The Alpha, The Rogue & The Beauty

Mates

Beth POV

I was woken up by a knocking on the door. I groaned and stretched. Confusion filled my sleepy brain. This isn't my room!

'Beth? Are you awake?' Connor's voice called through the door. The confusion dissipated as memories of yesterday filtered through. Of course, this is my room now because I am a werewolf and mated to Connor. A smile spread across my face at the thought.

'Beth?' Came Connor's voice through the door.

'Yes, I'm awake.' I called back.

'Good. Your mum wanted me to tell you that breakfast is nearly ready.' He told me.

'Okay, I will be down soon.' I replied and jumped out of bed. A thud beside me drew my attention. The book I was reading last night has fallen on the floor. I bent and picked it up, placing it back on the nightstand before heading into the bathroom.

After getting dressed in my school uniform, I headed downstairs and entered the kitchen to find my mum finishing off preparing breakfast.

'Morning mum.' I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

'Morning, sweety. Did you sleep well?' She asked.

'Yes, very. You?'

'Best night’s sleep ever. Those beds are so comfy.' She tells me as she places some toast on a serving plate.

'Can I help?' I ask.

'Just take some of the dishes through to the dining room, I will bring the others through in a minute. Thank you, sweetheart.' She instructs.

I pick up a plate of bacon and a plate of sausages and head through to the dining room. The table is all laid out, but instead of the normal four places, there are six places have been set. I place the plates in the middle of the table and turn to head back to the kitchen.

As I go to open the door, the smell of evergreen forest in rain washes over me and I pause to take a deep breath.

'Where do you think you’re going?' Connor asks, his voice husky.

I froze with my hand on the doorhandle as I heard him walking towards me. My heart thumps in my chest, my breathing speeds up as his luscious scent wraps around me.

His arms wrap around my waist from behind and pulls me back into his chest as he nuzzles into my neck, taking deep breathes.

'You smell heavenly.' He whispers in my ear as he sucks my earlobe into his mouth.

My hands grab onto his forearms, a moan escaping my lips as my head falls backwards onto his shoulder. 'Mmmmmm.....' is the only thing my brain can think to say, as he nibbles and caresses my neck with his lips.

'Connor, put her down!' Mrs Baines sighs behind us.

We both jumped, Connor quickly released his hold on me and stepped back. I almost lost my balance, but his hand on my back supported me until I could support myself once more. I felt heat in my cheeks and I quickly covered my face with my hands.

'Mum!' Connor exclaims behind me. 'You scared me.'

'Why don't you both come and sit down, Sarah will be through with the rest of the breakfast in a minute.' Mrs Baines instructs us.

Connor takes my hand and starts to pull me to the table, but I resist.

'I'll eat in the kitchen with mum.' I told him, pulling my hand from his grasp.

'Nonsense!' Mrs Baines tells me. 'You are both family now. You will join us at this table for meals from now on.'

'Okay.' I said, warily.

When Connor places his hand in my hand and pulls me to the table once more, I no longer resist. He pulls out a chair and gestures for me to sit, before pushing it under me and taking the seat next to me.

'A true gentleman! He gets that from me.' Mr Baines smiles at me across the table as he places two more platters on the table and then takes his seat at the head of the table opposite Mrs Baines.

Crystal waltzes into the room a moment later and plonks herself down on the seat next to her father and opposite me. When she looks up and notices me, she scowls.

My mum enters the room with the rest of the food and then takes the empty seat between Chrystal and Mrs Baines, prompting Crystal to look down her nose in disgust.

'What are the staff doing?' She asks, her disgust at the situation showing in her voice.

'Crystal!' Mrs Baines admonishes her. 'Beth and Sarah are family now and you will treat them as such.'

'Yes, mother.' Crystal responded, contritely, lowering her gaze to her plate in front of her.

'Well, this looks lovely Sarah.' Mr Baines says, trying to diffuse the tension caused by Crystal’s comments. 'Shall we eat?'

Platters were passed around the table and food loaded onto people's plates. Connor sneaked extra food onto my plate when I only took one of everything.

As we started eating, my thoughts went to the book I read last night before falling asleep. I had been reading about mates and something in the book confused me.

'Mr Baines, can I ask you a question about mates?' I asked after swallowing a piece of bacon.

'Please call me Patrick, but yes. Ask away.' Mr Baines replied.

'Umm... I was reading the book Connor gave me last night. The section on mates. It stated that only mated couples could produce offspring. But if that is the case, how did I come about?' I asked him.

'Good question.' Mr Baines said as he pondered his answer. 'There are two types of mate, fated and chosen. Fated mates don't have to mark one another to feel the mate bond, but chosen mates do. Your mother wasn’t marked, so I would have said that her and Leon were fated, but we know that isn't the case as Stacey is his fated mate. So, it must be something to do with the fact that Sarah is human.'

'But you don't know for certain?' I asked.

Mr Baines shakes his head, 'Not for certain, no. There aren't many cases of wolf-human pairings for us to find out.'

'Oh... okay. Thank you.' I said, returning to my breakfast.

I catch Connor looking at me quizzically out of the corner of my eye, but he stays silent just mouthing the word ‘later’ at me.

Connor POV

When we get to school, I drag Beth into the library. I led her into the restricted section.

'We aren't allowed in here. What if we get caught?' She whispers to me.

'Don't worry. This section isn't restricted to high-ranking members of the pack. We can be here. I just want to show you something,' I tell her, leading her deeper into the aisles of books.

Her head swivels as she looks at all the old books and tomes stored in this section. These books are ancient, and they all relate to the supernatural world, hence the restriction. My father will learn of our visit here because of the hidden biometric scanner located at the entrance, but as I am the next Alpha, no alarms will be triggered.

Stopping in front of one of the shelves, I take a specific book down and flick through its dusty pages. I read this book when I was thirteen and just learning about the mate bond. I wanted more information than the adults were telling me. I wanted detailed pictures, but I found this book instead.

'Here we go.' I said, arriving at the relevant page, I started reading. 'Werewolves being mated to other species is rare, but not unheard of. The most common of these is with humans. The human mate will not feel the effects of the mate bond except for overwhelming love. The mate bond for the wolf will also be muted. They will feel drawn to their mate but may not feel a desire to mark them.'

Beth reads the passage from the book over my shoulder. 'Do you think my parents were actually fated mates?' She asks. 'But what about Luna Stacey?'

I flick a few pages further on in the book and find another passage to read.

'It has been found that there are ways to mimic the bond between mates, either by coercion or by casting a spell or enchantment. If marked during an enchantment, the wolf is considered to have chosen its mate. Although if the enchanted wolf has a fated mate, this bond will not be severed.' I read aloud.

Beth starts to pace across the aisle, 'that makes sense. My dad said that he still loves my mum and that he tried to find her even after he marked Stacey. Do you think my dad was enchanted to choose Stacey?'

'I don't know.' I told her honestly, 'and if so, I don't know how we would prove it. But it does make sense as to why your mum got pregnant with you. If they were fated mates, she wouldn't need to have been marked. But as a chosen mate, Stacey would.'

'What can we do with this information?' She asks me. 'All this happened over eighteen years ago.'

I shrugged my shoulders, 'I don't know, but I thought you should know about this given your question this morning.'

'Thank you, Connor.' She said, kissing me lightly on the lips.

I'm about to return the kiss, but the school bell rings. Sighing, I place the book back in its place on the shelf and took Beth's hand in mine.

'Come on, we had better get to class.' I told her and led her back out of the library.