The Alpha's Daughter

Chapter 6 ~ The Bet

"How are you only finding out now?" Dad yelled and I cringed. 

"Our skin never touched?" I offered meekly. What? My dad's an Alpha. He can be pretty damn scary!

"You're job is to find a mate and yet you can spend so much time with a male and not touch?" He growled. 

Shit! "How could I have possibly known that my mate would be the Alpha of an enemy pack?" I replied, angry with him for thinking that I'm n ot doing my duty for the pack. "If I had had any idea that it was possible then I wouldn't have had to agree to a fake mating!"

"She has a point dear," Mom said. "Calm down."

"But-"

"Calm. Down," Mom repeated slowly and Dad snapped his mouth shut.

I looked at her in shock. "You have to teach me how to do that!"

"No!" Zach and my dad said at once.

"Later," Mom promised and I smiled a little.

Dad for the first time smiled too, "Too be honest this solves everything."

"Huh?"

"The pack doesn't want you in a false mating. But because you two are true mates the packs can be joined naturally. With you two as Alpha and Luna."

This made my mother growl thought. "My daughter is too young to be Luna! She's only 17!"

"Lucy-"

"No, Michael! I did not approve of you promising our daughter to a man."

"Mom, I did agree for the better of the pack," I murmured quietly.

"I do not care," she growled. "The good of the pack is not above the good of my child! She is too young! I am not going to have her thrusted into anything before she is ready! And she is not ready!"

"I would never force Lilliana into something, Mrs. Granner," Zach said in that polite voice the makes parents automatically trust the owner. 

She still growled at him. "Does not change the fact that the moment you mate my daughter will be forced into a Luna position."

"Then they will hold off on mating completely. It'll give the packs time to adjust to this. And give Lilliana time to prepare for becoming Luna."

My mother scowled but nodded. 

I nodded too and threw my arms around her and whispered, "Thank you."

§•§•§•§•§

"You mother is..." Zach trailed off searching for the right word. "She won't actually teach you that will she?"

"You sound worried," I noted and sat down on my bed. "That actually went better than I thought it would. My parents took it pretty well."

"That was pretty well?" 

I nodded, "They've been known to overreact."

He nodded and sat down on my bed about a foot of space between us. "Lilliana?"

"Yeah?"

"Am I really that bad?" he asked and I looked at him confused. "For a mate? Am I really that bad?"

I was left momentarily shocked into silence. How could he think that he was the problem? "Zachary," I whispered softly. "No. I'm so sorry you got the bad luck of being mating to me. You deserve someone who... You don't deserve to have a mate who doesn't want a mate."

"Why, Lilliana? What's so bad about having a mate?"

We sat there in silence for a long moment before I answered, "You don't get a choice. I envy humans. They can choose the person they want to spend the rest of their lives with. They can fall in and out of love without the fallout of a mate. There's never any choice. I've been raised to find a mate. As my father said, it's my duty to the pack. Once I have a mate I'm suppose to stand behind him and look pretty. I'm suppose to spend my entire life with a man who I don't get to choose if I want to or not. And it terrifies me."

He pressed his hand softly against my cheek and I flinched from the sparks cause pain to flash in his eyes before being quickly covered up. "I'm so sorry, Zachary."

"Zach," he said softly and dropped his hand from my face. "One day I'll get you to call me Zach."

I graced him with a small smile, "Unlikely."

He smiled for the first time since telling my parents. "Give me one two months and you'll be calling my Zach."

"Is that a bet?"

He smirked, "Yes."

"And if I what do I get when I win?" I asked.

"If you do manage to win then you can walk away from being my mate." My eyebrows shot up. Was he really that sure that he'd win he'd risk getting rejected? Zach noted my surprise with a smile. "But when I win-"

"I'll mate with you." 

He frowned but nodded, "Okay. Then we have a bet."

§•§•§•§•§

"You did what? Lilliana! You do not make silly little bets like that over what you call him!" Diana groaned and tugged on her hair. "I swear sometimes-"

"Di-Di!" I yelled snapping her out of her mini-rant.

She sighed and sat on her bed, "I know, I know. I can't believe he'll let you reject him if he loses."

"Yeah," I agreed sitting down next to her. "Hey Diana?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it weird that part of me hopes I lose the bet?"

"Oh honey," Diana cooed. "No, it's the mate bond. That's completely normal."

"Okay," I murmured and put my head on her shoulder. "I miss him."

"That's normal too."

"It's weird," I commented. "How come it wasn't like this before?"

"Because once you both recognized that you were mates the bond took firm hold."

"Oh, okay."

Diana chuckled, "Oh Lilly, don't worry, everything's going to work out somehow."

"But I'm still scared."

"Zach would never hurt you or push you. And you'll see, he's your soul mate. The moon goddess knows what she's doing. You two are meant to be together because your perfect for each other."

"I'm still calling him Zachary." Diana just chuckled in response to that.

Hey guys! So I was looking at all of my books because I was bored. I know, the Struggle. And I noticed that this one had gotten a few votes since I had posted a new chapter like a month ago. And what happened was I planned to start it up again but ended up starting on 'His Muted Mate' and got distracted. So Now I'm going to try and get back to writing this book. I'll try to update once a week but it's summer so I need to be outside and I'm suppose to visit family. So just bare with me. Thanks!