The Alpha’s Only Daughter

Chapter 8

Layla’s POV

I couldn’t believe it. My mate actually saved my pack from being Alpha-less for more than a day. My mate saved me from being forced to mate with someone other than my true mate.

But my mate was a Lycan, and that mating was something none of us had ever heard of or seen.

I stared at him as he processed what I had just said, his eyes piercing back into mine.

Lou cleared his throat next to me, “Uh, clearly tonight has been eventful.” He chuckled dryly and without emotion, “Please, if you have accommodations for tonight here, join us in returning to our rooms to give our new Alpha and current, uh, Luna,” he gave me a quizzical look, “a moment to get to know one another. If you plan on returning home tonight, we hope you have safe journeys.” Lou grabs Cami, who delivered our clothes to us, by her waist and heads inside.

The crowd murmured to each other loudly, but began to dissipate, either returning inside, going to their vehicles, or shifting into wolf and returning to the woods.

I continued to stare at my mate. My whole body was burning. I just wanted to be touched by him and to wrap myself around him. My heart felt like it was tethered directly to him. My mind my fogged over with only one desire: lust.

As the crowd disappears, I stand there looking at my mate.

He clears his throat, “What did you mean by me being your Alpha?”

I falter, did I misinterpret our connection? Did we not have a mate bond? I start to panic. He must feel this and rushes over to me, holding me in his arms.

“You’re okay.” He strokes the top of my head. “I’m sorry, I’m not from around here. I just don’t understand what is going on.”

My heartbeat slows down as I ease out of my panic. I look up at him, those piercing blue eyes from earlier meeting mine and take a good look at him.

He’s massive for starters, much bigger than any Lycan I have ever encountered and a skyscraper compared to werewolf Alphas. He must have stood half a foot or more taller than me.

His hair is curly, a reddish brown, and just barely touching his shoulders. Very different than the white fur on his wolf form. His skin is fair, only lightly freckled. His beard is slightly unkempt.

He looks intently at me as he holds me, “Layla, what is going on?”

I look surprised. He knows my name. I realize someone in the pack must have said it, but I don’t even know his name.

“Oh, sorry,” he runs a hand through the back of his hair, “My name is Zane.”

My heart skips another beat, “Well, Zane. Let me try to catch you up. I am the Alpha and Luna’s only daughter. In fact, their only living child. It is my 18th birthday today. And my father,” I pause, trying not to cry, “died this morning.”

His eyes softened and he held me even closer, “I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I am.” I breath in his smell deeply: smokey earth. “But I am so glad I have finally found you.”

I pull back away from him, though it feels wrong to do so. “How long has it been for you?”

“Three years, 2 months, 10 days.”

I calculate his age in my head. He is barely 21, but looks so much older in the state he’s in.

“Zane, where did you come from? Why did you come?”

He nods his head, as if he expected this questions, “Layla, is there any way I can clean up and potentially rest before we get into all of that?”

“Oh, yes. I’m sorry!” I pull my body off of his and take his hand and begin to lead him inside. Before I cross over the threshold, I turn to him and look into his eyes. “You haven’t killed anyone have you?”

His look says it all—he has, but not pleasurably, “Never outside of battle, and definitely not around here.”

I nod and pull him through the threshold and take him upstairs to my room. I look around and inwardly thank Cami. I would mind-link her now, but my attention is solely on Zane.

His attention is on the bed. While it is a king-size, it suddenly feels small even to me when I think about us sleeping in it together. I blush at the thought of other things mates do in bed together.

Zane rubs the back of his head and looks at me a smile shyly. I smile back, “The bathroom is through there. I can have someone bring up some clean clothes for you or clean what you already have?”

He chuckles, “It may be easiest to clean what I have brought. It can be hard to find things that fit me.”

I mind-link our laundry attendant to come up as he pulls the clothes out of his backpack. When he reaches the end he strips off the clothes he is currently wearing and puts them on top of the pile he has made. I can’t help but notice that he has a massive erection.

I begin to feel a warmth and wetness pooling between my thighs as I think about where it will be.

When I look up at his face, he is smiling to himself, probably just having seen me essentially drooling over his naked body. I blush again.

He turns to the bathroom and I hear him turning on the shower. The laundry attendant knocks at the door, I hastily pick up his pile of clothes off of the floor and bring them to her. I ask her to bring me back a pair of underwear that most closely matches the size at the top of that pile.

I shut the door behind me and put my back against it. I look down at the lock. I have never really had a real reason to use it before. But now that I have found my mate, it seemed risky to not lock the door.

There were things I realized he might need in the shower, and I walked over to the bathroom and opened the door, “I’m coming in. I think you may need some things?”

He laughed, “Well, I’m using your shampoo and body wash. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all, what’s mine is yours.” This seemed to apply to more than just the shower, but I didn’t want to think about that right now. “Do you need a razor? Or a towel?”

“A razor would be great right now. Could you lay the towel out for me?”

I opened the door to the shower and handed him the razor. All I could focus on was the water dripping down his hardened body. He smiled again, “Thank you.”

Blushing, I squeaked out an “Mhmm” and closed the door shut. Oh, Goddess, what have you done to me?

I go sit on my bed as I wait for the shower to shut off. I realize that I am still in my silver dress from tonight, but that nothing is under it due to shifting into my wolf form while still in my undergarments.

I think about why I shifted to begin with. My father is gone. And while I was never very close to him, the pain is still there. And the consequences very much still real.

The shower shuts off and I hear the door to the shower open.

The laundry attendant knocks on the door again, bringing me the underwear I requested. I thank her profusely and shut the door behind me, locking it again.

I knock on the bathroom door, “Come in.” He looks up at me with the towel wrapped around his waist through the mirror. I focus on his eyes.

“I asked the laundry attendant to at least bring you some underwear. Will that be enough for tonight?” I hand him the pair of clean underwear.

He smiles, “Yes, thank you. I didn’t even think of needing this.”

Nodding, I blush. Did he think we would mate tonight? Should we mate tonight?

A part of me wanted it, while the other part of me wanted to understand him better first.

“I didn’t mean that I expected anything,” his voice breaks through my thoughts. “I just mean that I didn’t think about needing clothes after my shower.”

I nod. Not knowing your mate before you feel that connection is hard and confusing. Cami and Lou didn’t seem to struggle this much.

“Oh, before I forget, who was that lanky guy with the mop of curly black hair and almost black eyes?”

My heart went ice cold. “Dante?”

He shrugged, “I’m not sure of his name, but I saw him casing the pack house earlier today before entering it. Is he staying here?”

I growled and his head snapped toward me, “If you saw Dante, then yes.”

He nodded, “I’ll point out who I saw tomorrow. And we’ll handle it.” His words were said with a finality that made my desire for him increase.

There was a brief pause while we stared at one another intensely. He broke the silence. “I hope you’ll excuse me for this, but I’ve been waiting all day for this moment.”

He closed the gap between us, taking me into his arms, and crushed his lips to mine sweeping me up into a passionate kiss.