The Alpha’s Hidden Mate

Chapter 4: Liam

After I had set a date up with Mae, I went to my car to contemplate. There was something very strange going on here. I could feel something important with this woman, but it was like she was being repressed. I couldn’t sense her as a wolf, but I also couldn’t pinpoint her as human. I needed some answers. I got into my car and called my Beta, Garrett.

“Hi Liam, are you done with the lecture?”

“Yes, but something has come up. I met someone.”

“Like, a Luna someone?” I could hear the eagerness in his voice.

“I can’t tell, there is something very strange going on. Echo can feel her and knows she is important but I’m not feeling the intense mate bond. But I’m not, not, feeling the mate bond…” my voice trailed off. I knew I sounded crazy. I could almost hear Garrett thinking through the phone.

“I don’t know Liam, it’s pretty obvious when we meet our mates, but our wolves have good instincts about this kind of stuff. Is she human?”

I pinched the bridge if my nose. “That’s the other thing. I don’t sense a wolf from her, but I can’t exactly call her human. She has power, I can feel it. I’m going to meet her for dinner tonight and see if I can get some answers. In the mean time, can you search Mae Sullivan in our registries. See if you get any hits that may give me some answers.”

“Of course,” said Garrett, and I heard the clacking of a keyboard in the background. “I’ll text you if I get any hits.”

“Thanks, let me know if anything needs my attention while I’m here.” I hung up and sighed. Echo was still pacing in my head, he felt antsy but couldn’t figure out why.

I decided to call in a reservation for Angelina’s. It was wonderful food, but it was also familiar. I felt completely out of my element and that was not a great feeling for an Alpha, so I needed to make sure I could control what I could.

I needed to kill time and I couldn’t sit still, so I made my way to a park preserve that I could let Echo run in. It wasn’t a huge amount of land but I knew it was be safe to be on and I could run out the nervous energy we were feeling. I walked into the woods a bit, double checking the coast was clear, took my clothes off, and shifted. Echo was impressively large, even by most Alpha standards. He was completely black, just like my hair, and his eyes were a more intense green than mine.

He was happy to be out, and chased some squirrels up a tree. Then went for a light run around the boarder of the park as a let my conscientiousness sit in the back of our shared mind.

“What do you think, buddy? What is going on?”

“I don’t know. I feel drawn to her, but it’s like something is blocking me,” Echo said in my head.

I thought for a moment. “Magic?”

“Could be,” he said. “That’s the best theory we have so far. But why? And are the blocking something or are they trying to make something out of nothing?”

As the Alpha of one of the largest packs in the country, who was also one of the wealthiest, I had no shortage of she-wolves making themselves available to me. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that someone would try to use magic to work their way into the Luna position. But my gut was telling me that wasn’t what was going on with Mae. She didn’t seem to have a clue about who I was.

I let Echo run until we had seen everything, then shifted back and got dressed. I drove to a little coffee shop that I knew I could get some solid internet and checked my email and tried to take care of pressing pack business. It was hard to focus though. Garrett texted me after a while, he hadn’t gotten any hits.

I decided to do the old fashion Google search. A few things popped up, most of which were around her track and field races in high school, a couple more around her academic achievements. A local paper had written an article about the success of her program at the university to compost excess food at the cafeteria.

I smiled to myself. She was obviously beautiful, but she was clearly intelligent and capable. But nothing that said - “this is a witch who is trying to trick you into making her your Luna.”

It was still early but I decided to get myself dressed and go wait for her, I couldn’t sit still any longer.

A few minutes before 7, the faintest whiff of a now familiar smell blew to me in the wind. I looked up and saw her. Her dressed hugged her in all the right places, showing off wonderful curves. I couldn’t help but notice that my heart seemed to soar when I looked at her and I broke out into a smile.

We exchanged our pleasantries, but when I gave her a handshake there was a slight tingle where we touched. Not the full sparks of a mate bond, but something was happening.

We chatted in the way to the restaurant, and I asked her about the project she was working on when I had asked her to dinner. Of course I knew exactly what it was because of the article I had read, but I loved the excitement and passion she had when she started taking about it.

When we arrived at the restaurant we were very quickly seated. As we walked to our table I noticed there were a lot of men who’s eyes lingered on Mae. Echo growled in my head. I was jealous, but why?

The hostess handed us our menus. I already knew that I wanted the lobster stuff ravioli, but I tried to look like I was deciding still so Mae didn’t feel rushed.

“Any reccomendations?” Mae peered over the menu at me. Goddess, those eyes.

“They make all their own pasta, so if you’re not afraid of carbs, anything with pasta is amazing. I’m partial to the lobster ravioli.”

Mae laughed. “I never met a carb I didn’t like. I’m eyeing the lasagna.”

Our waitress came by and we put in our orders with some wine

“So Mae, is that a family name? It’s a beautiful.”

A light blush crept into her cheeks. “To be honest, I don’t know. I was adopted, and that was the name that the adoption agency was told. It was the only thing my parents left me. Well, that and my necklace.” Her hand went up to the pendant hanging off her neck. I had never really taken a moment to look at it. It was leopard skin jasper.

“Echo, this is big. Not only does she not know her bloodline, but her pendant has protection properties. Specifically wolf protection properties.” My mind was racing.

“Someone has been suppressing her. Liam, I think she is our mate!” Echo’s tail was wagging in my head, jumping around like a puppy.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions, but it would definitely explain some things.”

“I didn’t mean to pry, I hope you didn’t mind sharing that with me.” I was looking at her face, trying to discern what she was feeling.

“No, it’s alright. I’ve always known I was adopted so I don’t mind sharing. And I don’t seem to mind sharing things with you.” Mae’s eyes for wide, like she didn’t mean to say that last part. I smiled.

“I’m glad you want to share with me.” I picked up my wine glass and clinked her’s with mine and took a sip. Echo was urging me to ask her a million more personal questions, but I knew better. This was a delicate situation, and I didn’t want to scare her off. I decided to direct the conversation to the housing project I had originally used to get her to come to dinner. Mae seemed to relax and the conversation flowed easily. This connection was unreal, she was so witty and smart, I couldn’t help but envision her as my pack Luna.

When we finished our meal, we agreed that we should meet up the next day to look at some preliminary plans and she could give some feedback and ideas for community gardens. She went to the powder room as I slipped our waitress my credit card.

We walked back to the entrance of campus, chatting about our favorite meals to cook. Before I knew it, we were standing by her car. Mae seemed to be surprised as well.

“Oh, here we are. This is me.” She pointed to a silver Corolla. I held out my hand to give her another handshake. She took my hand in hers.

“Thank you, Liam. That meal was wonderful and I’m really excited to work on this project.” Her eyes sparkled and she seemed genuinely happy. It made me feel happy as well.

“Of course, Mae, the pleasure is all mine. I think we could make a really good team.” It was at that moment I realized we were still holding hands. Though her scent was still very weak, it was wonderful, and I couldn’t help but take a step closer to her. She didn’t move away from me. I gazed into her eyes, again trying to figure out her feelings. She was staring back, not saying anything. Before I could stop myself, I put my lips on hers, gently kissing her soft lips. It felt amazing, small tingles coming from our mouths. I started kissing her more hungrily, loving the taste and feel of her lips. I pulled myself away, realizing I was about to lose control.

Mae slowly opened her eyes, her breathing a little heavy. I stepped back, finally releasing her hand.

“I look forward to our meeting tomorrow,” I said, and gave her a smile then turned to walk to my car.

I needed to figure this out, and quick.