The Alpha King's Invitation

Chapter 15: The First Day At The Lodge

Raelynn’s POV

I woke up with arms around me and a content feeling. I knew this is where I was supposed to be, here with my mate. I laid there for a minute before there was a knock on the door.

“Alpha, Luna are you awake?”

“Go away, Nes.” Callan groaned behind me.

“I just wondered if you wanted breakfast brought up to you? And if you would be joining up on the slopes or if you would be accompanying the Luna to the hot springs?” He asked.

Callan groaned again and pulled me closer. “Wanna come with me or should we brave the time apart?”

I yawned and reached for Callan's phone that I'd left on my bedside table. I had a message.

Maya: Ray, You are the best friend a girl could ever ask for. Won’t be going to the hot springs. Let's do that tomorrow before we leave. I probably won’t be leaving my room today. Details later XOXO

I really had to get a new phone.

I was pretty sure I didn’t want details, just like I didn’t give her a play-by-play. I sighed, this was perfect. I wanted to try out snow sports anyway. “Have our food brought up and I’ll be coming with you to the slopes.” I called to Nes, “Will you tell Nia that the hot springs have been rain checked.”

“Of course Luna.” Nes said and I heard his footsteps walk away.

“How was that?” I asked, setting the phone down and rolling over to face Callan.

"Like a true Luna." He said, kissing my forehead. "And you're all mine."

I chuckled, "Yeah but now we face our first hurdle as a mated pair."

"What's that?"

"How to get out of bed without freezing our assets off." I said snuggling deeping into our warm bed.

"Oh…. You're right. Maybe one of us will just have to be the first one out and toss the other clothes."

I smiled, "Well the Alpha protects the pack."

He nuzzled me, "The Luna supports the Alpha."

I nodded, "And I do support you, I support you getting out of bed and tossing me my clothes."

He made a 'dang that hurt' face, I did burn him pretty good. "Don't you wanna have pups one day?"

I laughed, "It's not that cold."

He chuckled, "Alright, I concede." He pulled away from me and I whined at the loss of contact, "What?" He asked, turning to look at me.

"I didn't mean now." I mumbled, but he heard me.

He rolled back over and kissed me softly, "I'm not gonna answer the door naked to get our food, and I'm not letting you sit up in bed, naked, to eat it."

I could see the wisdom in that but I still didn't like it. "I don't know when I became so cuddly." I said into his chest.

He kissed my head then pulled back, ignoring my whines of complaint. He hissed at the cold but went to his bag and slipped on a new pair of boxers and pants.

I sat up a bit as he went over, pucked up my suitcase and opened it on the bed. "Everything should be organized." I said craning my neck to see. "Just pick something that's warm."

I didn't like the way his eyes lit up, well I did but I didn't like what they meant.

"So you're saying," he said slowly, "I get to pick what you wear?"

I felt my heart stop, "Callan. I'm not wearing whatever you're thinking about."

Callan’s POV

"Callan. I'm not wearing whatever you're thinking about." She warned.

I smirked, I'd spotted the Victoria Secret bag and I really wanted to know what she had in there. Undoubtedly it was for my eyes only. I'd been thinking of asking her to wear that for me, it was never too early.

"Pick something warm and sensible." She complained.

I sighed. Spoil all my fun, why don't you? I grabbed a pair of white lace underwear, a black long-sleeved v-neck and a pair of black skinny jeans. "Do you need a new bra?" I had no idea, I never got taught these things.

"No, I can wear the one from yesterday." She said.

I tossed her, her clothes and went to grab a shirt. It hadn't been that cold, I'll be honest but it had been a sting since it was so warm in bed. When I turned around she was holding her shirt and looking from me to the floor. I chuckled and walked over to grab her black bra from yesterday.

“Thank you.” She whispered and disappeared under the duvet.

She’s so cute.

“My hair is all messed up.” She grumbled, her voice muffled by the covers. “But I can just put it in a messy bun and it’ll be fine.”

“I like your hair down.” I said coming back to my side of the bed, “You should wear it down but just back since it’ll be cold.”

She reappeared, fully clothed and got out of bed. “I’ll just grab some socks and go to the bathroom then we can cuddle and eat breakfast.” She beamed.

I couldn’t help but smile back at her, “Sounds perfect.”

She grabbed a pair of socks and I got a glimpse down her shirt that made my c**k twitch. Not the time Callan, seriously. Then she skipped her way to the bathroom.

How was I going to concentrate on the slopes if this woman was going to tourcher me with her mere presence? Honestly I wasn’t expecting the mate bond to make me crave her this much, if we didn’t both enjoy s*x so much I’d suggest holding off on it for a while. With both our labeto that wasn’t going to happen though.

I heard the toilet flush a squeak and the faucet running. I grabbed a pair of socks and was pulling them on when the door opened and she stepped out smiling.

How did I get so lucky? Her gorgeous hair that was slightly wavy was pulled half up and it flowed to her waist which was accented by how skinny her skinny jeans were. I could see the perfect tone of her legs and there was cleavage showing with that v-neck.

I shook my head and willed myself to calm down. She was drop dead gorgeous and I’d love to be buried deep in her right now but there was other matters to attend to like breakfast.

Just then there was a knock at the door and Raelynn ran to the bed and dove under the covers. I chuckled and went to answer the door. It was Robbie with a tray of food for us. I nodded to him and took the food to the bed.

“That smells good.” She said poking her head out and taking a whiff.

“They have great food here.” I slid in beside her and took off one of the tops.

“Bacon, eggs, sausage, pancakes!” She squealed, with every word her voice rose.

I took off the second lid and there was one for me. We ate in silence, more because we were stuffing our faces rather than it just being weird. “So do you come here often?” She asked once she was done with her pancakes.

I shrugged, “I used to come here all the time before I became Alpha.” I loved those memories but they hurt when I thought about how things had changed.

“How about now? Now that your Alpha I mean.” She clarified.

I sighed and took a big bite, finishing my pancakes too. I didn’t really want to talk about it but it’s not like I could hide the sadness from her, she’d have to hear about it eventually.

“It’s ok.” She said, biting off a piece of bacon, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

I sighed again and started talking after I’d swallowed. “I used to have a family. Mother, father, a younger brother. My dad and mom managed the pack really well and they planned little vacations nearby so my dad could go back if he was needed. My dad’s Beta was really great so we didn’t often have to come home early.”

“My brother and I would play outside all day. My dad would sometimes have to come get up, kicking and screaming, from our igloo because we wanted to sleep in there.” I chuckled remembering, “But all my happy memories were kind of, tainted when my family got in a car accident. It was an ambush. Rogues had ran them off the road where they rolled and they dragged my mother and father from the car and murdered them right in front of each other. My brother was already dead from the accident.”

“Anyway when I got home from school that day I didn’t know that I’d become the youngest Alpha ever in my pack’s history to take up the mantle.”

“How old were you?” She asked, her eyes tearing up.

“Fourteen. I transferred to an online school and finished my education as fast as I could while taking care of a pack that I wasn’t sure I was ready for. But my dad’s Beta, his name was Bill, he taught me everything I know. But he told me that none of what he taught me matters if I don’t follow my gut and think about my pack first. Bill died while fighting to protect the boarder of the pack lands. He was Nesir’s adopted father. He and I took lessons from Bill together since he and I were kind of friends.”

“We just got each other and could work well together so I named Nes my Beta, a position that he took up gratefully at sixteen. He transferred to online school and we graduated together when we were seventeen.”

“So you were smart for kids your age.” She smiled, wiping the moisture from her eyes.

I scooted closer to her, “Hey, why are you crying?”

“I’m fine.” she said dismissively, “Just your parents reminded me of my own.”

I remembered when she asked to call her sister she said something about her sister being a biological fraternal twin. “Do you want to talk about them?”

She bit her lip, deliberating before she spoke, “Yeah. Well you’ll have to hear about it sometime. Better from me than blindsided by someone else.” She took a deep breath, “I was found by my grandmother in rogue territory. She brought me back and gave me to her daughter and son in law who already had three children. They had their fraternal twins Brett and Eve, and a child that they’d found mysteriously on their doorstep just a week earlier. My mom used to say that she’d always wanted four kids and that she fell in love with me at first sight. Even if the Luna had wanted to take me away, my mom would have fought for me.”

I tried to imagine the beautiful baby that she would have been.

“Anyway. They died when I was fourteen to a rogue attack. They didn’t attack them directly but during the fight mom was seriously injured and when the fight was over mom and dad were both dead. They were two of the three killed during the attack.” I saw her eyes tearing up again as she spoke and I wiped them away with my thumb.

“At least you had siblings.” I reminded her, trying to look on the bright side.

It made her laugh, “Yea and from that day on I was the overprotected baby of the family. Brett and Owen got twice as protective and Eve got kind of smothery.” She stuffed the rest of the bacon in her mouth.

“Perfect.” I said, taking a drink of orange juice from the tray, “Now we just have to live to see our kids fifteenth birthday and we’ll break the cycle.”

She smiled sadly and wiped the last of the moisture from her eyes. “Do you want more than one?”

I thought about it. “I have to have at least one for an heir but I’d really like my kid to have brothers and/or sisters to play with.”

She nodded, “I think four was a good number for my mom. She was a stay at home mom while dad was the Beta. I’m sure having kids while both the mom and the dad working is harder.”

I shrugged, “Mom didn’t seem to have a problem with the two of us. Depending on how much a Luna takes on, she can have as much or as little to do as possible. Mom used to say that a key part of being an effective leader was knowing when you had to do things yourself and when you needed to delegate.”

She nodded, “I’m gonna be honest, I’m super nervous about being a Luna and all the pressure that comes with that.” She leaned into me, “But as long as I have you by my side, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“I have to agree with that.” I said putting my arm around her.

Raelynn’s POV

I was dressed in this ridiculous one-piece red snowsuit with my feet hooked to a snowboard and everyone around me was pumped while I was not so sure I could do this.

“Don’t worry,” Nia nudged me, “It’s super fun.” Her snowboard had cherry blossoms on it while mine looked like tropical flowers.

“Do you want me to go first and show you?” Callan asked.

“No.” I said a little louder than I planned. “No I- I can do this.”

“Damn right you can.” Bobbie said encouragingly.

“I’ll go first to show you how it’s done.” Robbie volunteered without anyone asking. He hopped a few inches and started to go down and fast.

I bit my lip. It looks harder than I thought. They did have smaller hills but I wanted to go with everyone else who were going on the bigger hills. Now I know I should have just been the pretty girl waiting for her mate to get to the bottom. Then I could have been drinking hot cocoa and cheering him on safely from the bottom.

“Wanna go next?” Nes asked, “Or do you want me to push Bobbie down so you can see how not to do it.

“Hey!” Bobbie protested, and when Nes leaned over towards him Bobbie did a few hops and took off after his twin.

I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. I chanted in my head.

You can do this. You’ll be great. Callan encouraged me through our mind link.

“Me next.” I said, my voice shaking.

You can do this. Callan said again. You can do this.

I took a deep breath, hopped my way to the edge and took off.

I can’t do this. I screamed in my head as I tried to maneuver the board. I tried to do what the instructor told me and I tried to stop but I was going so fast that I flipped. I had my goggles on so my eyes were at least a little protected but I hit my jaw, arm and knee as I flipped over a few times before I righted myself a bit.

Instead of just flying down the hill on the board my leg didn’t do what I wanted it to so I ended up going into the trees instead of down the white snowy path that I was supposed to. I thought I heard my name being called as I tried to change trajectory and get back to the slope.

My efforts were all in vain when I felt my head connect with a hard surface.