The Alpha and his Mate
Chapter 16

Jax’s POV

“What...how...?” Was all she stuttered as she sat herself up from me with a sight blush, realising what position we were in.

“Your wolf came out Annabelle, she was completely in control of you” I explained, saddened at the loss of contact from her as she moved away.

“I... umm... I’m sorry, I don’t know how she... how that... ” she stuttered, confused about what had just happened and how it had happened.

“It’s really okay Annabelle, great actually, your wolf is getting stronger and stronger everyday so hopefully you will be able to fully shift soon” I explained with a grin on my face. As soon as she shifts, she will feel the mate bond and after that I can officially mark her as mine, she can be officially recognised as the Luna of my pack and they will have their Alpha female that they rightfully deserve.

Annabelle just nodded and sat up crossed legged from me on the floor.

“Did you want some pizza?” I asked, hoping to make her more comfortable again. I knew she technically wasn’t allowed it yet but a few bights couldn’t hurt. “It might be a little cold now but that doesn’t make it any less amazing, cold leftover pizza is sometimes just as good as when you first buy it”.

She pulled a face at that, obviously not believing with me in the slightest and I couldn’t help but laugh at her expression. “It’s true!” I exclaimed.

She just shook her head and reached her hand out indicating she still wanted a slice.

“Hmm I don’t know... I mean you just said you didn’t like cold pizza and I’m not sure I’m ready to share food with you if you aren’t going to enjoy it” I taunted as I dangled a slice just out of her reach.

She reached out to grab it and frowned as I drew it slightly closer to me and away from her. “The price for this slice of pizza is very high and I’m not sure if you’re willing to pay for it” I laughed, loving the fact that I’m seeing her more playful side. She had grown so much in both confidence and character since we had first met and it just made me more excited to see her progress further.

She frowned and stuck her bottom lip out slightly; oh she had the puppy dog eyes down!

“The price for this slice is a kiss on the cheek” I sang. “Are you willing to pay the price my little Annabelle?” I smirked. I honestly didn’t think she was going to do it, but I was pleasantly shocked when she leant forward and briefly grazed her lips against the stubble on my cheeks. The sparks from her touch went flying and suddenly my heart was pumping loudly in my chest. The things this girl did to me.

She must’ve realised the dazed look on my face because whilst I was distracted she snatched the slice from my fingers and started to chow down on it.

“Hey that was my piece!” I exclaimed, pretending to be hurt by her actions.

She just shrugged and went back to eating...goddess she was cute.

We sat there for about ten minutes, eating in a comfortable silence, me my pizza and her the soup. I wanted to bring up her scars, but I was unsure on how to do it. Do I just come right out and ask her how she got them or do I slowly direct the conversation that way? Maybe if I showed her a few of my battle scars she’d feel more inclined to talk about hers?

“Are you okay?” Annabelle whispered, obviously deciding that she’s had enough to eat and was now sitting with her back against the foot of the bed.

I nodded my head and rubbed the back of my neck. It was now or never I guess. “I have a question for you...you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to but I was wondering...well...Umm...” I had never really stuttered a day in my life before I met her but now that I have, I’ve found that I’ve felt more nervous than ever. I looked up to see Annabelle staring at me with confusion in her eyes, unsure as to where I was going with my questioning.

“Go on” she encouraged me with a small smile and a slight nod.

Well here goes nothing... “how did you get those scars?” I rushed out. It came out sounding all like one word, but I knew she had understood me as I saw her freeze. Had I crossed a line?

Tears slowly brimmed her eyes and she looked down, as if she was ashamed of something.

“I’m so sorry my little mate, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to” I reassured her. I crawled over to her and brought her into my arms, needing to comfort her in some way. She didn’t push me away which gave me hope that I hadn’t overstepped her boundaries by to much.

She shook her head before hiding in my chest and all I could do was draw her tighter to me as I kissed the top of her head. I instantly hated myself for making her feel this way, for ruining our night together by bringing up her past.

We stayed like that in silence for a while, neither of us daring to be the first to speak. Her heart rate dropped back to normal levels and the grip she had on my T-shirt lessened slightly. Just when I thought she had fallen to sleep she surprised me by speaking.

“Tony” was all she whispered as she continued to hide her face in my neck.

“Tony?” I asked in confusion, had I heard her right? “Who’s Tony”′

“My...my foster father” she muttered “he’s the one that gave me the scars, well most of them anyway. Sometimes it was his wife Natalie or his son Damon”.

I froze when I heard her say the name Damon, that was the name of the person she was pleading to stop when she was having her nightmare. Was she having a flashback to that place, to what he had done to her? I growled at the thought and struggled to rain in my wolf, if he got out now I know there would be nothing stopping him from hunting down those people and killing them in the slowest and most painful way possible.

I took in a slow, deep breath to calm myself down before I asked her anymore questions. “Why...? How...?”

She sighed, playing with the hem of my shirt. “When I had done something wrong, or if they were in a bad mood, or if...if they were just bored” she shrugged, as if it was no big deal.

I growled again, a bit loader this time and she froze before slowly relaxing again, realising the growl wasn’t aimed at her. “What did they use on you to cause marks like that?” I didn’t really know whether I wanted to know the answer to that particular question or not, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

She sighed again before slowly moving away from me so that she could lift her top up slightly.

I don’t think I could ever get used to the sight of scars on my mates’ perfect skin. They crisscrossed over each other like a spider’s web, a web that could only be seen in certain lights.

“Marks like these are usually from things like belts” she whispered, pointing to lines surrounded by little dots, probably from the holes in a belt made for the buckle. “These ones are from a fire poke, Tony particularly liked to use that one” she explained pointing to the more raised, thicker ones. “And the rest are from things that have just been thrown at me, like the corner of a blunt object or something” she muttered as she pushed her t-shirt back down before coming back over to me and snuggling back into my arms. It took a lot of force to scar a werewolf, even one who was malnourished and forced not to shift like her. I shudder to think about what could’ve happened to her if she wasn’t a werewolf. She probably wouldn’t have survived.

I kissed the top of her head and took in her scent, hoping that it would calm myself and my wolf down like it usually did. Thankfully it has the desired effect and my wolf stopped pacing in my head, demanding release and laid down, calm enough to enjoy the time we were having with our mate.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all that my little mate, that I wasn’t there to save you, but know that you will never be harmed again, never feel pain while I am beside you to protect you” I promised.

I heard her heart rate speed up at my words before she started to relax again and before long, she was fast asleep in my arms. She was such a small, delicate little wolf. I could never imagine anyone wanting to hurt her.

The next morning I woke up to the smell of bacon. I rolled over with outstretched arms to replace my mate and pull her close, fully intending to fall back asleep with her in my arms but shot up when I found her side of the bed empty.

After a second to allow my brain to catch up with the situation I realised the smell of bacon was probably my mate cooking me breakfast again. She sure seemed to be an early riser, the clock on my bed side table hadn’t even reached seven o’clock yet.

I quickly pulled on some tracksuit bottoms, forgoing the top, and slowly padded downstairs and into the kitchen where I found my gorgeous mate frying off some eggs while some bacon was sizzling in a nearby pan. She looked fully at home in front of the hobs, knowing exactly what she was doing, and I couldn’t help but smile at the image. She was going to make a fantastic Luna and mother someday.

“Morning baby” I yawned as I leaned against the doorway with my arms crossed, making my presence known. “You know you don’t have to make me breakfast every morning, right? You can just sleep in and we can order breakfast delivery or something” I shrugged. “That’s what I usually did if I fancied something other than toast.

She shrugged, still not looking up from her pans and just muttered a quiet “I don’t mind”. She was getting a lot better with talking to me lately. I think last night brought us a step in the right direction with getting to know each other and I couldn’t help but smile at the thought that she was starting to trust me. She was now comfortable turning her back on me to go and do something and she didn’t flinch away from me whenever I reached out to touch her which was a good sign, especially as she hasn’t been here that long. I’m sure in a week or two she’d be fully relaxed around me and then we can properly get to work on replaceing her wolf and getting her fully integrated into pack life.

I padded over to her and took her in my arm, needing to see her pretty face this morning. “So how did you sleep last night?”

She smiled and blushed slightly before nodding her head “good”.

I chuckled and lifted her face up so that I could get a good look at her cute little blush. “What’s with the blush little mate” I questioned, replaceing her reaction completely adorable.

She blushed harder and tried to look down and hide her face from me but my fingers on her chin were stopping her. “I...Umm...I sleep better when you’re next to me. I fell... safe” she muttered and hid in my bare chest as if she were embarrassed with the fact that she liked being around her mate.

I chuckled and kissed the top of her head “that’s normal Annabelle, that’s how most wolves feel when they’re around their mates” I explained. Sometimes I had to remind myself that she wasn’t brought up in our world and even the simplest of feelings for us, like wanting to be around our mates, could be extremely confusing and almost foreign for her.

I held her for a minute in my arms, just living in the moment with my mate securely in my arms, until I started to ever so slightly smell burning bacon and reluctantly released her so that she could save our breakfast. I sat on the counter in silence watching her whilst she finished cooking and plating up our food, thanking her as she placed a full plate of bacon and fried eggs on toast in front of me.

“So what did you want to do today” I asked around a mouthful of food.

She just shrugged and carried on eating her soup, seemingly not bothered with the plans for today. I smiled as I watched her eat spoonful after spoonful of the liquid, feeling happy that her appetite only seemed to be increasing with each passing day.

“How do you feel about going out again today? Maybe show you some more of the pack lands” I suggested, hoping that she would agree so that I could show her off a little bit. I had found my mate, my perfect mate, and I wanted to scream it from the roof tops and rub it in everyone’s face. Not very mature and Alpha like I know but sue me, I was too happy to care.

“We might even get a chance to meet a pack member or two, how does that sound?” Please say yes, please say yes.

“Umm...” was all I got back from her and I smiled at the nervous look in her eyes.

“It’s decided, we can go for a walk around the grounds and if we bump into a few people I can introduce you to them, but I won’t go out of my way to search for them okay? How’s that for a compromise?”

She just shrugged “okay I guess”.

“Great, well go get ready and we can make a day of it then, I’ll even bring a picnic for us”. I knew she was nervous, but it was only because she was panicking about the idea of being around new people, once she meets the pack and realises how nice they are I’m sure the nerves will be all but forgotten.