Alpha Nicholas The sight that I see as we head to my office causes a small amount of guilt to weigh fairly heavily on my heart. Tony is walking with Rosie right by his side as several guards surround them and, while it looks like they are protecting them, sadly, that's not the case. Sadly, they are guarding Rosie while protecting everyone else, because as much as Rosie is Tony's mate until we know everything and can be confident that she is no threat to us, then we have to be careful. We would always be careful in this kind of situation, but given recent events, we are on more of a high alert, and while it may seem unfair for her to be treated like this when she is more than likely innocent, the reality is that she could be a part of everything else that has been going on, and I can't take that risk and it sucks. Tony is my best friend and I want to be nothing but supportive and welcome his mate with open arms, but I can't, not yet anyway. There is too much at stake, too much that could be happening right under our noses and until everything is cleared up, I have to keep her at arm's length even if I don't like it. As soon as we reach my office, I tell the guards to wait outside while Bonnie, Tony, Rosie, Shane, Will, Robbie and myself enter my office. I know this is the last place that Robbie wants to be right now, but this situation has now become Alpha business, which means it includes my top men, including my Beta, Gamma, and Top Warrior, so unfortunately for Robbie, he has to be here. "Everyone take a seat." I take a seat in my office chair before I pull my mate onto my lap, not missing the fact that she didn't tense up this time, while Tony sits next to Rosie and my brothers all drag chairs across the room so they can gather at my desk. While they get comfy, I find myself watching Rosie, she's looking down at her lap where she's playing with her hands, but she doesn't strike me as acting in any way unusual. Yes, she looks nervous, but if I was in her position I would be feeling the same. "Rosie, I'm sorry that you had to be escorted by my guards to my office, but until I am clear on a few things I have to take all the precautions that I can." Her head shoots up, and she looks straight at me before giving me a small smile and nods, showing me she understands. "That being said while I do not know you on a personal level, you are my best friend's mate and that will make you family so how about we get this chat over with so that we can focus on the future? And, of course, I hope that there will be no hard feelings." "Alpha, Nicholas, I completely understand why you are doing this, and I'm also glad that you are. I'm glad that you are looking out for your pack and your best friend like you are. I'm not offended by what you are doing and I'm more than happy to answer any questions that you have. And of course, there won't be any hard feelings from me, I swear." Her answer makes me want to smile and I don't sense any lies coming from her, so either she is being completely honest or she is that good at playing games. Oh well, I guess we are about to find out either way. "So let's start with the basic questions like how are you even alive? I don't want to drag up any painful memories, but I assume you can understand our confusion. The night of the attack, we checked the entire land and beyond for an entire day before we left and there were no survivors." She straightens out her shoulders and looks me dead in the eye, unknowingly earning herself a little more of my respect. Most wolves cower away from an Alpha's stare even if they are innocent. It's just how it goes. But not Rosie. She is looking me dead in the eyes and I like it. "I don't sleep very well. I never have, so I always liked to get up early and run. It's something I've done since I was 5 or 6 years old. As you already know, I don't have a wolf, but running even as a human always helped, even at that early age. Anyway, I liked to go around 4 or 5 am because there were never many other wolves around, and I liked that. Of course, my parents would never let me go out on my own at such a young age, but dad... my dad would get up every morning with me and join me." She takes a deep breath as tears lace her eyes and I imagine it's to do with talking about her dad. Unfortunately, his life was lost in the attack. While Tony offers his mate some comfort, I link one of my men to bring some bottled water and tissues because, of course, the moment that I need them I have run out of both of them. "I'm sorry, Alpha." Her voice brings my attention back to her and I don't miss the respect she is showing even when she doesn't need to. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Rosie. I can't even imagine how hard this is for you and, despite what I need to do I am sorry that you have to relive everything. You take all the time you need, we are here when you are ready to carry on." She smiles despite the tears that are running down her face. "I don't mind talking about it... talking about my family... I miss them and I love reliving the memories of them all, just not that day." I nod, understanding what she means as she dries her eyes and once again has a look of determination on her face. "So, as I said, my dad used to run with me, but once I turned 14 he started letting me run alone. He knew the route I would take was close enough that the guards would hear me if I shouted for help and I guess he felt that I was mature enough, so that's what I did." "I always struggle when I'm in crowded situations. I always have, and because of that, I rarely drink alcohol at any balls or parties, and I'm usually in bed early and still get up early to run. Sometimes, after being crowded for most of the night, I need the run that I take the next morning more than ever and that was how I felt the morning after the ball. As I said earlier, I don't sleep much and for some reason, that night was worse than normal, so I went for a run at 3 am and ran for hours." "You weren't there when the fight happened?" I ask even though I'm pretty sure that I'm right. It's been years since the attack happened, but I'll never forget it or the fact that it happened early." She shakes her head with a sad smile. "No, I wasn't. I should have been. After running for hours and ending up at the border, I started heading back to the pack house when one of my dad's guards approached me and pretty much dragged me off the lands and to our safe house." "It was several hours before he would tell me exactly what was going on. I wanted to go back to the lands to check on anyone but he wouldn't let me, then after several more hours of me nagging him, he finally told me that my dad was dead, that he had felt the bond snap not long after we had arrived there. He informed me that my dad had told him that if the worst happened that he wasn't to return to the land to check for any survivors for 24 hours and he wasn't to take me until he knew everything was ok." "Jesus, you must have been so scared." Bonnie's voice is laced with a sadness that has me squeezing her a little tighter. "I was. I was terrified but thinking about what could have been happening to my family had me more terrified." "Who was the guard that was with you?" Shane asks drawing my attention to him. He looks stiff and uncomfortable and I'm pretty sure all of the men in the room feel the same. None of us likes to hear these kinds of stories from girls or women, it just doesn't sit right. "He was one of the top guards. He was 23 and worked closely with my dad. He wasn't mated and didn't have any family so I think that may be why Dad asked him to take me." "He had nothing to lose, nothing to distract him when it came to keeping you safe," Robbie says taking the words right out of my mouth. "Exactly. Anyway despite my protests he stuck to his word and wouldn't leave until the next morning. I tried to go with him but he wouldn't let me. It was horrible being all alone in the safe house but I wanted to honour my dad's wishes. Of course, I feared that Connor wouldn't come back but he did, he turned up later on that day and confirmed my worst fears... that everyone was dead." "Rosie, I promise we searched those lands until it was dark but we couldn't find anyone. We also went past the border about 30 minutes out but there was no one." Sadness grips me as memories from that day resurface. All those dead people. All those dead women and children. Fuck, it makes me want to throw up. "What areas past the border did you check?" Her question throws me a little but still, I answer her. "All areas. We had four groups split up and take each side. Why do you ask?" I see realization cover her face and feel myself slightly tense up. "Twenty minutes from the east border is where our safe house is. It's underground and covered well enough that you wouldn't be able to find it if you didn't know about it." "The west side... you're telling me that our men walked right over your safe house without knowing it. You're telling me that both me and your mate walked over your safe house, that we left the lands without you when we could have taken you with us?" She looks down at her hands before once more lifting her head and nodding. "Yes, Alpha. That is right."