The Huntress and her Alpha

Chapter Six

I felt a lot better the second time I woke up. The bed was soft, the room was cool, the blanket was wrapped tightly around me. It took me a moment to remember what had happened hours ago. I opened my eyes and saw the sun was still shining and I wondered what time it was.

I was still at the pack house. I wasn’t sure why that only registered as I sat up and looked around the room I was in. Probably because this room clearly belonged to a guy.

Not just any guy, my mate.

Who was a wolf.

And an alpha.

I covered my face with my hands, panic filling my body as I groaned. Why did I have to be some special human who mated with a wolf? Why didn’t I get to find love the normal way and spend my life the way it had been planned out for?

I pushed my hair out of my face and looked down at myself. I didn’t notice the first time I woke up that someone had changed me. I was wearing a dark gray shirt that was three sizes too big, even for my curvier figure, and nothing on the bottom half of me other than my underwear.

I had just met this kid. If he thought it was appropriate to change me while I was unconscious he was in for a rude awakening.

I stood up and searched for my phone. I needed to talk to someone back home. I needed to go back home. I needed my room filled with my things. For the first time in my life I wanted my life back. My normal Hunter life where I trained and complained about one day taking over as leader.

Tears filled my eyes. I looked at my ring, the last thing my father had given me. Sure we had our problems and differences, but he was still my father. He was the only parent I had left, the one who raised me after we both lost my mother. He had to be worried about me right?

Then again Lip told him he could stay and he didn’t want to.

I grabbed a pair of sweat pants that were thrown over the back of the couch that was just outside the bedroom. I pulled the string as tight as it would go so they didn’t fall down, then rolled the band once.

I looked everywhere in Lip’s room and couldn’t find my phone so I walked to the door. If I had to leave without a plan, I would. I’d walk back through the forest to get home in my bare feet if that’s what I had to do.

But I didn’t get very far. The door was locked. My mouth fell open and fury filled my small body. He locked me in his room, like I was some sort of prisoner. He told me I was safe here, because no one could get in. Or maybe it’s because I couldn’t get out.

I screamed. I wiggled the doorknob hard, trying to break it even though i knew that was useless. I pounded on the thick wooden door, maybe someone was standing guard. Maybe they’d open the door and let me out.

Tears spilled down my cheeks as panic took the place of my anger. I lost control and slid down to the floor, giving up on getting out and feeling helpless for the first time in a long time.

For the first time since I had lost my mom.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and winced as my stitches pulled. I welcomed the pain, letting it remind me that I was still alive. I was still here because Lip wanted to make sure I was okay. He told me I could go home.

I needed to reject him. I needed to break whatever this thing was that was suffocating me and go back to my life.

But even as the idea crossed my mind more panic squeezed my chest. It throbbed painfully, the idea of rejecting Lip and walking away was too hard to bare. I buried my face in my knees as my mind kept going in circles.

I stayed sitting in that spot by the door with my knees pulled up against me for what felt like hours. I had no idea how long it had been since I woke up, but the sun was hitting my back through the window which meant time was moving. I looked up at the door as it opened slowly.

“Max.” His voice was gentle, you’d never know he was an alpha. At least he was gentle with me. Lip came in and knelt down in front of me. “What happened?”

He had changed since I had last seen him. He was wearing a white t-shirt that looked well worn and soft but yet still clung to his body in all the right ways. His dark jeans pulled against his thighs and he knelt in front of me, enhancing the shape of his legs. I couldn’t believe that he was trying to ask me what was wrong and instead I was… checking him out.

My cheeks heated with blush as his eyes stayed on me. He knew what I was doing, but ever the gentleman he didn’t call me out on it.

“I just wanted to go out.” I knew I had to look like a mess. I probably looked ten times worse than when he first met me. Messy hair, puffy eyes. And yet he was looking at me like I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

I cringed at my pathetic mumbling. “But it was locked and I…” I sat up straight and tried to put strength behind me words, “why did you lock me in here?”

Lip sighed and sat down across from me. I could tell he wanted to reach out and comfort me, but he held himself back.

“I wasn’t locking you in here. I was locking everyone else out. I was afraid that someone who let it slip about you and me and I just watched you get stitched back together. And with what happened with Jack, I don’t want to risk anything else happening to you.”

I nodded, the panic slowly subsiding as he looked at me with those hazel eyes. “I just panicked. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt helpless.”

“I never wanted to make you feel helpless, Max. I just wasn’t ready for my pack to get their eyes on you yet. You’re injured and confused I’m sure.”

I laughed. “Confused. I guess you could put it that way. Confused as to how a human can mate a wolf. Why a Hunter would be the chosen mate for an alpha. Confused as to how in the world we’d ever make this work. Even more confused as to why just the thought of rejecting you sent me into such a panic I couldn’t move from this spot.”

Lip moved slowly, until he was close enough to reach out and touch my leg. Just the tips of his fingers brushing the fabric of his sweatpants was enough to make me feel better. He smiled, it was crooked. The left half didn’t reach as high as the right half. And here I thought Alpha’s were supposed to be the best of the best.

“Max. I’d never hold you here against your will. But I’d really like it if you stayed. Would you give this, us, me a chance?”

I took in a deep breath through my nose and then let it out through my mouth. I looked into those golden eyes and i saw a future i had never prepared for. What I knew about wolves was how to take them down. I didn’t know how to be one, let alone be with one.

But as I stared at his hopeful face I took in the features of my mate. He was gorgeous, his dark hair fell above his eyes in the cutest little curls. His button nose sat perfectly between those eyes I could seriously lose myself in. His jaw was sharp, his face made up of angles and slopes that told me he was bred from the best.

“Why? Why do you want me to give this a chance? We’re from two different sides of the world.” My voice was small. I wasn’t saying no. I just didn’t understand why he was already so accepting of us.

Lip’s hand moved to my knee. I could tell these were his clothes as he looked me up and down with big approving eyes.

“Because I’ve been looking for you ever since I was eighteen. Wolves feel their mate at eighteen. I’m not sure why you humans take a little longer. But I was raised by my aunt and uncle who are mates and I knew even from a young age all I wanted was to love someone as completely as they love each other. You are literally the other half of me, good, bad. Ugly, pretty. Happy or sad. We are supposed to balance each other.”

He was good with words and I could already tell he was more open with his emotions. Me, I’ve always been closed off. I was raised by a father who shut down after he lost his wife. They weren’t wolf mates, they didn’t have whatever this was inside my chest that tethered me to him, but they had been in love. So in love I had watched them wondering if I’d ever fall in love with someone that way.

I let the silence settle between us and watched Lip wait for me to answer him. He didn’t push me, he didn’t keep going either. He let me sit with his words and process what I was thinking, what I was feeling. Something about that, the way he let me pull into myself while keeping his hand on my knee, while staying there beside me, made me feel like I owed it to him and myself, to try.

The fact that he stayed physically beside me while he let me alone inside my head made me think maybe he did know me. Maybe this moon goddess did know what she was doing, because I had always felt alone when my mind started to circle.

Lip’s warm hand kept me grounded in this room, with him. His presence reassured me that I wouldn’t be navigating this on my own. We were in this together.

“I just want to get some of my clothes.” I finally answered him feeling like a child.

Lip smiled. “I can have someone get your things. Or have someone go out and buy you all new clothes.”

I shook my head. “I’d really like to go myself. If I give this a try, I at least want to say goodbye. I know it’s not a big deal I’m just moving to the other side of the forest, but for me it feels like a big deal. I was supposed to take over for my father and everything.”

Lip nodded. “I understand. I can go with you, if you want.”

“Okay. Can we go now? I um. I don’t know if you changed me but these are both way too big.”

“I know, but that’s all I could find when the doctor told me to find you clothes. She cut your shirt off to stop the bleeding. She refused to let me see you until I brought her something big enough that covered all of you.”

I blushed. “Well I’m relieved that you didn’t change me. We might be mates but we literally just met.”

Lip stood up and offered me his hand. “We might be strangers now, but I plan on getting to know everything about you, Max. The big things. The small things. I want to know you and I want you to know me. So we’ll take things as slow as you want to take them.”

I took his hand and he helped me stand up slowly, my stomach pulling. I winced again, the sting reminding me of my injury. “Thank you. For being so understanding.”

Lip let go of my hand and tilted my chin up towards him. “I don’t want to scare you, Max. I just want you to feel comfortable here. Which means I’ve already got someone starting on redecorating the guest room next to mine.”

“That’s really thoughtful. I don’t need anything fancy.”

“Yes you do,” he whispered before leaning in and pressing a kiss to my cheek, “let me spoil you a little.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ll never get used to that. Alright can we go get some of my things? It shouldn’t take long just my clothes and some books. I’m sure my dad won’t be happy I brought you along.”

“Yeah your dad didn’t like me last night. He called me some very… horrible names I won’t repeat. But maybe we can change his mind about wolves.”

I shook my head. “A wolf took my mom away from him. He’ll never change his mind about your kind. This,” I motioned between us, “is like some cosmic joke to him. First his wife, then his daughter. He’s going to lose it. He was already looking for a reason to fight with your pack. Now he has one.”

Lip took my hand in his and squeezed it gently. “I’m sorry Max. I really hate that you feel like you have to choose.”

I shrugged, not sure what to say. Because I didn’t want to choose. I wanted to have a mate and my life back home. But I knew that would never be possible. Not when my mate was the alpha of a wolf pack bordering our land. Not when my mother died protecting me from a wolf.

Not when my father had been holding a grudge for as long as I’d been alive. Now he had more motivation to take down the packs that surrounded our land. I just hoped that if he brought the fight to us, I wouldn’t have to choose a side to stand on.