Alpha Mate

Chapter 8

Morgan Pov

If Calum hadn't walked away already to his office, he would be getting an earful from me. He hadn't made me any promises, but I had been under the impression that things would become better between us now that I chose to stay with him. I assumed that us building our mate connection would come with more freedom in his pack, not less.

Though I was familiar with Xavier being assigned to me, Lucas was an unwelcome addition to my guard patrol. Perhaps if I hadn't tricked Xavier earlier, Calum wouldn't have been convinced that I now needed two guards to babysit me. Once again, our relationship was off to a shaky start. How could we ever build trust between us if he didn't take my word that I would stay here to be with him?

Since Xavier and Lucas had no control over what their alpha demanded of them, I chose to keep quiet as I followed them. There would be no use in complaining to them about something they couldn't change. As I followed them, I observed how different Luc was from my original guard. They seemed to be complete opposites as far as looks went. Lucas' blonde hair and pale skin contrasted Xavier's rich chocolate brown skin. Both of them had a decent amount of muscle, they were guards after all, but Lucas appeared to be more lean, whereas Xavier had much bulkier muscle. Also, Lucas walked around with easygoing and relaxed features, while I couldn't recall a time I had ever seen Xavier smile.

When we turned down a hall that I didn't recognize, I was pulled away from my observations. Looking around, we were in an entirely different area of the house than anywhere I had been before.

"Where are we going?" I asked them. When they didn't stop, I added, "My room is the other direction."

"Calm down. We're just following our alphas orders. You'll be staying in a different room from now on," Lucas explained.

Was this supposed to mean I had been upgraded to a different cell? If I were to get any answers out of the two, it seemed Lucas was more willing to provide me with information. Though Xavier, had always been more on the quiet side, he seemed to still be surly with me after I had tricked him in order to escape. Not only could he have been in a great deal of trouble for losing the alpha's mate, but it also had to be embarrassing to be outsmarted by someone who was half his size.

"What do you think about your alpha?" I blurted out. Though the halls often seemed endless, we wouldn't be walking them forever. I wanted to take the limited time I had to find out more about my mate and what he was like. Since Calum had rarely spent any time with me, I would have to find out from his guards.

"I'm not sure what you're trying to get at, miss."

Xavier nudged Lucas. "You heard the alpha. She's going to be the pack's luna."

"You can address me as Morgan. I want to know if the alpha treats you well."

"Our alpha is a good man," Lucas responded. "Sometimes it is challenging to follow all of his demands, but he treats us well."

Xavier shook his head as though he couldn't believe Lucas would be humoring my questions. We were nearing more bedroom doors, making it clear I didn't have much time to ask my questions.

"Would you consider him a friend?"

"No. The alpha looks after us, but we aren't friends. If he becomes too close to any pack members, they start asking for favors from him. The only one he's truly close with is his beta, Lance."

This bit of information made me frown. It had to be lonely for his position to keep him away from so many people. I had witnessed with my own brother that he had many friends growing up, but only kept a few close ones after assuming his title as alpha. No one dared to get on an alpha's bad side, but it wasn't uncommon to use them for their position. Everyone thought they deserved favoritism as payment for their friendship.

Our route ended there. We stopped in front of a door that looked no different from the one to my previous room. However, this one was spaced out far from the rest as though it were untouchable, taking up much more room than the others.

"In you go." Xavier gestured for me to go inside as he opened the door. It gave me the sense that he was at least a little excited about putting a door in between us once again. Next time we were together, I would have to ask more questions of him.

As soon as I stepped inside the room, I understood why they hadn't taken me back to the other one. His smell was everywhere. Xavier shut the door, locking me into Calum's bedroom.

If Calum were here with me, I would be asking him why he wants me to stay in his room with him all of a sudden. I understood he still had work to do, but I just wanted him to talk to me instead of using work as an excuse to push off our conversations. He admitted in the foyer that I was his mate and I agreed to stay with him. Though we were making the decision to give the mate bond a chance, I hadn't realized he would have me move into the same room as him so quickly.

Without anyone to express these thoughts to, I walked further into the room to look around it. As I examined, I realized it was more like an apartment than just a bedroom. There was a small kitchen and a sitting area with a couch, television, and gaming system in addition to the massive kingsized bed. There were also doors that I found out led to a bathroom and a walk-in closet.

It shouldn't have been a surprise that the alpha would have the nicest room in the pack house. Even though the space was nice, the size of it made me feel more alone. How Calum came back to this after long days of work I would never know.

To get a real lay of the land, I moved to the kitchen where I could search for a snack. I started opening cabinets and drawers to see what they held. Most of my findings were cups and plates. Nothing out of the ordinary for a kitchen.

Looking into a small pantry, I found food like granola bars and different kinds of cereal. As I searched for food, I came across one thing I hadn't expected. In the pantry were several packs of Cosmic Brownies. Way more than a normal household would have. It was the most unhealthy food I saw in the kitchen, and it was nearly impossible to imagine Calum eating the treat.

It was in the refrigerator that I found a container of watermelon. I used a fork to eat the small cubes. Once my stomach was full, I moved over to the bed to lie down. It was the comfiest mattress, causing me to swiftly fall asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wake up, Morgan," Calum whispered while gently shaking my arm.

I peeked my eyes open to see Calum sitting next to me with a soft smile.

"I see you made yourself at home in here." His soft smile turned into a smirk that made me want to forget all about the past week. "Are you still hungry?"

"Why?" My brain was a bit foggy from just waking up.

He chuckled a little. "You ate all the watermelon that I had here."

I slowly sat up in bed, keeping the space between us. His smiles and chuckles were unexpected, but I enjoyed it being the first thing I woke up to.

"There wasn't that much left anyway."

He rose his eyebrows, but didn't say more about the watermelon. "I was just about to head downstairs to eat dinner with several pack members. Would you care to join me?"

"Of course. I'm always up for food."

"Good. I like women with large appetites."

I didn't know how to take his comment, so I decided not to respond. Not only did I not understand why he cared about whether or not I liked to eat, it didn't sit well with me to think about all of the women he has no doubt been with in the past. There was even the possibility he still had interests in other women. Perhaps that's why it had taken so long for him to come around as my mate.

With that thought, I remembered all the reasons we were on shaky ground right now. The silence between Calum and I grew awkward.

Calum stood, wiping his hands down on the front of his pants. Could he have been nervous talking to me? Perhaps the awkwardness had made him so uncomfortable he started to sweat.

"We should go then." He offered his hand to help me out of bed, and surprisingly, I took it. His hand was warm as it enveloped mine. His touch was comforting in a way I had never experienced before. Once I was finally on my feet, however, we let each other's hand go.

We left the bedroom together, seeing Lucas and Xavier both standing on either side of the door. I followed Calum as he took me through this unfamiliar part of the house.

It was easy to tell when we were getting close to the dining room. Several pack members were already seated and talking amongst each other. The joining of several conversations made it loud enough to be heard before the dining room was in sight. However, when Calum and I stepped into the dining room, everyone stopped talking.

Though the dining table wasn't large enough for a whole house of pack members, it appeared to seat around twenty people. There were two empty seats at the end of the room, where Calum could sit at the head of the table while I sat to his right. Though everyone was kind enough to not blatantly stare at us, I felt the attention was on us as we walked to our seats.

Calum pulled back the chair, gesturing for me to take a seat. Once I was comfortable, he moved to take his place at the head of the table. Now that we were seated, young women came out of the kitchen to serve full plates of food to everyone. It was a simple meal of chicken breast, mashed potatoes, and asparagus, but it looked delicious.

A quiet chatter rose as people began to dig into their food. I had no idea if people could guess I was Calum's mate or were already told. He hadn't introduced me to anyone, but they had to have an idea of who I was by the way everyone ignored me. The males especially refused to even look in my direction, which certainly had to have been Calum's doing.

Even Calum hardly talked to me as his focus was on his plate. I couldn't have felt more out of place by being silent in a room full of people. Following my mate's actions, I turned my attention to my food as well. Though the dinner tasted incredibly good, I couldn't help but wait for the evening to be over.