You're Not My Mate

Cooling Down

Aurelia POV

I wake up feeling slightly hotter than normal, but not as hot as the last 3 days. I lean over and my hand crashes against Liam to my surprise. I must have woken up before training. I lean over to my bedside table and check my phone. 4AM. He’ll be waking up soon. I turn back and snuggle myself close to him, and I carefully stroke the lines on his face. He had taken the recent events harder than I had. As I stroke over his lips I can feel them move as he lightly kisses my fingers.

His eyes flash open, swirling brown. “Good morning.” I grin at him. His face instantly relaxes as he smiles back at me “Morning my sweet baby. How are you up so early?” “I missed you.” I say sweetly, batting my eyelashes at him. He laughs and sniffs the air. “Still in heat?” I scowl, nodding my head. “Hmm. Maybe I can skip training.” “Oh babe, you can’t miss it. BUT, I think we have time before you go.” He narrows his eyes suspiciously at me as I push myself closer to him, smiling at him and biting my lower lip. 

Liam POV

“Nice of you to join us Alpha.” s**t. Of course Antonio, our pack trainer, caught me getting to training late. I thought I’d managed to sneak in, but he’s like his very own f*****g security camera. 

“Any reason you’re late, Alpha?”

“Piss off Cruz.”

“Oh I’m just asking because I’m pretty sure you smell a little different.”

“I’ll put you on your ass in a minute.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I turn to glare at Cruz. “Alpha, thank you for volunteering.” I turn back to Antonio who’s now smirking at me. “Today we are working on what to do when we’re outnumbered. We have to assume that not everyone will play fair. Cruz and Marcus, you’ll be taking on our Alpha to start.” Great. Thanks for that, Antonio. As Alpha, sure I could make him change his mind. But, what type of leader does that make me? We all know in the field I’ll be the main target.

“Hope your reason for being late was worth it, Alpha.”

“Oh it was Cruz, it was.”

And then I brace myself for the onslaught that I knew was coming my way. I was almost a foot taller than Marcus, and about half a foot taller than Cruz. But that was little advantage when I had 2 of them to contend with, and height could mean nothing if you fight against your opponents weaknesses. “We will start in human form. GO!” Shouts Antonio. I take a deep breath and brace myself as they both charge towards me. 

Cruz reaches me first, lunging at me with both hands, I duck and launch him over my shoulder, and then get thrown backwards as Marcus connects with my body. Marcus swings for my head, I slide right to grab him as Cruz connects with my head from behind. f***s sake. No matter which way I go, I’m getting creamed. “STOP!” Screams Antonio. I’ve never been so glad to hear his voice. 

“Alright, let’s evaluate. The main issue here is you’re fighting two wolves, separately Alpha.” I shake my head frustrated. “Yeah?” “Yes. Stop thinking of them as two separate fighters. Use them against each other. Play them against each other. They’re pawns in your game.” I nod. “Let’s go again. Once more and then we’ll shift.” I groan and get ready.

Aurelia POV

“What to wear?” I sigh to myself, looking around my closet. The warm bath had helped me to soothe all my muscles out and I was feeling much better after almost surviving my first heat. I grab a navy and white spotty sundress. It’s a nice summer one that doesn’t need a bra, which makes it more comfortable to wear in this weather. 

I head downstairs and I’m surprised to see Liam’s parents sat out the garden. “Here you go, Luna.” Jordan passes me a blueberry muffin. “I just baked it fresh for you.” He winks at me. “Oh Jordan, you are wonderful! Thank you so much.” He nods and goes back to the kitchen. I walk out into the garden. “Hey Mr and Mrs Kustoff. How are you both?” They both smile warmly at me as I sit down on the table with them. “Aurelia, honestly, call us Isabella and Alexander.” Her eyes sparkle with kindness. She must have been an amazing Luna.

I nod to them as I take a bite into my muffin. “How are you settling, dear?” She asks. “Really good thanks. Everyone is so kind here.” She smiles. “I’ve heard many glowing reports about the Luna.” I blush. “Really?” “Oh yes, it seems you’ve won over the men too.” Alexander adds. I chuckle. “I doubt it.” “Oh no dear, you have. I think you’ve helped mellow out Liam too. It’s always been my dream to see him this happy.” Isabelle says, smiling sweetly at me. I nod, and can feel my cheeks flush red. “He makes me really happy too. I’m lucky to have him.” She leans over and puts her hand on mine. “I’m his mother and trust me, he’s lucky to have you.” She winks. “Oh here they come.” Alexander interrupts nodding behind me.

I turn around and drop my muffin when I see the state of them. I stand up slowly trying to keep control, but I can feel the anger trying to burst out of me. Crimson is furious, and growling angrily. “MATE IS HURT.” She growls. “WHAT IS THIS?” I demand as Liam, Cruz, Marcus and Antonio walk towards me. Antonio tries to cut away. “ANTONIO GET HERE NOW.” He nods, his eyes bulging and walks back towards me. I put my hands on my hips and I can feel my lip curling with anger.

All three men are drenched in blood. They’re full of cuts, bruises and look a mess. “I don’t know how one of you hasn’t lost an eyeball or broken a bone!” I snarl. “We just-” I glare at Cruz, daring him to carry on. “Sorry, Luna.” Marcus says, beetroot red. “Thank you, Marcus. Go and clean up.” The other 3 job their jaws and I can see Marcus smirk as he disappears. “WHO allowed this?” Cruz and Marcus both point at Antonio and duck down as I turn to him. “Antonio, you better have a good reason for my men looking like this.” “Luna, I felt it was important for us to work on being outnumbered..” I glare at him until he stops talking. “Sorry, Luna. Won’t happen again.” “Less. Injuries. At least on their faces.” I snarl. Antonio nods, apologising again and disappears inside.

Cruz looks like he’s about to cry, and Liam is avoiding all eye contact. “Go and shower, the pair of you.” I shake my head at the pair of them, and bend down to scoop up my muffin. I turn around and see Isabella with tears in her eyes. Oh no. I overdid it. “You were awesome!” Alexander beams, clapping, with Isabella nodding next to him. I burst out laughing and they both join in. “I think Antonio almost had his own pup.” Alexander chides. We all end up laughing again. “I guess I better go and see how he is.” I groan. “Are you both back for good now?” I ask hopeful. Isabelle shakes her head. “We’ll be gone again this evening, just passing through.” I laugh but envy them too. They seem to be having the time of their lives.

I give them both a quick hug and as I’m walking away Isabella calls me. “Aurelia, darling, how is your mom and family holding up?” I go to reply and then pause slightly. I hadn’t spoken to anyone for a week. How did I not realise that? I try and compose myself quickly. “They’re good, just really busy right now.” I nod, smiling, and then wave them off and head inside. How did I not notice that I hadn’t heard from home for a week? I used to talk to Junus everyday, and now I can’t remember when I spoke to him last. What’s going on? I head inside and throw the rest of my muffin away, suddenly losing my appetite.

I walk into the bedroom still confused at how I’ve missed the radio silence from home and see Liam has already had a shower and he’s stood in just a towel wrapped around his waist. He looks better now for sure and I have to stop myself from licking my lips. He smiles nervously at me, making me smile. A lot of his cuts have started to heal already, and his bruises. 

He comes over to sit on the bed with me as I hold his face in my hand and run my thumb along his jawline. “Babe, please don’t get injuries like that again. I don’t like seeing you hurt.” I pout, kissing each of his cuts and bruises that I can see on his face. His brows furrow together. “Baby, it’s just training. They’ll heal soon, I promise.” I sigh. “But why does training mean you have to hurt each other like this?” “It has to be real, baby. We need to be strong and expect anything.” I sigh and lean my head into his neck, kissing my mark.

He wraps his arms around me and draws circles in my back. “Are you still mad?” I laugh, but shake my head. “No, I just don’t like seeing you all hurt. Antonio takes it too far.” He chuckles. “Yeah, but he keeps us in good shape.” I nod but stay silent. After a few minutes he pulls me onto his lap. “What’s wrong, baby? I’m healing now, you know that. I’ll be fine.” He kisses my forehead gently and wraps me tight in his arms. “It’s not that. I was just talking to your parents and I realised, I haven’t heard from any of my family for a week now.” He runs his thumb between my furrowed eyebrows, gently soothing the crease that had formed there.

“Ok, so, let’s FaceTime them now.” I turn to him and smile. He always has a way of making my problems seem to have such simple solutions. He lays me down onto the bed on my stomach, quickly puts on a shirt and some shorts and lays next to me. I hit Lucia and FaceTime her. It rings and rings.. And rings. No answer. “Huh” is all I can say. She never misses my calls. I click Dominik next to see if she’s with him. Same thing. I hit Junus. Same thing. Caesar. My mother. Arabella. Even Felix. “What is going on?” I ask, becoming increasingly worried now. “Why is everyone ignoring me? Are they hurt?” I ask, panicking. “Shh, shh. Hang on, we’ll figure this out.” Liam says softly, trying to calm me down. “Liam, what if something’s happened?” He rubs my back. “Baby, we’ll find out. Come on, let’s try again.” 

I sigh. I know one person who won’t ignore me forever. Felix. Felix has always felt the need to protect me. I ring over and over. No answer. After the 6th call I send him a message. “Felix, I need you now. Something’s happened. I’m in trouble.” Liam raises his eyebrows at me. “Really?” I nod. “If he thinks I’m in trouble and he can call, he will. 30 seconds later the phone rings. I raise my eyebrow back at Liam who holds his hands up in defence. I put him on speaker. “Oh, so you are all alive?” I demand, furious. “Sorry, sis. I was in a meeting I couldn’t get out of. Are you ok? What’s happened? Where’s Liam?” “Nothing has happened. I just needed to make sure that my entire family hasn’t been murdered. Where the hell have you all been?”

I can hear him take a sharp breath on the other side of the phone. “Felix, just spit it out.” “It’s nothing major. We’ve had some trouble with wolves in our pack fighting between each other. We’ve all been hands-on deck but it’s pretty much resolved now. Sorry sis, it was just an argument that turned nasty and more wolves got involved. How are you anyway? How’s Liam?” I shrug, maybe it was just a fight. I know full well how ugly those can get. I chat away explaining how I survived my first heat, but he doesn’t seem as engrossed in the conversation like he normally is.

“Sorry, I have to go sis. But it was lovely catching up. I’ll give you a call this week, I promise.” “You better had. Bye Felix. Love ya.” He makes kissing noises through the phone, making me chuckle as I hang up. “There you go see, all OK baby.” Liam says, pulling me close to him. I breathe in his beautiful scent and smile. “How are you feeling, sweet baby?” “Cooling down, finally.” “From your anger? Or heat?” I laugh and play hit his shoulder. “Both.” He flashes me a wicked grin and rolls me onto my back. He climbs on top of me, resting his weight on his elbows and knees as he gently kisses my lips. 

“I love you, sweet baby.” I wrap my arms around his head. “I love you too. Just don’t get injured again. Your face is too perfect to be covered in blood, cuts and bruises.” He laughs gently, and rubs his nose against mine. “Really, that was your fault. Antonio picked on me for being late to training.” I clamp my lips together trying to stop from smiling. “I’m sorry, babe. No more early morning fun.” He shakes his head, “I will take an ass beating everyday if it means spending more time with my beautiful mate.” I look into his gentle brown eyes and stroke his face. He’s so gentle and loving with me, I just can’t imagine him fighting. 

“You better go see your parents, they’re leaving tonight.” “Again? Where are they off to this time?” I shrug, I hadn’t even thought to ask. He sits up, and pulls me on his lap again. I smile as I lean against his chest and listen to his heartbeat. “You know, if I haven’t put a pup inside you yet, I’ll punch myself in the face.” I laugh. The thought of being pregnant was a curious one for me. I wanted so many children with Liam. But it scared me that I could have one this year. Especially when I hadn’t even thought about it yet. Was I ready to be a mother? Could I be a mother? What type of mother would I be? I knew one thing for certain though.. Liam would be an amazing father. Much better than my father was with me.

Liam POV

I can see her thinking, and I don’t know what about. “You don’t want a pup?” She turns to me and wraps her arms around my neck. “I want lots of pups with you. Lots. And. Lots.” She says, between kissing her mark on my neck. I close my eyes and revel in her touch. Her beautiful soft lips. She’s exquisite. “Come on, you need to go see them. Let’s go.” I groan as she pulls herself off me. I want nothing more than to just hold her all day long.

Training was tough. But, I knew it was important. Antonio was absolutely right. If we were to ever get attacked, the opponents will always try and go for me or my mate first. Take down the Alpha, and you get the pack. I have to be able to fend off more than one attacker. Antonio had requested for Aurelia to start training but I couldn’t face it. I couldn’t see my sweet baby girl fighting. Imagine if she got hurt? I’d kill anyone who left a single mark on her, training or not. And then I chuckle to myself as I remember how s**t scared of her we all were this morning after training.

“What are you laughing at?” Her sweet voice pulls me from my thoughts. “Oh, just how my mate managed to scare 4 fully grown men earlier.” She smiles smugly at me and pulls me along out of the house and into the garden where my parents are sat enjoying the sun. I sit back for a while and watch how she interacts with my parents. She has an amazing way with them, as she does with everyone.

“She’s a wonderful woman, son. I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks dad. I don’t know what I did to deserve her.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit. See the happiness radiating from her? That is from you.”

I nod and smile at him. My father has always been someone to know the best thing to say, what you need to hear and how to encourage you. It’s why people would so often go to him and ask for advice. My father’s always been a lifter. When he was Alpha, he would never speak down to anyone, go over their mistakes or scold. He would just show you a way to learn from mistakes, how you can grow from them, what to do next. He was an amazing Alpha, and it’s nerve racking following him.

“So, when are you putting a ring on it?”

I swivel my head to look at him, surprised. He just c***s his head slightly and smirks.

“I.. Don’t know. I guess I hadn’t thought about that?”

“I think she - and her family - could really do with something positive and full of love to happen. And I think it would be nice for you to call each other husband and wife, rather than mate.”

“I absolutely want her to be my wife. But, is it too soon?”

“Never too soon, son. We don’t know what tomorrow may hold.”

I nod, thoughtfully. “Well, I’m really sorry both, we have to be heading off. It was lovely to see you both. Take care.” I nod at my father and pull my mother into a hug. Aurelia jumps up, hugging them both and we wave them off as they walk around to the front of the house. “Your parents are so lovely.” I turn to look at her, but her eyes are following my parents. I usually wonder what she’s thinking but right now I have a pretty good idea. I know how lucky I am to have amazing parents. And I know a part of her must hurt knowing what she could have had.