The Equal Claim

Chapter 15

I walk down at 5:00 am and sure enough Theo is there, waiting for me."morning love" he says, "morning to you too" I reply and we proceed to go to our spot, transform and run to the foot of the mountains and back. "Your wolf is beautiful; the fur is almost snow white" Theo tells me as we walk back to the house. It's now 07:00 and almost everyone in the pack was awake and bustling about, after all it's the pack breakfast today.

As soon as I get to my room, I hop into the shower and wash my hair. As I get out I feel an incoming connection, I open the link and let the person in. 

"Athena honey, I hope it's not too early, how are you? did you speak to Theo? How did he take it?" Mom bombards with her questions as usual. 

"I did mom, he is so great, I just...uhh...i didn't know he would take it so well. He's promised to protect me with his life mom. To be honest I don't think I could've asked for a better mate,'' I say and her laugh vibrates through the link. "I told you from the beginning Athena, he is a good man." 

"Thank you mom, I love you," I say and cut off the link.

I proceed to get ready and choose to wear a burgundy skinny fit jeans, and deep V-neck black top and pair it with some brown boots, I do a burgundy lipstick and pull my hair into a messy a bun as I walk down to the living room. Theo eyes me from up to down and I hear a low growl rumble from his chest. "Everything okay? "I ask as a mischievous smile plays on my lips; knowing that he is irritated with my top being too revealing. He just huffs and walks out of the door and I follow him.

 "You know you shouldn't be worried about these things, I've lived alone for almost 8 yrs and i know how to protect myself, besides if anyone even tries something like that, I'll gorge their eyes out." I say with confidence. "I'll decapitate them before they even think about harming you." He grits his teeth.

"Okay calm down, we are talking about a hypothetical situation here." I continue as I rub his arm invoking the mate bond and he instantly relaxes. "One of the perks of the mate bond" I say and give him a clever smile. "Smart girl" He says and I laugh in response.

We are soon joined by Charles who wolf whistles as he sees me. "Look at you, serving us looks every day, who are you going to impress out there Athena?" He says purposely trying to piss off Theo. "Well, who else but you Charles." I play along trying to get a reaction from Theo. "Ever since I laid my eyes on you, you're all i think about, all day, every day, every night Charles!" I cry out dramatically and he bursts into laughter. "Careful Athena, I smell something burning or should I say someone?" and wiggles his eyebrows. Theo looks at us disbelievingly and scoffs, "You two are like the older versions of Aiden and Nadia but with the same brain size as them."

"So you're saying you see your sister in Athena?" Charles questions Theo and I couldn't help myself as I snorted out a laugh and they both turn to me with wide eyes. "Did you just snort!" Charles said" sorry" I say as I hold a hand over my mouth. "It was cute" Theo states and I shoot him a grateful smile. "Of course you would say that, you're whipped." Charles declares and Theo glares at him causing him to shut up.

We soon get to the pack house which is filled to the brim, everyone parts their way for Theo and Charles as I lag behind, but a hand shoots out and he pulls me to his side, I look up to him and he gives me a smile. I start hearing whispers from the crowd like "who is she? Why is the Alpha keeping her close, "I'm told she's a special guest" one of them says. "Could she be the Alpha's current conquest?" And I freeze at the last remark. 'How could I not have thought of that before, of course Theo has been with other women and I start fidgeting and hyperventilating as my thoughts go on an overdrive. Suddenly I feel a calming sensation flow through my body and look down at our joined hands, I see Theo rubbing circles on the back of my hand invoking the mate bond to calm me down. A small smile appears on my face as we finally get to the dining hall. It is twice as big as the one back home. Then again this is the biggest pack in these regions we are talking about.

Theo lets go of my hand as he and Charles walk up to the high table and I find myself a space on one of the corner tables. As the pack hall starts filling up I catch Theo's' eye and he is looking at me apologetically, I send him a reassuring smile and he nods as people come up to talk to their Alpha and he averts his gaze from me. Just then I see a shadow loom over me. "Athena?" A voice asks and I look up. "Hazel, hi hows it going?" I ask. "It's good,I didn't see you for training the past two days so thought you'd left." She responds. "Oh I just got busy." I say with a wave of my hand.