Banished by the Alpha

Food for Thought

Cory POV

            I was somewhat disappointed in myself for how fast I was falling for Lucas, even thought I knew it happens fast for mates. Opal seemed to just want to jump in bed with him. Damn horny wolf.

You know you do to

            No, I want to get to know him and take things slower than this. Plu,s I have to think about all that he’s done to my family.

            No, your brain wants that, your heart and body, and me, want to already be marked by him.

            Dr. Walters finishes up my discharge exam and tells me I’m practically good as new minus a bit of bruising on my side and a lump on my head. These small remnants should be gone by the end of the week she assures me and heads out of the room.

            As she leaves, my mom walks in with the bag I had packed for the move with Lucas right behind her. I let them know what the doctor had said and that I was good to go.

            “Am I moving back in to my old room then?” I ask, looking at Lucas.

            “Actually, I had my room set up so you could move in with me.” He flashes a sexy, hopeful smile.

            “Here’s your bag dear. I’ll leave you two to figure out where you’re staying. I have to go convince your dad and brother to take a break anyways; they never actually went to bed last night like they planned.” With that mom puts my bag on the couch and leaves the room with a small smile back at me.

            “I barely know you. Why would I be moving straight into your room with you?” I raise an eyebrow at Lucas.

            “Because you’re my mate and I knew you’d want to be close to me. I know I need you close to me.” He admits a little sheepishly.

            “Fine but you better have a couch or you might be sleeping on the floor.” I give my best accusatory face.

            “Nope, my bed so I’ll be sleeping in it.” He smiles defiantly at me.

            I can already see where this conversation will head if I don’t change the subject. “Once I drop my stuff off, can we grab breakfast? I’m starving.”

            “Of course, darlin.” I’m really starting to like the way he calls me ‘darlin.’ I seem to be the only person he says it to.

            I run up to his room in the other wing of the pack house. Pack houses are more like mansions or castles than regular houses. They usually housed several families, the pack hospital, and loads of common space for everyone. The hospital was the entire East wing and the Alpha quarters were on the third floor of the West wing. The Beta’s family was on the second floor of the West wing and the first floor held their offices and meeting areas. The South wing was for other members who didn’t have separate homes and the North of the house was recreational area with a pool and yard for the whole pack to enjoy.

            I dropped my bag on the bed and started jogging for the door, hoping to get out of the room begore Lucas caught up. Instead, I ran right into him, again.

            “Is this going to be a thing?” he grins down at me.

            “Just in a hurry for breakfast.”  I try to get around him but he side-steps in front of me.

            “I’d like a redo of the last time you ran into me.” He looks at me, amused.

            “Fine. Please watch where you’re going.” I state irritably.

            “We kind of crashed into each other. It wasn’t just my fault. I’m Lucas.” He states.

            “My name’s Corinthia, my friends all call me Cory though. Now can we go get breakfast?” I whine the last part and my stomach grumbles in agreement.

            “Fine, to be continued.” He winks and steps aside.

            We find my parents and siblings eating around the island in the kitchen. My mom is piling food on Connor and dad’s plates and giving them stern looks as they dig in with great speed. Its obvious they want to finish their meals and get back to work.

            “Hi dear, here’s a plate for you!” She passes a plate towards an empty seat at the end of the counter. “I thought you would be a little longer upstairs.” She gives me a sly smile.

            “EWW MOM! We just met! Besides, how have you forgiven him so quickly for what he did to dad and then our whole family afterwards!?” I practically yell at her and then realize Lucas is still standing right behind me. I turn to see his face fall a little. I didn’t mean to upset him but it was all true and it was all still bugging me. Just the same, it pained me a little to have hurt him.

            “That’s simple dear; he was barely an adult at the time and he felt your father could have been doing a better job, so he did what pack law allows for in such an event. And he only banished us because of Connor and none of us wanted to see the same challenge carried out again with Connor in the ring. It was hard enough to watch your father go through that battle and even if Connor won, he would have been in terrible shape afterwards.” She gives Lucas a sympathetic look and he gives a slight nod in agreement.

            Great, my family seems to be over all that happened the last three years already. Just because I was his mate and he was bringing them back into the pack. I still needed to forgive him, especially since I was supposed to be his mate and let him mark me and be the new Luna. It was all a lot and made my head spin a bit. I sat down to steady myself and dug in to my food so nobody would notice.

            After breakfast dad and Connor took off to track some leads and head back to the farm. They needed to get some of the animals sold and they wanted to check for more clues. Plus, they thought the kidnappers might come back to try again; they might not know that I moved into the pack house now. Mom, Mark, and Emily took off to start moving stuff into their new home. Emily had complained during breakfast about just moving from one farm to another but it was short lived since she could still come to the pack house whenever she wanted and being back on pack lands meant she would still be able to easily start searching the pack for a mate.

            I turned back to Lucas who was just finishing his coffee. “I need to take a shower.” It was a statement but I was worried about him reading into it.

            He raised his eyebrows for a moment “You know where our room is, there’s a master bath attached and I already had a second towel hung for you. I’ll be up in a bit to change out of my sweats.”

            “No rush, I don’t need help to shower.” I gave him a side eye warning, or at least I hoped he knew it was a warning. I quickly darted upstairs to the shower.