Vexed

07: I'll Be Good

"Peaches?"

"Yes, Nugget?" I asked while keeping my eyes closed. I had a very long day today but I didn't want to pass up on Giorgia's tea party. Last two weeks I wasn't able to give as much attention to her as I had hoped. Also today, I was the VIP guest. According to my niece, all the other esteemed attendees of the tea party loved me. Mr. Bunny was especially attracted to me. My niece really is out here trying to set me up with her stuffed animal.

I felt Giorgia shift next to me and then her weight was on my stomach. "Tell me about how mommy and papa met." She lowered her head on my chest. This is a normal procedure for us whenever she wanted to hear a story from me. She always without a doubt got tired and fell asleep by the end of the story, which was perfect because it was close to her bedtime.

"You sure you want to hear this story?" I asked moving away stranded hairs from my face and started to gently run my hand over my niece's hair.

"Yes, please," she answered.

I pouted, not being able to contain how affectionate and adorable she was. I loved her more than anything else in this world.

"A long while ago, right after the war, your father and I went on a perimeter check at night. Back then we didn't have security cameras or other technologies, so things were different. You had to have proper get up, shields and weapons. That night we were all very tense because.."

"Oh-oh! I know! The rogues were attacking a lot" Giorgia's tone was filled with excitement. It was part of the charm of our storytime. I could repeat the same story hundreds of time but it would always be received with the same enthusiasm.

"That would be correct. Some rouges after the war pledged and joined different packs but the some took it as an opportunity to leave or attack packs that were still healing from the war. Our pack was usually not a target for such attacks. However, other packs in our region were being targeted so Matteo and I were on edge about it."

"You mean at the Hollows Rock?"

I chuckled at her genuine confusion "No love, being 'on edge' means being tense or nervous."

"Oooh, okay," she responded and then slowly mumbled to herself, "on edge."

"Your father was especially tensed. By the way, we did end up going to Hollows Rock that night because we heard the news of suspicious noises coming from that area."

"So, I was right!" She squealed.

"Hmm, I am getting suspicious that you know the story already," I told her while trying not to smile.

"Nooo, not at all," the sarcasm from Giorgia's voice made me so proud. Matteo is probably not going to appreciate me teaching his daughter sarcasm but hey, that is not my problem.

"Well you see, that day the rogues did attack. We ended up capturing them and bringing them back to the packhouse. Matteo went ahead of us to set up a few things, so he didn't really have any interactions with the five rogues that we encountered. They were not putting up a fight afterward, so we didn't have to take extensive measures. While we were taking them back, one of the rogues came to a halt and stared in front of us. We couldn't get her to move."

"I love this part!" She announced and let me continue. I shared her feeling because from the entire night that day it was the only good that came to be.

"I went to talk to her so I could ask her to keep on moving but then I saw who she was staring at. My brother, she was staring at Matteo. He walked to us without acknowledging any of us, his eyes were fixed on her. Your father extended his hands which your mother took and that's how they found each other. Also, the rogues were actually running away from another pack that had a bad Alpha. So, what does that tell us?"