The Alpha’s Hidden Mate

Chapter 11 Liam

I thought Charlotte showing up was going to be disastrous. We had just talked about taking it slow and suddenly she was going to meet my sister. Not exactly what I had in mind.

But it went just fine, better than fine. She had called me her mate, in public. And she seemed to really like Charlotte. My heart was full.

I finished programming my number into Mae’s phone and mind-linked Charlotte.

“Hey Char, Mae has had a long day and is taking a shower. Do you think you could swing by with some clothes for her?”

“Yes, of course! Any preference of style?”

“I just want her to be comfortable. And we’re staying in to have dinner so there is no need to dress up.”

“You got it, be there soon.” And with that she severed the mind-link. In a record 3 minutes she was there with a small duffel.

“A girl’s gotta have options,” she told me. It took her some convincing to get her to leave, she was so excited to learn more about Mae. But I eventually shooed her away and left the duffle by the bathroom door.

I called down to the kitchen to have some food delivered. I didn’t know what she wanted to eat, so I ordered a little bit of everything. She likes guacamole, so she must like Mexican, so I got some tacos. Everybody likes pizza so I got one of those too. But maybe she was in the mood for a classic burger and fries so I added that to the order. She enjoyed the Italian we had the other night so I got some fettuccine Alfredo. Then I realized we were extremely carb heavy so I added a walnut strawberry salad. I was already in this deep so I added Chinese dumplings and decided that would probably be enough.

I sat in the living room, fidgeting. I felt antsy waiting for her, I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with myself.

“Join her! Mark her!” Echo urged me.

“Trust me, the thought has crossed my mind. But we are going to have to move at her pace. She’s already taken big steps for us in just the last 2 hours. We can give her some space for now. It will be worth it in the end,” I told him.

I heard the shower turn off and then a knock at the door. The food had arrived. I took everything to the table and set it out. I grabbed some plates and silverware and set the table and then pulled out a bottle of wine.

When I finished pouring our glasses, Mae walked in with her hair in a messy bun on top of her head with a few lose curls in her face. She was wearing yoga paints and a v-neck t-shirt. The yoga pants showed off her perfectly round ass, and the t-shirt gave just a hint of cleavage. I had to remind Echo to stand down. She looked amazing.

“Charlotte really nailed it on these sizes. I’m impressed,” she said, looking herself over.

“Wow!” She said as she looked at the table. “This is so much food, are we expecting more people?”

I gave her a sheepish grin.

“I didn’t know what you wanted to eat, and I didn’t want you to have wait, so I thought I’d get a little variety. But if you don’t like anything here, we can get something else, it’s not a problem.”

Mae burst out laughing. It was the most beautiful noise I had ever heard.

“No, we definitely don’t need to get more food. All of this looks amazing, I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Mae walked up to me and wrapper her arms around my waste.

“Thank you, you have taken really great care of me today,” she said into my chest.

Her body fit into mine so perfectly, I never wanted to let her go. I breathed in her magnificent scent. Echo howled with happiness in my head.

“Pearl is howling,” she said, looking up at me.

“Echo is howling, too” I said. “He’s already head over heals for you and he’s never even met you.”

We gazed into each other’s eyes. I wanted to kiss her so badly, run my hands over that insane ass of hers, to worship her body with mine.

Suddenly, Mae’s stomach let out a loud growl. We broke apart, and she cleared her throat and blushed.

“Let’s eat!” She said and clapped her hands together.

We loaded our plates with food and sat at the table. Mae commented that everything she tried was amazing. The conversation flowed naturally and easily. I told her about the pack, my family, my childhood and growing up with Garrett and Ronan. She told me about her dreams, her parents, her childhood growing up with Lilly. We covered the topic of mating, and being marked, and I thought she looked so adorable when she blushed a deep red color. After a few hours we had made a sizable dent in the food and I felt like I knew Mae better than my oldest friends.

“I can’t believe how much food I just ate,” said Mae, rubbing her stomach.

“You will probably eat more than you’re used to, now that you have your wolf. We tend to burn more calories and have faster metabolisms.”

Mae was quiet for a moment.

“So, if I were to do this, come here and be the pack Luna, what does that entail? What would be expected of me?” She asked.

I tried to get my heart from racing. I was thrilled that she wanted to discuss how she could be the Luna of our pack.

“If you decided to join, you would be a leader here. The job of the Luna, just like my role as the Alpha, is to take care of the people and help make sure things run smoothly. Some of that would include helping with logistics for events, since we host other packs pretty often. You would also be in charge of pack house staff, helping settle disputes, and traditionally the Luna does events and volunteers with our school. All of that being said, you are free and more than welcome to work on things that you want to. I wasn’t bluffing when we talked about gardens here, I think growing our own food would be amazing. And you can still follow your dreams of becoming an architect. In fact having easy access to an architect would be phenomenal for a lot of our businesses.”

Mae was chewing on dumpling, thinking.

“It sounds busy,” she said.

I nodded.

“Yes there are times when it can get busy, but there is a ton of support too. Everyone here is family, so there is never a shortage of helping hands. All you have to do is ask and there will be people to help.”

We sat in silence for a moment. Then Mae spoke.

“Here’s what I know. I have never felt this way about anyone before and I don’t want to lose you. It also scares the s**t out of me how fast this is all happening. And I owe it to you and your whole pack to be absolutely sure that I can be the Luna they deserve.”

Goddess she would be an amazing Luna.

“I want to spend more time here, get to know the people more, and learn more about how I can help. And I don’t want you to see other women. I want to be exclusive.”

She said it with such determination and authority that if it hadn’t been the most ridiculously easy request I had ever heard I would have thought she was using her Luna voice on me.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Mae, as long as you’ll have me, I will never so much as think about another woman ever again.”

I had a thought that made me uneasy, but I knew that I needed to tell her because I told her I would never lie or keep anything from her.

“But there is something you should know. Before we mark each other, you do have the option to reject me. It’s very painful, the worst pain a wolf can experience. But if you decide that you don’t want me, I will respect your decision, and we won’t be connected anymore.”

She was looking at me with big, concerned eyes, then a small smile crept on her lips.

“Pearl is growling at me, I don’t think I could live the rest of my life with such an angry wolf in my head. I am not even considering it an option at this point.”

Echo danced in my head, completely relieved to hear that answer.

We held hands and gazed at each other again. I took in every curve of her face, every tiny freckle, every eyelash. Before I knew what was happening, her lips crashed into mine.

I was so shocked I didn’t immediately respond, but I pulled her to me and guided her to my lap, having her straddle me with her back against the table. My tongue gently pushed into her mouth and my hands felt the whole length of her back down to her ass. I grabbed it and pulled her even closer to me, moving her up my lap. Her hands were on my neck and in my hair, pulling me towards her, like she couldn’t get enough. She tasted so delicious, my tongue explored her mouth eagerly as sparks radiated between us, adding to the sensations and pleasure.

I broke our kiss and started nibbling and kissing her neck, my hands moving up her back into her luscious curly hair. She moaned as I lightly bit her marking spot. The sound drove me so crazy that I pulled her mouth back to mine and kissed her as deeply as I could.

Echo was trying to push through, and I could tell I wasn’t going to be able to stop if I went much further. I knew I needed to slow down.

I put my hands on her shoulder and gently pushed her away, moving her mouth away from mine. I put my forehead on hers, trying to catch my breath.

“Sorry Mae, I have to stop now before I get too caught up. I don’t want to do anything I’ll regret.”

She nodded her head a little, also breathing heavily.

“It’s ok, I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been wanting to do that since the last time we kissed and I couldn’t wait any longer,” said Mae.

I smiled. It was so sweet and sexy.

A ping from my phone broke us out of our little bubble. It was just a report about building materials. But I realized it was already well past midnight.

“It’s really late and I have so much more that I want to show you tomorrow. Let’s get you set up for bed and we can pick up where we left off in the morning,” I said.

Mae looked and me and bit her lip.

“You can say no if it’s too much, but I - I don’t want you to go. Can I sleep with you?”

Oh Goddess.