Fate of the Alpha's Mate

Chapter 3

Esme

I rushed around the kitchen trying to clean everything up behind myself and get the table set. My dad is on his way over for dinner and I want everything to be perfect. I feel super anxious for some reason. This will be the first meal I ever invited him to in my own home, but I made him countless meals when I was younger.

I really haven't been able to spend much time with my parents since I've been home. Getting settled in the new house and trying to find a job was taking a lot of time. Plus, I still hadn't been to the packhouse and I've been home for over a week now. I know that eventually I'm going to have to see Lucas. I just can't bring myself to seek him out. It will happen naturally at some point anyway, right? I just can't bring myself to do it on purpose. Our pack was only just over two thousand wolves. I couldn't hide forever. I knew my dad was still worried about me moving to Cold Moon. My mom kept stressing about it and asking me how I was settling in here. She has come over a few times. I knew that she was trying to give me space but also check in on me.

Kenzie was out with friends and my mom had plans with her friend Lauren for the night. It gave me the perfect opportunity to get some one-on-one time with my dad. We'd always been super close. I missed the days of training with just him and me. I haven't even made it to the training grounds yet. Going there didn't really help me try to avoid Lucas. He spent most of his time there from what I've heard.

Though, I’m not sure if running into Lucas would be so awful. I miss our friendship and I find myself often wondering if we can find it again. As much as I want to say my time away healed me and my heart, it still reached for him. Sometimes I sat on the porch and stared at the packhouse, wondering what he was doing. Before I fell in love with him, he was my best friend. I miss my best friend more than anything. I'm just not sure about the steps to take, the ground is still so shaky. I'm not sure that I could handle running into Emily either.

The word around the pack is she is quite a b***h. It just makes no sense to me that Lucas would be attracted to someone like that. Kenzie told me that they are not fated mates, so I’m still trying to figure that out. If he was going to take a chosen mate, why would he take someone like her? Or maybe the question was, why didn’t he choose me? I tried to brush the thoughts off when I heard footsteps coming up the stairs on the porch.

I moved to the door quickly, bouncing with excitement. “Hey, Dad!” I smiled and opened the screen for him to come inside. He wasn't quite as big as Tyler or Lucas, but he filled the doorway. He let his dark hair grow out long in the last few years, and he grew a beard. I didn't think I would like it when my mom told me, but it suited him. Silver was beginning to sprinkle through his hair, and it jarred me for a second, thinking about my parents getting older.

“Hey, princess.” He smiled back and pulled me in for a hug. “You have no idea how much I have missed this.” He whispered into my hair. He pulled back, and I led him to the table. “Smells delicious.” He said, peeking around me to see what I had prepared. I always loved to cook. And he loved to sneak bites as I was cooking. As a teenager, I would often sneak into the packhouse kitchen and spend hours learning new things from the cooks and trying new recipes.

I went to the kitchen and pulled the tray from the oven with fresh rolls and popped them into a bowl I had waiting for them. “So, what’s new? How is Jackson doing?” I asked, moving the bowl to the table and heading back for the herb-roasted chicken and vegetables, his favorite. Jackson will be taking over for my dad soon, so he has been training with him a lot. I knew he had been giving Jackson a hard time, but I figured it was more that he was having a hard time letting go than the fact that Jackson wasn’t ready. My dad took him under his wing when his dad died when we were little so they were close.

“He's coming along,” he grumbled, tearing a roll in half and putting it in his mouth.

“Dad, I'm sure he will be great.” I laughed at him. He knew Jackson and Lucas had both trained most of their lives for this, and they would be fine.

“Yeah, I guess,” he shot back. “He’s a good pup.” I gave him a knowing look and put the tray of chicken and vegetables on the table. “So, have you seen Lucas yet?” he asked, trying to sound indifferent, but I knew better. He knew damn well I hadn’t seen him yet and was just looking for my feelings about it.

“I haven't. I will though. I need to. I know I need to,” I rushed out with a sigh. “It will be fine dad.” I tried to reassure him. It must be hard for him. He loves Lucas as if he were his own and to know there was tension between us was hard on him. From the very beginning, my dad asked me to give Lucas some space and always tried to encourage me to let him go. He would explain that my fated mate would find me when it was time and I would completely forget about my crush on Lucas. Sometimes it stung that he protected Lucas. It felt like he was choosing him over me. I knew it wasn't true, but in my darkest moments, I was angry with him for it.

“Have you met that she-wolf he is with?” He growled with a disgusted look on his face, even my dad hated her. There must be something wrong. I had kind of taken everything with a grain of salt, thinking people were trying to make me feel better. No matter how much my dad wanted me to feel better, he wouldn’t lie to me.

“I haven’t.” I sighed, plating the food for both of us. “Is she really that bad?” I asked, unsure if I really wanted to know. Either way, it wasn’t good. If she was as awful as people said, she wasn’t good for Lucas or the pack. But if she was actually a good mate, that was also going to be hard to accept. As much as I want to pretend that I am not still completely in love with him all this time later, that would be a lie. To see him happy with someone else will be hard, though I know it's something I will have to face eventually.

“She is,” he said with a grimace. “She's petty. She treats the omegas badly. She isn’t even very nice to the warriors and ranked wolves, to be honest. I don’t even think Lucas likes her much,” he added, taking a bite of his chicken. She's worse than I thought. I just don’t understand what Lucas would see in someone like that. I never would have imagined him choosing a mate like that. He will be alpha soon and to potentially have someone like that by his side could be really bad for the pack.

“She sounds awful.” I sighed, and a silence fell between us as he ate his food. I pretended to eat mine, but really just moved it around the plate as I got lost in thought. He said he wasn't sure Lucas liked her much, that came from somewhere. He had seen something or knew something more than he was saying. But why would Lucas be with someone he didn't love and see a future with? None of this made sense and I was already overthinking it.

“So, are you going to the gala next month?” He smiled at me, eyebrows raised in curiosity. The gala was held by several packs in the area so that we could meet up and the unmated wolves could possibly find their mates. I had only gone to one before I left for school. Kenzie had been raving about how fun they were. She has been to a few and even though she hasn’t met her mate, she has made friends and always enjoys herself. I promised her I would go with her, against my better judgment. But I know that it will make my dad happy to know that I'm going and putting myself out there.

“Kenzie and I are planning to go dress shopping this weekend, actually.” I smiled at him, knowing he would be excited.

“Good. I could use some grandpups in my old age.” He chuckled at me.

“Dad!” I laughed back and felt a blush in my cheeks from embarrassment.

“I just want to see you happy,” he defended.

“I know.” I smiled at him. My dad wasn’t made for retirement, he needed to stay busy and involved in the pack. I hope he can find something that will make him content. Something that keeps him off the front lines but feeling needed. Something that keeps him off of my case about pups.