When I walked into the club my eyes immediately tried to seek her out and I immediately knew where she was. Her scent overpowers everything and draws me in. I see her. She looks so fucking beautiful in her dress.
Several men were ogling her, and I pretend as though it doesn’t bother me. I have to push Jace to his corner several times and remind him to calm down. She is so beautiful and, obviously, oblivious to her impact on the people around her. I play it cool and chat with my cousin and friends, but Jace would have none of it. He is determined to be with Ashleigh now!
Honestly, I don’t think she knows the hold she has on me. She is too perfect and pure for me, and I don't know how I got so damned lucky to be mated to someone like her.
I take her upstairs to the little setup Lydia and her crew made for me. She found me as soon as I entered the club. Kia apparently saw our interaction and assumed she was one of my flings.
Can’t say I blame her for feeling like that. I like that she has the same possessive feelings towards me as I do her. At least I know I have something going for me, hoping that it's enough that her wolf won't allow her to reject me.
I brought my mother's hair piece as Jace suggested, and she looks somewhat shocked as she opens the little box. Does she know the significance of the item already? Or was she just shocked I gave her something at all? I try to let her know what it means and I hope that she understood. I hope she knows that I have never been this invested in anyone before.
Everyone else was just to fill the void, just a quick fix. But Ashleigh, she is my other half, my soulmate. I would do anything to keep her as mine, I am not going to fuck it up. I sit on the loveseat while she looks at the gift. I want her to take her time, to love it, and understand what it means to me.
She looks towards me and blushes as she sees me seated on the loveseat.
"Join me?" I ask while patting my hand on the space beside me.
She hesitates and it looks like she is arguing with her wolf. I could see Kia flash through her beautiful eyes a few times. She eventually nods and bites her bottom lip, still blushing furiously as she takes a step forward.
She sits next to me carefully angling her body away from me a little to the side like she isn't sure of what my reaction would be even though I asked her to join me. I could feel Jace relaxing with Ashleigh sitting to close. Her scent of forest wood and freshwater swirling around me.
I inhale as much of it as I could, relaxing my tense body. She’s here with me, not downstairs with anyone else. All I want to do now is hold her and kiss her but I know it is a big step for her to just sit down on this couch with me. Hell, it is probably a big thing for her to be up in this space with me.
I don't want to push and scare her or make her reject me. I need to take things slow, I know this, I just didn't realize how hard it was going to be.
"How was the rest of your afternoon?" I asked, trying to spark a conversation and not make things awkward.
"It was alright. Mum and uncle held a dinner tonight to see if my mate was in the pack. I think they were a little disappointed, but I didn't want to tell them about us just yet."
A low growl ran through me at the thought of others seeing her like this, she was fucking beautiful, and I wanted her all to myself. Hell, I fucking hated it when men around the club were watching her.
She rolls her eyes. "Relax," she mumbles and pats my thigh. Sparks shoot through me at her touch. Her breath hitches and her eyes become dark as Kia pushes forward.
Jace wants to push forward, too, in response. 'You need to calm down, I don't want to move too quickly for her,' I warn him.
"What about you, did you get up to?" she asks.
"Hm, yeah good also, we had training today before we came here so it wasn't too bad." She nods in acknowledgment.
"Can I get your number?" I ask her, hoping that if we had a proper line of communication things would be better for talking and I wouldn't have to rely on seeing her at school.
"Sure," she replies.
I pull out my phone and open a new contact address before giving it to her. She quickly types in her name and number before passing my phone back. She grabs her small gold purse and pulls out her phone.
"Here, put in yours," she says as she hands me her phone.
"What are you doing this weekend?" I ask as I typed in my details.
"Hmm, just more stuff with dad and uncle and probably try to catch up on study."
"When can I see you next outside of school?" I didn't know what her duties as Beta looked like during the week. Obviously being from different packs and both packs being so closed lipped on how they function I have no idea what she does outside of school.
"I can probably try to do something Saturday evening or Sunday evening?"
I nod and pull my phone back out, "I'll send you an address we can meet at, it's on neutral ground if anyone questions anything."
"Oh ok," I hear her phone make a little beeping sound as she received the text message. I smile at the thought of this message being the first of many.
"Ahh, crap! Ollie and the others are looking for me. He just linked me, worried where I got to," she mumbles softly.
I nod. "It’s probably time we head back before people start to notice both of us are missing and come looking."
"Thank you, Zander, I really didn't expect all of this," she says before we head back down, rewarding me with a quick kiss on the cheek.
I smile, "It was no problem. By the way, you know the rumours about me are just rumours, right?"
She rolls her eyes and scoff. "You are a notorious fuck boy, and you know it. "
"Not anymore," I say with a chuckle and shrug as I open the door back to the club below. As we make our way back down the stairs, she put both her phone and my gift back into her purse for safekeeping. We part ways quickly so no one would catch us together and I make my way back over to Danni, Amber, and the others.
Amber is my cousin. Her mom, Aunt Katherine, is my father’s sister and is mated to one of the head warriors of our pack. Since dad did not take a chosen mate after mum passed, she helps out with Luna duties.
Amber is a year older than me and a bit of a wild one. Maybe not as crazy as me, but she enjoys the nightlife and likes to fuck around. She’s had a few boyfriends in the past but was disappointed when none of them turned out to be her mate. Since then, she stopped getting into anything serious to avoid heartache.
"So … does anyone want to hit the dance floor with me?" Amber asks, doing a little twirl.
I roll my eyes and look over at the guys. Danni was in the corner of our booth making out intensely with Annie. Eric and Billy, are just sitting there drinking and chatting with each other.
"Sure, babe. I got you," Eric says, shooting up from where he was sitting.
"No, not after last time," she snaps while shaking her head at him.
"What? You fucking enjoyed it, and you know it!" Eric replies.
Amber folds her arms across her chest pushing some of her boobs out and making her skinny dress move up a little bit.
"I was piss drunk, it should never have happened"
"Wait... what the fuck happened?" I demanded.
"Nothing," they say at the same time.
I don’t have any siblings so having Amber kind of filled that slot growing up, especially after mum passed away. I look at them and I realise what happened. Fucking son of a bitch "You have got to be fucking kidding me," I growl.
"It was our choice, Zander. Back off," Amber snaps.
"Oh, so now you are defending us," Eric mumbles.
She shoots him a death glare, "and it will never happen again. I'm going to dance," she spins around and leaves for the dance floor.
I round on Eric, pissed off. He is one of my best friends and he slept with my fucking cousin. I haven't ever once looked at his little sister like that.
"Look, bro. It was nothing, okay. We were both just there and it just sort of happened. If you found out you found out, we weren't trying to hide anything from you," he tries to justify his actions.
"So, Stefanie is single, right?" I snap back.
I would never sleep with another woman again now that I know Ashleigh is my mate. I am still pissed, though, that one of my best friends slept with my cousin. Insinuating I would sleep with his sister somewhat makes me feel a bit better because it pissed him off and got a rise out of him.
His eyes go dark as his wolf pushes forward in the protection of his younger sister. "Come on man, it was no biggie," he mumbles as he scrubs a hand over his face trying to settle his wolf down.
"Whatever," I say as I get up and make my way over to the bar. I need a fucking drink to wash this BS down.
While waiting for my drinks, I feel someone's hands move from behind me making their way around my waist linking together and pulling me into a hug. I smell her before she even spoke.
"Hey, baby. Want to get out of here for a bit?" She leans up to my ear and whispers.
Jace pushes forward, pissed off that this fucking woman even considered touching us without our permission. And the fact she did it in the first place after this morning's conversation …
I spin around, almost knocking her over. She stumbles back but regains her balance despite her high heels.
"What the fuck, Grace?" I growl, letting Jace push forward.
I am pissed off. I don't want Ashleigh to think this was something I wanted in case she happens to see it. This bitch is not backing down and I have had enough.
She starts sobbing hysterically and slides to the ground. I link Danni, ‘Dude, come over here to the bar. I need you to handle this bitch and get her sorted out.’
As Danni makes his way through the crowd I spot Ashleigh with her two girlfriends whispering in one of the corner booths. Her eyes connect with mine and she gives me a small smile and a little nod before turning back to her friends to join their conversation. Not too obvious but just enough for me to know.
Thank fuck I wasn't in the doghouse for this one tonight. I had already made good progress with her; I didn't want this to screw anything up.
Justin, the club manager, makes his way over. He is a burly-looking bloke with short cropped blonde hair and a cleanshaven face. "Everything alright here, Alpha?" Justin asks giving me a nod.
"Yeah, bro, sorry for the disruption. One of my pack members is just being a bit unsettled, Danni is on his way to sort it out."
He looked at the mess that was on the floor. Grace isn't even drunk enough to not know what is going on, in fact, there isn’t even a hint of alcohol on her at all. She knew exactly what she was doing, and she knew exactly where I was which pissed me off even more.
Jace pushes forward just as pissed off with the interaction "you are never to touch Zander again without our permission or say so, is this understood?"
He growls at her using his aura. Several people around us had cower in submission with my aura blazing around me in fury. Most of the people in the club are human so ordinarily they wouldn’t react but they are more susceptible with alcohol in them, so they submitted as well, not understanding why.
Danni stopped in front of her waiting for her response. "Yes, Alpha," she says through her fake tears.
I can only hope that finally with this humiliation and the Alpha command she would finally leave me the fuck alone. I grab my drinks that are sitting ready on the bar waiting for me and nod to Danni to deal with that shit, as I walk back over to the table.