Alphas' Resistance

Chapter 8

Leah POV

I’m still shaking as I make my way out of the conference room and to the mess hall. I missed lunch and now I’m starving. And after my encounter with that pervert, I’m starting to feel lightheaded.  The guys are still following behind me as I enter the mess hall, grab and plate, and start piling it with food. They seem confused but not overly concerned, which implies they did not see exactly what happened.

Thank Goddess. I barely know Silas, but I know how protective Alpha males, especially ones trying to protect their mates, can be, and I know for fact if he saw what happened or heard what was said, it would’ve been a blood bath in there. I’m surprised it wasn’t already.

He’s standing right next to me, watching me curiously, as he fixes his own plate. His presence overwhelms me. Will I ever be able to think clearly when he’s around? Do I even want to? “Leah, are you ok? Your hands are shaking?”

“Huh,” I look down at my hands, “Oh yeah? I’m fine. Still just a little shaken up over what just happened.”

“What did that bastard say to you?” His voice, which was already naturally deep, had now dropped even a few more octaves as his eyes also darkened. He had been fighting his wolf for control all day. I knew sooner or later he’d have to let him out before this became an even bigger s**t storm.

I shrug and quickly leave the buffet table, attempting to distract him, “Oh it was nothing. Don’t worry about it.”  He arches his left eyebrow and purses his lips in a ridiculously sexy and dominant look that leaves my panties soaked. The look said it all. He didn’t believe me for a second but was going to let it go, for now. I had no illusions that he would definitely be bringing this up at a later date.

Gabe and Brett were already sitting at a table with Silas’ Beta, Garrett and gestures for us to join them. Once at the table I extend my hand to the Beta. “Hi, I’m Leah. I apologize for not properly greeting you earlier today. I was a little distracted.” I figure by now he knew about Silas and I mating, so there would be no point in using formalities and titles.

Garrett grins cheesily at me. His brown eyes are full of mischief. It’s already obvious he’s a troublemaker. He’s a good looking guy, but nothing compared to Silas, with tanned skin, a few shades lighter than Silas, light brown eyes, and a completely bald head. Like most high ranking wolves he's a large guy and very muscular. When he stands up to accept my outstretched hand, he’s towering over me.

“It’s nice to meet you Leah,” since that’s how I introduced myself, he took the hint and didn’t use my title, “I’m Garrett. Silas’ oldest and much better looking best friend.”

Silas rolls his eyes as he took as seat next to his Beta, “In your f*****g dreams, maybe. Ignore him Leah, otherwise he’ll never shut up.”

I grin at their banter as I took a seat next to Silas and across from Gabe and Brett. Part of me wondered if I should have sat opposite him, how obvious was it to all the onlookers that we’re mates? I look around, but no one seems to be paying attention to us. Relaxing a little, I start to dig into my meal, and try not to think about the future.

******

Half an hour later we’re all done with our meals, and just relaxing around the table getting to know each other. While nobody said anything, if this is going to work, all of us, including Silas’ Gamma, will need to work together to keep our packs running smoothly and this relationship strong. 

I’m pleasantly surprised how well everyone is getting along. Gabe and Garrett get along beautifully cracking jokes and swapping embarrassing stories about Silas and me. Brett, being typical Brett, is a lot more distant and extremely polite. He’s like me, and is waiting for the other shoe to drop. He might have told me to stop stressing and be happy I found my mate, but I know he's doing all the stressing for me.

I can feel Silas eyeing me, his leg drifting closer and closer to mine so now we are practically touching. I get what he’s doing. It’s his way of telling me he is done socializing and it’s time for us to have this talk I keep throwing over our heads all day. Now that it was time, I’m dreading it. Everything about him has been perfect so far. I’m terrified this conversation will ruin it.

“Well, I’m gonna head out,” Gabe says as he stands up. “Logan has been nagging me for the last twenty minutes to head back to our room, so I better go see what’s up with my mate.” He gave Brett a strange look. Something is definitely up. “I’ll talk to you all later. It was nice meeting you,” he says to Garrett and Silas.

Before he leaves, I put on my big girl panties and sigh, “Silas and I have some things we have to figure out, so I’m going to be busy for a while. Don’t link me unless it’s an emergency.”

Gabe’s eyebrows immediately go up in a suggestive wiggle, and both he and Garrett at the same time say, “Oh I’m sure you’ll be busy tonight.” While I was officially dying of embarrassment, Silas smacks his best friend upside the head, while Brett does the same for Gabe. 

“What the f**k is wrong with you,” Silas snaps, though I can see the amusement in his eyes. “But same goes for me. Don’t link unless someone is dying.”

Garrett is still laughing as he stands up to follow my guys out of the mess hall. “No problem Si. Have a good night, I’m sure I won’t be seeing you anytime soon.”  Clearly smarter than he looks, Garrett gets the hell out of dodge before Silas could catch him and actually runs out of the mess hall. 

Brett still looks concerned and reluctant to leave me. But after a reassuring nod he follows Gabe out. “Let me know if you need anything, Leah.” And finally Silas and I are alone. 

Silas POV:

Leah and I just stare at each other in silence for a few minutes. Despite all her clamoring all day to have this big talk with me, she’s suddenly avoiding it. It scares the living s**t out of me. 

“Leah?” I ask tentatively. I want to touch her, feel those sparks jump from her skin to mine. But I hold back. I’ll wait until we have this talk, and then all bets are off.

She blinks like she’s coming out of a trance. “Oh right. Come on, let’s take a walk.”

I follow her out of the mess hall and towards the back of the packhouse. It really is a massive house, even bigger than mine. We head outside and I know we’re walking towards the same gardens she brought me to this morning. I can’t believe that it was only this morning I met her, it already feels like I’ve known her my whole damn life. 

She walks in silence for a while until we get back to the pathway with the gazebo. She’s standing there in the middle of the path, her arms crossed around her while she chews on her f*****g bottom lip, again. The action turns me on and pisses me off at the same damn time. It pisses me off because I hate seeing her hurt herself, even if she’s probably not feeling any real pain, but it turns me on because it’s just so f*****g sexy. Her long honey blonde hair hangs over her shoulder and the way the light touches it as the sun sets behind her, makes it look like it's glowing.

Realizing she is not going to start talking I take a step towards her and grab her hands before she can back away. The instant sparks relax me the second we touch. “Talk to me Leah. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

She looks up at me and I can see all the emotion swirling in her eyes. “I’m scared Silas.”

I’m taking aback by this. What the f**k is she scared of? Me? She has to know I would never hurt her right?  “Leah, I know we barely know each other, but you know I would never hurt you right?”

“Not physically, Silas. That I’m sure of. But there’s other ways to get hurt. I know it’s probably hard for you to understand, but I’ve always been terrified of finding my mate. I’ve worked so hard for everything I have. I can’t give that up.”

I look at her confused and a little bit pissed off. What the f**k did she think I was going to do? “Leah, no one is asking you to give up anything. I’m confused here. Did I ever give you the impression I wanted you to stop being Alpha? Because if I did, I’m sorry. Honestly, until you brought it up. It never crossed my damn mind. I haven’t gotten past wanting to touch you all the time to think about all the logistics of all this. Seeing you own all those fuckers up there was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my whole f*****g life. Being Alpha’s aren't just our title, it’s what we are. I don’t give a f**k about the council, or those sexist assholes. It kinda pisses me off you’re lumping me in the same category.”

She looks up at me shocked, and I can see tears forming in her eyes. s**t, I made her cry. I bend down so that my head is level with hers, “Leah, baby, please don’t cry. I’m sorry.” I reach up, desperate and thumb away her tears. She just laughs and shakes her head at me.

“Sorry. I think I’ve just been holding back all of my emotions all day; they were eventually going to come spilling out. Silas, I want this to work between us. I already have really intense feelings for you. And even if you don’t want me to step down, the council is going to see me mating with an Alpha as a perfect opportunity. They’ll say it’ll be a detriment to our packs to keep us separated and we should merge packs. And before I know it, my pack will be called Fallen Oak and everyone would be calling me Luna. They would do it so smoothly too. We wouldn’t even see it coming,” 

She’s panicking. This is clearly something she thought about a lot. I wish I could tell her she was over exaggerating. But I know first hand just how big of d***s they could be.  Right now I just wanted to comfort her. King is whining in my head. He hates seeing our mate distressed and so do I. I know she may not want it, but I pull Leah towards me and wrap her tightly in my arms. Her body tenses for a second and then relaxes. I rest my chin on her and take a big whiff of her cinnamon and brown sugar scent.

”They’ve been trying to get me to step down since the second my dad died. They even put me on a f*****g probationary period when I first took over. They said it was to make sure I wasn’t overcome with grief. Which is just bullshit. I’ve never heard of them doing that to another pack before.” She tells me as evidence that she isn’t being over dramatic.

“I have,” I reply quietly.

“You have?” she whispers into my chest. But I hear her.

“Yes, my dad died when I was 12,” I would spare her the gory details for now, “And my mom took over as Interim Alpha until I was old enough. The council f*****g lost it. She was the first female alpha in our region and the first Luna who had chosen to step up rather than passing it on to the Beta. They fought her tooth and nail. Made her life f*****g miserable. Even threatened to take me away and have me raised by them. They did that probationary bullshit with my mom too. It took her getting our entire pack, including her Beta, Garrett’s dad, walking into the council’s office one by one and telling them either mom stays Alpha or we break off as a rogue pack. They finally backed off. But it broke her. She stepped down as Alpha the day of my 18th birthday.”

Leah pushes back from my chest and stares into my eyes. I look down at her letting her see all the emotion in my eyes. I need her to see me, and not this f*****g image she has of all male Alphas. I can be a f*****g asshole, sure, but I’m not a sexist asshole. And all I want to do is make Leah happy. I wouldn’t do anything that would take away from her happiness.

“So yeah, this is going to be tough. It’s probably going to be a f*****g logistical nightmare for a while until we figure out how to run two separate packs two hundred miles apart. You will definitely have some assholes trying to undermine you and take control. But I saw you Leah, and you are a f*****g badass. We can handle whatever is thrown at us. Together. Always together.”

She just stares at me for what seems like forever and I begin panicking. s**t. Does she not believe me? What am I going to do if she f*****g walks away now? I don’t think I’ll survive. But my badass beautiful Alpha surprises me, and instead of backing away, crushes her body into mine and devours my lips with hers.

I tighten my grip around her waist as I part my lips allowing her tongue in. I realize with Leah I would have to share dominance. We both will need to take control sometimes. I would let her have control of this kiss, because once she’s naked tonight, I’m taking over completely. I push her body against the gazebo banister as her hands snake around my neck, gripping my head, bringing me even closer to her. f**k me, she is delicious. I need more of her.

“Leah,” I manage to choke out. I feel her nod and I know she understands what I mean.

“Let’s go inside.” 

“Inside?” I question. I want to make sure we’re on the same page because otherwise this will be a long f*****g night.

She smiles and looks up at me, her brown eyes twinkling, “Yes inside. I don’t think you’ve seen the Alpha quarters yet, have you? Or my bedroom?”

I'm grinning like the f*****g Cheshire Cat as I take her hand and let her lead me outside. Part of me is aware that people are around and will see us. But I don’t give a f**k, and it seems like for at least this moment, neither does Leah.

“Nope I haven’t seen your bedroom. I can’t wait.”