The Plan

Chp 2: The Plan

Gathering myself, I sniffed the air. And then sighed with relief.

I stood up and opened the door. "Alpha Rosens, what can I do for you?"

Lia's father smiled and said, "Haven, you can call me Lucas."

"I know." I said, "But it feels strange."

He rolls his eyes. "We've had this conversation over a hundred times."

I grinned. "Yes, we have, and nothing will change." I stepped back to let him in and watched as he sat down on a chair. "What can I do for you?"

"How was The Find?" He asked.

I shrugged, looking away. "I met my mate."

He nodded. "I know. How was it?"

"It wasn't what I imagined."

"Life rarely is what you imagine." He mused, crossing his arms and looking out of my window.

Wait a minute. I frowned thinking back on his words. "How did you know that I met my mate?"

He sighed. "That's what I came to talk to you about. Alpha Mason is downstairs."

My eyes widened. "And you didn't think to open with that?"

Lucas—nope, definitely not calling Alpha Rosen that—looked guilty. "Sorry." He apologized. "I came to speak to you about what you said to him."

I winced. "I'm sorry if he was rude to you. I'll go apologize for reacting badly but I—"

He waved me off. "He wasn't rude. I meant, what you said. The part about not going with him and not needing a mate."

I raised my eyebrow. "He told you all that?" Jeez, he was a little desperate.

Alpha Rosen shook his head. "No, I heard about it from someone." He rubbed his eyes. "Do you really wish to stay here?"

Is that what this was about? Did Alpha Rosen finally not want me here? I asked him that.

"No, of course not." He said. "A mate is something amazing. It's hard to accept at first, but you'll regret not having given it a chance."

I shrugged. "Maybe I will regret it." I met his eyes. "But his pack... it's sexist. I can't live like that. Contained? Having kids?" I shook my head vehemently and wondered if he could smell the lie.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all allured to the idea of being forced into a relationship and then forced into producing heirs. I value independence and free will and freedom more than any werewolf I know. It means everything to me. It's what my parents fought for as warriors of our pack.

But the real, most prudent reason as to why I was unwilling to disappear off into the happily mated world with Axel, had very little to do with me and everything to do with my plan.

Or, The Plan, as I liked to call it. I capitalized—pun unintended—on my inability to fit in by making a failproof plan that took up every free moment of my day. Naturally, nobody knew that it existed.

I turned back to Alpha Rosen. "Please don't make me go with him."

He smiled gently. "I won't. I would never do that. It will always be your choice, as it would be for Lia or anybody in this pack." He gave me a long searching look. "Alpha Mason returned to the house that he's staying in, presumably to cool off. He mentioned that he'd return later tonight."

Panic flashed across my features. "He's going to drag me back with him, isn't he?"

Alpha Rosen shook his head. "No. He's not."