Twin Alphas

Chapter 31

"Are you suggesting that I am slacking on my duties?" I narrowed my eyes and smiled slightly so she knew I wasn't being completely serious.

"Well, you are here instead of out there." She pointed out.

"I'll have you know, I am here because I took care of my half of the duties Josh and I need to catch up on and while you were taking a peaceful nap I was taking care of some requests that needed my sign off." Bayne just rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Besides, that's the beauty of having two alphas for the pack. One can have an afternoon off while the other takes care of the business. And anyway, I would much rather be tending to your every need than be stuck in my office filling out paper work and filing bills and bank statements. So, for this afternoon I am at your beck and call. Do you need anything?" I smiled as I leaned in to kiss her temple. Our physical contact had been minimal and I desperately wanted to change that.

"No." Bayne's voice was calm, but there was an edge of danger to it. She wasn't telling me the whole truth.

"What's wrong babe?" I didn't know what could have been wrong or what I had to do in order to make it better, but I promised myself that I would do whatever it took to make my Bayne happy.

"Nothing." Her voice didn't change, she still sounded aggravated. I took her right hand in mine and looked her in the eye.

"Tell me, I can hear it in your voice." I tried to reassure her by smiling but I don't think that helped much.

"NOTHING'S WRONG!" Bayne yelled. This took me by surprise, Bayne had never raised her voice before, not unless it was during training, and then she was yelling at the pack as a whole. "Nothing is wrong and I. Don't. Need. Anything!" her face was red and her eyes held nothing but anger and frustration. "I just want to be left alone right now." Her voice went down and her demeanor changed. She almost sounded sad or upset about something.

"Okay. I'll just... go then..." I felt dejected, I knew something was wrong but she obviously didn't want to talk about it. So instead I left the room with a weight on my shoulders that I thought would crush me. She needed some time alone and fighting with her wasn't going to help anyone. I walked out and closed the door gently behind me before I headed for the office. I was hurt that Bayne didn't trust me enough to tell me what was bothering her, but I guess we haven't known each other for very long. When I entered the office I found Josh and Aaron having a discussion. I had hoped that Josh might have some things that he hadn't gotten to yet so I could take my mind off of this pit in my stomach, but by the looks of it he was nearly done with everything. I gave a small smile to my brother than to the only man that understood my mate completely, the only man that she trusted completely. I was both jealous and grateful for Aaron, on the one hand he understood all of Bayne's nonverbal ques and her signals. He understood all of her lessons and my brother and I were still learning. However Aaron had the insight that we needed to understand what Bayne was thinking and what we could do to make her comfortable. With Aaron around we had someone to translate what we didn't understand. This was one of those times where I was more than happy to have Aaron around.

"Hey, you okay? You look like someone just stepped on your tail." Josh noticed my mood immediately. And why wouldn't he, we did just about everything together. He knew me better than I knew myself, just as I knew him better than he knew himself. We could never lie to each other.

"Uh... yah I guess I'm okay. But I don't think Bayne is." I kept my eyes on the area rug that was under both our desks. I never really noticed it before; we really needed to replace it.

"What?! What's wrong? Where is she? Don't tell me you left her alone right now!" Josh moved to get up and walk out of the room when I put my hand up to stop him. His worry was immediate and made me glad I had such a great brother to share my mate with.