The Alpha’s Only Daughter

Chapter 14

Layla’s POV

Over time, I was sure that my s****l encounters with Zane would become less strange and lust-filled. I was hoping that someday it would be due to love.

For some reason, I was under the impression that love was involved in the Goddess’s decision, but I hadn’t felt it with Zane yet.

Was I supposed to feel it right away? Or was this just new territory seeing as I had never seen Zane in my life before being mated to him? I decided I would choose the latter reasoning for now.

After he ravaged me from behind on the Alpha’s desk, I felt more refreshed and even closer to him. But I still felt like I knew nothing about him. Or his family.

He was sitting on the couch in the Alpha’s office and I was staring at the desk where he had just ravaged me zoned out in thought. When I looked up from the desk to ask him more about his conversation with his mother earlier, he was looking at me.

I was taken aback and just blinked, “Oh, did you say something?”

He shook his head and smiled, “No, I just like looking at you. Especially when you’re thinking.”

That made me smile, no one had ever just wanted to look at me for the sake of looking that I knew of. Then again, I had been too busy to notice if they had for the past three years.

“How did the conversation with your mother go earlier?” I timidly asked.

A sigh paired with his next words, “It appears that I am still bound to be rogue for now.”

“Is your brother still mad then?”

He nodded and his face turned concerned, “And unfortunately, my mother is not in her best health.”

I knew what that was like, “I understand.” I paused, “Surely there is something you can do to make him accept you in your own kingdom again?”

His face turned from concerned to uneasy and he wouldn’t look directly at me, “Yeah, I don’t know.”

He was lying to me. “Zane.”

He wouldn’t meet my gaze.

“Zane! Are you really going to lie to me this early on in our relationship? Are we really going to start it this way?”

He let out an exasperated sigh, “Yes, I know. But I don’t think it’s something you’re willing to give up.”

Now I was confused, “What on earth do you mean?”

“If I come back to the kingdom, Aiden will force me to marry Princess Tiffany of the Western kingdom.”

“But you have your Goddess-given mate now.”

“Yes, an unmarked one.” His face began looking uneasy again as he said it.

“Oh,” I didn’t know what to say. Was Zane not sure if he wanted to mark me? Or was it that we would have to return and permanently reside in the Southern Lycan Kingdom if we did mark one another? Was he ashamed to have been mated to a werewolf?

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have sprung this on you, especially when I knew you were hesitant—“ I stopped him.

“Me? Hesitant?! Where did that come from?”

“When I kiss your marking spot, you stiffen—I just thought that meant you wanted to dictate when it happens?” He looked taken aback.

“No, I stiffened because I’ve heard that it can hurt.”

“Well, stiffening is definitely not the best way to prevent that.”

“Well, I haven’t done this before, so,” silence lingered after I spoke. We just stared at each other.

“When you’re ready, I would be honored to mark my mate,” my anger dissolved and I began to feel the small fluttering of butterflies in my chest.

I gave him a small smile as I got up and walked over to sit next to him on the couch, “We could do it now.”

His eyes scanned my face intensely, looking for any hesitation. “We definitely could do it now.”

He brought his lips to mine and kissed me teasingly. I deepened the kiss trying to seduce him into marking me. I wanted him desperately and hoped my lips gave that impression. It felt as if my wish was being granted when his lips began trailing their way down to my neck and began to firmly place kisses increasingly closer to my marking spot. When he finally kissed that tender spot, my breathe hitched and I instantly felt that tug I had felt in the woods. Like my mate bond was screaming out to me to complete the ritual. To take that final step and officially become one with our Goddess-given mate.

I shuddered as I felt his teeth graze my neck lightly. I moaned, silently begging him to mark me as his own. But as quickly as his lips were on my neck, he was pulling back and looking at my face again.

“What’s wrong?” I was concerned that maybe he was having second thoughts.

He looked at me pensively and then down at his lap as if it was hard to even ask, “Is it not tradition for your pack to do commitment ceremonies?”

I stopped, I hadn’t thought about it. I was so wrapped up in his lips on my neck that I had forgotten about all other rituals. “Uh, yes, we do. But we don’t have to if you don’t want to?”

He looked into my eyes, pushed some of my hair behind my ear and honestly just took my breath away.

“I know we haven’t known each other for long. And in any other circumstance, I would say that we should take it slow to really enjoy it and really get to know one another. But it feels like we are both on a time constraint—your father has died and there is no Alpha. While I still think you would be an excellent replacement, you seem hesitant to take on that role, which I understand. And my brother, Aiden, is trying his hardest to make a marriage happen so that he can obtain more land and more power.”

“It sounds like we should mark each other now,” I was surprised at how excited I sounded.

He shook his head and cupped my cheek, softly stroking it with his big thumb, “You, this, us—it’s far too important to do in the Alpha’s office all alone and unorthodoxly.”

“So, when?” I questioned.

“How does this coming Friday sound?”

It was so soon. But he was right, we were under serious time issues that could backfire at any moment.

“I know it’s soon. But if Aiden caught wind of my presence here, there’s a chance he could come for me.”

I growled, “No one is taking you away from me.”

He kissed my lips softly, “Then it’s settled. Or do you need more time to plan?”

I thought back to the dress discards I had given back to my mother. One of them was white. Had she known in advance that I would marry so soon?

“I think my mother has probably already started planning. If not, I can ask her and Cami to join me over the next few days to prepare.”

His smile filled up his face. I wanted to make him smile like that over and over. It was intoxicating.

“This Friday, we commit to one another,” I said firmly. I wanted him to know the brevity of the situation and that there would be no backing out of this after we had committed to one another.

He just gave me another big smile and said, “Friday.”