Ace POV
I woke up to the sounds of soft breathing by my ear and the weight of another person in my arms.
Looking next to me I saw the most beautiful sight ever. Aletha, with only a blanket covering her naked body, asleep half on me half on the bed. The rhythm of her steady breathing was lulling me back to sleep until I remembered what happened last night. Or more like what almost happened. I was wide awake now.
I almost marked her last night. Almost sealed our bond and made her forever mine.
She wasn't ready yet though and i'll have to respect her wishes. No matter how hard it is. And its really, really hard.
I tried to get up without waking her but as soon as I moved a sharp burning pain coming from my stomach made me hiss in pain.
" Ace? "
Shit. I woke her up.
I turned my head to her and met her sleepy eyes.
It took her a minute to come to and when she did she began panicking.
"Oh god" she whispered as she shot up while the blanket slid down.
Thank you Moon Goddess. This is truly a life worth living I will never take this life for granted. For I have seen the most beautiful truths of life and I shall caress and handle these truths with love. I'll never let these truths out of my sig-
"Stop looking at my boobs" Aletha screamed as she scrambled to wrap the blanket around her bare chest.
Face hot with embarrassment I turned away and let her get dressed.
Wow
Wow doesn't even begin to describe it buddy.
"You can look now perv" she whispered.
I turned around and saw her face flushed with mortification.
"Sorry about that" I said and I was truly sorry I just didn't have the strength to be sorry when I was staring. "It's fine."
She walked back over to the bed and sat down with a sigh.
"Cant believe that happened" she whispered. It took me a minute to remember what she was talking about but when I did it just made me angry.
Her bitch of an ex mate had crossed many boundaries last night and was still being held in the cells for his action.
"What do you plan on doing with him?" I asked.
She looked at me and shrugged. "Not much I can do to Alvarez since he's an alpha. His beta though...well that'd be up to you" she said.
I felt a grin reach my face as she said those words.
"Interesting" she said with a small smile.
After a couple more minutes we decided to leave the room and feed our grumbling stomachs.
Aletha POV
We worked in perfect harmony together to make breakfast. He moved comfortably around like he knew what he was doing.
It almost made me regret not letting him mark me last night. Heat crawled up my cheeks as I remember how close we were to finalizing our bond last night.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening and my friends making their way into my house.
Oh shit.
"Mmmm I smell some of that good saus-" Ethan stops as he takes in the scene in front of him.
Ace with no shirt and some shorts and me in his missing shirt with some shorts as well.
He quickly covers both his and Riley's eyes. "We're too young to witness this! Close your eyes Riley, mommas working the corners again!" He cries dramatically.
"Oh grow up ass hat" grace says as she comes and sits down at the counter taking a piece of bacon.
"How are you?" She asks me sincerely as the rest of the group sits down to eat as well.
They listen intently when she asks.
"I'm fine guys really. It's being taken care of"
"Yeah it's not the only thing being taken care of" Ethan whispers and Ace chuckles under his breath. I throw him a glare and start serving everybody their plates so we can eat.
Once everyone's sat down and eating I begin the meeting.
"Zaine progress report." I order.
He looks hesitant and I don't know why until it clicks in my brain that he's not sure if we should be talking about these things in front of ace.
"I'll leave" he says and begins to stand up. I could tell it upset him because letting him leave would mean I'm still keeping our mate bond a secret.
"Wait" I tell him and he does.
"First I need to make an announcement ." Everyone gives me their full attention and I take a deep breath and brace myself to truly accepting my future.
"Alpha Luther and I...our mates"
I wait for the gasps of surprise but they never came. I was staring a table of big goofy grins.
"We know" Nate says in his monotone voice.
"What?" I ask confused.
"Yeah it's not like you tried to hide it Al" grace says.
"I did" I responded
She looks at me "it's not like you did a good job of hiding it" she rephrased.
"Wait so you all knew this entire time?" I clarify. They nod their heads yes and continue to eat. "...ok then. Zaine progress reports"
Ace continues eating while listening intently.
"So far we've searched 11 of the 16 nearest packs and our investigators have come back with nothing. Word on the street though is that some of the alphas are real mad about your investigations though. I checked and it's all the alphas who've rejected your request for an investigation of their pack"
"Makes sense" I replied.
"You know what to do. Get it done"
He nods his head.
"Grace?" I ask.
She sits up straight and answers. "We've moved onto working with silver and defense against magic. They're making good progress and should be done with this course in a month or so" she states.
"Ok good. Seems everything's going well for now. I'll take care of the Alpha Alvarez thing myself. Anyone have anything they'd like to share"
"We have an event scheduled for this Saturday coming up. Alpha Julian's daughter is of age now and he'll be having a mate party to see if they can find her mate." Zaine replies.
"Mate parties? I thought we stopped that tradition 100 years ago?" Grace asks.
"Most did. It's still practiced in a lot of packs" ace replies.
"Thank you Zaine make sure you alert all the unmated male and females. Tell them I'm making it mandatory. That means you too Riley. Anyone else have any news? No? Ok then you're all excused" they wash their plates and leave one by one until it's just me and Ace again.
"I've been doing some more research" he says.
He doesn't have to elaborate for me to know what he's talking about.
"And?" I ask.
"I've spoken to a woman who thinks she can help us but..." he says hesitant.
"But what?" I ask. He rubs the back of his head nervously.
"She's a witch" he says.
"Absolutely not" I snarl.
"I understand your anger I don't like it either but she can be trusted." He says. "I don't trust any witch" I reply.
He walks closer to me and grabs my hand in his as he looks me in my eyes.
"Do you trust me?" He asks.
I stare into his eyes and ponder the question.
"Yes" I reply.
" an hour tops. That's all she needs to get us some answers." He insists.
"Okay fine" I give in.
I pull away from him and make my way to my room
"Where you going?" He asks.
"To sharpen my knives" I answer.
I dont have a good feeling about this witch so it's good to be prepared just in case.