Page 111 of As The Shifter World Turns

111

NOT THE ALPHA I MATED

Neil

“I’d love to. Thanks for inviting me.”

Martin’s voice was grating on me as I cleaned Charlie’s butt and put on a clean diaper. Glancing through the open doorway, I eyed him tapping away on his phone and then posing for a selfie. What I wanted to do was grab that freaking phone from his manicured hands and jump on it. Over and over and over again.

Recently, he’d had a closer relationship with that device than he had with me or the kids. And it beeped incessantly as I carried our little boy into the living room.

“Neil, I need to go for a fitting. Everything under control here?”

I didn’t answer him, worried I’d explode because I was a single parent lately and my mate was acting like a giddy teen who’d just gotten his license or discovered beer!

“Where are you going? I thought tonight was date night. Ivor and Ryder have agreed to babysit.”

Toby hated the word babysit. I needed to remember that and say “stay with the kids’’ instead. But I was pissed at my mate and forgot.

“Can’t love. Got a thing.”

“A thing?” I said, louder than I intended. More like shrieking? “Martin, we've hardly spent time together recently. Both of us need to reconnect and we haven’t been able to do that because you’re always out and when you’re at home, you’re on social media. ”

“What do you want me to do?” he shouted. Charlie whimpered and put his face on my chest. And Toby poked his head out of his room.

I hustled my son back in saying, “It’s okay, sweetheart.” Judging by his face, he wasn’t convinced. I’d have to talk to him once Martin had gone out. Because he was leaving. He was jingling the keys in his pocket, a sure sign he was irritated with the delay and wanted to leave.

Martin spoke very slowly. “This is work.”

“Oh, what’s the job?”

“Not a job per se but one of the companies that pays me a lot of money needs me to attend an event. Therefore I need clothes and they want me there now so they can choose which ones.”

His phone beeped and he read the message and grinned. “There’ll be a lot of schmoozing. Don’t wait up.”

I never did. He’d come home with whisky on his breath and other mens’ cologne on his shirt. From what I could gather, his new friends didn’t have families so they didn’t have to race home to put kids to bed or for date nights. And if they did, their long-suffering partners were doing the heavy lifting. Just as I was.

“Can’t you say no?” I asked even though I already knew the answer.

“No! If I did, they may decide to not use me for their next campaign. I’m earning good money, Neil, for doing very little.”

He was getting paid outrageous sums and I wasn’t complaining but the work had taken over his entire life and our family was suffering. I was exhausted and missing the alpha I mated. Martin had to strike a better work/life balance but I wasn’t sure he wanted to spend more time with us.

“Perhaps tomorrow you can look at your schedule and slot in a time for us to talk.”

Martin didn’t respond because he was filming himself and giggling. In itself, it wasn’t outrageous that he’d ignored me, but it was the last in a long line of similar incidents. I waited until he put the phone in his back pocket. Holding back tears and hugging Charlie, I mumbled, “I’d like you to move out.”

“Huh?”

Gods, don’t make me say it again. “I need space from you and I can’t get it here.”

“You’re being ridiculous, Neil. I’m not having an affair if that’s what you think.”

Of course the possibility had crossed my mind but I trusted my mate and ignored that he spent his days around hot young things. “I didn’t say that.” I put Charlie in his chair. “Even when you’re here, you’re not here !”

“Where the hell am I supposed to go?”

“Crash with one of your friends, stay in a hotel for tonight and then a B&B after that. I don’t know. You’re an adult.” I didn’t mention 3B. It was unfurnished and giving me space didn’t include having my estranged mate staying on the floor above my office. “I’ll pack you a bag while you’re gone and leave it by the door.”

“What about the kids? Toby is my son, remember.” That was a low blow and it hit me right where he wanted it to.

“If you come by tomorrow, we’ll both talk to Toby. It would be best for him to stay here. This is his home. Once you’re settled, he can stay with you some nights. But he has to have a say in what happens to him.”

“You’re a real piece of work, Neil.” He slammed the door, making Charlie cry and Toby tiptoed out and put his head on my shoulder.

“It’s okay, TD. Dad will come around.”

“You heard that, huh?” Not surprising considering how both Martin and I had been shouting.

“Mmmm. Dad’s had a hard time being out of work and now he's earning a lot of money from his modeling. He’ll come around.”

“You’re a smart kid. So glad you're mine.”

But when I climbed into bed, the empty space on the other side had me crying myself to sleep.

Micah

“Bad news about the house, Archer,” I told my mate as I walked in the door of 2B. The small one-bedroom apartment was cluttered with toys, laundry, laptops and piles of paper. Neil worked for Daire and me, though it was really with us, especially during the filming and promotion of the reality show. I guess that was our business now. Reality TV. Who would have thunk it?

The motel was being re-renovated, if that was a word, ready to be handed over to a homeless shelter. But we’d made such a huge profit from sponsors and advertisements, even though I had to agree we should do another one. Reality TV was a pain in the ass, but a profitable one.

“Oh no!” I should have sugar-coated it but what was the point? As soon as my mate took in my expression, he’d have sussed out there was a problem.

“The structural engineer says it’ll take another three months for the repairs.”

Archer collapsed onto a pile of washing on the couch. He put his head in his hands. “We have to rent a bigger place, babe.”

Patch chose that moment to grab a T-shirt and make off with it. Archer and I shared a glance. “I can't be bothered running after him,” Archer yawned. “If he wants the damned shirt, he can have it.”

“I wasn’t thinking of renting.” He glanced up, his brow furrowed. I had to put his mind at ease. “Thanks to the reality show, we can afford to buy another place.”

He shrugged as I sat beside him. “I don’t have the energy to look at houses.”

I pulled my mate to his feet and steered him toward the window. “Look. ”

“At what?”

“Mr Halvorsen’s house.”

“Oh yes, I was so sorry to hear he died. I bumped into his son yesterday.” He jerked his head toward me. “Are you saying we should make an offer? Or have you done that already?”

“No. I wanted to speak to you first.”

“We’d be living next to the manor. With Neil, Daire, and co on the other side.”

“Sort of like coming home,” I agreed. “Even though we’ve only been living on the next street.”

“It’s a beautiful house. Remember when we borrowed that parrot to fend off people who wanted to buy the manor and pretended it lived next door?” He chuckled.

“I do. That was fun. A while ago now.”

“Why are you standing here?” he asked and pushed me toward the door. “Unless you want me to negotiate? I can, but you’re the real estate guy.

After kissing him and wishing we were in the new house already so I could take him to bed, I headed down the stairs and ran into Ryder. “If things go well, you’ll be getting new neighbors.”

“Hope they’re not noisy. It’d be great if they had young kids.”

“They can be noisy at times. And yes, they do have young children and a dog.”

“Big one?”

“Big what?” I asked, my mind turning over numbers regarding what I was prepared to offer for the house.

“Dog.”

“Oh, medium size. You’ve met him. In fact you know the whole family well.” Mr. Halvorsen’s son pulled up and I had to catch him before anyone else bought the place.

“I do?”

“Mmmm. But if I keep talking to you, we might miss out. Wish me luck!”