Mated with the Alpha's Daughter

Chapter 2: Home Sweet Home

***MICHAEL POV***    

    Ever since the drama with my exes started, I started battling anxiety and depression.  When you're told over and over again that you're not worth anything from your significant other and you're planning long-term with them, it would cause just about anyone on Earth to doubt everything they had done and their motivations for doing everything.  

    So it was easy to imagine the amount of butterflies I felt in the pit of my stomach when my five vehicle caravan pulled up to my brand new house.  It was the house I had fallen in love with when I was doing my real estate research in this area.  I didn't care that I was going to sink my entire life's savings into one single piece of property.  The moment I decided that I was going to make the leap, I wanted something permanent right off the bat.  I wanted something to be mine so that way no one could ever take it from me again.

    "So," I said when I climbed down from my Colorado, "what does everyone think?"

    "This is it?  Why couldn't you have bought something else," Terry said with a smirk on his face.  I loved my brothers dearly, but Terry has this smirk that was just so f*****g pleasing to hit from time to time.

    "Yup!  This is it!  What does everyone think?" I asked again.

    "Oh Michael!  It's absolutely gorgeous!  I never thought you'd get something for yourself to treat yourself, but my goodness, you've done well," Marie, my mother, gushed when she got out of her car.

    "Yeah, you've done good, son, but you know that you need to take care of it.  I'm not going to drive two thousand miles every weekend to fix something," William, my dad stated.

    "Don't worry, Pops.  This place is my home sweet home.  I already have ideas on what I'm going to do when I decide to fix it up," I replied.  I looked over at Steve and Juan, who were already starting to undo the straps on my truck.  "Let's get to it, everyone!"

    And so the process of unloading all of my s**t started and taking it into my new house, and I had to admit, I was impressed with it.  The exterior was covered in red brick and stones that danced around in the sunlight, topped with a charcoal color roof that was just installed on my request, giving the brick and stone additional character.  The windows were accented by shutters that matched the roof almost exactly, with empty flower beds all around everywhere on the property.  I couldn't wait to put different types of lilies in all of the flower beds; gardening and taking care of plants was one thing that gave me peace, and I wanted to have the nicest gardens in the whole area.

    The house sat on three acres of property, with a shed in the backyard.  As a housewarming present, Steve chipped in a brand new riding lawn mower and string trimmer so I could do all the yard work I wanted to.  The best part is that the backyard butted right up against a massive wooded area that looked like an unmapped and unnamed forest preserve.  My need to be outdoors had never known a single boundary, so the more trails to explore, the happier I was.

    Inside, the house was exactly halfway between fully modern and antique.  All of the floors were antique hardwood saved from the previous owner, but buffed and polished with four coats of finishing wax.  The crown molding was done in mahogany and all of the floors were plastered in place.  All told, the house had four stories, five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, a finished basement, and a large space in the basement that I had visions of putting a bar and a music studio in.  The kitchen offered brand new appliances with a flattop grill and four burners on the white granite countertop.  The walls still smelled like new paint, as I had flown out two weeks ahead of time to get a coat of paint down.

    After giving everyone the grand tour, we set to work getting unpacked.  My master bathroom was the only room that needed to be restored, so I told my dad that I was going to have a contractor come out and have a look to see what I want in the next three weeks.

    The unpacking and setting up everything how I wanted took five hours and many a conversation with my mom.  When everything was done, I excused myself to my master bathroom, washed my face and ran water down my neck, and looked in the mirror.

    I would never accuse myself of being ugly.  In fact, some of my friends found it funny to call me "Pretty Boy Mikey".  At 6'1" I towered over the rest of my family.  My warm, chocolate brown eyes stared intently at my sandy brown hair that was being unruly, having had a hat on most of the day.  I had wide, broad shoulders and a semi-defined six pack to go with my stubbly beard I kept trim all of the time.  My soft, quick hands danced across my hair as if I were playing the guitar as I cleaned myself up.

    "You can do this, Michael.  You're strong, you're brave, you're driven, and you're smart.  You've overcome so many obstacles in your life so far; you can handle anything that comes your way," I said to myself in the mirror.  I repeated it to myself over and over.  "You can do this."

    I went back downstairs to help my family and Juan cook something to eat.  For the first time in I didn't know how long, I felt at peace.  My dad looked at me several times as we were eating and nodded with a smile threatening to come across his face.  He could tell I was content.

    When I walked everyone outside, having put all of the dishes in my new dishwasher, Dad pulled me off to the side to talk.

    "Michael," he began, "I hope you know how proud I am of you.  You were with those horrible girls, and yet you still got what you wanted to accomplish.  You can do absolutely anything that you put your mind to, and don't you ever forget that, either!" he finished as he poked me in the chest, a habit that had served him well in 28 years as an engineer.

    "Thank you, Dad.  I promise I am through letting you down.  You can count on me again," I respond.

    "I know I can," Dad replied, and pulled me into a hug.  I then made my way around the family, stopping with my mom, who's crying her eyes out at this point.

    "Don't cry, Mom.  I'm still going to FaceTime you any chance I get.  You can't stay away from me too long!"

    "I know, I just worry," she replied as she hugs me.  I break the embrace, and watch as everyone in my family got in their cars and drove off.

    When I turned to the house, I had a smile on my face, but it quickly stopped, frozen in fright.  At the top of the ridge line, I saw what I could only have imagined being two gigantic, bright yellow, curious eyes.  I thought, "this can't be right, wolves aren't around this area.  You're losing your marbles for real this time."  After closing my eyes and counting to 10, I opened them again, and looked at the same spot.  No eyes this time.

    "See, you f*****g goof!" I yelled at myself.  "There wasn't anything there.  Your mind is looking for an excuse to play tricks on itself," I muttered as I went back inside.

***UNKNOWN POV***

    Patrolling the perimeter was normally something I found beyond annoying.  It wasn't that I didn't like getting my wolf Spirit out and moving, it was that when I ran the same direction and the same pattern over and over again, I started counting the individual strips of bark on the trees I passed.

    This time, however, Spirit seemed to be quite engaged in something.  Normally, Spirit was nothing more than a crazy puppy in the back of my head that seems like it would need ADHD medication if she were a normal child.

    "What's up, girly girl?" I say internally to my wolf as she runs through the forest.

    "He's here.  I can feel it," she responds.

    "What in the hell are you talking about?" I asked.

    "Mate," she says simply.

    I couldn't believe it!  She could have been right!  At age 20, I had been looking for my mate since Spirit woke up when I turned 18.  Whoever he was, however, would have to be prepared with how high maintenance I am and everything that comes with being the Alpha's oldest daughter.  After all, it would be my mate that the pack would fall to in time.

    "I sure hope he's here and we can see him soon, Spirie.  I'm ready to be mated already."

    "So do I, Gorgeous," she responded.

    We made one more pass before we pass off our shift to the next wolf in line, when we both smelled it.  Lilies and strawberry lemonade.  As if the Moon Goddess herself had said what kind of scent we were looking for.

    Spirit looked down at the front yard of the house that was just bought by some hotshot teacher, when she sees him turn around, and time stands still.

    Oh my sweet Baby Jesus, that man's hair would be so much fun to pull as he would work his tongue--

    "Oi!  Not now.  We don't need him to come looking for us up here or for us to scare him away before we can even talk to him," Spirit reminded me in my mind.

    "You're right, but it wouldn't hurt to just look for right now, right?" I respond.

    So we do.  For a couple of moments we watch as our mate begins walking into his new house, but then he stops and stares at us.

    "f*****g s**t!  Time to go!" Spirit says as she took off running.

    As she runs, I couldn't stop thinking about my mate.  

    Don't worry, good sir.  I'll be back.  I'll find you and take you home.  Home sweet home.