Chapter 4: Simon

I turned on the shower to let the water heat up. I opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed some pain killers, popped four tablets into my mouth and drank water directly from the faucet. I looked at myself in the mirror. My hair was longer now than it ever has been before. I pulled it up into bun to keep it out of my face. My arms were covered in tattoos dedicated to my parents. My right arm had two wolves howling at the moon and a dark forest covering my arm completely. The left arm was covered with runes of protection. My grandmother insisted I get a witch to give me a protection spell and helped tattoo it to my body to keep it intact. My mother Dorothy was my father’s mother. She was spunky for an old broad, but she had more love for me than anyone else on this earth.

After my parents died, she forced me to go to a friend of hers that was a high-ranking witch. I didn’t trust the other supernaturals. Supes as we called them. A supe would have had to kill my parents, there was no one else who could take out four royal supes in one. There would have been a survivor. But my grandmother demanded it. And to make her happy I went, and I got these runes tattooed on my arm.

I walked in the shower and let the hot water flow over my body. My muscles were sore. That happened from time to time when I drank too much alcohol, too little water, and a night of fucking. I grabbed my shampoo and worked it into my dark blond hair. It felt good to get clean. I wasn’t one of those guys who didn’t shower regularly. At least once if not twice a day. I liked to smell good for myself. I rinsed the soap out of my hair and grabbed the bar of soap and worked it all over the body.

Between the pain killers and the hot water my headache dissipated. I rinsed off and grabbed the towel that was outside the shower stall and wrapped it around my waist. I walked out to the sink and put product in my hair to make it sit nicely as it air dries. Deodorant and then a splash of cologne and I was set. I pulled on my boxer briefs and a pair of dark jeans and a form fitting white t-shirt. The clothes from last night lay on the floor and I picked them up and tossed them in the hamper that sat in the corner of my closet. When the housekeeper normally came, she would tidy up and take my laundry and any trash that laid around.

I pulled on my boots and am ready for this day of meetings and a date with my grandmother. I made my way through the packhouse. Even though the packhouse is huge the only people that lived in here are Jared and me. Since we are without mates, it got rather quiet in the evenings. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were hosted in the dining hall for any pack member who would like a hot meal.

I trotted down the steps toward the dining hall. The grandfather clock in the main hall said it was 11am. Too late for breakfast and too early for lunch. Since I was alpha there was always food available. I had thirty minutes before the meeting with the other Alphas. I strode into the hall, and it was empty except for Jared who was reading the paper and drinking coffee.

He glanced up. “Well, that was faster than your normal shower.” He took a sip of his hot coffee. “Your breakfast is being held in the oven go grab it and join me,” he said. He put down his cup and flicked his paper straight to read.

I walked into the kitchen and was greeted by Stella. She was a middle-aged woman on the portly side, she worked quickly between stirring something on the stove top and chopping vegetable.

“Alpha! Good morning!” she said cheerily as she continued to chop the vegetables.

“Good morning, Stella. How are you today?”

“Doing fabulous! I bet you are looking for something to eat. Jared asked me to save some food for you. It’s in the stove, give me a sec and I’ll grab it for you.”

“No, I can grab it. You’re busy.” I walked around the large island to the stove. There were three pots boiling, one with a tomato sauce, one with water and pasta and the last was a white sauce. “That smells delicious.”

“Thank you my dear. We are doing a build your own pasta plate for lunch and I’m going to make some delicious garlic bread.” She giggled as she said that. Stella loved to cook. She wasn’t a mother, but she acted as the pack mother. She fed the mouths of everyone in this pack and offered an ear to those who needed one and a shoulder to cry on.

“I’m excited for lunch!” I opened the door to the oven and pulled out a plate that was covered in tinfoil.

“I saved your favorite, Alpha. Blueberry waffles with a pecan syrup and three over easy eggs.”

“Thank you!” I pulled her into a side hug.

“Oh gosh you are gonna make me blush.” She giggled.

I took the tin foil off the top and looked at the food. Even though it was in the oven for who knows how long it still looked fresh and delicious. I poured a cup of coffee from the communal beverage area and made my way back to Jared.

“Happy?” Jared said as he still read the paper.

“Very.” I took a gulp of coffee and poured the syrup on top of the waffles. I dug in. I didn’t realize how hungry I was. The waffles were gone in three bites and the eggs followed quickly.

Jared put down the paper and finished his coffee. “Now that you have some food in you, I need to tell you something.”

I took a napkin and dabbed my mouth. “Oh yeah?” The last couple days, Jared had been a little off. As if he was hiding something. Whenever I asked him about it, he would say it’s nothing and changed the subject.

He took a breath, almost as if he were nervous. This was very uncharacteristic of Jared, which concerned me. “You know I did those runs to the other packs recently.”

“Yeah, to check up on the other packs that are nearby. To keep communication between our packs, open.”

“Right. Well while I was visiting the Crystal Mountain Pack, I met someone.” He took a breath.

“You met someone. May I ask who?” I leaned back in the chair. I had a feeling of where this conversation was going.

“I met my mate.” He was stared at the table and looked up at me. Concern was in his eyes. Not sure what I would do with this information.

I stood up quickly, knocked my chair over with my hands on the table. “You met your mate?” Jared stood up as well. “You met your mate?!” I said a little louder. I walked around the table. He faced me and took a step back as I stood toe to toe with him. Noses almost touching. “Congratulations man! That’s so awesome!” I pulled him into a bear hug.

“You asshole! I thought you were going to kill me.” He slugged my arm.

“Why do you say that? This is something to celebrate! That’s so great!” I pulled him into a hug again. I released him from my hug and walked back, picked up my chair and sat in it.

“Tell me about her. What are the plans? Have you marked her yet?” I peppered him with questions.

“She’s a gamma at the Crystal Mountain Pack. Her name is Greta. She was working as a guard and as I was patrolling the land, I caught her scent. I ran to all the guards until I came across her. She smiled at me Si. She is so gorgeous. She’s a small thing but man I saw her take down someone my size in her training.” He looked off into the distance as if he stared at her. “We spent the night together and it was mind blowing. I have had great sex before but sex with her was phenomenal. I marked her but I told her I needed to talk to you before she could mark me.”

“And she was ok with that?”

“Yeah. She’s so cool and relaxed. She understood. Normal girls would throw a fit. She just smiled and went with it.”

“You’re asking for permission to mate with her?” I laughed.

“Not really asking permission. She’s, my mate. I’m asking to see if she can join our pack and move into the packhouse?”

I shook my head at him. “Of course, she can. I will need to connect with Tristan to hammer out the details. He can be a hard head when it comes to his pack but I’m sure he will understand.”

Jared exhaled deeply. He seemed worried that I wouldn’t allow this to happen.

“May I ask you something?” I said to him.

“Anything, Si.”

“Why were you so worried to talk to me about you finding your mate?”

“Well…it goes a little deeper than talking about my mate. I know you aren’t mated yet and I didn’t want to make it awkward.”

“Yet is the word. I am not mated, yet. When it happens, it happens. I can’t rush the goddess on this one. I don’t get why it’s such a big deal. All the other Alphas in the area are so worried about me being unmated at my age. I didn’t realize my Beta was worried as well.”

“I am not worried about you being mated or not. I just wanted to respect you and your home.”

“It’s your home, too. Never forget that.”

He smiled and nodded at me. “Shall we make our way to this meeting?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”