The Alpha's Cursed Mate

Chapter 4

Tate

Shifting the warm bag of food from his hand to his arm, Tate switched the bouquet of pink peonies to his now free hand. Nervously, he adjusted his collar and then knocked on the front door of Kelly’s house. Silently, he counted in his head to see how long it would take for someone to answer the door.

One, two, three…

He had already decided that if no one answered before he got to 50, he would turn around and leave. He wasn’t going to stand around all night looking like an i***t. There would always be another time.

Nine, ten, eleven…

Were those footsteps he heard coming to the door?

Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two…

The lock clicked as someone on the other side of the door unlocked it. His stomach twisted in knots.

“Well, don’t you look handsome,” a soft, sweet voice said as the door swung open. “Mark told me you were coming with dinner for Kelly. Come on in.”

“I’m surprised Guiseppe’s was open this late,” Mark said from the living room. “But I am sure they made an exception for you.”

“I called this morning to see if I could get an order this late,” Tate chuckled as he stepped through the door. “It’s a good thing I did, too. They close the dining room at nine and the kitchen at ten.”

“Ahh,” Mark nodded. “You got lucky then.”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Would you like to set up before Kelly gets here?” Colleen called from the kitchen. “I can show you where everything is if you would like.”

“Of course,” Tate smiled. “That would be wonderful. I’m sure Kelly is exhausted. I would hate having to ask her where things are.”

“Well,” Colleen smiled back, “come here.”

Colleen beckoned for Tate to come over as she placed a vase for the flowers on the counter in front of her. Tate walked over and placed the bag and the flowers on the counter. Before he knew it, Colleen had filled a vase with the dainty flowers and was placing plates, serving dishes, and cutlery on the counter all while telling him where everything was.

“Now,” Colleen was saying as Tate marveled at how quickly Colleen moved, “after dinner, tell Kelly to go rest on the couch and that you’ll clean up. Since you brought the food, and it’s a surprise for her, it’s your job to do the cleaning. All you have to do is rinse the dishes and then wipe the table and the counters down. If you do have dessert before you leave, there are paper plates in this cupboard here. Kelly likes hot chocolate most evenings, so you can heat water in the kettle on the stove if she wants any. The mugs are in the cupboard to the right and the hot chocolate is on the shelf above it. If you need anything else, I believe you have both of our numbers on your cell. Just send a text. I’ll be checking periodically.”

“Thank you so much,” Tate said, nodding and feeling a little dazed. “I hope I can remember all that.”

“Would you like me to write it down?” Colleen offered.

“No, no, I think I’ve got it,” Tate replied, leaning against the counter.

“Hun,” Mark said gruffly as he finished tying his shoes. “If we want to make the movie on time, we better scoot.”

“Of course,” Colleen said, flustered. “Be good. Don’t do anything stupid. I know you’re both adults, but please, be careful.”

Mark nodded gravely as he looked at Tate, Mark’s threat flashing through his mind.

“I swear to be on my best behavior,” he said solemnly as he walked with them to the door.

He stood there for a few minutes, watching them get into their car and contemplating how he should explain why he brought dinner to Kelly. She had said she wanted to go straight to bed, but did she really? If she had been honest, would she thank him for the dinner and then kick him out, just like that? Or would she be polite and sit down to eat with him before kicking him out? And if she hadn’t been honest?

He didn’t want to think about how angry she might be that he saw through her lie, or that he had stopped by anyway after she had told him not to. But, a small voice in the back of his mind whispered, what if she was testing you, to see if you would come anyway? What sort of trouble might you two get into if you’ve passed her test? Tate shook his head. He couldn’t think like that.

Turning, Tate practically flew back to the kitchen as he glanced at the time. She’d be getting off work any minute now, which meant he had maybe ten minutes to set up. As he finished by placing the flowers on the table, he silently cursed himself for forgetting a candle or two, but then he reminded himself that that would be too romantic and they weren’t there yet, not even close.

He glanced back at the clock. Any minute now. Carefully, he grabbed the last few items out of the bag that he had used to carry the food in. A box of raspberry-filled donuts and a couple of DVDs. He arranged them carefully on the counter so that Kelly would see them when she got up from the table and headed to the couch. He hoped that she would agree to watch a movie with him, but if she didn’t, at least he got to have dinner with her.

Kelly

Wearily, Kelly pulled up to her house, not noticing Tate’s truck parked down the street. Slowly, she got out of the car and then froze as she took in the lights blazing from the front windows. It wasn’t like her parents to forget to turn off the lights before they left. Worried that someone must have broken in, she silently tiptoed up to the house, grabbed a small garden shovel out of the flower bed, and slipped inside.

The first thing Kelly noticed was the smell of Italian food coming from the kitchen table. Her mouth watered. The next thing that she noticed was what looked like a box of donuts on the counter. Her parents must be trying to make up for telling Tate where she had gone on the full moon.

Relaxing slightly, she dropped her bag onto the floor and was about to drop the shovel when a smooth, deep voice on her right greeting her made her jump. Whirling around, shovel out, she smacked Tate right in the face. There was a loud c***k. And then the blood came.

“What the f**k, Tate?” Kelly yelled in surprise, dropping the shovel and yanking her jacket off. She wadded it up and quickly placed it under his chin as blood flowed down his face. “I told you I was going straight to bed. I told you I would let you know when you could come over to see me. You couldn’t wait, could you?”

“I think you broke my nose,” Tate said, muffled by the jacket.

“Hold that right there, don’t move,” Kelly ordered, stalking down the hall to her bathroom.

Swearing to herself, Kelly rummaged through a couple of drawers, looking for some Tylenol. She knew she had some.

She glanced in the mirror before opening her bag of makeup on the counter. She looked like hell. Dark circles under her eyes made it look like she hadn’t gotten any sleep in the last few days. Her long blonde hair was also a straggly mess after a full day at work. Grabbing a scrunchie off the counter, she threw her hair up into a messy ponytail and resumed her search through her make-up bag. There it was, hidden behind her concealer.

Crouching, she opened the cupboard under her sink, grabbed a couple of dark washcloths, snagged the Tylenol, and then headed back out to the main room. Tate was still sitting on the chair next to the door, her jacket under his nose, a scowl on his face. Choking back a laugh, she took a small mixing bowl out from under the kitchen sink, filled it with warm water, and then went to kneel in front of Tate.

“This might hurt a bit,” she said gently.

Very carefully, she took the jacket away from Tate’s face to survey the damage she had done. Tate’s nose had definitely been broken. His nose was now angled to the right and was still leaking a bit of blood. A small gash that was quickly shrinking went down the left side of his nose. Taking one of the washcloths and dipping it in the warm water, she slowly and gently started wiping blood from his face. As she cleaned him up, she could feel his eyes on her face, watching her every movement. She could feel the heat in her cheeks as she flushed with embarrassment.

“Would you like me to help reset your nose before it heals all the way?” Kelly asked softly, finally meeting Tate’s gaze.

Tate held her in his gaze for a few moments before answering. It made her squirm with how intense it was. Finally, he nodded, gripping the armrests of the chair to steady himself.

Slowly, Kelly stood and hesitantly grabbed Tate’s nose. She held her breath as she quickly yanked it back in the right direction, flinching at the c***k it made. Blood started oozing out of his nose again as she stepped back. Quickly, she dampened the second washcloth in the bowl of water and started wiping the blood away again. After the bleeding had finally stopped, she sat back on her heels, dropped the washcloth in the bowl, and looked at the floor, exhaustion starting to take over.

“I’m sorry about that,” Kelly said remorsefully. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

“It’s all right,” Tate said softly, scooting off the chair to kneel in front of Kelly. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“Uh,” Kelly started, “I just broke your nose with a gardening shovel.”

“I can’t be mad at you for defending yourself,” Tate chuckled as he lifted Kelly’s face up to his. “However, I think our dinner might be getting cold thanks to this little delay.”

Kelly felt herself go red again as Tate helped her to her feet and led her to the table. She let Tate pull out a chair for her as she gazed at the food on the table. Linguine alle vongole with clam sauce and a loaf of ciabatta on the side.

“Giuseppe's?” she asked, breathing in the aromas.

“Of course,” Tate said, sliding into the chair across from her.

“And the flowers….” Kelly reached out to touch one of the delicate blooms. “They’re lovely. Thank you.”

“Any time,” Tate smiled, gesturing for Kelly to dig in.

Kelly didn’t need telling twice. However, even though she was ravenous, she paced herself. She had already embarrassed herself in front of her alpha once today. She didn’t need to do it twice.

As she ate, she found herself chatting easily to Tate about her day at the coffee shop, about how they were trying to expand into becoming a bakery as well, and how she was working more than 60 hours a week each week to help with the expansion.

“That’s why you look so tired,” Tate commented, studying the shadows beneath her eyes.

Kelly nodded before asking Tate how his day had gone. She wasn’t really sure she wanted to know anything more about the pack, but she figured being nice and asking how he was doing couldn’t hurt.

“I don’t want to hurt Greg’s feelings because he’s a great guy,” Tate grumbled as he told her about his beta. “But I can’t take listening to how his mate gets up with him every morning to make him breakfast and how she keeps leaving him cute notes in the pockets of his jacket. It’s driving me mad.”

“Is that what you want from me if we get to that point?” Kelly asked, suddenly realizing that the only reason Tate might be pursuing the bond was because he saw how happy his beta was.

“Goddess, no,” Tate said quickly. “I don’t mind lovey-dovey, but they’ve been together for six years now and they do this every day. I thought it would stop after a couple of weeks when they moved in together. Boy, was I wrong. But lately, I don’t know, it seems to have gotten worse.”

“Is that even possible?” Kelly giggled.

“If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” Tate chuckled back, “I wouldn’t believe it myself.”

“There must be a reason behind it,” Kelly mused. “Maybe Greg is trying to push you into a relationship. He’s tired of you being the third wheel.”

“Greg isn’t that conniving,” Tate said, leaning back in the chair, his plate now empty.

“Is she expecting then?” Kelly asked, dipping a slice of bread into the little bit of sauce left on her plate.

“I don’t know,” Tate admitted. “That might be it, though. I wouldn’t put it past Greg to become even more loving if a pup was on the way.”

“Why don’t you ask?”

“Not my place,” Tate said as he watched Kelly push her plate back. “When they’re ready to tell me, they will.”

“You really aren’t anything like your father, are you?” Kelly asked, the thought surprising her as her eyes searched his face.

“What do you mean?” Tate asked, warily.

Kelly stood up and took her plate to the sink before answering.

“I mean that if your father was in your place right now,” Kelly explained, “he would already know if Greg and his mate were expecting. And I highly doubt he would have put up with listening to Greg brag about his relationship all the time because it would detract from his productivity. I also doubt that he would have brought your mother dinner and flowers because he wanted to see her and then stayed after she broke his nose.”

“You’re probably right,” Tate chuckled, standing. “I’m going to clean up if you want to go relax on the couch. And if you’re up for it, I brought a couple of movies over if you want to watch one.”

Kelly grinned at him as she walked over to the counter to see what movies he had brought. The first movie was The Princess Bride. The second one was Bridesmaids. A pleased smile tugged at her lips. He was definitely trying to cater to her interests by bringing a princess movie and a chick flick.

She glanced up and noticed Tate watching her, a goofy smile on his face. An odd but happy feeling came over her as she looked back down at the movies. She didn’t want to give Tate too many ideas with the sweet romance in The Princess Bride, so that was out even though it was one of her favorites. But Bridesmaids could be just as bad, especially with that opening scene.

An image of Tate on her couch flitted through her head as she put Bridesmaids down. Biting her lip, she caught herself wondering how gentle Tate would be with how hard his body was. Shaking her head, shocked that she was even thinking that, she grabbed The Princess Bride, realizing that it was obviously the safer of the two.

“Ready?” Tate asked from behind her, the box of donuts in his hands.

Kelly nodded before settling onto the couch with a fuzzy blanket. If thoughts like that were going to start sneaking into her head, she was going to have to be careful around Tate. She could see herself getting attached, bond or no bond, very quickly. The last thing she needed was to find herself in bed with him when she was still planning on leaving.

She watched as Tate got the movie ready and then dimmed the lights before sitting down next to her. She could feel the heat radiating off of him, he was that close. And he smelled so good, like crushed pine needles and fall leaves. She pulled her blanket closer to distract herself.

“Are you cold?” Tate asked, his eyes on her.

Kelly nodded slightly and then stiffened in shock when Tate shifted and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. His intoxicating scent was all around her. And he was so warm. If she laid her head on his chest, she was sure she would fall asleep within minutes.

She would never have to worry about freezing in bed again with him around. Then again, she might never sleep again with him around. The image of his mostly naked body on her couch flitted through her mind again. Gritting her teeth, she tried to clear her head. There was no reason for her to be this attracted to this man unless this was part of the mate bond.

The light flicked on as Mark and Colleen walked in quietly.

Kelly sat up in surprise. Had she really been leaning against Tate? How long had they been sitting there? She glanced at the TV and realized they were over halfway through the movie. Had she really been that preoccupied with her own thoughts? She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was already past midnight.

“Thank you for dinner,” Kelly said softly. “I think we should finish the movie another time, though. I need to be up in a few hours.”

“Of course,” Tate said, straightening.

Both Kelly and Tate stood, stretching as Colleen watched them discreetly from the kitchen and Mark disappeared into his room. Kelly walked over to the door and waited, yawning, for Tate to grab his things.

“I’m sorry about your nose,” Kelly said as Tate stopped in front of her.

“It’s okay,” Tate grinned. “Guess I needed a sharp reminder about who’s really in charge.”

“Drive safe, okay?” Kelly giggled, looking up into Tate’s amber eyes.’

“Always,” Tate said softly, bending down to brush a kiss against Kelly’s cheek before heading out the door.

Kelly watched Tate hop in his truck and drive away, frozen in shock, before numbly heading to bed, more images of what else Tate could do to her with those lips running through her head.