Forbidden Entanglement with Mafia Alpha

5: Found Family

Six out of ten.

Faith had successfully assassinated six out of ten alphas from the New Government's Most Wanted List.

It was done over the course of years. One death of a crime syndicate alpha always sent the others (the smart ones at least) scurrying into hiding, waiting for the ruckus to be over before they return to their usual business. Faith had only done long-term assignments undercover for two of the alphas she had killed, and both missions only lasted for a few weeks before she got the green light from her handler to take down the alphas.

She hoped it would be the same for Magnus Lawson.

But her gut told her otherwise.

Before she really dove into her new life as Faye Moore, Faith had to make sure her personal life was in order.

Her motorbike had been given to her by the Special Missions Group, so that the license plate would not be traced to her personally. If anyone from the Red Flame Pack tried to check, ownership would point to the fake credentials Faye Moore had. One of Faye's supposed skills was riding a motorbike, which she had to learn out of necessity back in the village she used to live in out of state. (Faith had been born and raised in Dreadus State, and she never once lived in a village).

It was already past noon when she pulled up to The Sunny Side Bed & Breakfast. It was essentially a large house turned into a place for travelers to stay and relax while crossing the Northern and Southern borders of Dreadus State. The border was less then ten minutes away via car.

Faith parked in the garage. Guests' vehicles were not allowed such a privilege, having to park in whatever available space they could find on the grass and dirt surrounding the house. Before dismounting, Faith pulled off her helmet and riding gloves.

A hand-painted sign on the lawn contained the history of how The Sunny Side came to be. The three-story home was owned by the Petalia family for five decades before it was renovated and turned into a bed and breakfast just thirteen years ago by Kiyana Petalia, the younger of two siblings.

It was Kiyana herself who opened the double-doors before Faith had even reached the porch.

"I like this look," The woman grinned, her hand gesturing to Faith's hair and her biker outfit. "You look sexy and intimidating."

"That's the goal," Faith chuckled as she and Kiyana pulled each other into a hug. The bushy-haired woman was taller than Faith and more full-figured, but she walked with a confidence not many could master. Kiyana led Faith inside, helping Faith take off her leather jacket.

Inside of The Sunny Side was just as cozy as it looked on the outside. The communal area, the dining room, the kitchen; all of it looked lived-in, inviting. Its familiarity was what drew visitors to stay for more than just one night.

There was an elderly couple having tea on opposite sofas in the communal area. Other than them, nobody else was at the first floor. Kiyana Petalia wiped her hands with her apron as she led Faith towards the kitchen. "She's going to lose her mind when she sees you," Kiyana faux-whispered to Faith.

Sitting in the kitchen aisle were two figures, both a girl and a boy younger than Faith. Their heads rose at the same time, and the younger girl let out a loud gasp before she let go of the big piping bag she'd been using to decorate muffins.

Faith was grinning before she knew it. She had opened her arms and squatted down to accept the squealing little girl in a tight hug. "My Lily pad! I missed you so much!" Faith couldn't help but coo at her younger sister.

"I can't believe you're here! Kiyana didn't tell me you were coming!" Lily Harper was practically yelling into Faith's ear, but Faith didn't care. She blew a raspberry into Lily's neck, causing the little girl to shriek in delight.

"It's nice to have you back," the young boy said as he got up from his own stool at a much slower pace. His smile was bright though.

Faith put Lily down and pulled the boy into a hug, his face reaching Faith's shoulder. "I've missed you too, Dermon. Although I can't stay for too long." Noticing muscles on Dermon's torso which weren't previously there, Faith pulled back and narrowed her eyes at the boy's entire form. "Have you been working out?" Faith squeezed under Dermon's armpits, making the boy yelp.

"Damn right Dermon's been working out," Kiyana piped up. "I told him he can't expect to be my assistant here if he couldn't even lift a basket of laundry."

Dermon rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "I haven't even hit puberty yet. I'm gonna get bigger!"

"He wishes," Kiyana snorted.

Faith smiled at the two. They were not related by blood, as one would guess just by looking at their facial features and skin complexions, but Kiyana Petalia and Dermon Havan had become like mother and son. Kiyana was seven years older than Faith, which meant the woman was old enough to be Dermon's parent.

"Are you really not staying?" Lily suddenly asked, breaking Faith from her train of thought. "You were gone for so long!"

Faith immediately scooped up her little sister. Lily Harper looked a lot like Faith—a lot like their mother—except Lily's eyes were blue like the ocean. Faith's were brown. They both had naturally auburn hair, and Lily's pale skin made the red stand out even more. The little girl had just turned nine years old two months ago, and Faith had been able to attend the small celebration Kiyana organized here at The Sunny Side.

"I'm sorry, Lily pad. You know how my work is." Kiyana tucked a strand of hair that had escaped from the two braids on Lily's head. "If I'm away, that means we can buy things we need, stuff you want, and even have money for emergencies." For Faith, nine years-old is the perfect age for Lily to be learning these things. They had lost both their parents at a very young age, and rather than have Lily hate Faith for being away so much, Faith tried to make Lily understand why it had to be this way.

Fortunately, Lily understood why; to a certain degree. She was wise beyond her years, which wasn't necessarily a good thing in Faith's opinion, but there was nothing either of them could do now to change the things they'd gone through together.

Faith asked Lily if the little girl liked her new hair, just to break the tension. Lily gave a small smile, telling Faith she looked pretty. Lily and Dermon continued to frost cupcakes while Faith helped Kiyana with loading the dishwasher and making a pot of coffee.

As they all sat together in the kitchen aisle to eat the cupcakes, Faith made sure to keep the conversation away from her. She asked them how the bed and breakfast faired while she was away, and what kind of guests they had.

Kiyana told Faith about the time a young man who wanted to be part of a circus had brought throwing knives and practiced aiming at one of the trees out back, to which Kiyana had to tell him that it was not allowed. Dermon had nearly fainted when an older alpha stayed for a couple nights. The alpha's scent had overwhelmed his beta nose so much that he couldn't physically stay in the same room for longer than a few minutes without feeling like he wanted to melt. (Both Kiyana and Lily teased him for having a crush on the alpha, which Dermon blushed at but didn't deny).

"My favorite moment was when a girl my age asked me to color with her. She had all these fancy crayons and pencils, and–"

"I gave you tons of fancy crayons and pencils," Faith reminded Lily with narrowed eyes, teasing the little girl.

Lily sighed heavily. "Yes, but hers was fancier. She had a golden crayon! Gold, Faith!"

"She brought up that gold crayon over and over again this past week," Kiyana said exasperatedly, but the amusement showed through her tone. "You'd have thought it was real gold the way she held that thing."

"I think it was," Lily told them with wide eyes. Dermon patted her on the head in support.

They cleaned up in the kitchen after Kiyana told them she needed to start on dinner, since most of the guests requested to have a home-cooked meal that evening. Dermon asked if Lily wanted to help him pull weeds from the garden, and Lily turned to look at Faith in question.

"Just don't play with worms," Faith told her sister.

"Ew!" Lily scrunched her nose in disgust. "You go play with a worm."

Faith stuck her tongue out at Lily, prompting the little girl to return the gesture. She hopped towards the back exit, following Dermon. They could see the two of them in the garden through the kitchen window.

"You should consider enrolling her into an elementary school," Kiyana said. She was pulling a large mixing pan from a cabinet, already reaching for the bowl she'd need from the cabinet next to it. Kiyana was a great cook, and she was always in her element in this very kitchen.

Faith sat down on one of the kitchen stools again, sighing down at her lap. "You know I can't risk that, Kiyana. I'd prefer having Lily only meet with a tutor here than have her exposed in a school I can't reach with tons of people I can't trust."

Kiyana shrugged, facing Faith with the cooking tools she retrieved. "I guess. My sister and I were homeschooled. But I just wish for Lily to meet more kids her age, you know?" The owner of The Sunny Side turned towards the kitchen window. There were freckles on her cheeks and on the back of her neck, spreading out like glitter all over her upper torso. They were made more obvious as she stood near the sunlight. "Dermon's been really good to Lily though, very patient with her. And he agrees to play with her after her tutoring sessions even if he's exhausted from working."

The mention of Kiyana's sister had Faith's head snapping upward.

"Your older sister," Faith began slowly, waiting until Kiyana was facing her again before continuing. "Her name is Erlia, right? You told me before, that she ran away... because..."

Kiyana's expression twisted, but her voice remained even. "Because my parents had arranged for Erlia to be wed to their friend's son but my older sister wanted to be an alpha's human mate."

Human mate.

Faith swallowed, watching as Kiyana filled a pot with water from the faucet. "Did you know who the alpha was?"

"Yeah. Gavriel Snowfell. He was part of a small Pack, can't remember which one. But Erlia had met him when she was eighteen and I was sixteen. A year later, she's proclaiming to our parents that she will not marry the man they want her to be wed to, and if my parents did not support Erlia's union with the alpha, she would simply run away and leave the Petalia family."

Given the layer of coldness underneath that retelling, Faith could guess that the issue was a lot messier than Kiyana was painting.

But Faith's curiosity got the best of her. She hadn't intended to ask Kiyana about this, but now that it was in Faith's mind, she could not stop thinking about the possibility of her being a human mate to a certain Head Alpha.

"Do you think your sister Erlia was telling the truth?" Faith wrung her hands together, trying to keep her voice as inconspicuous as possible. "That she really was destined to be Gavriel Snowfell's mate even though she and your entire family are purely human?"

Thankfully, Kiyana was focused on preparing vegetables while she waited for the water in the pot to boil on the gas stove. She hadn't noticed anything so far, and was simply answering Faith's questions to make conversation. "I'm not sure. Before Erlia, I've never heard of any incident where an alpha was drawn to a human's scent the way they're drawn to other werewolves' scents. As humans, we don't have the power to know. But Erlia had insisted that she felt it. Being able to catch scents wasn't a thing she could do, but she told me before she left that she knew, deep down, that she was meant to be Gavriel's mate." Kiyana shrugged as she sharpened a chef's knife on a whetstone, her long fingers working deftly. "I haven't heard from Erlia since then, so I'm guessing she and Gavriel are still together."

"I'm sorry."

Kiyana shook her head. "Don't be. It was what she wanted."

Faith looked out of the kitchen window. Lily was flinging dirt at Dermon, who was laughing. The stain of dirt on the bottom of Lily's denim overalls told Faith that her little sister had fallen on her butt earlier and was now punishing Dermon for laughing at her.

"You think Dermon knows anything about alphas becoming mates with humans?" The question was out of Faith's mouth before she could stop it.

"Dermon's a beta, and scents I've heard are different for betas and alphas. It's not like his family was of any help before they disowned him for liking men."

Faith turned back to Kiyana, who looked much angrier now than when she'd spoken about her sister who ran away from home. It was understandable. Faith had been furious about Dermon's situation as well when she had first met the boy, the injustice of it making Faith instantly promise to protect Dermon Havan.

"We're Dermon's family now. We're all he needs."

Something in Faith's tone had Kiyana looking up from chopping celery. The woman frowned. "Faith, what happened?" She took a quick look around the kitchen before leaning in closer to Faith. "Did something go wrong during one of your missions?"

Kiyana knew about Faith's real job under the New Order, but Lily and Dermon had no clue. Faith's excuse was that she was a researcher for the government, sent to different places to collect data either from people, nature, or objects. It's been believable to Lily and Dermon ever since.

"Nothing happened. Everything went okay." Faith never divulged details of her work to Kiyana, and she wasn't about to start now.

All Kiyana knew for certain was that Faith was an agent under the Special Missions Group of the New Order, and that she was sent on missions to take care of bad men.

Kiyana stared at Faith, obviously not believing her. But Kiyana didn't push. As long as Faith came back to them, alive and in one piece, Kiyana had promised not to dig deeper into the gritty details of Faith's work. "I could ask around, maybe try and write to my sister? I'm not sure if she's still at Gavriel's latest address, but-"

"No, no. It's alright." Faith shook her head. "That won't be necessary."

Better that Faith did not know for certain.

Once the time came, Faith was determined to not let her emotions keep her from killing Magnus Lawson.