The Alpha and Her Secret Mate

A Story

Alisha leans back against James in such a comforting gesture, and I have to force myself not to even look at Alex. I’m sure I’ll give us away.

“Things were amazing back then, before you arrived,” Alisha said.

“Oh, but don’t take it too personally!” James interrupts her. “We had just met and everything was amazing.”

“Like a little bubble of love,” Alisha says, smiling up at James. She belatedly remembers Alex and shoots him an apologetic look. He just waves her off, without looking up from his phone.

Discovering that James was her mate was the reason Alisha had broken up with Alex. Even though they knew they weren’t mates, he took it really hard, and was still sensitive to it when I met him.

“You’ll find her,” Alisha said quietly, for Alex alone.

Alex scoffed at her. “Don’t worry about me!” he said with a casual laugh. I can see him clenching his jaw, straining with the urge to see me, to touch me. When Alisha watches him with a worried expression, he says, “Seriously! I’m happy for you. Knock it off!”

“Okay, okay,” she says. She inches away from James just a touch, as if she doesn’t want to rub it in.

When her focus shifts from Alex, I stretch out my foot from my perch on a stack of blankets. I move slowly towards Alex’s spot on the floor until my knee is just barely touching his shoulder.

“I didn’t notice things were getting bad at first,” James admits, blushing with embarrassment.

“I did!” Alisha says.

“I know, you’re brilliant and beautiful and amazing, and I should never have doubted you.” He nuzzles the top of her head, pulling her back closer to hold her tight.

I’m surprised to feel Alex’s fingers crawling across the back of my shin. It’s a gentle, comforting touch, and I suppress a sigh. He raises his eyebrows at me in a question, and I nod my consent. He repositions himself so he can take notes with one hand and trace patterns against my leg with the other. He’s so subtle, our friends don’t seem to notice, but at this point, I’m not even sure I’d care.

“Anyways,” Alisha says, playfully pushing James’ face away from her. “I noticed that the pack dynamics were getting a bit more…cruel? Before Anna came back, Al was pretty uninvolved and just let the back run itself for the most part.” She grimaces. “Then he started having all these big ideas. He let the pack get hyped about it, and it was a bit too exciting to really slow down and think about what we were doing until it was too late to undo it.”

“How soon did my mom start coming around your old pack?” I ask, more out of curiosity than anything else.

“Umm…I don’t remember exactly when we started seeing Anna around,” Alisha says, fidgeting uncomfortably. “There was a lot of talk at the time of Al being an unfit Alpha because he was unmated…”

“You won’t offend me by answering honestly,” I reassure her. “You didn’t make them terrible parents, you’re just passing on the message.”

“Well they didn’t seem that bad at first. I mean, honestly, everyone was just so relieved that we had a Luna, we barely thought about all the changes coming to the pack. Al hosted all of those recruitment meetings–”

“I went to one,” Alex admits.

“Like a dummy,” Alisha teases him.

“I snuck into a meeting too,” I tell her. “Alan’s speech was…unsettling to say the least.”

“How did you manage that?” Alisha asks me in awe.

I shrug, “Alan can’t sense me the way most wolves can, or at least he couldn’t before I shifted.” I don’t admit that I suspect that his vision is failing and he’s relying too heavily on wolf senses. Either way, it’s served me well. “Plus Alex saved me when I was almost recognized.”

I can tell he’s blushing at the memory of how he saved me by hiding in a back hallway and kissing me until the coast was clear.

“Alan’s rhetoric was very…culty,” I say.

“YES! That’s exactly how I’d describe it!” Alisha agrees.

“And the rhetoric benefited me, so it was really easy to buy into,” James admits sheepishly.

“Not, just you,” Alex says. “I almost switched packs, and I could tell how much he was favoring men.”

“But you have an excuse!” Alisha insists. “You were heartbroken!”

I nudge Alex’s shoulder with my knee. “You were all heartbroken over me? Awww…”

“I know!” he says, leaning his head back on my thigh to look up into my eye. “Such a dumb mistake.” He grins playfully, and I tap his nose with my pointer finger.

“Glad to see you’re not still pining after people who aren’t your mate, Alex,” Alisha says, kicking his foot jokingly.

“See, I’ve grown as a wolf!”

James ignores their joke to continue the story. “I didn’t fully realize how bad things were until the day I couldn’t find Alisha.”

Alisha’s expression gets dark at this. “James was out on a patrol. I didn’t realize until later that the only warriors scheduled were men. The women were scheduled to meet in the house for a meeting. None of us realized it was all of us until we were already there. They told us we couldn’t be warriors anymore because the work wasn’t suited to us, and that we’d have to find another way to contribute to the pack. I…I can’t cook, and I hate cleaning. I’m a warrior, I’m strong and I trained for this. This is my life!”

She buries her face in her hands, and I’m worried she’s crying.

James rubs a flat palm on her back and finishes the story for her. “When I got back from patrol, I could sense her, but I couldn’t find her. The elders took the women into the depths of the pack house. Underground. The Bassette House is a lot different from this one. Much more baroque. Less welcoming. There’s a lot of space tunneling below the surface. They took the women there.”

“I don’t know what they were going to do with us. One of the Senior Warriors refused to go. Lucy tried to just leave and they attacked. They killed her.” Alisha’s gaze is focused on the ground in front of her. “They had us locked in a room together, but they were getting ready to move us. In the confusion, I saw an opening and I took it and ran. One of the men attacked me, but I shook him off and came here to you.” She looks up at me at this, and I kneel down to hug her.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” I whisper to her.

She pulls away and wipes her eyes with the heel of her palm.

Even though Alex and I have heard this story in bits and pieces, we’re both shocked to silence by the weight of it. When I sit back down, I settle on the floor by Alex, inching closer so our legs are flush against each other.

“I know you gave her a blocker when she got here, and I panicked trying to find her,” James continues. “When I asked about her, the Warrior lead just blew me off. The elders told me not to worry about it. That she’s just a fickle woman and she’d need to come home to her mate soon enough. Then I could “teach her a lesson about leaving me.”” He shudders. “So I left during a patrol to start looking for her. I actually went to several human hospitals before I made it here. I couldn’t believe that she’d come here of all places, but the longer I searched, and the more scared I became for Alisha…I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. The pack is a nightmare right now. I thought I just wanted somewhere that I could be safe and be with Alisha, but I need to be somewhere that my mate is respected.” He puts his hand on Alisha’s shoulder, and she takes his hand in hers and squeezes. She rests her cheek on his hand, and I feel embarrassed watching the love pass between them.

It’s not until I look away that I realize Alex is giving me the same look. My heart feels full, and I reach out to kiss him, unthinking. I register the panic in his eyes only a moment before he stands up, leaving me alone with my affection.

“I think I have everything we need. Layla, do you still need me? For notes?”

“Oh, um, no that’s fine.”

“Alisha, James it was nice talking to you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He starts to leave, but I quickly turn back to Alisha. “So I’ll talk to Penny about having you join the warriors. There will be a vote at the next full moon to have you join the pack in full.”

“And these?” Alisha asks, holding up her wrist to show me the blocker cuff that cuts her off from the mindlink.

I balk for a moment, but Alex stops by the door. “You could have them swear loyalty to you.”

“What? Not to the pack?”

“There’s an old shifter lore to swear loyalty, but it doesn’t work with the pack in general, you have to specify a wolf.”

I look to Alisha, and she and James seem receptive to it.

“Okay, how does it work?” I ask.

“Well you’ll all say the words in the old language, and shift to finalize it.”

“Do you know the words? What language is it?”

Alex leans against the door. “I memorized the words after I read about it, but the book wasn’t clear about what language it was. I didn’t recognize it, at least.”

I shrug. “Okay. Go ahead and take off the blockers.”

Alisha and James take off the bracelets and drop them on the floor, relief washing over them both. I smile, sensing them for the first time in weeks. They get fidgety at the wolf sense rushing back, but we all turn to Alex to let him give us the words.

He says something that sounds like nonsense, but must be important, and we repeat after him, mimicking the syllables he says. It feels goofy at first, but when we get to the end, he signals for us to shift. It feels more natural every time I do it, but my wolf form still makes me feel awkward and clumsy.

When our paws hit the wooden floorboards, a burst of yellow light sparks out between us and dissipates into the room. Whatever it was Alex found, I can feel the power now as it binds us.