Alpha Zander
Chapter 28

As soon as she let go and moved away, my body felt numb and cold, and the incredible sensation of tingles left my body.

All l wanted was for her to be back in my arms and her scent all around me.

“What do you want to do then?” She asks, blinking up at me shyly.

This girl will be the death of me.. one minute, she’s all angry and annoyed. Then the next minute, she’s all blushing and shy.

I stop suddenly before moving forward to grab her hand. I hadn’t realized she was only wearing the grey shirt.

‘Because she ran here stupid,’ Jace grumbled.

‘Nice of you to join,’ l grumbled back.

‘Don’t give me attitude. You’re lucky it wasn’t worse; I had to calm Kia down a lot, and half the time I couldn’t get to her because she blocked me’ Jace mumbled.

‘She almost rejected me,’ I protested.

‘Yes, thank goodness you knew to k**s her, or we would be mateless, and our pack wouldn’t have a Luna.”

I block Jace as he continues his rant and takes in her figure while she’s waiting for my answer.

The grey shirt just covers her thigh, her hair is messy and windblown from her run here.

Svcking in a deep breath, I know I can’t do anything until she’s ready but f**k she’s making it hard not to take her right here, right now. At least before, I had a little bit more self-control. I’m on a fine line that I’m willing to cross for some hot make-up s*x.

“Come on, I’ll show you around,” I said, grabbing her hand and leading her back towards the house before I did anything I would regret later.

“Do we have to call the school to let them know I have left?” she wondered.

I chocked back a laugh, looking back at her and seeing her wearing a confused frown.

“l guess you’ve never played hooky before?” I said, still trying to hold my restraint.

She shook her head ‘no.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Danni will text or link me if anything is wrong; I’m sure Oliver will also try to link you if something happens.”

She sighed and nodded in response, “Yes, I suppose Ollie or Brent will try to link me if something was wrong.”

I tossed her a grin making her blush red again; it’s starting to be one of my favorite colors on her.

I led her towards the back door of the house. As we entered the kitchen, off to the left, a door led into the dining room.

“This is the dining room I mentioned the other day,” I told her as she moved further into the room, letting go of It was a small room with an old chandelier hanging over the dark wooden table. The table was round with six chairs fitted nice and snug. The creamy flower wallpaper had slowly started to peel, showing the old original off-white color that was the same as the lounge room and kitchen. With the dark navy curtains draped over the windows, you could see a few bits of dust that had settled over the years of neglectful cleaning. The fireplace was old and run down, and some of the steel in the bottom pit had rusted;I don’t think we would be able to use it until it was cleaned up, at least.

“It’s cute, I don’t mind the wallpaper, but we will probably have to pull it all down if we were to try and get someone renting this place when I move to your pack. I doubt we would need to come here much later on.”

Ashleigh states.

I looked at her, stunned and a bit taken aback by the statement.

“What’s wrong?” she questions, tilting her head back towards me and studying my expression.

“Nothing. I’m glad you are still keeping an open mind about us being together and in my pack.” I shrug.

“I’m sorry I tried to reject you before, I was just hurt and didn’t understand,” Ashleigh mumbles, looking down at her feet as though they were the most important thing in the room.

“It’s ok, l understand why you wanted to, but now we are in the right direction,” I assured her, grabbing her hand again and leading her back towards the kitchen.

Right now, I know she wasn’t ready for me to hold her or do much else, so l’ll take what I can get, and at the moment, she seems willing enough to let me hold her hand.

We made our way towards the old staircase leading up to the bedrooms and bathroom. She hesitated for a second; it was so quick that I wouldn’t have noticed if I weren’t holding her hand.

“You ok?” l asked

“Yeah, it’s nothing.”

‘she’s nervous about the bedroom,’ his feelings of annoyance and frustration.

I knew he had finished his rant because I was receiving death glares while he was curled up in the corner, so I let the block down again, only to be hit with mumbles.

‘oh,’ Jace

“l just wanted to show you the upstairs and bathroom if you ever needed it,” l explained carefully. trying not to scare her.

“Yeah, that’s ok.”

I gripped her hand tighter and tugged her up the staircase, and she carefully walked behind me. I could feel her uncertainty.

As we reached the top, she let go and moved forward to the middle of the medium-sized open lounge room that had an old yellow one-seat couch with a bookshelf against the wall next to the window.

Next to the bookshelf is two bedrooms with a bathroom to the right of the stairs.

“This is nice, a little dusty, but still will work perfectly,” she smiles, looking around.

I nodded, agreeing with her,” It may need a little work but not too much; a vacuum and fresh paint should be ok, I’m not sure what the plumbing will be like, but it seems ok for now.”

Ashleigh moved forward to the main bedroom, being drawn to the little sun seat underneath the windows that looked out to the forest.

The two bedrooms were simple, both had a double bed and a closet, the only difference was the main bedroom was a bit bigger than the spare, and it had a bigger window with a seat. The spare only had a bed and a small window with a closet.

She sits on the seat, bringing her knees to her chest and cuddling herself again.

“Are you cold?” I didn’t want to disturb her. She looked so peaceful and content, but at the same time, it was a bit cooler up here where there wasn’t much sunlight shining through.

“Hmm, Oh, no, that’s ok. I just replace it comfortable.

This reminds me of my bedroom back home. I like the windows and how big they are. I enjoy sitting in my chair and reading or doing my homework.”

I nodded and moved back out of the room towards the bookshelf. Many of them were older novels, some with my mother’s old pack’s history books and photo albums, one of the larger photo albums caught my attention. It had “Blackwood Family” scribbled in gold writing the spine. Since this was my grandmother’s place, I wondered if there would be any photos or homemade videos of the time she had here, or maybe some photos of my mother. I reached for the photo album. My hands got clammy, and my breathing hitched as the nerves kicked in. I wanted to know more about my mother, maybe this was a good start, and with my mate here, we can go through this together.

Grabbing the book on the front, it also had

“Blackwood Family” printed in gold writing with our family crest engraved on the bottom.

Yep, this was one of ours.

“I found this,” I mumbled as I walked back into the room where she was still sitting peacefully.

“What is it?” she asks, curiosity drawn to the dark book in my hands.

“An old family photo album, I think. Not sure this is the first time I have seen it,”

Ashleigh slides off the sun bench, walking toward me, “Do you want to go through it together?” She must have felt my nerves. She puts her hand on my arm, gently looking up at me. Her eyes are held with a Iittle bit of concern and encouragement.

“Sure,” I mumbled..

With my mind, all in a jumbled mess, not thinking straight. I walk back to the sun seat, sit down, lean my back against the wall, and bring my leg up, so l’m facing sideways. I look up at Ashleigh as she walks over slowly.

I can see Kia trying to come through with the silver rims of her eyes flashing every so often.

Ah f**k, I’ve just taken her spot. I go to leave and give her space again, but Jace interrupts my movements.

‘give her a minute to decide, see what happens. She might be drawn to sit with us.’

She sits down, moves close to me, and leans her back against my chest. Her a*s just misses my crotch as she snuggles against me, tilting her head underneath my chin.

I suck in a quick breath, not expecting this action from her. Sparks fly through my body on the contact.

I craved this feeling ever since l let her go an hour ago.

I put the photo album on her lap as we read it together. As expected, many of them were of my mother and me when I was younger; I flicked through a few more pages just toward the end one of them caught Ashleigh’s eye.

“Wait, can you go back one” she asked.

“Hmm,” I grumble, not trusting myself with words right now. I’m barely holding on as it is. All l want to do right now is f**k and k**s her senseless.

“I think I just saw one of my mum.”

Frowning, I flicked back to the page she saw, “Why is my mum in one of these photos with yours?” She questioned.

“Your guess is as good as mine, sweetheart.”

I could feel Ashleigh starting to panic as she flicked through a few more pages, “Why are there photos of us when we were kids? It looks like it was all taken here in this house or the back garden. We look to be about 3 or 4 years old here.”

“Hey, it’s ok. We will figure this out,” I tried to calm her down as she flicked through the book. ” would it be such a bad thing if she knew?” I asked.

Her eyes snapped up to mine at the question. “Um, no, but I’m just nervous because I haven’t said anything to anyone, and this morning she freaked out about something, and now it makes sense because she recognized the hairpiece.”

Ashleigh reached out to the photo and peeled it out of the plastic sleeve. On the back, it had written ‘Kyle and Ashleigh Steward, Mollie and Zander Blackwood. The year 2007.

“We were four years old,” she mumbles, “if this was taken in 2007, we were four, and that means mum knows I’m your mate because she knew the meaning of the hairpiece.”