As I walk up to my front door I know I won't be having the quiet night I had planned. I can hear Eddie ribbing Paddy over his disaster first encounter with Bel.
“You wolfed out... That's just…” Eddie can't even finish his sentence through his fits of laughter.
“Fuck off. I didn't turn full wolf.”
I walk into the lounge to find Eddie rolling around the sofa and an agitated Paddy sitting opposite.
“Is she okay?” Paddy questions as soon as he sees me walking towards the sofa.
I sit down next to Eddie, slapping him across the back of the head with one hand, while swiping a beer off the coffee table with the other. “Bel's fine. She's just glad she didn't have to kill you. She didn't want a death on her conscience.”
“It was the blood and the moon calling to me. I can't believe I lost control like that. If I wasn't trying to eat her, I would assume it was due to her being unmated and wanting to claim her.”
“You want to claim her?” I barely contain my growl. She is my mate. No one but me will be claiming her.
Ours. My wolf is in total agreement with me.
“It doesn't matter if I did! I've blown it now. I've got no chance. Her wolf will think I'm weak, losing control like that,” he says, nervously peeling the label off his stubby.
The growl I'd been holding starts to rumble out. Eddie throws an arm across my shoulders to hold me in place before I can pounce on Paddy. It’s a suicidal move on Eddie's behalf because I immediately turn my anger on him. He pays me no attention as he speaks to Paddy. “You had no chance anyway. She's Theo's mate. His true mate.” His words calm me. Someone other than myself and my wolf was acknowledging the fact that she was mine. I relax back into the sofa and Ed removes his arm from my shoulder and leans forward to grab a fresh stubby, acting as though nothing had happened.
Paddy glances up from the bottle he’d been playing with and his shocked eyes land on mine. “Why haven't you claimed her? She's been in town long enough,” Realising his mistake in questioning his alpha, he quickly apologises, drops his eyes to the floor and submissively bares his neck to me. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean any disrespect.”
“It's fine, Paddy. I've been asking myself the same question since that first night I left her in Misty's. She’s been brought up by a werelion and his human wife. She hasn't learnt anything about us. I don't think she even understands what our connection, and the physical reactions we get, means.” I swap my empty stubby for the last full one.
Ed gets up and grabs another six pack out of the fridge before sitting back down again. “She seems like a bright girl. Surely she would see that it's only you that causes these feelings and reactions. Her wolf would know even if the human doesn’t.”
“I'm the first Alpha she’s met. She is probably putting it down to my alpha vibe.”
“You’re planning on claiming her though, right?” Ed pops the top off a stubby and passes it to Paddy, who takes it gratefully as he downs the last dregs in the one he’d been holding.
“Of course I do. I just don't want to force her into it before she realises what it is. My last relationship was a disaster. You know that. It was nothing but lies and deceit. I want this one to go right.”
Ed places a comforting hand on my forearm. “Theo, she is your true mate. It won't go the same way as things did with Selena.”
"I know, but I thought I loved her. Not only did I lose her, I lost a brother too. It hurt. It still does. Even though I now know it wasn't love, not like that of a mate.”
“Cain was jealous when you took over the pack. He turned bitter.” Ed wasn't around when I took over the pack but anyone could see that Cain was bitter and jealous about me being Alpha - even years after the fact.
“Cain didn't want the pack, though. He's the one who killed Dad. He should’ve been Alpha after that, but he handed it to me. That's why I don't understand his jealousy.”
Wes, my Beta, walks into the room and joins the conversation. “That's not why he was jealous. He was jealous of the pack. The pack took your attention away from him. He was young and he idolised you. He slept with your wife to get back at you for abandoning him. He knew it would piss you off.”
I hadn't even heard him enter the house. He must have been working in my office. That revelation floored me, but now that the thought was in my head it made complete sense.
“Why had I not connected the dots?” I mumble to myself whilst shaking my head. The revelations would do no good. Cain is AWOL now. No one has seen or heard from him in a year.
I stand from the couch and start to strip off my clothes. "I need a run.”
Talking about my ex and brother always gets me worked up. A run is what I need to wear off the extra stress it's stirred up. I'd rather a run than hold it in and snap at the wrong person. By the time I make it to the back yard and shift into my wolf form, there’s a trail of clothes leading outside and three other wolves standing next to me, waiting to follow my lead.
I lead. I run through the forest with my pack brothers following me. The day’s stress runs off my fur as my paws pound into the dirt of the forest floor. The only thought that stays with me is that our mate still needs claiming.