*Through Xander's Eyes*
The door slammed in my face and for a moment I considered breaking it down. I could still feel the sparks from where she had touched me and taste her spearmint flavored tongue in my mouth. I had slept with a few girls in my time but nothing compared to that few seconds of kissing her.
I heard her shower turn on and couldn’t stop myself from imaging her wet and naked and thinking about how much I wanted to lick every drop of water off her skin.
I rushed to the room that my stuff was in, slammed the door and punched the wall. I was painfully hard now and worried she’d never be willing to open up to me. I was mad at the complexity of our situation and that she was trying to stay distant. At first I had been worried she just didn’t want to accept a mate, but the way she kissed me told me that she was feeling everything I was. My hope had always been to treat my mate as my equal and partner, but would she ever see me that way? We were in a unique situation but I’m sure we could work out the kinks if she let me.
I stripped and stepped under the cold water in my shower. I needed to take care of my erection.
Once I was as calm as I was going to get, I dried off and got dressed again. I wandered back down to the lounge for one more drink but when I got there only Max and Alex remained.
They both gave me playful smirks as I poured myself another scotch and sat down. They stared at me waiting for me to speak first. I wasn’t going to crack. I honestly didn’t even know where to start.
“Well it’s a good thing we won’t be in all of the meetings with them tomorrow. I don’t think any work would get done,” Max said to break the tension. Alex and I laughed.
“I’ve been thinking about all the rumors. I think the one saying she sometimes f***s her omegas might be true,” Alex said, not recognizing his mistake until it was too late.
The words were barely out of his mouth when I grabbed him by his neck and shoved him against the wall, growling loudly in his face. If we hadn’t been friends since childhood I would have ripped his head off.
“Alex, you f*****g i***t, why would you say that?” Max moaned as he came to put a hand on my shoulder while prying my claws off of Alex’s neck. Zane had tried to take control and my claws had punctured Alex’s skin in some places.
Alex held his hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry man, I shouldn’t have said that. I’m not used to any of us having mates!”
I finally got my rage and Zane’s wild growling under control and sat back down, draining my drink.
Alex, who was already healed, and Max sat back down. I couldn’t stay mad at Alex for long. He usually had good intentions but everyone knew he could be a dipshit. We sat in silence for a few minutes.
“What are you gonna do, man? You’re kinda in uncharted territory here,” Alex finally asked me.
I sighed. “Guys I don’t know. She doesn’t really seem like she wants to talk about it. And I don’t think she’ll let me in her room again.”
They both looked genuinely concerned for me. Neither of them had mates but every wolf knew about the mate bond. A bad relationship with a mate was excruciating and miserable.
“I need to go to bed. It’s gonna take all of my energy to keep Zane under control tomorrow,” I told them as I got up.
They decided to call it a night too and followed me up the stairs. A massive security guard now stood at attention outside of Sage’s room. Did she always have someone guarding her door at night?
The guard kept his eyes on us as we said goodnight and went to our assigned rooms.
I crashed onto my bed, suddenly exhausted. It felt like adrenaline had been pumping through me for days and all my cells were finally coming down from some crazy high.
I knew there were a lot of meetings scheduled for tomorrow but I hoped that I’d get more opportunities to be around Sage and speak with her. What was I supposed to do all day knowing exactly where she was but not able to see her?
Groaning, I got up, stripped, turned the lights off and got in bed, too preoccupied in my thoughts of Sage to do anything else. I finally fell asleep thinking about her scent and the feel of her skin on mine.
**********
I woke up later than I usually did and rushed through my shower in hopes of running into Sage before the meetings started. A few minutes later when I walked into the dining room I realized I wouldn’t be so lucky.
Alex and Max wandered in after me and we took seats at the table with our moms. Isabelle came in with an older woman carrying platters of food. She sat down with us as the other woman left to go get more.
“I hope you all slept well!” Isabelle said as she piled her plate with pancakes. She smiled brightly at everyone except for me. “Sage and the others have already eaten and started their meetings so it’s just us this morning. When we’re done I can give you a tour of the territory!”
Sage had given everyone in our small group permission to call her by her first name which is why I assumed Isabelle had stopped referring to her as Luna.
The food was very good and Isabelle chatted away with the two moms and Alex but I sat in silence, mad at myself for not getting up earlier to see Sage.
Max alternated between joining the table conversation and linking me to check in. It was a little comforting but I got anxious for breakfast to be over so we could go outside and move.
While Sage wouldn’t be joining us, I was excited to go on a tour. I wanted to see everything she valued and worked hard for. Stupid or not, I was also curious about some of the rumors.
Finally Isabelle led us out to the porch and down the stairs. Looking back at the house, I noticed how many windows it had. There were so many rooms and each one that faced west had an incredible view. I tried to remember if Sage had a window on this side, but I couldn’t remember anything about her room except for the bed and her.
The pool was huge, with a diving board and a big slide and a large open shed off to the side filled to the brim with kids’ pool toys. I assumed on weekends and evenings in the summer this was a popular spot.
Isabelle led us down a long path winding around every kind of court and field one might need for a sports game. It then continued through a few rolling hills covered in wildflowers. At the top of the last hill we stopped. Isabelle continued to talk about the pack as we turned back to look at the house. It looked almost small from this view, nestled between dense trees and surrounded by tall mountains.
“If you look in the distance over there,” Isabelle said as she pointed to another hill in the distance, “you can see our field of solar panels. The solar power plant is just beyond that. Sage is very focused on our environmental footprint and preserving the land we live on. The pack is technically completely self-sufficient, but there are some things we prefer to get elsewhere.”
Isabelle took off down a path that led north into the forest.
“A while ago Sage’s dad tried to bring in a bunch of livestock so that they could control all of their food production. They had the space and it was a good idea in theory. But the animals could smell us and were too nervous and skittish all the time, so they had to get rid of them,” she laughed as she led us through the woods. I found her use of “they” interesting. Maybe she wasn’t from this pack originally?
We all laughed, telling her that one of our previous alphas had also had the same idea and came to the same conclusion.
As we continued walking the scent of multiple wolves and grunting and growling started getting stronger and louder. We stepped out into a large clearing that was obviously their training grounds. I was especially interested in this part because when I became beta I would be in charge of the training and fighting at Cold Moon.
Or would that all change now?
There were structures scattered around the outskirts set up like an obstacle course. An area in the middle was divided into about fifty smaller rings for sparring. A few targets were set up off to the side as a shooting range and the rest was just open space.
Currently about thirty wolves were either sparring or using random pieces of equipment. A large man walked among them, occasionally giving someone a tip or yelling at them to work harder.
“So this is of course our training ground. The fighters train every morning and Ben leads that one. Everyone in the pack over the age of 13 is expected to attend one training a day. Parents of the younger pups can decide when they want to start bringing them. There are multiple training sessions a day so that everyone can fit it into their schedule. Those sessions, like this one, are led by Ryan or one of the top guards. Everyone is taught the same moves and does the same exercises.”
I thought of a few ideas I wanted to bring over from Cold Moon training and saw a few things I would definitely take back to use there.
The fact that we were allowed to see Strong Mountain’s training ground, especially at a time when pack members were actually training, was a big deal. The gesture told us that the pack trusted us, even though we weren’t officially allies yet. I’m sure Sage told Isabelle to specifically include this on the tour and that Sage would give the same tour to our fathers. I was actually a little surprised considering how private she seemed to be about everything else.
The wolves fighting now were mostly omegas with a few patrol members. I noticed many of the sparring pairs using moves and combinations that I’d never seen before. I looked over at Alex and Max and could tell they noticed the same thing I did.
“What kind of fighting is this?” asked Alex. “It’s impressive that the omegas are keeping up with the guards.”
“When Sage and Ben started in their positions, Sage sent Ben all over the world to study different fighting techniques in human cultures. So it’s kind of a blend,” Isabelle responded.
“Why would she send him to learn from humans?” my mom asked.
“To expand their repertoire,” I said before Isabelle could respond. The moms looked at me, slightly confused, while Isabelle finally gave me a big smile. She appreciated that I understood and waited for me to continue.
“I mean look around,” I told the group. “The fighters are clearly as large and strong as ours and the omegas are decent, but if you faced them in battle you wouldn’t expect half of these moves, making it harder to defend yourself.”
Damn, my girl was smart. I wondered if she had learned all of the techniques too.
“Exactly,” Isabelle said.
“Thank you for showing this part of your territory to us, it is a privilege and an honor to be able to watch some of your wolves train,” Max said in his alpha voice. He also recognized the significance of this stop on the tour and wanted Isabelle to be able to relay that back to her team.
The next stop on our tour was the village where most of the pack lived. All of the houses resembled the pack house with log and stone exteriors, although obviously much smaller. Each house had a different design and some had large gardens or kiddie pools in their yards. Occasionally we crossed over a small bridge to get over one of the many creeks.
Some little kids ran up and gave flowers to our moms before running back to their toys. They each greeted Isabelle as if she was family, some even calling her Auntie Izzy. Isabelle knew the names of every child, teenager and adult we passed. There weren’t many people out and about since it was now the middle of the weekday, but I got the impression she knew the name of basically every pack member. The rest of us were greeted warmly by all, although I saw the skeptical gaze many of them gave me. Clearly gossip traveled quickly here too.
We followed the road along as it curved around and intersected with the main street of the town. It was a very modern looking town compared to the log cabins, but it still seemed to fit well with the surroundings. There were diners, coffee shops, markets, bars and a movie theater. It also contained the pack hospital.
“We tried to give the town a wide variety of stores because the closest big town is about an hour away by car,” Isabelle said as we walked down the main street. As we passed more people, Isabelle confirmed my theory; she knew everyone’s name.
“So while our larger companies like Eve Shipping and the solar power plant employ humans, all of the small businesses here in town only employ wolves.”
All of us had questions and comments to give to Isabelle about the stores we passed as we walked down the street. It looked like a very pleasant place to spend an afternoon. I’d never liked big cities and always found comfort in small towns like this.
“I wish we could stop in there,” Isabelle said while pointing to a large building with a sign that read “Grey Stone Diner.”
“The chef Joe makes the most amazing cinnamon roll pancakes. But everyone back at the pack house should be done with their meetings soon and lunch will be served when they are.”
I sped up a little as we walked back to the pack house. Not only did I want to be near Sage but now I had so much more I wanted to talk to her about.
“I’m sorry we didn’t have time to go up some of the mountains,” Isabelle said to all of us as we neared the house. “The views are amazing but it’s a long way up and back down on only two legs. You’ll all just have to visit again!”
Everyone agreed that they would love a chance to run around the slopes. We did that often back home but these mountains were much higher.
We finally reached the house and I almost started running. Walking around and seeing all of the land but not Sage had made Zane extremely agitated. Now she was all I could think about.
As we walked into the dining room, it was again set up just for our group. I guess they had asked any of the other members who wanted to eat at the pack house to avoid the dining room and kitchen for a few meals.
Omegas started to bring out trays of food but I had something else to focus on. The meetings were obviously done because I could smell Sage and it was getting stronger. I turned as the group of six entered the dining room and my eyes widened embarrassingly when I saw her.
She stood almost as tall as the rest of the men in skin colored heels that made her legs look extra long. Her high-waisted blue pants outlined her legs perfectly and showed off her hips. She wore a matching blue blazer with the button undone, revealing the white tank top she had tucked into her pants. It showed off her flat stomach and the soft swell of her breasts. Again she had perfectly pulled off professional and sexy. She had no makeup on and her hair was pulled back, bringing my attention to her neck.
Soon she’ll also show off our mark! Zane commented, also focused on the spot where her shoulder met her neck.
Her eyes met mine and I gave her a huge smile as I pulled a chair out for her. From everyone else’s smiles it looked like the meetings this morning went well.
Everyone took their seats and started to devour the food. I sat next to Sage again but didn’t get the opportunity to talk to her directly as the Cold Moon females bombarded her with questions.
I listened intently to all of her answers. It was obvious she had great pride in her pack and respected each of her members. I could tell she was pleased with the way all of her guests talked about the land.
She focused on the women to make up for her absence this morning, asking them intelligent questions about their lives back at Cold Moon. When the conversation turned to which clothing designers they preferred, my dad excused himself and asked me to join him.
"Are you serious right now?" I linked as I glared at him. "I haven’t seen Sage all morning."
"Yes it’ll only be a few minutes," he replied, giving me his best I’m-your-father-do-what-I-say look.
We excused ourselves and I followed him to a room far from the dining room so that we wouldn’t be heard.
Once we were seated he turned to me and asked, “So how do you feel about your new mate?”
“Well she’s my mate. So I’d do anything for her and think she’s amazing. But I haven’t spent any time with her. And I think she feels the same way but she seems very hesitant and distant.”
My dad chuckled. “Yeah, you definitely have a challenge on your hands. But I know your mother and I raised you to always respect and love your mate, despite how she treats you.”
“Obviously. How were the meetings?”
“They went very well,” he said with a big smile. “We were really impressed. She’s brilliant and Ben and Mark are very good at their positions considering how young they are. Although you know Elijah would never admit that to her face.”
“She and Elijah may be similar in that sense. I can only sort of tell what she’s thinking or feeling when I look into her eyes.”
“Well you’re lucky you have that advantage. The three of us couldn’t read her at all. I agree with you, her and Elijah use their actions to speak louder than their words.”
I thought it was sexy that she could go toe to toe with some of the country’s most powerful alphas. Hell, she was one of the country’s most powerful alphas.
“The meetings went so well that there’s been a change of plans,” my dad continued. “Elijah wants to work out a few more mergers on top of the original two we planned and wants to get the ball rolling on the steps necessary for our packs to become sister packs.”
I felt an overwhelming sense of pride in my mate. This was the best possible outcome for both our packs and she achieved all of it in just half a day. Becoming sister packs was the strongest alliance packs could have without actually combining. It usually took multiple days and meetings and sometimes involved a marriage. I wondered if the discovery of her and I being mates sped things along a little.
“All eight of us can’t be away from the pack for a full week. He and Jordan are going to stay while the rest of us return home. We all assumed you would stay for a bit?”
“Of course I’m staying. I need more time with her. And I’ll help Elijah and Jordan with anything they need. Congrats on those deals, I’m sure everyone back home will be pleased to hear the news.”
I had been planning on staying anyway, even if they all left this afternoon. I didn’t know for how long but couldn’t even entertain the idea of being so far away from her now.
We got up to rejoin everyone but before we left the room I stopped him and asked, “Dad, what does mom think of her?”
“We only talked about it last night and we can all see Sage makes a… professional first impression. Your mom will have more opinions after today I’m sure, but she likes her. She agrees with me that it’ll be a challenge though.”
“Well I’m prepared to fight for her,” I said as we walked back towards the dining room. My dad gave me a strong fatherly slap on the back.
The group had moved to stand near the staircase at this point. I didn’t see Sage anywhere but the Cold Moon pack members leaving were starting to say goodbye to Ben, Mark and Isabelle.
I went over to talk to Max and Alex.
“Good luck with her, man,” Alex said, giving me a hug. “We’ll see you soon.”
“You just gotta show her what she’s missing,” Max said as he laughed. “You need to show us how it’s done,” he added as I hugged him.
I was receiving a long lecture from my mom about how to treat a mate when I sensed Sage come back in. She had changed out of her suit into black jeans and flowy white blouse with black Vans.
She walked around saying her goodbyes before stopping next to me in front of my mom. My mom did the most mom thing ever and rested her hands on our cheeks before pulling us both down for a hug. I heard Sage gasp as the movement caused our hands and bare arms to touch and erupt with sparks. It was the first time we’d touched since last night and I realized how much I craved contact with her.
I expected Sage to be pissed with the public display of affection, but when my mom released us and we stood back up, she looked at my mom affectionately. Although the affection didn’t reach her eyes. Her eyes told me she was wary and uncomfortable with my mother’s actions. But only I could see that.
“I really hope I’ll see you again soon Sage,” my mom said to her.
“So do I Catherine,” she replied. “You are all welcome here anytime. Thank you so much for coming all this way. I’m sorry I didn’t get more time with you.”
I gave everyone one last hug before they packed into the SUVs and drove away.
Finally with less people there would be more time with Sage. But as we all walked back inside I realized she had changed her outfit to take Elijah and Jordan on a tour. She sent them out onto the back porch before turning to me.
Before she could say anything I walked closer to her until she was almost back against the wall. I put my hand on the wall beside her head and ran my fingers-tips up her arm, over her shoulder and to her neck. The craving for her touch burned and I knew it would never go back down.
It looked like she was about to melt into my touch, but instead she removed my hand from her body.
“Xander, I’m sorry I don’t have much time today. I know you’re staying for me. I’ll be gone for the rest of the afternoon, but Ben, Mark and Izzy have the rest of the day off. They can show you the ropes.” She always sounded so formal when she spoke to me.
“I’ll see you later then,” I replied. I took her hand and kissed her palm, causing the corners of her mouth to turn up slightly. The default expression she used to mask her emotions was a pleasant one, but I had noticed she never actually smiled.
“Congratulations on today, I’m very proud of you,” I said as I dropped her hand. She stared at me for a few seconds before saying thank you and turned to join Elijah and Jordan.
I noticed a security guard hovering nearby, clearly on alert after I had Sage against a wall. When were these guys going to understand that I’d never hurt her?
I found Ben, Mark and Isabelle in the large living room waiting for me.
“Hey man, we were gonna go all out with a pool day and grill if you wanna join,” Ben said to me.
“Thanks, I’ll join you guys in a bit, I need to go on a run,” I replied as I started walking to the stairs.
“Go south into the woods once you get out of the house, you’ll hit the mountains the quicker in that direction,” Isabelle said to me while they all gave me sympathetic smiles.
I ran upstairs to my room to change into a pair of basketball shorts. As I walked back down and out the house, my mind was racing.
I understood what she needed to do. But we were going to have to talk at some point. We were going to have to kiss and lock ourselves in a bedroom. We were mates and supposed to be a united team. She needed to get to know me and I needed to get to know her. She couldn’t hide from me forever. Mates go crazy the longer they spend time apart. And if we didn’t mate soon Zane was going to drive me insane.
After I stashed my shorts under a tree next to the house, I shifted and let Zane take over, watching as he sprinted south through the trees.