The Alpha who Loved Me

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

(Ava’ POV)

“This is so frustrating!” I all but screamed, causing Michelle to laugh.

“I know sweetie. It’ll get better I promise.” She told me as she maneuvered my right leg in all different positions making sure I didn’t get stiff.

“How do you know though?” I questioned.

“I just have faith in the Goddess that everything will be alright.”

It’s been a week since I came out of the coma, and I was still in the pack hospital. Rafe came to see me every day. I was still a little cautious whenever he was around, but he was gentle and kind to me whenever he was around. The Mate bond was still a little overwhelming, but I had agreed to give him a chance. So far, he hasn’t given me any reason that I should fear him which I was thankful for.

Michelle was always with me, when I had asked her if she didn’t have other patients she needed to be tending to she had brushed me off and said that they had another doctor on staff that could take care of things until I was better. I knew this was mainly because Rafe still didn’t want anyone to know I was here, which in all honesty I was thankful for. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to handle the attention that would come with being the Luna.

“Well, I think that’s all we need to do for today.” Michelle said as she set my leg back down on the bed.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing sweetie.” She paused. “So, I was planning on discharging you today.”

“Does Rafe know this?”

“He does, I would have discharged you earlier this week but Rafe asked me to wait a few more days.”

“Oh.” I said with a confused look on my face.

Michelle chuckled. “He will be here soon.”

And as if he had been summoned Rafe walked into the room. “Hello little one. Michelle.” He said.

“She’s ready to go whenever you are.” Michelle said to Rafe and he just nodded.

Looking at him I smiled. “Hi.”

He smiled back and I could tell he was happy that I greeted him.

“Are you ready to get out of this room?”

I nodded. “Absolutely.”

Together Rafe and Michelle helped me into the wheelchair by the bed and the three of us left the room.

“I’ll see you guys later today.” Michelle said as we got to the main part of the hospital.

“Okay.” I replied with a smile, then glanced up at Rafe. “Where are you taking me?”

“Well, first stop is your room. Then we can do whatever you want to do.”

I nodded and focused my attention on where we were going. The house was huge, as he wheeled me through the house, I got glimpses into each room we passed, so far I had seen a Library, a game room and the kitchen. As soon as we passed the kitchen my stomach growled loudly. I glanced back up at Rafe to see if he had heard and saw a small smile on his lips.

“Are you hungry little one?” he asked me.

“Yes, a little bit.” I replied.

Without saying anything else he turned me around and took me to the kitchen. Looking around the room I saw that it was a decent sized kitchen, it had a giant island in the middle that also had a breakfast bar attached to it. In the middle of the island was a large farm style sink. Behind the sink on the far wall was gorgeous six burner stove with a double over. I also noticed that above the stove there was a wall faucet to be able to fill the pots with water easier. I couldn’t wait till I could get my hands on it and cook something. I loved to cook. Taking my eyes off the stove I saw there were two fridges one close to where we had come in at and another just to the left of the stove. Rafe situated the wheelchair next to the table that was just at the other end of the island and asked, “What would you like to eat?”

“You know how to cook?”

With a smile he said. “I do.”

“Ummm… do you have any colorful noodles?” I asked.

“Let me see.” He walked through a door that was to the left of the fridge by the stove and walked back out a moment later. “Are these what you were referring to?” he asked bringing the box over to me.

I looked at it and smiled. “Yes, they are.”

“Okay, what else do you want?”

“Just those.”

He gave me a weird look but went and pulled out a pot filling it with water and placing it on a burner to bring to a boil. While we waited for the water to boil, he came back over to the table and sat down next to me.

I was kind of getting uncomfortable with the silence, so I asked, “Do you want to play twenty questions.” We had tired to do this the other day but were interrupted by him being called away to handle some pack issues.

He smiled and nodded. “Sure, you go first.”

“Okay. Do you have any siblings?”

“Yes, I have a sister.” He smiled like he knew something I didn’t which was probably true. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Purple. What’s yours?”

“Black.”

“You know black is a shade not a color right.”

“Your point.” He replied with a smile. “What’s your favorite flower?”

“Gerbera Daisies, especially if they are purple, but I love all of the colors. What’s your favorite food?”

“Chicken Alfredo. What’s yours?”

“I don’t have a favorite, I love food. But if I had to choose, I’d probably go with a nice juicy steak medium rare with a garlic herbed butter sauce grilled onions and frizzled onions.”

“That sound delicious.” He said as he got up to pour the noodles into the pot of water and then he came and sat back down. “If there was anywhere in the world that you could go where would it be?”

“I have always wanted to go to Disney world.” I said kind of shyly. It seemed stupid to be an “adult” and wanting to go to Disney World still. “Will I ever meet your family?”

“Well, you’ve already met my sister. And my parents are traveling at the moment.”

“But the only female I’ve met since I’ve been here is Michelle.”

He just nodded and I made an O face. “She never said anything.” I said quietly.

“She didn’t want you to feel even more overwhelmed than you already were.”

“Oh, okay.” I said and glanced away. “I think the noodles are done now.”

I watched as Rafe got up and turned off the burner taking the pot over to the sink he placed the lid on it and used the drainage spout that was built into it to drain the water from the noodles, “Now what, you can’t just want plain noodles.”

I giggled and shook my head. “No, I don’t, now you need to mix a stick of butter in with the noodles and when the butter is melted add some grated parmesan.”

 I watched as he moved effortlessly around the kitchen grabbing what he needed then adding everything into the pot mixing it as he went, when it was finished, he placed the food in to ceramic bowls and brought them over to the table. Grabbing the fork that he had set down next to the bowl I started to dig in, moaning slightly when the buttery cheesy goodness hit my tongue.

After taking a couple bites, and letting out little pleasurable sounds each time, I noticed that Rafe wasn’t eating. When I glanced up at him, I noticed that his eyes had completely turned black. “Ummm…. Rafe are you okay?” I asked with uncertainty in my voice.

He shook his head like he had been in a daze and blinked before saying, “Yes, I’m fine.” Picking up his fork and taking a bite of food. He looked over at me. “This actually isn’t bad. Where did you find this dish at?”

“Well, before everyone started treating me like I was scum. My mother used to make it for me. It was the only way that she could get me to eat vegetables when I was three.” I watched as a flash of emotions went through his eyes before they were back to looking at me with adoration.

“When did your family start beating you?”

I took a deep breath knowing that this question was going to back sooner or later, I just had hoped it would be later. “Well, when I turned four is when they started treating me as their slave and the beatings started when I was around six, they weren’t bad I’d get slapped or knocked over and kicked if I did something that I shouldn’t have or angered any of them. It wasn’t until I was around 8 that they started beating me with whips and restraining me.

I learned quickly that they were doing it to make me scream they liked hearing me in agony. So, if I stayed quiet, the beatings were usually short because they got bored. With that being said they would just come up with new ways to hear me scream. When my mother died something in my brother and my father snapped and they just beat me whenever they felt like it, it could be for something as simple as breathing to loud or breathing at all.” I stopped and took the last bite of my food.

When I glanced back up at Rafe, I could see the rage in his eyes. But I could also see the sympathy. “I’m sorry.” He said.

“Hey, it’s not your fault.” I replied trying to comfort him. “That’s in the past I really would like to look towards the future. If you hadn’t come when you did, I was going to run away after my first shift. I couldn’t take it anymore.”

He nodded his understanding. “Are you finished?” he asked.

“Yes.”

He stood up grabbing both our bowls and utensils and took them to the sink. “Aren’t you going to wash them?” I questioned as he walked back over to me.

“I’ll take care of it in a little bit I want to get you situated in your room.” He replied.

I just gave him a look, I didn’t like leaving things dirty, “Are you really going to come back for them or are you just leaving them for an Omega to take care of later?”

“I promise that I will come back and wash our dishes as soon as I get you settled in your room.”

“Good, I hate leaving messes.” I said as Rafe wheeled me out of the kitchen, just passed the kitchen I saw that there was a very large dining room, almost looked like a great hall, where I assumed the pack ate their meals. Across from the hall, as I called it in my head, there was a large living room and grand staircase. “How many floors are there in the house?”

“Including the basement and the main floor there are six. Our rooms are on the fourth floor. Matt’s are on the third, Darek and Michelle are on the second, and guest rooms are on the first floor.”

“Where do the warriors and teens stay?” I questioned. In most packs the warriors that weren’t mated staid at the packhouse same as the teens that reached the age of fifteen, that way they could either start their duties as an Omega or to begin training as a warrior.

“There are dorms at the back of the house that are connected to the hospital, if you go down the hallway we just came from when you get to the split instead of turning left towards the hospital you’ll go right. There are four floors in the dorms, the first two levels are for warriors that aren’t mated the third floor is the Omega’s quarters for those that choose to live at the packhouse and the fourth floor is for the teens that choose to live here as well.” He paused and pressed a button on the wall. I watched as the wall slid to the side and revealed an elevator. “This elevator is only accessible by the top three families.” He said as he pushed me inside and turned to enter a code on the keypad then pressed the button for the fourth floor. “I’ll set up a personal code for you within the next couple days, for now you can just use mine. We typically just use the stairs but obviously you can’t do that right now.”

“Okay, thank you.”

When we got to the fourth floor, he wheeled me out and pointed out which rooms were which to me. “This right here.” He pointed to the first door on my right. “This is my office. And this over here.” He pointed to the door to our left across from his office and said. “That will be your office.”

“I get an office?”

He chuckled. “Yes, the Luna needs an office just as much if not more so than the Alpha.”

I shifted a little bit in the chair, slightly uncomfortable with the prospect of one day being the Luna of this pack. I think Rafe could tell that I was slightly uncomfortable because he just kept pushing me down the hallway and said. “There’s no need to be nervous little one, I will be here to help you and so will Michelle and my mother.”

When we came to the next door, he told me it was currently a guest room for those who were close friends or visiting family members. Continuing down the hallway there were two more rooms that could be used as guest rooms, or whatever we wanted them to be. At the end of the hall there was a door to my right and one directly in front of me. “This room he said, gesturing to my right will be your room. The door in front of you is my room.”

I watched him as he opened the door to my right and wheeled the chair into the room. I let out a small gasp when I saw the room. It was bigger than I thought it would have been. To the left there was a door and Rafe said that led to the in-suite bathroom. To the right of that door was a tv mounted to the wall that looked to be around 75 inches. There was a small sitting area that had a sectional and a coffee table. Behind the small sitting area there was a large four poster bed with matching nightstands. On each nightstand there was a lap. Looking around I took in everything, from the beautiful bay windows at the far end of the room to the fact that the walls were a nice golden beige color with dark colored crown molding. “Rafe I love it.”

“I’m glad.” He pointed at the only other door in the room. “That leads to the walk-in closet. I had Michelle pick up some things that she thought you would like, but I can take you shopping again here in the next couple of days.”

“Okay that sounds good.” I glanced around the room again, and this time my eyes landed on my backpack, I didn’t know that it was here. “Is that mine?” I asked pointing at the backpack wanting to be sure.

“Yes, when I brought you here, I had the Luna pack you some clothes and she also grabbed the backpack.

“Will you bring it here, please.” I asked looking him in the eyes.

Not saying anything he walked over to the bag and picked it up bringing it over to me. When I had the bag in my hands, I immediately started tossing the clothes I had in there out on the floor searching for my journal at this point it was the only thing in there that I was worried about. “Where is it. Where is it. Where is it.”

“Ava, what are you looking for?” Rafe asked with a touch of concern laced in his voice, right as I said “Aha.” Pulling my journal out of the bag.

“This is what I was looking for.” I said answering his question. “I was worried that they had found it and had gotten rid of it.”

“What is it?” He asked.

“My journal. Ever since I’ve been able to write I have kept a journal to detail each beating, and the trigger.”

I noticed that he looked sad after hearing that. “Can I read it?”

I held the journal tightly to my chest, not sure on how to answer that question. I ended up saying what felt the most comfortable for me for the moment. “Maybe one day but not today. I don’t feel comfortable with that yet.”

“Okay little one.” He said. “Do you want to stay in here? Or would you like to go downstairs to the game room?”

“Will you be with me if we go to the game room?”

“Unfortunately, I have to take care of some business but I could join you in a couple of hours.”

I shook my head and said, “I’d rather stay in here then. I don’t want to go anywhere just yet without you.”

“Okay, let me help you over to the sofa so you can watch TV or whatever.” He said wheeling me over to the sofa and picking me up and placing me on the chaise lounge end of the sectional. “This remote controls the TV and the sound bar. There’s an Alexa dot right here, all you have to tell her is that you want to drop in on Rafe’s office or Michelle’s phone if you need to get a hold of either of us.”

“Okay thank you for everything.”

“You don’t need to thank me for anything little one I’m happy to do anything you want or need.” He replied kissing me on the forehead.

I watched him as he walked over to the door to leave and then a question popped into my head. “Rafe?”

He stopped just as he opened the door and turned his head to look at me. “Yes, little one.”

“Why aren’t we sharing a room? I thought that mates shared a room even when they just met.”

“Under normal situations yes, but with everything you have been through in your life to include the last few months, I wanted you to be able to have a sense of freedom and independence as well as be able to trust me before we moved in together. I don’t want to rush you.”

I got a big smile on my face from hearing this. Making me trust him just a little bit more.