The Alpha's Warrior Princess

Ch. 5: Uncle Teddy Bear

(April’s POV)

As I was getting ready to back out of my car, I scented him coming closer. His presence made those butterflies start acting up again and I inwardly groaned and rolled my eyes. I could tell he was right behind me now and I didn’t want to take any chances of making bodily contact with him, so I hesitated a moment. I stiffened up when his scent became overwhelming to me, I just hoped he didn’t notice it.

Taking a moment to think about my situation, I finally leaned forward and pulled the handle on the driver’s side, back door and looked back over my shoulder, then pretended to jump in surprise and gasp “S**t! You scared me!” He gave me a look that told me he didn’t believe me. “Well, d*mn. Guess he ain't as big of an i***t as I hoped.” I thought before just running with it anyway. “Hey, can you come around and give this box a little push, please? I think it’s stuck on something.” I said as I stealthily pushed the container slowly back toward the other door.

“Sure, hold on.” He said as he started around the back of the car. Once he was out from behind me, I moved super fast and jammed the container firmly between the seats, getting it good and stuck. “Mission accomplished!” I thought, patting myself on the back as I smiled just as he popped his head into the other side of the car, and I saw him smile too. We worked together to get the container unstuck and then I stood up as he jogged back around to my side of the car and took it from me, again citing my imaginary injury for why I should let him take it.

He walked ahead of me into the house and I paused one last time to look up at the structure. Sighing softly, I muttered to myself, “Home sweet home”, and went inside.

The next day, I woke up all stiff from all the lifting and stuff the day before. My left arm was throbbing like mad. Why, you ask? Well it’s like this….

Flashback to yesterday…

Alex and I were trying to get Mom’s writing desk up to the master bedroom. I was at the top of the piece of furniture while Alex was bearing the full weight at the bottom. We were talking and joking around but we were being mindful of what we were doing, too.

We were actually stuck about halfway up the stairs because of the overhang from the floor above and trying to finagle the desk past the ceiling, “Hey. Try wiggling it to your left a bit”, Alex suggested, so I did. But that didn’t help at all. “Nope, that didn’t make a dent at all.” I said as I eyed the desk thoughtfully, then said “Let’s try backing it down a bit and angling it to the right over the banister a little.”

He nodded his agreement at my suggestion, but before I could get a good hold on it he gave the desk a tug, it shifted, and we heard a loud SNAP as my forearm got caught between the desk and the wall and the bone broke from the impact. “SON OF A MOTHERLESS F**KING GOAT!!” I shouted, more out of anger than pain. I realized I had to do something before Mom got here, wanting to take me to the hospital. So I turned away from Alex, who was panicking as he held the full weight of the desk with ease. But because of that, he couldn’t get to me.

I considered this a blessing as I was able to hide my arm while a soft golden glow appeared under my skin and I grasped my arm, clenched my jaw to keep from crying out, gave my arm a tug to reset the bone, and then held it firmly in place while it healed. I stopped the healing process once the bone was fixed so the bruising would still form, because Alex had seen what happened so he would get suspicious if I walked away totally unharmed. When I turned back, Dad’s angry voice was calling down the hall “

What are you kids up to?! April, I hope you’re not messing around with your Mother’s things!” I just rolled my eyes at him. There was absolutely no concern for me in his tone or words and I was just about to make a sarcastic reply when Alex snapped at Dad angrily “F**K Aunt Crystal’s thing’s! April may have just broken her goddess d*mned arm and you’re worried about a desk!?” I just blinked at him. Apparently, Alex was as psychotic as I am, yelling at my Dad that way. “WHAT!?” Wyatt yelled as footfalls resounded down the hall downstairs, moving towards us.

The next thing I knew, Wyatt was beside me. Still not sure how he got past that desk, but Alex and Dad were carefully taking it back down the stairs while Wyatt was looking at my arm. Dad came bounding up next, taking my hand from Wyatt and slowly moving it around to check for breaks. After being satisfied that there weren’t any, he told me to go to the kitchen, then asked Alex to run out to the closest store to buy a bag of ice while Dad searched for the ace bandages. After they got me all sorted, I was put on “light duty”, which meant basically only lifting things I could carry with one hand and giving orders to where things went.

The rest of the day was actually kind of fun. Wyatt was a trip with all his corny Dad jokes and I was jealous of how close him and Alex were. Alex turned out to not be so bad. He had a great sense of humor, a decent wit to him, and what I first thought was arrogance turned out to just be a very generous helping of self-assurance and confidence. Not to mention he had enough sass to him to put me to shame, and that’s goin' some.

About mid-day, I started to get hungry, so Alex and I took a quick ride over to the nearest Burger King. We ordered so much food. I felt bad for the crew, so I kept apologizing. The girl at the take out window kept laughing at us because I’d apologize and Alex would crack a smarta** joke. But it was true.

We ordered a sh*t ton of food. So I asked the girl how many people were there back in the kitchen and she told me there were eight people, not counting her manager or herself. He seemed really confused by my question, but I just smiled and pulled out my wallet. After we got our food, I gave the girl a hundred dollar tip to share with everyone, calling out my thanks for them all to hear and wishing them a 'nice day' before we headed back to the house.

For dinner, we ordered delivery. Pizza! Yum!

When it got here, I was totally laughing so hard it made my arm hurt. Dad had let Wyatt order the food and the poor guy delivering it kept trying to peek in and see if we were like having a party or something. Not that I could blame him. Wyatt ordered two pepperoni pizzas, two sausage pizzas, and three meat-lovers pizzas for a total of seven pizzas. But he also ordered six large fries, eight large mozzarella sticks, six large onion rings, four orders of cheesy bread sticks, and eight orders of bbq chicken wings, each having ten wings to an order.

He also ordered sodas as well. All for five people. I don't know where they put it all but they ate almost all of it. Dad and Wyatt actually had some sort of silent challenge going on because everytime one would take a piece of something the other would glare at him and follow suit. Mom swore they were gonna be sick. Alex and I just thought it was funny.

We were all sitting around the kitchen table eating our pizza and stuff when Alex said “Hey Uncle Ty? Would it be okay if I stopped by the gym on Monday just to check it out?” Dad just beamed at the mention of one of his precious gym’s as he said “Of course! I’ll give you a tour.” Which made me roll my eyes. It also made me think of something I’d been meaning to ask all day, so I said “Why do you call him that? Are we related somehow?” Which had Wyatt and my Dad chuckling a bit as Wyatt said “No sweetheart. Your Dad 'n I have been best friends since we were in diapers. He’s Alex’s Godfather. So, out of courtesy, he calls him Uncle.”

Okay, that was a new bit of information, right there. As I was processing that, Wyatt went on to say “And I’m your Godfather.” SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! I just looked at Wyatt, my mouth hanging wide open, making him laugh softly. “Wait!” I said excitedly as I looked from Wyatt to my Dad to my Mom, then back to Wyatt again before saying “does this mean I get to call you Uncle?” to which Wyatt very happily and tenderly replied “Sweetheart, it would be my honor if you would.”

Okay, that was it! UNCLE Wyatt was officially the coolest guy ever! At least in my eyes. I was so excited I practically lept from my seat and threw my arms around him squealing “THANK YOU UNCLE TEDDY!” making him chuckle as his arms went around me in a warm embrace. It took him a moment to realize what I’d said and when he did he gave me a confused look and asked “Uncle Teddy?” I just giggled at the face he was making before saying “When you pulled up earlier, I ain't gonna lie, I thought you were gonna be some mean a** pr**k. But then you turned around and smiled at me and I realized you’re just this big ole teddy bear at heart. Sooooo, that’s now your nickname. Uncle Teddy Bear!” I giggled, and so did Mom as she said “I like it!” Alex was on the floor, barking with laughter and my Dad looked like he was gonna bust a gut trying NOT to laugh.

He failed. Epically.

Wyatt, however, didn’t seem at all flustered by any of it. He just gave me this big a** smile and said “Uncle Teddy Bear it is, little one” and boy did he own that s**t from that moment on. To the point that when they were leaving a little later on, he refused to go without a hug from me, saying “Come give your Uncle Teddy a hug, lil one”, making everyone giggle or snicker. Of course, I was more than happy to comply and, as a result, I found myself wrapped in a warm embrace that made me feel safe and protected.

When they opened the door to go out, I wrinkled my nose as this god awful smell came wafting in. It smelled like someone opened a sewer and set the tunnel on fire. It was disgusting.

We were all walking outside at the time and when I looked around no one else seemed to smell it. Mom and I stood on the porch waving goodbye as Dad walked the guys to their car. Not a single one of them showed any signs of smelling what I did. Uncle Wyatt and Alex got in the SUV and started to back out of the driveway, but when they got to the street they stopped. Then they just sat there. About a minute later, Uncle Wyatt rolled his window down the rest of the way and motioned my Dad over. I guess they thought they were being quiet, but I heard their conversation anyhow.

“Do you smell that?” Uncle Wyatt asked Dad, who nodded. “Better get the girls inside and lock up tight. I’ll let you know if we have any issues.” Uncle Wyatt said before starting down the road again. He seemed so serious it seemed out of character for the jovial, carefree man I’d just spent all day with.

I could see Alex’s face as well and he looked anxious, concerned even. I couldn’t understand why, though. I mean, if they were talking about the same thing I was smelling, then what was the big deal? Sure it was foul smelling but it wasn’t dangerous, was it? I didn’t catch any smell other than sewerage and as long as you weren’t actually near the actual waste, the only thing the smell could do is make you a little nauseous, right? Locking one’s doors up tight wouldn’t prevent that.

After that, we all went back inside. I watched as Dad locked the house up tight, then turned around and smiled at us both. That wasn't like Dad. Sure he would smile at Mom, but me? I was usually invisible to him. Especially when there were no other people around. It was like talking to me, even looking at me, was just a painful experience for him. Me, his only child. A painful experience. It has been that way all my life.

The thought made me sad and all I could do was sigh. "I think I’m gonna head to bed now, guys." I gave Mom a kiss and meandered up the stairs to climb into bed. Sparks came out from under the bed and leapt up with me where we both curled up and let the exhaustion from the day take over. Before long, we were both sound asleep.

End flashback....

So yeah. It was eventful. Just lounging in my bed now, thinking about it all made me smile. Hopefully, today will be just as fun, only without the injuries. But I still got time before I needed to get up. Maybe I’ll just take a little nap.