Lost and Found by her Alpha

Truth be told.

Zane POV

 Leaping from the truck as our mate leads us to the room we will be occupying for tonight. I head straight for the bathroom to shift back, and I quickly take a shower because I'm sure the kids don’t need to see me all blooded.  Wrapping the towel around my waist, I stood in front of the mirror. Xander, on the other hand, was ecstatic and delighted to be our mate present. Just the thought that she was right beyond this door made my d**k throb with excitement. Something was bugging me, though, why she smelled like our first mate. Something just not adding up, and I need to get to the bottom of it. Xander is doing back flips about his mate. On the other hand, my mate is still sceptical, like she doesn't know anything about mate bond or doesn’t feel it. Exiting the bathroom in just a flimsy towel, our eyes connected for just a nanosecond and for just that second, my heart stopped. Her eyes roamed my body slowly. Her mouth hung low, making the o shape. I could scent her arousal by taking a subtle inhale, and I had it down and lock and committed to memory. The human comment shook me for a tiny spell, but my mates stared bored into me. It was like she was trying to see beyond my soul. She got up and circled me twice, sizing me up, which intrigued and aroused me. Since I only had this flimsy cloth on and there were children present, I had to try and contain my arousal. Xander was making it really hard to do. f**k I wanted her. Each time she got to my back, she took a deep inhale of me. She murmurs to her wolf again, and I swear that brings the tick to my heart. 

“I can scent your arousal. Please control yourself. There are children in the room,'' I told her out the corner of my mouth. She stopped mid-stride and stared up at me—halting her further assessment. 

“SO. Little mate, I have questions, and you have answers?” 

“I do, do I?” taking a seat on the bed whilst I sat uncomfortably in the armchair. 

“First things first, my name is Zane, as you already know, what is my little mate's name. 

“Star, the little one curled up next to her brother is Goddess, Princess Goddess, the pup's name is Asher, and that is Nina. She is human”. 

 “I'll get to that in a moment because I definitely need more information, but first, tell me, why do you have an Alpha after you?”

“Because they were the kids' biological parents Alpha or some duckie like that, but they're all dead, and I'm now their guardian. Got a problem with that?”

“So why doesn’t your pack help you?”

“This is my pack. They are my pact. We may be small, but they are all I have, and I will kill anyone who tries to come between us. They want Asher for their fighting ring Over My Dead Rotten Corpse. Even then, I would find my way back, and Froogle rocks some nice things up” my eyebrow shot up at her colourful statement, and i could help but giggle at her, 

“Hold up. This is your pack. You're a lone wolf” I take a deep inhale. She doesn’t smell like a rogue. Then again, nothing about my little mate seems normal. 

“Not alone anymore, I have them, and they have me. Hence my pact” I smiled at that. But I suspect she doesn’t smell like a rogue because of her witch side, but still something else of, I couldn’t put my finger on it. I needed more information. She right. A pact has to consist of 4 or more people who have bonded. 

“And now me,” I pointed out. 

“Tell me, why does your scent send my wolf into a frenzy?” she asked

‘It's because your mates, and that means until you mark each other or reject each other, your wolves are going to ride you until you ride him, quite frankly I would ride him because seriously, you could do worse and when's the last time you got some, besides he’s hot as hell, Again you could do worse. I say ride the wolf, maybe then… 

“Shut it and go to sleep. My s*x life is not on topic here.”

“I’m just saying”

The banter between these two is, at best, shocking and alarming. How does the human know about mating?  I caught her smile before she turned on the bed and cuddled next to the wolf pup and little girl. Something about the little girl squeezed my heartstrings. When she spoke to Xander in my wolf form without being part of the pack was a shock to my system. I know she's gotta be some sear and a powerful one because her abilities manifest on another level for her age. That's something to think about later.

“How do you not know about mating?” she c****d her head to the side like I ask the most ridiculous question in the world. 

“Simple mother died in childbirth and well daddy dearest is some big shot alpha-hole who left her. So I was left to be raised by humans, that's how” my eyebrows shot straight up in shock and f**k, that must have been hard and surprising, to say the least. 

“Who's the big shot Alphahole?” I quizzed, needing to know whose ass I needed to kick and rip into for abandoning my mate. Who does that? How could someone leave their pup like that and to humans? That in itself is a violation of our most sacred laws. No human must know of our kind and must be put to death unless mated to one of our kind, rare in our world.

“Some Alpha of a pack called Blood moon, that's where we're heading. It's time he took responsibility for all those years and give us sanctuary.” again, my eyebrow shot up, and my head swelled a little. Thank the goddess I was sitting down because I may have just dropped on my ass with that one. 

“Your Alpha Derricks daughter?” I managed to choke out

“Yeah! Why? Don’t tell me he some evil alpha hole,” she whispered the last part of her question. 

“He's one of the most powerful. He’s taken over so many packs in the north, east and west in the last 20 years. It's ridiculous.  

“Oh, so you know him? Tell me about him?” she asked starry-eyed.

 We talked for the whole night. I told her everything I knew about her father and his pact and a little about my pack and our world, and they're so much she wasn’t aware of. I felt like I was tutoring a toddler. For each story, she had a million questions. I was happy to provide her with the information as best as possible—anything to be near her. I never want to leave her side ever. 

‘Time for bed, my little wolf’ I ushered her to bed as she yawned. “I will tell you more in the morning. Right now, I need you to get some rest, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, and we also need to ditch the truck. I have someone come pick it up for you,” I tell her, helping her to her feet. We came face to face, and I couldn't help myself. I reach out and caress her cheeks with the back of my hand, then running my thumb across her full blushed pink lips. Her breath caught in her throat as she inhaled and exhaled at my touch. I looked into her twin colour eyes, and I was mesmerised by those eyes. They were the colour of dreams, her right eye was grey with a tint of blue, and the left is a browning coppery gold colour like it couldn't make up its mind. It was weird and beautiful. 

“Hmmmmm”

“You have the most beautiful eyes,” I tell her

“I do?” My eyes are weird. I'm a freak of both nature.” she says with a wary look. Who the hell told her that. She is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. How can they look at her and not see the beauty that looks up at me?

“Whoever told you or made you feel that are a bunch of idiots”, I whisper.

“Now go to bed. I'll keep watch,” I tell her to bring my lips closer to her ear, so my breath graces her skin just above the point of where my mark will one day be.

Once she's all tucked in bed. I stood for a beat and admired my mate; with the cadence of her light breathing as she falls asleep, she lets out a loud yawn. If I never saw her in wolf form earlier today, I would have thought I was mated to a bear. I chuckled as she snuggled up closer to her pups and human. The sight of them vulnerable and peaceful, and right there and then, I vowed protecting them with everything in me down to my last breath.

Zane POV

Before settling down, I call my beta to check in on the pack and update him on the insane fuckery that is now my life. A mate, a f*****g mate. As I look around, I'm reminded that I have no pants. Therefore, I have no phone. It all got left-back with my abandoned clothes and truck. Damn. Looking around the room, I search for mobile phones. One of them must have one. I’m certain I saw our mate with one in the truck. Now, if only I knew where she put it.  Purse, good guess as any. A glance around shows me it's on the rickety bedside table. Hurrying over to it, I rummage through the bag, feeling like a creep and a thief. I quickly remove the phone and excuse myself outside. I quickly dial Nicholas. The consistency ringing in my ear was very irritating since the night air was breezy as f**k. f**k. Even for a wolf, I could definitely feel it on my balls. He finally picks up on the third phone call, which pisses me off by the minute. 

“Hello”

“Why do I have to call you so many times before you pick up the damn phone. Why do you have the emergency phone if you are not going to pick it up when there's an emergency.” I peel off one question after the next. Showcasing my irritableness. 

“Sorry, alpha, I didn't know it was you.”

“It shouldn’t matter if it's me or not. This phone rings, and you pick it up promptly. Anything could be happening with a pack member. That's why we have this line.” I am frustrated. It's time I get back to my pack. Letting out another frustrating sigh. I inhale deeply and try to release all my frustration on the exhale. “I’m at a motel on the edge of bumfuck nowhere, and I need you to pick me up and a new cell phone, be here by dawn. Oh, and bring a set of clothes, my balls are cold.  Also, track the GPS of the old phone and send a cleanup crew. I made a bit of a mess. Get the tech guys to dig up everything they can on the Thunder Crest Pack and their new Alpha and his son Patrick. Have Darren  from tech call me back as soon as you hang up”

“Yes, Alpha,”

“Good. Time for me to come home.” 

“Does that mean you caught up with her?”

“Something like that, be here by dawn. Oh, I'm going to need two SUV's. I need Tank to come with you on this. Got it.”

“Got it, so you're not going to tell me more about this female” there was something in his tone that made me pause, I wasn't sure what it was, but something told me to keep this to myself for now. I have been away from my pack for the past 3 years, just roaming around. 

“No. See you in the morning, AM,”  I tell him and hang up before he can question me further. Being away from the pack hasn't been easy for me. It's been punishing. I was hoping someone would finally do me a favour and end it, but Xander never backed down from a fight, so all attempts at killing myself were futile. His pain and mission to find the one who killed our mate was his only way to survive these past couple of years. “Hey buddy,” “yeah.” 

Thanks for not giving up on us, even if I did. I'm not sure what exactly is going on with her, but I will find out what happened to her for you. I promise.”

“Zane, I want to go see her. One last time” he says 

“I promise, buddy, tomorrow” Sending Nicholas our location, I stepped back into the room and put the phone back in its place and shift so Xander could watch over everyone. 

The morning sun comes up slowly, and I watch as it peeks through the curtains and caresses her skin, shimmering over her, making her look angelic. Two things I have come to realise as I watch them all sleep. The children smell like summer berries and mangoes, but our mate smells of mixed spice and freshly baked bread. Something is off because those were the scents I smelt 5 years ago. The pool of blood is still unexplained, and I'm trying to wrap my head around all of that. Another conversation that I need to have, but I don't want to push her. Waking over to her side of the bed, I nudged her with my snout, trying to get my drooling mate awake. It was time to get going. If we want to make it to her destination.  I still can’t believe the daughter of the blood moon alpha is my mate. What the ever-loving f**k did I do to deserve that.  That bastard has been the bane of my existence ever since he's made it clear that he wants what's mine, by birthright. If it weren’t for the pack treaty by our fathers for the next 50 years, he or I would have tried to kill each other by now. f*****g blood moon pack. My little mate, she's so tiny and petite for a shifter. Her curves set my insides on fire to a point where I'm going to have to be careful around the little beast. Using my wolf head to nudge her awake again, she ruffles the top of my head as she wakes, using that cooing voice humans use to pet their animal. “Morning Boy”, Xander made a chuffing kind of snorting sound. To me, it was degrading and annoying, but Xander loved it. Lapping up all the attention, rubbing the back of Xander's ear made him swoon, lagging his tongue out for good measure. Oh boy. With each touch of her finger through our fur, a sweet electric tingling sensation ran through our body. She had no idea what she was doing to us, does she?  Fed up the mini pleasure of torture. I bark once at her to understand it's time to get going. I wanted to be on our way soon. My loud bark worked, the kids and the little mutt all got up, and the runt snarled at me in defiance. The little princess was up and ready to play. Trying to jump all over me like I was her human-animal pet. How degrading. I couldn't be mad, though. She had a way about her that made me want to protect and give in to her, not like a mate bond, something different I couldn't put my finger on.

 “Xander, will you stay with us?” she whispered in our ear. 

“Don’t worry, and I'm working on doing just that” I lick her face, and she squeals in delight. 

"Sweet-cheeks, can you let Star know that I need a phone to make a call, please." 

“Doggies can’t talk on the phone,” she says and giggles as her brother comes in between us, pulling her away from me. Moving to the human, I ruffle around in her pockets because she must have a phone. The teenagers in my pack are glued to their phones. 

“I’m up, I'm up, just go away.” she crumbles. I let out a frustrated sigh. I wanted to shift back, but I don’t think shifting back butt naked is something they all need to see first thing in the morning.  I need to contact the pack. This is ridiculous. Where the f**k is he?