JANE
"And then..." I paused for effect, my eyes wide, "the rat ate all of her fingernails."
Gasps burst around the room. A few of the younger pups clutched thier blankets tighter while some had thier jaws hung open, thier eyes wide in horrified fascination.
I smiled, snapping the storybook shut. The cover read The Rat Who Ate the Dirty Little Wolf's Fingernails...An obvious title that told you everything before the first page.
"That," I continued, lowering my voice with a playful warning. "is why we always wash our hands before bed. The end."
A nervous giggle escaped a tiny girl in the front row.
"But luna, what happened to the girl?", she asked, her eyes wide and glimmering with innocence.
"She grew wise," I stood smoothing a hand over my dress. "learnt to listen to her parents and never sleep with dirty hands again."
They burst out laughing , the warmth of her thier joy brushed against me like sunlight. For a fleeting moment I forgot i was the luna of Silverfang pack. The Alpha's mate.
Here, I was just Alessia the storyteller.
I hadn't planned on telling that particular story, but the pup's teacher filled me in on how the little ones had picked up a nasty habit of not washing thier hands after eating. What better way to scare a few lessons into them.
After bidding the children goodbye, I made my way back to the main house. Pack members greeted me with nods and quiet respect slightly bowing thier heads as i passed them. I returned thier gestures absently. My mind was elsewhere.
Yearning was a perfect way to describe my feelings at this very moment. I missed my mate, having barely seen for days due to his busy schedule and fatigue taking over his form at the end of the day. Today I wasn't having it. I was going to spend as much time as possible with him. The rich scent of coffee filled my senses as I reached his office.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
There he was, sitting behind his desk, posture perfect, with a set of neatly arranged documents in front of him. My mate. My Lover. My Confidant.
"Cole," I breathed. "Babe I've missed you so much." He responded with a smile on his face as he opened his arms wide. I practically leapt into them, curling into his lap like it was my rightful place.
"I've missed you too..." He murmured placing a kiss to my cheek as he held me in place. His voice was warm, but something about it felt rehearsed. I ignored the flicker of unease.
Cole worked himself trying to put the pack together. I'd offered countless times to assist him but he always refused saying ut wasn't necessary. When i persisted, he would snap at me. It was infuriating but I didn't push the matter further. He would not be this tired if he didn't insist to work overnight and turn up to bed exhausted.
My hand cupped his face, i brushed a hand along his cheek, leaning in for for a kiss...
The door burst open.
Click. Click. Click. Combat boots on polished floor.
Matteo strolled in...in his usual plaid disaster. A long sleeved plaid shirt paired with short plaid pants, and a plaid belt. All clashing shades of red and green. Worse part? Everything looked loose.
I blinked. "Haven't you heard of knocking Matteo? You're in the Alpha's office."
He barely looked at me, his eyeliner enough to kill and disdain painted accross his face. The gum in his mouth popped obnoxiously.
"Sorry." He said flatly. He didn't look sorry.
His attention flickered immediately to cole and all looks of disdain flew out the window. I must be imagining things.
"Alpha...," he purred, completely ignoring me and walking forward with confidence like he owned the place, while going through the documents in his hands. "I went through the files you asked for. Everything is in order and ow ow ow! it hurts!" He shrieked.
To my surprise, Cole shoved me off his lap... onto the floor... and rushed to mateo's side.
My mouth fell open as he took Matteo's 'injured hand' like it was a fragile egg that could be broken with just a single touch.
"It really hurts Alpha." Matteo whined, the word Alpha rolling of his tongue like honey. I hated how deliberate, subtly seductive it sounded.
My blood boiled.
Mateo is Cole's beta. He was flamboyant, dramatic, and painfully obsessed with plaid. He had the fashion sense of a worm. None.
He also wore more makeup than i did on ceremony nights.his face full of makeup all the time. Catching him barefaced was about as likely as catching Santa on Christmas eve. Mission impossible.
I got up from the floor furious that cole would even push me like that.
"What happened?" I asked tightly.
It had better be a spider that bit him and there had better be blood big enough to warrant that shriek or so help me...
"Paper cut." Cole said.
A paper cut. The words rang in my ear.
I blinked. "You screamed over a freaking papercut?"
"Alessia..." cile began but i interrupted him.
"No! You're a werewolf matteo! That cut would have healed five seconds ago." I snapped, my patience snapping with him, sometimes he brought out the worst in me. "Grow up."
Cole rushed to my side this time, apologized countless times and excused matteo but his knowing smirk didn't go unnoticed by me. The kind of smirk that said, "your man cares more about me than you. I could steal him if i wanted to."
That little...
Cole spent the rest of the day with me. Though as usual, he was working overnight again. He would come to bed utterly exhausted and not be able to hold even a single conversation with me or an answer questions like how his day went, what my favorite color was.
I laid in bed lost in thought, my gaze fixed on the ceiling above me. I met Cole a year ago at a mating ceremony. It was the perfect werewolf story. The Alpha finds his luna. The luna finds someone to love and protect her. Love at first sight.
I left my old pack, my mother, my friends, just to be with cole my fated him. I even left him behind... Antonio Rossi...he is irrelevant, i reminded myself.
I couldn't help thinking, two years of being his mate and not once has he claimed me.
Most Alpha's if not all would jump at the idea of sex with thier mate but Cole would never touch me. Whenever i asked him, he always acted bashful and reluctant saying over and over again that he was waiting for the right moment.
The right moment didn't matter to me but it meant everything to him.The only intimate acts we performed were simply hugs and kisses.
At first the pack was silent about our relationship but when Cole had an urgent meeting out of the pack's jurisdiction, a meeting he left rather early for without help me when i was in heat, they began to talk. They wondered if he wasn't attracted to me, if I was even his mate at all.
He said he wanted to wait for the right moment. I should believe him. I wanted to believe him.
Enough about of that, Jane. Stay postitive.
It will all work out when it's time, it's what I keep telling myself. Our anniversary is tomorrow, his schedule officially cleared for just the two of us and I can't wait.
A knock brought me out of my thoughts, an omega came in with my evening tea...one of Cole's romantic gestures when he couldn't be here himself. She set the tray carefully on my bedside table, her hands trembling the way they always did around me.
I have never raised my hand at her so her fear was still a mystery to me.
"Thank you," I said softly. She bowed and left.
I took a sip of the Earl grey tea and felt the familiar warmth spread through me. Within minuites,minutes, my eyes grew heavy. Sleep took me fast. Too fast.
A few sips of the tea and i was out like a light. As i slept, dreams of all the time we could spend together, what our children would look like flooded through my mind like a silent escape.
Today is our anniversary. I had everything planned. A relaxing picnic in the garden, with flowers, soft sunrays, a blamket bug enough to drown in and a picnic basket with all his favorite delicacies.
But Cole wasn't in bed.
He wasn't in his office either.
A sharp anxious pulse began beating behind my ribs. My wolf Ria, paced about in my head. He never missed anniversaries. Never.
And while he could be running late, a feeling of dread came over me. Something was different abiut today. Wrong. Wild thoughts swaped my mind. Had he fainted from fatigue and landed in the pack clinic? Where could he have gone?
I searched the pack hiuse, sent warriors to search the grounds. Yet, nothing. Then a scent wafted through my senses. Coffee. His scent.
I followed his scent trail to the a rather secluded part of the Pack. The ceremonial hall. It wasn't a chapel though it looked like one. Tall arched windows, pale stone floors, sunlight streaming through a glass roof.
This was where official ceremonies were held: oaths, pack initiations, and mate bondings. The air hummed with residual energy from the old rites but it didn't stop the feeling of unease growing inside me.
What would Cole be doing here?
Two women stood guarding the doors of the hall. One, an old lady i didn't recognize, the other being the omega that served my tea every night. Thier stances was stiff, too alert. The determination in thier eyes told me one thing... No one was getting through that door. But i wasn't just anyone.
I stepped forward and the omega cleared thier throat, moving from one foot to another. "Excuse me luna, you are not allowed in there. The Alpha said not to..." i didn't miss they way her eyes darted briefly to the hall then back to me.
"Step aside." My voice was calm, my eyes shone gold, sharp elongated claws, slowly protruding out of my fingers sent a clear message to them. I was also an Alpha wolf, one who wouldn't take shit from either of them. They stepped aside, I wasted no time and made my way foward.
My pulse rushed in my ears. Different clues danced through my head all to which pointed to a single possibility.
No. I was wrong. I had to be. He wouldn't do that.
I pushed the door open.
At first, i heard them before i saw them.
"With the power vested in me, I hereby pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss." The priest voice trembled, fear evident in his features.
Then I saw them. Cole. Matteo.
Kissing.
Cole wore a white suit. Matteo, a white dress and a white veil. What the hell?
For a moment, my brain refused to process it. My throat cleared, air catching halfway.
This cannot be not happening.
" What the actual fuck is going on here?" I said my voice slicing through the hall, my chest tight with betrayal. "Somebody better start talking. Now."