The Alpha's Unrecognised Mate

Chapter 7: Not the Last Surprise Visitor

It took a long time for normality to return to my body. The adrenaline come down had left me tired, but my thoughts were still running too fast to sleep. I healed slower back in human form, but ultimately it was my mind most pushed from the morning's activities. With another shift at the nursing home the following day, it was everyday monotonies like laundry that filled my afternoon.

I was mindlessly wiping down the kitchen bench from lunch when Lyra perked up out of nowhere.

“Mate!” She called loudly, drowning out my mindless thought train. Goddess, I had to learn his wolf's name so she would stop calling him that! Now I was alert, too. While Lyra was filled with unbridled excitement, I was in a minor panic. A fated mate had an airbrushed quality about them that made them flawless at all times to their beloved. Without that advantage, I looked very much like a woman chilling at home alone on her day off.

Bra.

That was definitely the first step. I bounded through the house to my bedroom.

“Relax, he's still ages away,” Lyra chuckled at me. She was on cloud nine knowing that Clint was coming over of his own accord, and human concerns like presentation didn’t phase her. He was coming. That was all that mattered.

I was not so easy to calm. I swapped my loose sweatshirt for something a bit more fitting to show off my curves, but left my sweatpants. I didn’t want him to think I'd dressed up for him. I retied my hair into a styled messy bun rather than a dishevelled one. Could I get away with a touch of makeup?

“Yeah, not that ages away. He's fast, remember?” Lyra teased me. I heard his wolf's heavy steps on the wooden steps at the back of the house. He was here!

I had showered when I'd gotten home from training so I knew I didn't smell too bad. His wolf senses would know if I put perfume or another dose of deodorant on anyway, and I was trying really hard to look casual. I glanced at myself in my bedroom mirror. My dark hair always looked nice when it was freshly washed. I’d had time to moisturise after showing, which never seemed to happen, so my skin was actually looking okay. For the amount of warning I’d had, I looked pretty good.

He knocked loudly on the wood frame around the back door. It was a glass double door which didn’t make a proper knocking sound- after all, most people came in from the front. Lyra was chirping happily, words indiscernible as she mentally danced.

“Coming!” I called out, heading out of my room into the open-plan living area. I could see him through the glass and nearly stumbled as the force of his good looks smacked into me. He stood in a kimono-like garment our pack referred to as a ‘wrap’, used when swapping between wolf and human forms. The leathery belt would be wrapped around the rest of the garment so our wolves could carry it as they travelled, then our human form changed into it when they arrived. The flowy shape hid most of his physique, but the V-shaped neckline gave enough of a peek at what was underneath to let my imagination fill in the rest- and probably a bit more than it should have. A big bit.

Stop it!

I manually overrode my failed automated feet into what I hoped looked like a natural step. He was smiling slightly, which I wasn’t used to yet. He didn’t strike me as someone who smiled a lot, but it was powerful when he did. He had just shifted into his human form, but his hair fell perfectly, like a stylist had spent hours manipulating each strand to sit in a casual tousle.

Step. Step. Breathe. Casual.

The door had already been unlocked so I pulled it open for him.

“Grab him! Hold him, please,” Lyra begged, yearning to be close to him.

“We’re not really at that stage yet…” I rebuked poorly. I wanted it just as bad as she did. Could I get away with a friendly hug?

My indecision gave Lyra the influence she needed to step in, and before I knew it, I was holding up my arms in a ‘hug?’ gesture. I had no idea if he understood just how desperately I needed this, if he could even fathom the pull inside me, but he didn’t back away, answering the call with his strong arms. His scent was gorgeous, and it encompassed me entirely. I breathed in deep to get as much of it as I could before releasing him slightly to let him know he could let me go.

He didn’t.

At least, not straight away. Before I could fathom enough to wrap my arms back in tight, he released me, but not so soon that I hadn’t noticed his pause. Whether he did it for me or for himself, I couldn’t tell.

“Hey,” he said, his deep voice breaking into my thoughts. Thank Goddess he did, because my train of thought was more of a rollercoaster at this point.

“H-hey, come in,” I replied, even though he was already mostly inside the house. I gestured over towards the couch. It had a long cream three-seater facing the TV and a matching loveseat against the wall to the right of the other chair. I would have loved to sit beside him, but I knew conversation would be easiest if we were facing each other, so I sat in the loveseat chair closest to the long couch and he sat down diagonally across from me, his powerful calves peeking out from his wrap threatening to once again send me on a naughty spiral.

“What happened with that rogue in the woods?” I burst out, unable to hold back my curiosity now the answer to my question was right in front of me. “What was he doing in our territory?”

Clint gently rocked his head from side to side, as if figuring out how to put it into words.

I wasn’t going to like his answer.