What’s Left Of Me

Does it Matter?

Chapter Three: Does it Matter?

POV: Hazel

I woke up, warm. It’s not a cover, it’s hot…warm. It’s the kind of warmth that makes you want to sleep longer, it’s a comforting warmth. I snuggle closer into the warmth and take a deep breath. I smell something intoxicating. It’s an oak and fresh breeze type of smell. I love it. I move my hand towards the warmth and end up touching something, okay so rather someone. I open my eyes to see myself touching my mate's face, my hand is on his right cheek. 

He and I are cuddled up together in the same bed! I don’t even know his name yet and somehow I’m already cuddled in bed with him. I am panicking, then it hits me, I’ve been crying and I put make-up on yesterday. I try to wiggle my way out of his arms without waking him up, he mumbles something and pulls me closer.

Eventually, I manage to sneak away to the bathroom. I look into the mirror and no makeup? I’m confused did he clean the makeup from my face? Could this cold man have been so gentle that I would have not known him cleaning makeup from my face? 

So many questions are running through my head, I didn’t even realize him standing in the doorway. 

He has this amazing look on his face, I can see him in the reflection of the mirror. He moves to stand beside me. I look down then look back up quickly. I turn to him with my hand out and introduce myself, “Hazel Domain. Alpha.” 

He looks impressed almost. He takes my hand instead of shaking it, he kisses it. In his cute accent, he says, “ Eric Gambino. Luna” 

I give him a small smile and can help but lock eyes with him. Even though he is just touching my hand, it feels like tiny butterfly kisses from my wrist to the tips of my fingers. Everything in me is telling me to get closer to him, but I don’t know him. 

I pull away, to both of our displeasure. I put my hands together behind my back and walk back into the main room. Thinking about it, I’m not tired. I’m well-rested actually. Is this because my mate was by my side?

There is so much on my mind I can’t think straight. I sit down on the couch well aware that my mate is watching my every step. It’s like I can feel which part of my body he is looking at, right now it’s my legs. He sits down on the table in front of me so we both are face to face, yet again. 

He puts his hand under my chin and his thumb over my lip, he looks as if he is in a trance just by looking at me. It takes me a moment but I can tell he is arguing with his wolf about something. 

He finally lets about a sigh and says, “ I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I need to understand what happened to you and your family.” 

I knew this was coming, especially since he is an alpha, he needs to know what he is bringing into his pack. I put my head down recalling the events of the past two days, in all honesty, I slept through yesterday. I look him in the eyes and ask 

“Do I need to tell it to just you or does there need to be a meeting?”

He gives me a smirk and says,” Any normal wolf would have to sit down with My Beta and I, along with a few others but in this case, you are my mate so however, you are comfortable.”

After stating this, he gives my hand a supportive squeeze. I think it over for a moment, despite my discomfort with telling private affairs to strangers…It’s only fair. I could tell my mate word for word everything that has happened in the past few days, he will only hear the parts of where I almost got hurt and go from there. 

Telling more than one person who isn’t my mate they will hear and see the whole picture and maybe pick up on something that I may overlook about their kidnapping. 

I state my thoughts out loud and my mate said, “Not true, I promise to hear everything.” 

I stood up and got as close as I probably can and say, “Okay so should I skip to the part of being shot at?” 

All of a sudden he stood up and growled, “WHAT?” I raise my eyebrow and he is so close our noses are touching. 

I grab his arm and rub it back and forth, he eventually calms down. “Okay love, I see your point. I’ll set up the meeting before breakfast. 

You can shower or change whatever you’d like. Your clothes are in our closet. He and I are still standing close so I reach my arms around his neck and hug him. It takes him a minute but he relaxes into me. With his arms wrapped around me too, I didn’t want to let him go. I finally felt comfortable for the first time in a while. 

I finally pull away after a good five minutes, I kiss him on the cheek and thank him. After that, I walk into the closet without looking back. I feel it throughout my body, my wolf is getting attached to her mate. I grab some clothes and walk into the bathroom.

 After showering and drying my hair which it’s back to being curly, I put on my black high-waisted jeans and a white fitted tank top. I put on a cute white belt that has a buckle with two wolves on it, I

The buckle is small and classy not bulky. This belt has been passed down from woman to woman in my family. 

I grab my black ankle boots and put those on, with that and some light make-up… I’m ready for this meeting. I walk into the bathroom and see my mate already dressed in a white shirt and black jeans, if this wasn’t an accident of us almost match, I’d be weirded out. 

His hair is wet so I assume he we to a guest room to shower. I couldn’t help but giggle realizing he and I do match, completely accidentally of course. I guess my mate and I have almost the same style which is cool with me. When I giggled it gained his attention, he is looking me up and down. He gives me a genuine smile of approval.  

He walks up to me, takes my hand, and kisses it. He also makes the move by moving a piece of my hair behind my ear and says, “You are breathtaking.” Then closes it out by kissing me on the cheek. 

Still holding my hand, we go down the hall to an elevator and go to the first floor, many people are walking about on this floor but not on the one we were just on? Anyway, many people are stopping to shake my hand and welcome me to the pack, they are extremely excited to add the ’Luna’ part in there. 

I don’t know if I want to be a luna, but this place feels familiar. The bad part is this place already feels like home. My whole mindset was as soon as I find my parent go home back to my normal life. Now that I have a mate in the mix, things have changed. A lot. My body is wanting to be here with him. I don’t know what to do. My parents wanted me to stay and live here but I need to find them.

We stop and Eric looks at me with a concerned look on his face, and asks “ Are you okay?” 

I give him a small smile and say, “ I just would like to find my parents. The way everything happened gives me the feeling I’ll never see them again.” 

Eric didn’t say anything he just shook his head and we both continued walking until we reached his office. He already has me a chair right next to him, there is almost a seating area right in front of his desk so it’s easy to have many people here for a meeting at once. 

I am looking down playing with my hands when Eric puts one of his big hands over both of mine and says, “ Baby just tell us everything, and we will get to the bottom of this, though you were both and raised in New York. This is your home now, we are your family and we will stop at nothing to protect the family.” 

After that short statement from him, it sent butterflies through my stomach. Does he want to help me? Soon there was a knock on the door, we both stood up and Eric said, “Enter.” 

These come in a group of men, one of them had the biggest smile on his face, by the way, he walks he is the beta, “ Elijah, Beta.” 

He says as he is walking past my handshake and hugs me. I give him a small hug back that was until Eric started growling. Eric was ready to kill. OH, MY LIFE ITS JUST A HUG! WHAT DOES IT MATTER? Mate bonds are dumb, I can’t blame him though if it was the other way around I would growl too.