Alpha Raphael’s Second Chance Mate

Chapter 10

~NORA~

Morning came in quietly and I lay on the bed for a moment before opening my eyes properly, just listening to the sounds of the pack settling into its day outside my window.

It was the first time since I arrived that I woke up without pain being the first thing I noticed. My body was still working through everything but the sharpness of it had dulled enough that I could breathe without it catching. I sat up slowly and looked around the room and took it in properly for the first time.

It was a good room. That was just a fact. Nothing about it felt temporary or borrowed and that made me uncomfortable in a way I was not ready to examine too closely.

I got up and washed my face and stood at the window for a while watching the pack move around below. Pack members go about their morning routines, some in conversation,some just existing in the easy way that people move when they feel safe where they are.

I wanted to know about this place,because I had decided to stay or maybe I haven't decided anything yet.

But what matters the most is , I might be staying for days and knowing my surroundings shouldn't be a problem.

I pulled on my clothes and stepped out.

The corridors were busy in a quiet sort of way and the people I passed looked at me with open curiosity that they did not bother to hide.

I looked back at each one of them directly and not one of them looked away with hostility. Most of them nodded. A few smiled. I noted all of it, I wouldn't want to be in a surrounding where hostility leads, not after what happened at Kael pack.

Outside the air was cold and clean and I stood on the path leading through the pack grounds and just breathed it in for a moment before I started walking.

The layout was different from what I was used to.it was larger.

The buildings were spread out with more space between them and there were fields further out that I could see from where I stood.

Trees along the east border and what looked like a training ground to the west. I moved through it all slowly, taking mental notes the way I always did in new places, mapping exits and distances and where the people clustered.

"You are up early."

I turned and Alpha Raphael was behind me, his both hands were in his trouser pockets, he was looking at me with that same steady expression he always had.

"I needed to move," I said.

He fell into step beside me without making a production of it and we walked in silence for a moment.

Only our heart beat could be heard among us, without legs clutching to the floor.

Each step was intense, calculated and sharp.

"The field to the east is for general pack use in the mornings," he said, nodding in that direction. "Training runs are at dawn on weekdays. The west grounds are for drills and patrol rotations."He added, bluntly.

"And the building near the south wall?" I asked.

"Pack hospital. Daniel runs it. You have already seen the inside of it more than most people do in a year."He answered.

I almost smiled at that.

We kept walking and he kept pointing things out and I kept asking questions and the conversation stayed practical and direct and neither of us reached for anything beyond that.

He told me where things were and I listened and stored all of it away.

The pack members we passed acknowledged him immediately. Some bowed slightly. Some nodded. All of them glanced at me with that same curiosity I had been getting all morning and Alpha Raphael did not explain it to any of them and I was glad for that.

We stopped near the edge of the east field and I looked out across it. The grass was damp in the morning and the trees beyond it were still in the cold air.

"You will be introduced to the pack formally,"Alpha Raphael said.

I looked at him. "When?"

"Soon. After the elder meeting." He paused. "It needs to happen properly."

"What does that mean exactly? Formally introduced." I kept my voice low, my eyes scanned every bit of him as curiosity spiked up in me.

He looked at me and held my gaze and said, plainly. "It means they will know you are my Luna."

The word landed with heaviness and fear as I stood with no motion for a moment.

My wolf went completely still inside me and then immediately became very loud and I pushed her back without engaging.

Alpha Raphael watched my face and said nothing else. He did not push it or expand on it or try to manage my reaction to it. He just said it and let it sit there between us like it was something I was supposed to accept, wholly.

I looked back out at the field.

“Luna”The world echoes in my head with deep intensity.

The last time someone gave me a title it came with papers I did not understand and a hospital room and a pack elder reading things out loud in a flat voice while Kael stood there and watched me with no expression on his face.

The last time I believed I belonged somewhere it was dismantled in front of everyone I knew and I was walked out through the gates like something that had served its purpose.

I was not going to say any of that out loud.

Not here.

At least,not yet.

"Okay," I said.

Alpha Raphael looked at me and I could tell he wanted to say something else and chose not to. He let the quiet sit and I was grateful for that too.

We stood there for another minute without speaking. The pack was moving around us and the morning was getting brighter and my wolf was making noise in my head that I was refusing to respond to.

"Your wound," he said after a while.

"Daniel wants to check it again today."He added, his gaze is fixated on me.

"I know. He told me yesterday."

"Are you going?"

"Yes."

He nodded.

We turned and started walking back the way we came and the conversation shifted back to practical things. Pack schedules. What my days would look like. What was expected and what was flexible.

He explained it all without talking down to me and without assuming I needed things simplified and I noticed that without drawing attention to the fact that I noticed it.

We reached the door back into the main building and he held it and I walked through and he followed.

"There is a pack gathering at midweek," he said. "Nothing formal. Just the pack together. You do not have to attend if you are not ready."

"I will be there," I said.

He looked at me. "You do not have to decide now."

"I just did." I met his eyes. "I am not going to spend my time here hiding in my room waiting to feel ready. That is not how I work."

His glare became cold and icy,it was more like something cold and unyielding moved across his face, the moment I responded.

I watched him glare at me for a few more seconds and looked away.

"Midweek then," he said.

I nodded and headed down the corridor toward my room and he went the other way.

I did not look back and neither did he and that was fine.

My wolf had been quiet since the word Luna came up and now she started again the moment I closed my door behind me.

"You heard what he said."

"I heard him," I told her.

"And?"

"And I said okay." I sat on the edge of the bed. "That is all I said."

"But you felt it."

I lay back and stared at the ceiling.

"Feeling something and acting on it are not the same thing. I need to know this place very well before I hand anything over to it. I need to know him also."

"You are already learning from him."

"That is not the same as knowing him."

She went quiet and I closed my eyes and lay on the bed , slowly while listening to the sounds of the Southern pack moving around outside and told myself that one morning at a time was enough and that knowing the layout of a place was the first step to understanding whether it was somewhere you could afford to stay.

Whether it was a start.