The Alpha’s Hidden Mate

Chapter 9: Liam

“It could have gone a lot worse. She’s still here, and she didn’t reject us,” said Echo as we waited impatiently outside Mae’s room.

Echo was right, she could have ran and I would have never seen her again. But she also thought she was a prisoner. And to be honest, she didn’t even know there was an option to reject us, so I wasn’t sure I could count that as a win.

This was going to require a lot of patience and restraint. That was going to be particularly challenging as an Alpha. Every fiber of my being was telling me to mark her from the moment that necklace was far enough away. I was smacked in the face with the intoxicating smell of flowery earth and the air after a hard rain. Echo had tried to take over, but then I saw her start to go down and cry out in pain, all I could think about was getting her to the hospital.

It definitely wasn’t how I thought meeting my mate would go, but the Moon Goddess couldn’t have picked a better person for me. She was beautiful, obviously. Anyone with eyes could see that. But she was smart, funny, determined, compassionate, and resilient. She would be a phenomenal Luna. I just had to make sure I could convince her to be my Luna.

I anxiously sat with my thoughts outside the door. It was hard to not burst back into the room. But eventually Julie opened the door and motioned for me to come inside. As she closed the door I waited for Mae to say something.

“I have a lot of questions, and I’d like you to be the one that answers them,” she said. “But do you think we could get out of this hospital? Maybe go sit some where else together?”

Echo yipped and jumped around in my head. This was great, she still wanted to talk and she wasn’t going to leave just yet. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Of course, yes! Let’s get out of here and talk.” I opened the door and flagged down a passing nurse and asked her to get Dr. Green. Within seconds Dr. Green was there and did a final assessment on Mae and cleared her to leave.

“You may still get some light headaches as you start to adjust to your wolf. If the pain gets really bad, come back here and we’ll figure out what’s going on,” said Dr. Green. “But you are fine and free to go.” She gave Mae an encouraging squeeze on her shoulder and left the room.

I sent a quick mind-link to Garrett.

“Garrett, Mae and I are leaving the hospital and she wants to talk. I’m going to take her to the cafe so she doesn’t feel intimidated being alone, and keep her in public. But I’d like to have some privacy. Can you run up ahead and try to clear the place out a little bit. Just pay for people’s meals and tell them I’m sorry but need the space for an important meeting or something.” I didn’t give him a lot to work with but that was also why he was my Beta, he could figure it out.

“Of course, I’m on my way. I’m glad Mae is well enough to leave. How is it going? She didn’t run away screaming?” He was trying to keep it light, but he knew just how much was riding on Mae trusting me.

“She’s definitely a little freaked out, but I can tell she is already feeling the mate bond so I think that is helping,” I replied “Thanks Garrett, we’ll talk later.”

I closed the mind link and looked at Mae. She was looking at me like I had another head.

“What was that? Your eyes were totally clouded over and you were just standing there,” she said.

Shit. Not off to a great start.

“Sorry Mae, I was mind linking Garrett,” I said. Her face didn’t change. Right, she wouldn’t know what that was. “I can communicate telepathically with members of the pack. All wolves can. Once they are 18, come of age and as long as they are a member of the pack. Once you join, if you join, you’ll be able to do that as well.”

“Ok,” she said slowly. “So there could be whole conversations happening right in front of me that I have no idea what’s being said?”

“Well, yes, though it’s usually pretty obvious when a mind-link is happening, as you just saw.” I opened the door. “Let’s go to the cafe, sit, and you can ask me all the questions you want.”

She nodded and walked out the door. As we left the hospital the sun was low in the sky, about to set. Mae suddenly stopped walking.

“Oh my god what time is it?” She asked frantically.

“It’s almost 6 pm, why”

“I never checked in with Lilly! She is probably freaking out!” Mae said and she started digging in her purse.

“Actually, I took care of that,” I said as gently touched her arm. She stopped digging and her eyes narrowed slightly.

“What do you mean?”

“While we were waiting for you to wake up I could hear your phone buzzing off the hook. I saw that Lilly was calling and texting, and figured it wouldn’t be in anyone’s best interest to have Lilly come blazing onto our land, accusing us of kidnapping you. So I used your face to unlock your phone. I texted her you were caught up in the project and you were probably going to stay for dinner. It seemed to settle her, though it would probably be a good idea to check in at some point.” I tried not to look too sheepish as I gave her the explanation. She pulled out her phone and unlocked it, looked for a beat, and then put it back.

“Alright. We may need to have a chat about personal privacy later, but that was probably the right move.” She said as she started walking again.

Garrett had done a great job, there were very few people out and no one was in their wolf form. If it weren’t for the dense forest around us, it would have look like any human small downtown area. We got to the cafe and it was virtually empty except for the workers behind the counter and one of my warriors, Ava, strategically placed close to the front door, sipping a cup of coffee. I gave her a quick nod and she nodded back, a mutual understanding of her mission.

“Are you hungry? They have great food here,” I said as I pointed to the menu. She looked for a moment.

“Can I just get some chips and guacamole?”

I nodded to the young man behind the counter and led Mae to a booth in the corner. We sat down and she looked around a little before focusing back on me.

“I’m an open book, Mae. I promise I won’t lie to you, I’ll give you all the facts, and nothing is off limits.” Just then the server came by with Mae’s food. She dipped a chip in her guacamole and took a bite, clearly thinking about where to start.

“You said we’re werewolves. Do we change into wolves during the full moon?”

“We can shift at any time, as soon as we turn 18.” I realized Mae was probably about 23, so five years of her wolf being suppressed.

“And then what, we’re just wild animals?”

I chuckled because some would say yes.

“Not exactly. I’m sure you’ve caught on that our wolves are highly intelligent. While they still have a higher drive of animal instinct, they are still a part of us. So even when you’ve shifted into your wolf, you can communicate and even try to take back control. Depending on the situation it could take a little bit of coaxing.”

Mae was silent for a minute.

“Sorry, Pearl was talking to me. It’s going to take some getting used to having a whole other voice in my head.” She paused. “What is your wolf’s name?”

“Echo.” I could feel him prancing proudly in my head.

“Our mate wants to know more about me,” he said giddily.

“Pearl says she can sense him, and she really likes him. She wants to meet him soon,” said Mae, her eyes looking up and to the side a little. Echo was yipping and doing flips around my mind.

Mae laughed a little, my heart soared at the sound.

“Do wolves flirt? Because if so, she is definitely trying to flirt,” said Mae, her cheeks going slightly pink. I laughed.

“Yes, wolves definitely flirt. It’s their favorite pass times with mates.”

Mae looked at me, searching deep in my eyes. I could stare at those honey-brown eyes for days.

“And…we are mates? That’s what Pearl has been telling me, at least. And, I hope this isn’t presumptuous of me, but I just feel like I am connected to you, and I think you feel the same way. But if I’m being honest, that scares the s**t out of me. Because I don’t know anything about you. Or what you do. Or how any of this works.”

I could feel Mae becoming overwhelmed, I reached across the table and took her hand in mine. Sparks flitted across our connected hands and I sensed her calming down.

“It is not presumptuous of you at all. You are my mate, and there is no one I want more. And I’ll be honest, wolves tend to move quickly when it comes to being mates. Honestly, we move quickly on a lot of things. But I have waited for you my whole life, and if having you means I just have to take things a little slower, I am more than happy to do so.” My thumb made small circles on the back of her hand. We looked into each others eyes for a minute, neither one of us saying a word but just appreciating the other person.

Suddenly the cafe door opened and in walked Charlotte. Ava gave me a panicked look over her shoulder, she couldn’t exactly stop her.

It took her a mere millisecond to zero in on Mae and me sitting in the corner.

“Hi Liam! I didn’t know you were here, what are you doing?”

She closed the distance between us very quickly and embraced me in a hug. Mae’s eyes were huge, and she was blushing furiously.

Shit. s**t. s**t.