Chapter 41: Forty One

Cassidy had been a little shy in the few hours after James had marked her. She was extremely aware of him and her wolf was in what she could only call puppy love with the alpha now. He had drawn her a hot bath and insisted on washing her from head to toe, claimed it was part of some tradition. She had not been sure about James washing her, but as soon as he started it became apparent the alpha had one hell of a skill with his fingers. As he cleaned her, he made sure to massage every last inch of her skin until Cassidy was dozing off again in the warm water. James had drained a bit of the water and refilled it with more hot water that made her moan as her whole body relaxed. He chuckled and leaned over her, gripping her chin to tilt her face up. “You keep making those kind of sounds and we will have to have round two.” He teased her before leaning down and giving her a loving slow kiss. “You just relax. Ill order us some food to be brought up and then ill be back.” He said before stepping out to go get food, surprised to see it was already lunch time.

Once the food had arrived, James had already helped Cassidy out of the tub and brought her clothes she insisted on getting dressed by herself. He was more than willing to do every little thing for her, but he wasn't going to fight her over it. They ate a variety of foods that were brought up on a tray and both of them drank down a few bottles of water each, the two of them chatting quietly, getting to know each other a little. By the time the food and water was gone, they laid down together,James holding Cassidy close. “I'm so tired.”

“You should be. You have had a sleepless night and then sex.Why don't you try to nap?” James said, gently running his fingers through her hair as she tucked her nose up to his collar bone, taking in a deep breath of his scent.

“What If I have another bad dream?”she gently nuzzled her nose against his skin. He smelled different to her, his natural scent becoming stronger, more potent to her senses than it had been before. She pressed her nose into his neck and sighed, just resting against him as James started to play with her hair.

“You need to sleep Cassidy. Try to take a nap at least. I have some work to catch up on and then I can come and wake you.” He said before leaning up to get up, gently removing her from him and laying her back into the bed. She looked worried still, but the exhaustion was weighing heavily on her. James cupped her cheek and leaned down, giving her a brief kiss. “Sleep for awhile Cassidy. I will be back.”

She sighed and nodded, curling up and cuddling into the pillow. “Just for an hour or two.” She said to him after returning the kiss he gave her.

James watched her for a few minutes as she drifted off to sleep, worried she would Dave another nightmare and he wouldn't be able to help her if he wasn't here. When she was asleep he quietly left her room, taking the tray with him to drop off on his way outside so no one would disturb her. When he turned around from her door once it was closed, he came face to face with his Beta who was leaning against James’ own bedroom door with his arms folded across him and an amused smirk on his face.

“Trouble sleeping?” Alaric asked, slowly looking over his alpha and taking in the intermingled scent before cocking a brow waiting for an answer.

“Keep your voice down. She is sleeping.” James hissed between clenched teeth at his beta. He headed to his own room, Alaric opening the door for him and following him inside.

“James. I don't usually get involved, Okay well I never get involved when it comes to your love life and who you are fucking… Do you think this is a good idea taking her so soon. You didn't… rape her… did you?” Alaric asked in a concerned expression and when James set the tray down and turned on him with a growl for the question, James held his hands up in defense. “Hey. Last time you was alone with her by yourself you almost did. I'm just asking here, don't come at me like that.”

“No I didn't rape her.” He said in disgust as he went into his closet to get some clean clothes on. “She was having nightmares last night and I went over to make sure she was alright. I controlled myself for the most part. She allowed me to mark her.” He said as he changed into jeans and a teeshirt, carrying socks and shoes out, giving Alaric a glare as he went to a chair and sat down to put his shoes on.

“Alright man. Alright. Dont be so defensive I was just worried. You haven't really been yourself since she and Jett has arrived.”

The mention of Jett made James’ blood boil. “Speaking of Jett, where is he?” he asked without looking up.

It was James’ tone that had Alaric on alert when the alpha asked where Cassidy’s guardian was. “Why?”

James looked up then with narrowed eyes when Alaric didn't answer him right away, his eyes shining with the anger he felt boiling up on the inside. “Where is he Alaric?” James asked as he stood up and when his beta still didn't give him a quick answer, he growled and headed to the door to leave. “Fine. I will find the son of a bitch myself.” He snapped.

Alaric was quickly following behind James, his brows together in concern. “He is at the training yard James. What the hell do you want with him? He hasn't done anything to you!”

James was quickly moving down the stairs to get out of the house, ignoring Alaric's questions when it came to the other former beta. It wasn't what he had done, but it was what he failed to mention. James was furious and he wouldn't admit that he was angry with himself over not treating her better, over not realizing she had been an innocent.

“Damnit James.” Alaric growled and had no choice but to follow after his alpha while the male stalked outside and refused to answer him. Sometimes there was no explanation from James and Alaric had grown used to it over the years, so he followed after the man with a scowl on his face, not sure if he would be able to protect Jett or anyone from James’ mood like this.

Every single wolf that was out in their small town could easily sense and feel their alphas emotional state and how absolutely angry he was. They all bowed their heads submissively to James and gave him a wide berth as he made his way to the training grounds.

The place they used to train was surrounded by three two story apartment buildings that spanned a width and both lengths of the yard that was the size of a high school football field. All the warriors trained here from drills, an obstacle course, a large open space and an mma ring. Both long buildings held apartments for the warriors to live who did not have families. The short building had a medical clinic for minor injuries from training and a state of the art gym. Three large apartments spanned the top where Alaric, Jaxson and Hunter all lived.

As James came into view, many of the warriors that were practicing stopped, happy to see their alpha and thinking he had come to join them for some workouts. At least until they seen the kind of mood he was in. James was almost stalking through the area, looking for Jett until he reached out over his pack link to his warriors that were there, asking where the wolf was. Almost unanimously he was given the direction of the obstacle course where Jaxson was shouting angrily at someone.

Jett had been having his ass handed to him daily in training. The wolves of the Wildwoods pack had never trained this hard or intensely back in the day, or maybe all these years on the run he was just getting old and complacent. He could see now, why his old pack had fallen so easily. He could also see why the BlackStone pack was so feared. They trained as if they breathed the threat of war in their bodies. The warriors were all loyal and committed to their pack and alpha and stayed in top fighting form to defend their lands. Jett's entire body was aching, each muscle burning and it was hard to catch his breath after he fell off a two story vertical wall for the tenth time in a row right into mud and rocks. He growled, about to snap back at Jaxson for yelling at him to get his shit together when another voice rose above the rest, Alpha Black roaring his name when the man spotted him.

Jett had hardly two seconds to ride from the sticky mud pit before he was tackled by what felt like a freight train when James collided with him.