Alpha Raphael’s Second Chance Mate

Chapter 8

NORA

"This is your room. It is right next to mine so getting to you quickly will not be a problem," Raphael said, and I stepped inside and looked around, taking in everything slowly.

My attention landed on the wall across from the bed. There was a portrait hanging there and I moved toward it without thinking.

It pulled me in completely. The detail in it was striking and the eyes in the painting held something that was hard to read no matter how long I looked.

I reached out to touch it and Raphael caught my hand before I could.

"Leave it for now. Your body still needs rest." His eyes stayed on mine after he said it and I felt the contact all the way up my arm.

I stepped back and cleared my throat.

"Where is the bathroom? You can head out now, I will manage from here," I told him, pulling my hand back and putting some distance between us.

He moved back with a slight awkwardness that I did not expect from someone who carried himself the way he did.

"If anything comes up, reach out to me directly. I am not far," he said, already moving toward the door.

"Raph, genuinely, thank you. Taking me in the way you did after finding me in that state was not something I expected from anyone. You are different from what I thought," I said and he turned and looked at me.

"Nobody with sense abandons their mate in a situation like that. And even without the bond, leaving someone in that condition was never going to happen. Nobody gets treated that way in my pack," he said, his voice was cold and his words were calculated.

A moment of silence rested in the room, for a few more minutes with our eyes interlocked on each other .

"I will get out of your way now. I have a packed business to handle." He was almost through the door when he paused and looked back. "Every day of the week has its own duties here. As long as you are part of this pack that applies to you as well. Nobody sits outside of it."

I nodded and he left.

"Damn, the air in that room was something else," I muttered, dropping onto the bed and letting out a breath.

"I hope my pup is alright. I really do. I just want to know he is okay, just once, just enough to stop this feeling," I whispered to the ceiling, and the thought of Kael taking my baby and walking away from everything he destroyed crept back in before I could stop it.

His face. His voice. The way he stood there while it all happened.I couldn't help but think about everything as my chest tightened in my heart.

How does someone get to that place? How do you look at a person you've been sleeping with or sharing a bed with for the past three years and still hurt her?

I turned over on the bed as these thoughts kept running through my head and I still couldn't believe that my own mate could hurt me this much.

The room grew darker as the night settled in. The moon pushed some light through the window and it landed across the floor in long strips. The blanket on the bed was thick and heavy and I pulled it around me and tried to let my body rest even if my head refused to.

My mind kept going back to the moment I found out about Kael and Lena's relationship and every sign I ignored because I had wanted so badly for things to be different from what they were.

"Instead of chewing on all that, what about focusing on where we are now and who brought us here?" My wolf pushed into my thoughts and I exhaled.

"Not yet. I am nowhere near ready to go down that road again. Not after everything Kael put us through, that man is a bastard and I have not forgotten any of it," I muttered back at her.

"I hear you. I do. What happened was bad and you have every right to feel it. I just think Raph is built differently. That is all I am saying," she offered.

"Maybe. But Kael also started out looking like something he was not. I do not trust my own reading of people anymore. I am not letting any bond or any feeling push me into something before I am ready. My pup is the only thing I am focused on right now. Everything else can wait," I said and pressed my face into the pillow.

My wolf went quiet after that.

"Luna, the evening meal is ready. The alpha is asking for you at the table." A voice came from outside the door.

"Give me a few minutes," I responded and got up slowly.

I needed to wash up first. I had been in my own head long enough. I moved toward the bathroom and the moment I stood upright a sharp pull went through my lower abdomen and I stopped and pressed my hand against it.

"That wound is nowhere near fully closed," I said under my breath, looking down at the site of the section scar. The anger that came with it was immediate. A reminder of that night. Of everything that happened and everything that was taken.

My pup was out there with someone who did not deserve him and that thought was enough to send cold and brutal shivers than my spine.

---

I made my way to the dining hall and stopped when I saw her.

A woman with fair hair was already seated beside Raphael and he looked up the moment I came in. I found a seat and settled into it.

The energy at the table was off from the start and I could feel it the second I sat down.

"Raphael, you brought a stranger into the pack without a word to anyone. What exactly is she doing here? Is she our new staff?" The woman looked directly at me when she asked these questions, even though the question was aimed at him.

"Iris, drop it. You just walked back in. Focus on your plate," Raphael said in that flat cold voice and the woman, Iris, made a sound in her throat.

"You did not even mention the Luna gathering. I was the one who went in to represent this pack and you said absolutely nothing about it beforehand," she said, dragging her words out and rolling her eyes toward the ceiling.

I kept my attention on the food in front of me and stayed out of it. My eyes went to Raphael once or twice but he was not talking with her properly and that told me nothing useful.

The thought did cross my mind though. What exactly was she to him? The way she sat beside him and talked to him was not how someone speaks to a person they barely know.

Was I misreading the whole thing? Was he worse than Kael in a different way?

I pushed the thought down and ate.

"You have not introduced yourself," Iris said, setting down her fork and turning fully toward me. "That is a basic courtesy."

"Iris. Last warning. Eat quietly or help yourself out of this table," Raphael said and she turned her eyes coldly,back to me without saying anything further.

The rest of the meal went on with the two of us occasionally making eye contact across the table in the way that happens when someone will not stop looking at you and you keep accidentally catching them, staring strangely at you, like they want to kill you immediately.

Raphael glanced at me more than once and each time I looked away first.

"I am done. Thank you for the meal, Raph," I said, getting up from the table.

"Excuse me," Iris said sharply, sitting forward. "Nobody calls him that. Not his own mother, not anyone who has ever been in this pack. And a complete stranger walks in here and uses that name like it belongs to her?"

"I did not know. I am genuinely sorry," I said, of course I wasn't aware and I own up to my mistakes.

"Nora, go ahead. I will sort this out," Raphael said, his voice was a bit icy but firm.

I nodded at Iris and stepped away from the table and walked out of the room without looking back.