When the Sky Comes Down

Chapter 16

[Alexia’s P.O.V.]

The next few weeks go by quickly. After Gregory did a second attempt to get to me in between classes, my friends decided to make the chaperoning even more extreme. The second time, Graham was there to intervene. Ever since, in between classes someone actually comes to get Ilion, Bellian and me. I tried to refuse, but they wouldn’t have it. My shoulder had to stay in the sling for four weeks. I tried taking it off sooner, but the pain was still too extreme. It was difficult with one arm in the painting class, but I managed.

‘I did it,’ Nicole comes and joins our table. We are having dinner, which consists of some strange stew. I don’t think I even want to know what’s in it.

‘You did?’ Keith sounds enthusiastic, more enthusiastic than I have seen him in the last few weeks.

‘I did, it’s arranged.’ I look at Nicole and take a bite. I want to ask, but at the same time, I am not sure if I should.

‘Did she tell you the good news?’ Harlen asks, as he comes and sits down next to me. Sometimes it is like nothing happened between us, as if I hadn’t kissed him and he never pushed me away. Sometimes he starts stuttering because he does something I don’t like and he notices that I don’t like it.

‘Okay,’ I say. I put down my cutlery. ‘I’ll bite.’ I lick my lips clean. ‘What has been arranged?’

Nicole grabs my hands from over the table. She knows my shoulder is still sensitive, so she is gentle.

‘We can go to our pack this weekend,’ she says.

‘Really? How great!’ I tell them. ‘I have been trying to get you to go for weeks!’ Ever since Gregory’s first attempt to get me over the weekend, I have been sleeping on Nicole’s couch over the weekends. They don’t want me to be alone anymore during the nights, so whenever Bellian and Freya are gone -which has been every weekend so far- I have to sleep elsewhere. We share her room, and bathroom. I am used to sharing, but she clearly is not.

‘No, no,’ she laughs. ‘We, you included.’ I look at her in surprise. ‘We wouldn’t just leave you. Harlen will keep an eye out on you while we are there and I will get to give Keith a tour.’

‘It was quite some work to get it done,’ Harlen tells me. ‘Keith they would let in, because he is a potential new member of the pack.’ He gently puts a string of hair behind my ear. He hasn’t done such a thing in quite a long time. It is a sweet gesture, but I don’t really know how to respond to it. ‘They were more difficult about you. We couldn’t leave you behind, so Nicole and I have been talking to the pack in the hopes that we could bring you along.’ He picks up his fork and knife. ‘Because we don’t know what you are, they gave us a hard time. We eventually managed to convince them to let you come too.’

‘I-‘ I don’t even know how to respond.

‘You will come Lexi,’ Keith tells me. He clearly doesn’t want to hear no.

‘Okay,’ I say. It isn’t as if I was planning on saying no. I want him to go there, if he needs me to go there too, solemnly in order to go, I will be there.

‘Good,’ Keith says. ‘Good.’

A few days later, on Friday night, we get together a weekend bag with all the necessities. ‘Good afternoon,’ the chauffeur says. Nicole arranged for us to get picked up. Apparently she is the daughter of the former alpha, sister of the current one. It explains why she has the right to have her own room.

‘Afternoon Richie,’ Harlen says. ‘This is Alexia, that there is her brother Keith.’

I give him a polite nod. ‘Good afternoon,’ Keith says. He shakes the man’s hand. ‘Thank you for coming to pick us up.’ The man seems pleasantly surprised.

‘It is my pleasure,’ he says, with a smile on his face. ‘Can I take your bags?’ Harlen is carrying mine. The moment he saw me carrying it, he took it. He said I shouldn’t carry a bag with my bad shoulder.

‘Thank you,’ Keith says, as he gives his bags to Richie. Harlen gives him mine and then holds open the car door. I climb in and find a place at the back. Harlen comes join me. Then Nicole and Keith climb in.

The ride takes about two hours. During the ride, I try to sketch some of the surroundings. I have never been here and I want to try to remember is. The wild firelillies, the whispering willows, the many lakes. Luckily I kept my sketchbook with me. Every now and then, Harlen interrupts by saying ‘Show me?’ I then quickly show him what I’ve drawn. He tries not to disturb me too much, but his staring is a little distracting now and then.

Eventually, the car slows down. I look out the window and see we’re nearing a huge wall, with giant, iron gates. It reminds me a little of the welcoming gates of school, but these are even bigger and the walls seem to go on endlessly.

‘It is to separate our territory,’ Harlen explains.

‘Oh,’ I frown. ‘I thought territories had natural boarders?’

‘They do, but we have a lot to protect, so many alphas ago, someone became eh-‘ He glances over at Nicole. ‘Paranoia,’ he whispers. ‘So he put up a wall.’

I can’t help but smile over his explanation. The gates open and we drive in. Everywhere I look is forest, nothing but forest. ‘It helps to give the sense of exploration,’ Harlen softly explains. I nod. ‘If we have time, I’ll guide you around.’

Nicole seems to overhear. ‘You can’t guide her around, Harlen.’ She looks at him. ‘You know that. We already had trouble allowing her in, don’t go stirring up trouble.’

Harlen mumbles something. We drive through a town, up to a large villa. ‘This is where you live?’ I ask.

‘Yeah,’ Nicole answers. ‘Me, my parents, brother, other close relatives, then the beta’s and their close relatives, the delta’s too. The others live in town. The gamma’s closest to their villa.’ I look at her blankly. She lost me after beta’s.

‘How many different ranks are there?’ I wonder.

Harlen seems to realise. ‘Well, the alpha’s are the leading family. There is one alpha, but his or her family are considered extended alphas too. They do not lead, but they get certain privileges and perform certain tasks.’ I nod. ‘Then the betas, are often two families, but it can be more, can be less,’ he continues. ‘They do supporting tasks for the alpha family, you can see them as managers, under the leader.’

‘Makes sense,’ I say. I look at him.

‘Then the deltas, let us just say they are department heads. They all have their own function and functions as buffer, as communicator.’ He thinks a little. ‘Then the sigmas, they are the advisors and are often rather old. They live in the town, so they can observe and give correct advice. The last group is the largest, which is the omega group. Some would consider them workers, but they have a much more important part in the pack. We would not function without them.’

The car comes to a stop. ‘We’re here,’ Nicole says excitedly. She jumps out and pulls Keith out behind her.

‘Ready?’ Harlen asks me.

‘Ready,’ I confirm.

[Harlen’s P.O.V.]

I could not be more excited to have Alexia here. My pack does not yet know about her being my mate. Lydia and Nicole are the only ones, but they both did not tell anyone. Her being here will help me to make my case. I will eventually need her to come here too. I want everyone to get to know her, so it will be easier to get them to accept her once she is mine.

‘This is the kitchen,’ I tell her. Keith and Nicole have taken off to explore the grounds, meaning I will have some time alone with Alexia. Fully alone. ‘Feel free to come in here any time to get something to eat if you are hungry.’ I lead her to the walk-in fridge. ‘We have lots of meat, but of course also other products.’ I show her around a little. ‘Pans, cutlery, plates,’ I say, as I open some cabins. ‘Are you hungry?’ I ask her.

‘Not really,’ she answers. ‘It is already late.’ She does look a little tired.

‘Do you want to go to bed?’ I ask.

‘Maybe just the guest room? So we can relax a little. We can continue the- Well Nicole says we’re not allowed to do a tour, so. I guess we can just continue this.’ All I can think about is the fact that she said we can relax in her room. We can go and relax in the guest room. I smile and nod. I automatically put my arm around her waist and pull her along. For a while I was careful around her, I did not dare to do anything that may upset her. Her anger eventually seemed to fade away and ever since I had been trying to get close to her again. Slowly, so she would not notice too much of it. I take her to the second floor. The northern wing is specifically meant for guests. We do not have them often, but there are still a few rooms made available to them.

‘Here we are,’ I say as I open the door to her room. Richie brought her belonging up here, drawing book included.

‘Who is that?’ Alexia asks, looking into her room.

I glance in. ‘Gina!’ I shout. She is laying on Alexia’s bed, feet up in the air, going through the drawing book. ‘Boundries,’ I sneer, as I walk up to her. I close the drawing book.

‘Hey!’ Gina says, annoyed. I pull her off the bed.

‘You cannot just walk into the room of a guest and go through her stuff,’ I growl. Alexia just stands next to the doorway and watches me pull Gina out.

‘Nice to meet you,’ Gina says to Alexia in passing. I growl again, push her into the hallway and close the door.

For a moment I just stand there. I clear my throat and look at Alexia. ‘I am so sorry about that,’ I tell her. She does not seem particularly bothered about it. ‘Gina has boundary problems.’ I look at her lips. She is biting her lower lip again. ‘Is everything okay? Something wrong with the room?’ I look around the room. She has a queen-sized bed, a couch, tv, one of the walls is covered with bookshelves, she has a desk and a closet. The room even has it’s own bathroom. I look back at Alexia.

‘Everything is alright,’ she says. She is looking at the bed.

I feel the urge to throw her on it and kiss her, make love to her. I push the thought out, but it consistently comes back. I should really ask Keith for advice, but he cannot know I am mated with Alexia.

‘Eh- How- How about we sit down?’ I say. She nods and walks to the couch. I follow. We settle in and make ourselves comfortable. ‘We have a lot of books,’ I say and point to the shelves. ‘You can read them. If you have yet to finish it, you can take it along. Later on you can return it by giving it to Nicole, me or even Lydia.’ I tell her, trying to make conversation.

‘Harlen?’ I look at her. Her beautiful green eyes, her kissable lips. ‘You’re rattling.’

‘I am?’ I mumble, staring at her lips.

‘You are,’ she says. She bites her lower lip again. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Huh?’ I ask.

‘You made a noise.’

I frown. ‘Did I?’ I had not even realised, nor heard.

‘Yeah, it sounded like a growl.’ Well that is not good. We are not yet at the point where I can just spring this on her. I cannot just tell her what she does to me.

‘Sorry,’ I say. ‘I was in thought.’ I see her book on the bed. ‘Can you show me some of your work?’ I ask, pointing at it.

‘Of course,’ she tells me. She gets up, walks to the bed and bends over. I clearly did not think this through, I realise, as I am staring at her perfect little butt. I fight my instinct as much as I can, but I feel myself standing up and making my way to her. I am already right by her side when she gets up. ‘You’re doing it again,’ she tells me, she stares at my eyes.

I swallow away the build up saliva. Do not rip her clothes off. Do not rip her clothes off. Thankfully, she is only looking at my eyes, because I am certain I have an erection.

‘Harlen?’ she whispers. Oh I love it when she says my name. I move a little closer.

‘Say that again,’ I ask her. I take her cheek in my hand and gently rub my thumb over her cheekbone. Her mouth opens a little. She lets out a little squeak. I am about to moan, but she suddenly pulls away.

‘This isn’t funny,’ she whispers. She looks at the floor. ‘I want you to go.’

I see tears streaming down her face and my arousement disappears, making place for worry and sadness. ‘Alexia,’ I say. ‘I- I did not mean to-‘

‘Please leave,’ she says. Rubbing away a tear. She is clearly thinking I was trying to make a fool out of her. Maybe she thinks I was just planning on kissing her and then pushing her away. I ruined it, again. ‘Leave,’ she cries. My instinct keeps on telling me not to, to stay, to kiss her, to hold her. ‘Harlen!’

I pull towards me and hold her tight. ‘I am sorry. Sorry,’ I tell her. ‘I did not want to upset you.’ I wanted to kiss you. Kiss her. ‘I was not trying to be funny. I was not trying to play a joke on you or bully you.’ She mummers something. ‘It is my instinct,’ I finally admit. ‘You trigger it.’

She pushes against my chest to create a little distance. I want to pull her closer again, but doing that, would make it all worse. ‘I trigger your instinct?’ She looks up at me. There is still a lost tear in the corner of her eye.

‘You do.’ I have to admit, telling her this little piece of information makes me feel so much lighter. I have not even told her everything. ‘You do.’

She lies her head down against my chest and just stays there. She does not make a comment about my erection, or about the fact that I am sniffing her hair a little. I have no idea what is going on in her mind, but for now, simply holding her is all I need.