mind-linking Brody, she pulls out her phone and calls him over FaceTime. Within six seconds, we see Brody's unfortunately familiar face on the screen. "Hey, man, you mind taking over the pack for another day? We're thinking about staying at the cabin until Monday."

"I don't mind. Just don't get double-pregnant, Char." Brody gives us a pointed look.

"You're partially the reason wh-why I'm pregnant, Brody." Charlotte says. "During Christmas when Evelyn gave Xander condoms, you took them a-away. You said we wouldn't need them."

"What?"

"They wouldn't have fit me, so it doesn't matter." I add in, laughing at Brody's angry expression.

"WHAT?!?!?" he shouts, but the volume isn't as loud as it would be if he were standing here next to us. "Did you two fuck again? Wait, is that why you guys are staying for another night?"

"Charlotte and I don't fuck, we make love." I correct, taking my mate's free hand in mine. And just for the fun of it, I lightly kiss her lips and make sure that Brody can see it through the camera. "And you don't need to know why we need to stay another night."

"Char, don't you dare touch his peni-"

"Love you too, Brody!" Charlotte cuts off her brother and hangs up. Once she's sure that he is no longer on the line, she turns to me and says, "I think he was gonna s-say pencil."

"Or peninsula." I add, playing along with her innocent inference of what she thinks her brother was going to say.

'Penis.' my wolf states.

"See, sweetheart? Brody is handling the pack perfectly fine." I tell her. "Just one more night here to relax."

*** (Monday night)

"These last few days were fun, Xander." Charlotte says after we unpack our things. She lays on our bed with her arms stretched out causing her shirt to lift and expose a little bit her stomach.

"Five more months until our little guy is born." I smile, sitting beside her and putting a hand over the small bump. I know that Charlotte is going to be an amazing mother; we had a talk about it during our first night at the cabin too.

Flashback

"What's wrong?" I ask, walking up to my mate and wrapping my arms around her waist from behind. Something is still bothering her, and it's not the stress of leading a pack this time.

"I'm only seventeen, Xander." she starts off, looking at the mirror with a frown. "What if I'm t-too young to be a mother? Just saying that word scares me; mother."

"No one will judge us for having a child at our age." I tell her. "A lot of wolves have their first child when they're sixteen years old. Some have a second child by then."

"What if I'm n-not a good parent? I don't remember how parents are supposed to act. I don't even remember being r-raised by my family." she looks down and nervously plays with her fingers. Her voice is quiet when she mentions her lack of childhood memories, almost as if it's something that she despises about herself.

"Are you kidding me? You're going to be the best mother a kid could ever ask for." I lean down and peck her cheek. "You and I are in this together, we'll figure out how to raise a child."

Flashback Over

I see the way she handles children and the way they instantly fall in love with her. I have no doubt that our own child will do the same. "These last couple days, w-were fun, Xander." Charlotte tells me. She snuggles up against me and sighs when I lay down next to her. As usual, she's held by my arms and we're both ready to fall into a deep sleep.

'Xander, Char, the pack-traitors made their move. Dylan is on his way to the borders.' Theo's voice invades my mind.

'We're on our way.' I say, closing the mind-link.

"Y-You're letting me come with you?" Charlotte asks, surprised that I said that we're on our way.

"Of course you're coming with me." I answer as we put on our shoes and get into the car. "There's no way I'm going to leave you unprotected in our house; and we lead side-by-side, you need to be involved in what's going on. Don't go anywhere with any guards, I won't leave your side."

I stop the car once we're at the cellars and keep my mate close to me as we make our way down to the slaughter-house. Brody, Theo, and all of my elite-guards are standing in the room; every elite-guard except for one.

@#$%^&*()(*&^%$#$%^&*()_)(*&^%$#$%^&*()_+_)(*&^%$#$%^&*()_

"Well, my heart is gold and my hands are cold."
-Halsey (song: Gasoline)

QOTC- who do you think the main traitor is?

First, I would like to apologize for the last update about the copyright over this book. A lot of you amazing readers though that it was a chapter when it was just an author's note. Usually, I keep my author's notes either at the beginning or end of the chapters, but I really needed to get that out there. If you ever want more information on My Broken Luna, you can follow my Twitter or friend me on my Wattpad account. (my social medias are listed on my Wattpad bio) These are the accounts that I post Wattpad related things on:

Twitter- @dot.dot.prix (message me so I know to follow you back)
Snapchat- @dotdot.prx

I'm on Instagram too, but that's not really related to Wattpad stuff. If you want to follow me, just look at the social media accounts that I listed in my Wattpad bio. P.S. Thank you everyone for nearly 10k Wattpad followers!

I've been looking more closely at My Broken Luna's stats and I was extremely surprised to see so many comments. For the amount of reads that this book has, the number of comments is very high. So... YAY!!! *I'm going to be changing the cover soon

I uploaded this chapter at exactly 12:00am on a Friday so that's good, right?

This chapter is extra lengthy to make up for the recent short chapters. I have a regional UIL competition soon for choir, so I might be a little distracted from Wattpad during the next two weeks, but I'll try not to leave you guys on a cliffhanger for too long.

On Monday, my Spring Break ends so chapters will also be a little shorter because of that, but I'm going to try to stay around a 5k-word chapter at the minimum. (this chapter is 7k words long) Do you all like longer chapters like this? Or is it too long?

And in the last chapter, one of the QOTC's was which "end-of-story shorts" you all like best and here were the results:

1. Journeys with Xander

2. Adventures with Brody

3. Inside the Marshmallow (I'm thinking of another name for this since it doesn't have Charlotte's name in it. Suggestions/ideas would be nice)

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@awesomepriscill
(There's no "a" at the end because I made this account in like fifth grade and I didn't care at the time that my full name didn't fit 😂) (I always add back on Snapchat)

Instagram
@pscill.a
(Please message me saying that you're from Wattpad because I would like to follow my lovely readers back)

Twitter
@pscill_a
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Adventures with Brody: (age eleven) *this is kind of longer too

"Are you sure she can't have a birthday party?" I ask my parents for the millionth time.

"You know we would her a birthday party if we could afford it, Brody." Mom frowns.

"We love you two more than anything, but you know why you two don't get birthday parties." Dad adds with a sigh. "We're trying to save up for presents, we'll try for parties next year."

"Cancel all of the stuff for my birthday, I don't need any presents. What if I chip in? I have savings, mom. Then can Char have a party?"

"Parties cost a lot of money, Brody. Next year."

"Fine." I turn and head upstairs. I've had four birthday parties in my entire life; my first birthday, my sixth, seventh, and my eighth. Char has only had a birthday party for her first birthday, and that doesn't count because she doesn't remember it. Our parents have sat us down on the couch to explain why we don't get new things as often as our classmates, why we don't get birthday parties, presents, and stuff like that. They already explained that most of our income either goes into bills, Maddie's psychiatric care, or into the pack.

Xander's in an Alpha family with more kids, yet, he and all his brothers always get the newest running shoes and phones. It's because they don't have a crazy sister to take care of.

The doctors have already said that Maddie doesn't have any mental health issues. She acts the way that she does because she can't stand having divided attention; she needs all the eyes to be only focused on her.

"Happy Birthday, Char!" I excitedly run into the bathroom that she and I share with a smile on my face. She finishes brushing her teeth before muttering a quick, "Thanks".

"Why do you look sad?"

"I'm tired." she grumbles, rubbing her eyes and walking out of the bathroom. "S-Someone kept me up last n-night."

"Oops?" Last night when we were supposed to be sleeping, I kept banging on the door and tried to make conversation with my sister.

"Mom and Dad said no party... Again." I tell her with a frown.

"It's okay." she shrugs, not looking sad at all. I don't understand that; whenever Mom and Dad tell me that I'm not going to do anything to celebrate my birthday, it ruins the entire day altogether. "N-No one would cone if I had a-a party."

"What?"

"Valerie is having her party today."

"Valerie Forbes?" Char nods. "I thought her birthday isn't until next month?"

"She's having her party t-today because she's going t-to London for her b-birthday." Char explains. "She said th-that she was f-flying first-class and everything."

"She gave you an invitation right?" I narrow my eyes as I ask my sister this quesetion. There are certain girls at school who make sure that nothing goes well for Char. I bet Valerie purposely told her parents to have her party on the day of my sister's birthday. Besides the fact that her parents know that it's the Beta's daughter's birthday and still had a party, they didn't even think to invite her. Nobody at school that I know of even told Char "Happy Birthday" or "Happy early Birthday".

"I got an invitation, b-but not by Valerie." Char answers. "Scott invited me."

Scott is in my grade and he's Valerie's brother. I know that he has a crush on my sister, I know that Xander likes her too. I don't get why they like someone younger, though. I already told Xander what would happen if he hurt her, now I have to do the same with Scott.

"Hey, sis. Let's go do something, just me and you."

"What are we doing?"

"Hunting."

It's Scott season.

*I'm gonna try out the chapter goals thing so...

Goal for this chapter (for an extra update): 1.5k votes

xoxo Priscilla