The Quiet One

25

Harper sat at her parent's kitchen table dunking a tea bag in steaming water and sighing. She missed Regal, her anger with him had been stewing all day and she'd snapped at Julie and their new employee Richard. Julie had sent her home after that, saying she could keep her foul mood to herself if she wasn't going to share what was going on. She'd walked into the house to her mother cooking dinner and surprised to see her.

"What happened Sweetie?" her mother had asked giving her a hug.

"Regal has been keeping things from me about the investigation on who vandalized my car and broke into my apartment. I had to find out what he was doing through a phone call with Hunter!" She slumped at the table and her mother set her wooden spoon down and put a hand on her hip.

"Did you let him explain?"

"No, I yelled about him not keeping me in a loop and if he wanted to be mates he had to tell me everything. I stormed off to work and told him I would be spending the night here."

"Don't you think you should have heard his reasons?" Her mother turned back to the stove and stirred her pot of stew.

"Maybe, but what good reason could he have?" She crossed her arms and glared at the table.

"Maybe he was trying to alleviate your stress, you've been dealing with a lot this week what with your car, apartment and inheriting a massive book collection."

"You think?" she asked. Now she felt like a complete fool for letting her emotions get the better of her, Hannah was the one in the family who was prone to hysterics.

"Go home and let him explain."

"Can I stay for dinner?"

"Yes, then you go home and work things out with your mate. You can't run here every time you two disagree. Being with the one you love won't be perfect all the time, it is easy to fall in love, it is harder to stay in love. You have to work at your relationship and you two have been together every day since you started dating. This must be new to Regal too, shifters only ever get one mate and they are very protective of their mate. Give him the benefit of the doubt and talk things over," her mother urged. That had been two hours ago, now she was nursing a cup of tea and trying to muster the courage to get back into her partially cleaned car and drive home to the man she loved. Oh God! She loved Regal! Her chest felt heavy and a stifling tightness wrapped around her heart at the thought of spending the night away from him.

Knock, knock

Her mother opened the door and she heard a deep voice ask,

"Is Harper here?"

"Yes, she is in the kitchen," her mother replied. She heard the door shut and a set of quick footsteps come down the hall to where the kitchen was. She looked up and saw Regal standing a few steps away, his eyes looked lonely, as if she'd hurt him by leaving. Pushing her chair back so fast it fell over, she rushed into his waiting arms. He wrapped her in a powerful hug resting his head in her hair holding her tight.

"I'm sorry," his deep voice reverberated in her chest and she looked up with tears shining.

"No I am sorry, I should have listened to your reasons and not just stormed out." She rubbed her nose against his chest breathing in his smell of the forest just after a rainstorm.

"You have every right to be angry with me. I was trying to help keep some stress off of you, after all you had been fighting with your insurance all week about your car. I shouldn't have, I should have told you everything so you would feel more comfortable." Regal kissed the top of her head and nuzzled her hair.

"I want to know what is going on with everything. It will help me know who I should be wary of, I've had a lot more customers in the shop this week and not all of them have bought something. Some have just looked through my shelves, walk over to the counter where I keep the more rare books, and then out as if they are looking for a specific book," Harper shared. She hadn't wanted to say anything, because she felt her paranoia over being attacked, might be influencing her outlook on customers.

"I can send some of my panthers to help in the store, to keep an eye on any wolf shifters who might come into your place." Regal offered, she shook her head and snuggled in his arms.

"We hired Richard, you sent him our way when I mentioned being busy with cataloging all the new books we've been able to purchase with George's inheritance."

"Good. Come home please," he murmured against her head and she nodded.

"I want to come home."

"Perfect, I want to take you some place this weekend, will you come with me?" he asked looking down at her kissing her nose.

"Sure, where are we going?"

"It's a surprise, want to stop home for a change of clothes?"

"No need, I have some here." She reluctantly released him and walked down the hall into the guest bedroom. Opening the closet she pulled out a bag of her spare clothes and toiletries and walked back into the kitchen.

"Wow, that was fast." Regal stood holding a travel mug with her tea bag hanging out of the lid and her parents sitting at the table.

"So you two made up?" her father asked, she nodded wrapping her arms around Regal's waist.

"Good, just remember falling in love is the easy part, staying in love is where you have to put in the work." her mother explained, Harper rolled her eyes but nodded.

"Thank you for everything, we'll see you Sunday for family dinner and game night," Regal promised. The two of them walked out to his car leaving her beat up one behind for the weekend.

"Did they manage to get all the paint out?" he asked, peering into the windows.

"As much as they could, the back seat was completely lost and my insurance wanted me to pay an a thousand dollar premium for new upholstery. I declined, I'm saving up for a new one anyway," she explained, grimacing at her pink back seat.

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