Chapter 21: Her Second Chance Alpha

The past few days have passed by in a haze of preparations for Holly's Luna Ceremony. And between catching up on some Alpha duties that I had neglected when Holly first arrived, training and business orders, I have not had nearly as much time as I would have liked with my mate.

My mate has also been kept very busy. Mom, Sara and Ella have snatched her away at every moment to work on the decorations or to go dress shopping for the ceremony. She had also started training every other day with Ella and Eric. I have been able to get away a few times to watch her as she trains. I love those moments because you can see just how happy and excited she becomes during training.

She has progressed quickly since she started and is now starting to put up a really good fight when they spar. She got Eric good the other day in front of Ella. Holly was able to use her shorter statue to her advantage and wiggled out of Eric's hold. Before he had a chance to reach for her again, she had spun around and landed a blow to his abdomen, then a right hook to the face, causing Eric to stumble around dazed for a moment.

Concern quickly washes over Holly as she rushed to make sure she had not seriously injured him. Ella found the whole scene hilarious and erupted into a fit of laughter. Holly tried her hardest to hide her own amusement but she failed to and erupted into a fit of laughter. Poor Eric was mortified to be taken down by his Luna, especially in front of his mate.

"I am sorry" Holly tried to say as she wheezed through her own laughing fit. Leaning forward, grabbing her stomach.

Eric stands huffing as he dusts himself off, walking away as the girls continue laughing.

"She is much stronger than she looks." He said, taking a seat beside me and moving his jaw back and forth as we watched the girls. Ella was showing Holly a few moves that would help her more in a fight due to her shorter height.

"I can see that" I said, causing him to snort in response.

"She got lucky, I wasn't paying attention" he retorts, still a bit sour. We continue watching the girls for some time as they train more, with Ella showing Holly new techniques and tweaking certain things to better suit my mate.

Ella announced that Holly needed to celebrate all her progress in training tonight. And the two of them decided that they wanted to go into town to The Black Rose. Ella quickly dragged Holly away for the two of them to get ready.

Eric grunts as he watches his mate walk off, "I think she just wants to rub it in." He murmurs once his mate is out of ear shot.

"Ella will hold this over him for a while." Knight snickers.

We headed back to my office to try and get a little more work done before tonight. As I was flipping through some of the announcements that had been faxed in, I saw that the The Halo Pack's Mating Ball was coming up soon.

Unmated Alphas go in the hopes of meeting their mate, and newly mated couples go to celebrate. The ball takes place during the Winter Solstice every year since it is the one day a year that the night is longer. I made a mental note to ask Holly later if she would like to go this year and Knight purred at the idea of his mate all dolled up for the ball.

"Ella said they were almost ready and wanted us to meet them downstairs in thirty minutes," Eric said.

"Well, we had better go get ready then, we don't want to keep our ladies waiting." Standing, we made our way back to my house. Since the girls were at Eric's and Ella's place, Ella sent over his clothes to my place.

I shower in mine and Holly's room while Eric uses one of the spare bedrooms to get ready.

Stepping out, I wrap a towel around my waist, I dry my hair and run my fingers through it with a little hair gel to style it. Going into my closet, I grabbed a pair of dark washed jeans and a fitted black t-shirt. Throwing them on quickly, I grab a pair of boots, slipping them on too.

I made my way downstairs to find Eric was also ready. Ella sent him a pair of faded jeans and a white fitted shirt. We stepped out of my apartment, walking the short distance to Eric's. Walking into their apartment, we could hear music blaring from somewhere upstairs. Eric mindlinks Ella and the music cuts off.

"We are coming" Ella yelled out.

The clicking of heels can be heard on the hardwood floors as they make their way down the stairs. Ella comes out first, beautiful as always in a dark green T-shirt-style dress and cowboy boots.

I hear footsteps beginning to fall again on the stairs, turning back around to see Holly as she makes her way down. She looks amazing. She's wearing a knee-length white dress with lace sleeves and a pair of cowboy boots too. Her hair is curled in loose waves with only a touch of light make-up.

Knight is currently drooling in the back of my mind at his mate.

Ella reaches out and closes my gapping mouth. She and Eric are laughing at me now as I continue to watch my mate.

"I am not the only one drooling over her now." my Wolf remarks, now also snickering at me.

Taking her hand as she reached the bottom of the staircase, I took the back of her hand to my lips, placing a kiss on her knuckles.

"You look amazing" I said and watched a shy smile spread across her face.

"Thank you, you don't look bad yourself." She says, her eyes sparkling. Knight puffed his chest out some when he saw his beautiful mate checking him out.

"Come on you two, let's go." Eric yelled out, making his way back to the front door grabbing his keys.

Sliding into the back seat of Eric's truck, I pulled Holly to my side, burying my face in her hair. My chest rumbles as I take in as much of her intoxicating scent as I can.

She giggles as my breath tickles her marking spot. Goddess, I love the sound of that laugh, I think to myself.

Before I realized it, we were already pulling into the parking lot of The Black Rose. This is the first time she has been back to the bar since she passed out there.

"You ready for a fun night?" Ella asks Holly as she drags her to walk with her.

Knight whimpers at the loss of his mate's touch. Apparently, Eric heard that and laughed at my expense.

"You got it bad, Alpha." He says, clapping me on the back a broad grin on his face.

His grin is contagious and one also appears on my face as I look at my mate in front of me. It was like she knew I was looking at her at that particular moment and she turned looking over her shoulder, her eyes sparkling with gold, a stunning smile on her face that took my breath away.

"Yes I do" I told my Beta as the four of us walked into the bar and made our way to the circle booth in the back corner of the bar.

We spend the evening just simply enjoying each other's company and relaxing. The girls danced so much that Eric and I had to sit a couple out and we simply enjoyed watching them having fun.

"She is going to make an amazing Luna, man", Eric says, and he is right.

Just then, the song changes to Parmalee's new song Take My Name. I have only heard it a few times since it first came out and it couldn't have been more perfect.

"I need to borrow my mate, Ella," I said as I approached the two she wolves.Holding out my Hand for my mate.

She winks at the two of us as I lead Holly back out onto the dance floor. Stopping in the center, I turned to Holly, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her in close, she wrapped her arms around the back of my neck. Leaning our heads together, off in our own world, we sway to the song.

When the chorus hits again, I sing it to her.

(Check it out on YouTube: Take My Name by Parmalee)

As the song comes to an end, it repeats the last two lines and I sing those to her as well. A stunning smile that could knock the wind out of any man was directed at, graces her face. Standing on her tippie toes, she presses her lips to mine.

Placing my hands on either side of her face, I deepened the kiss for a moment, wanting her to know I truly meant every word that was in that song.

When I end the kiss immediately, there is clapping and whistling from the crowd. Everyone had cleared the floor, leaving only the two of us there. Embarrassed at all the attention focused on us, Holly attempts to hide herself in my chest much like she did back at the pack house. Our friends joined us then, both sporting large smiles as they looked at Holly and I.

"Well done, Alpha", Eric said with a wink.

Now as I lay here, in my bed with Holly sleeping soundly beside me, there was an enormous smile on my face. Knight is also content with having his mate sleeping in our arms.

The sun is just now starting to come up and you can see the colors of the morning light slowly filtering into the room. My mind begins to replay the conversation we had at lunch with mom and the girls the other day.

Knowing now that Alexander was Holly's first mate does shed a little light on why he would be trying to find her. But the fact that he was using Rogues to attack another pack to obtain her only leaves me with more questions as to what the real reason was.

"What about the blood samples Doc sent to The Halo Packs labs? Do you think we might find something in the results?" Knight questions.

"It is possible maybe, we need to see if Doc has gotten them back yet. And also see if there are any other tests he can run." I told my Wolf.

Holly began to stir, turning over to face me then.

"Good Morning Little Mate!" I said, kissing her nose softly.

A beautiful smile crosses her lips as her eyes flutter open to look at me. "Good morning Mate." She says softly.

"What are you doing today?" I asked my mate as she snuggled into my chest as we lay in my bed. She has been staying in my room since the other night. It has become almost impossible to sleep without her anymore.

I can tell her heat is getting closer, her wolf is definitely trying to speed the process up some too. The other night, I woke up to her hands wrapped around my cock as she stroked us both awake. Andra's stunning golden orbs staring at us full of mischief as she continued stroking me.

Knight is currently giving a big wolfie grin as we remember that morning. Andra had been quite persistent, but after reminding her that this should also be Holly's decision too. She gave in with a pout.

"Dress fitting today I think", Holly says, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Do I get to see you in them?" I ask jokingly.

"No, your mom will not have any such shenanigans. She says it is to be a surprise." Her beautiful blue-grey eyes sparkling in the morning light as it streams into the room. "What will you be doing?"

"I have something I need to look into today at the pack hospital. Then some paperwork that needs to be handled from the last few packs we sent warriors to, to train." I said, kissing the tip of her nose again and brushing the hair out of her beautiful face.

Forcing myself to get up, I gave her one last kiss and headed to the closet to get dressed. When I walked back out, Holly wasn't in bed anymore. I could hear the shower turning on then. Standing at the door of the bathroom, I can now see my very naked mate through the shower glass.

A very low growl leaves me, Holly turns around with a smirk and a golden twinkle in her eyes. Andra is shining through as she looks back at me.

"Our mate knows exactly what she is doing to us. Two can play this game." Knight growls out, stepping forward himself.

Opening the door to the shower, he leaned in, grabbing both sides of her face like I did last night. He pressed his lips to hers in a rough kiss. Pouring every once of passion, need and desire we both have for her into that one moment. Her eyes flutter close, a soft moan escapes her as he continues to deepen our kiss.

I know my eyes are swirling with red from my own desire even as Knight gives me back control. I step back out of the shower, ending the kiss abruptly, her eyes opening and they are swirling with gold from her own desire building. I closed the shower door with a smirk and a wink at my mate's now flustered state.

Frowning at me "That's not fair", she says, pouting.

I laugh as I walk through the bathroom door back into our room. I can hear her grumbles still as I finish getting dressed.

The shower cuts off, and a louder then normal clang sounds as she apparently closes the shower door harder than needed.

Turning around, my mate has definitely one upped me this time as she stands at the doorway of the bathroom completely naked, still dripping wet from the shower.