Alex stood and watched in silence as the attendant processed Cassy’s card. He did not say a word as she picked up her bag, still lying at his feet and then wished everybody a cheery good night before walking out.
“That is one ticked off woman for sure.” The attendant whispered softly to himself; and of course Alex heard it and recalled what Timothy had said about a calm and quiet Cassy. He had to fight back a furious growl; forcing his body to stay where it was. Never before had he felt so humiliated!
Neither had he ever felt so furious, frustrated or bewildered before; hell, he was experiencing every possible negative emotion right now and it was all her bloody fault! And to top it of; after everything; he still wanted her so badly that his biggest problem right now wasn’t his temper, it was his lust for her. He could still hear her moans echoing in his head; filling his body with a need so profound he had trouble wrapping his mind around it. And now he was going to spend the night on his own!
Drat the darn motel for a ‘No Cash’ policy. He had more than enough money! But with the rogue war and all he had never gotten around to building up a credit record like a 'good citizen' would have. Now; on top of this fresh humiliation, he was not getting any!
With a sigh he faced the attendant. “How large a deposit would you accept in lieu of a credit card payment?”
“I am not sure sir; I could make a phone call to find out?” He suggested.
Alex waved in agreement and waited patiently for the conversation to finish; there was no rush at all now. The attendant received the green light and Alex paid the rather hefty deposit and slipped the receipt into his wallet.
“Is there a place close by where I can get myself a decent dinner?” He asked, grabbing his bag.
“A few actually sir. There is the diner across the street; you will be getting your breakfast from them tomorrow morning; it is included in the price. Then there are a few places down the road to the left. You will find a pizza parlor, a small Italian place and a Chinese restaurant. Those are normally the best, there are burger places along the road as well, but like I said; those three are the best of the lot. Not too expensive either and the portions are rather big. Good evening and good luck with the missus then sir!”
After dumping his bag on the bed he left to find something to eat. While he was walking he wondered whether Cassy would get herself something to eat. Considering what he had come to know about her, he came to the conclusion that she would rather avoid the possibility of running into him than get dinner. Once he had resolved that puzzle, he debated what to get her for dinner. Not for one moment did he consider not getting her anything; he had been caring for others too long to even entertain that thought. As far as he was concerned, withholding food for any reason was absolutely inhumane.
When he came to stand in front of the Chinese restaurant, he finally admitted that he would probably always give her what she wanted. He only prayed that she never realized that; he had had to deal with manipulating women before and did not want to be subjected to that ever again.
He ordered her four servings of the sweet and sour pork she had been talking about, with the extra sauce no rice; but decided to get some pasta from the Italian place for him. By the time he got back to the motel, he had calmed down. Oh; he was still going to take up this whole debacle with her, he could not allow her to behave like that. She would have to learn to consider him as well.
He had already followed her scent earlier, so he knew in which room she was. After putting the bags with her food in it on the floor, he knocked and then left for his room. At the corner, he turned to see whether she would open the door. It took her a while to open it up; she had a quick look left and right, and stole a glance at the bags waiting her door step. Alex wasn’t surprised when she closed the door softly without picking up her dinner, but just a few moments later the door opened and as if by magic, the bags disappeared.
With a smile Alex unlocked the door to his room; he sincerely hoped she was as frustrated and uncomfortable as he was; but it still pleased both him and his wolf that their mate would not be going to sleep hungry.
From the window seat at the diner Cassy saw Alex leave his room, bag in hand; he stepped into the reception to check out. Cassy waved at the waitress she had placed their order with, and she in turn went to give their order to the kitchen. The breakfast that was part of their ‘deal’ being a regular breakfast meant for the average human, was a bit on the light side for shifters; so Cassy had doubled up their order and ordered sandwiches for the road again. Eating on the road saved a lot of time, especially now that they were about twelve hours behind schedule.
Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Alex leaving the office with her bag as well. He dropped them of in the truck before crossing the road to the diner. Searching his face for any sign of anger, she was frustrated to see that he had a neutrally bland expression on his face. She had hoped to be able to determine in what mood he was so that she would be able to anticipate how the day was going to start.
Last night had been the worst night of her life. At one stage she had actually caught herself with her hand on the door handle; on her way to look for Alex. If she had found him – no; when she found him, she had no doubt as to what would have happened and her body throbbed at the thought.
As Alex took the seat across from her, it took only one breath for him to tense up.
“Are you sure you are not doing this on purpose?” He asked, picking up the menu.
“No I am not doing this on purpose, and I hope you don’t mind, I have already ordered breakfast?”
Placing the menu back on the table he looked at her expectantly. “I suppose I will have to trust you on both counts then, won’t I?”
Cassy pounced on him as soon as he had finished speaking. “And that is where our problem lies, isn’t it? Trust!”
“Amongst others.” He conceded.
Cassy narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean; that a lack of trust from my side is not the only challenge this relationship faces.”
“Alex, don’t play with words; spit them out so we can deal with it.”
“Are you prepared to listen?” Alex held his hand up to stop her hasty reply. “Think about what you are asking.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you have something to say that I won’t like?”
As reply Alex gave her a nod and half a smile; and that made her worry. Up until now Alex had never told her anything that was not the truth; and like yesterday, he had been as honest as he could be when hashing out situations. What did he have to say that she might not want to hear?
Their breakfast arrived, and Alex nodded his approval to her as she lifted a fried egg and some bacon from her plate to his, and snagged a piece of his toast. They started eating in silence as Cassy pondered about her situation.
“OK,” she relented. “Give it to me.”
Alex took a sip of water, putting his words in their proper order, so it would do as little damage, while still delivering the message. “I would appreciate it if you could attempt to behave in such a manner as to not cause me too much embarrassment and humiliation in the future.”
“Last night?” She asked surprised. “But …” she floundered, her cheeks turning a delightful shade of pink. “I though you wanted to get that room too?” She finished, sounding uncertain.
Alex felt his body remembering the lust that had coursed through his body last night, and was glad the table cloths were long. His body was not as firmly under his control as he would have preferred after all the frustration it had been subjected to, and the evidence to that fact might be disturbing to some of the other early morning patrons of the diner.
“Cassy,” he sighed. “Do not ever make the mistake of thinking that your …, need, was any greater than mine. But I am an alpha, and we do not like the taste of humiliation very well. Your not waiting for me to make an arrangement for payment last night was extremely insulting. I know you did not intend to be insulting or anything else like that, but if we are going to make this work; your words if I am not mistaken, you are going to have to take that into consideration when dealing with me. Some alphas like your dad for example, is so established in his role that something like that would not have bothered him coming from you, but we have still got to build our relationship and you should understand that at this stage, my wolf will take any insult; intentionally or not, as a threat to his position.”
Rethinking the events of the previous evening, Cassy realized that what Alex had said was true. And; she conceded to herself, even her dad would have been upset at her behavior. That embarrassed her. If she had better control last night, then perhaps she would not have misbehaved so badly.
“I am sorry. You must believe that it was not my intention to be insulting.” She kept her eyes on the table in front of her as she spoke, her head bowed to signal her submission to his authority.
Alex knew that it was proper protocol for her to behave that way, and although his wolf felt appeased at her acknowledgement of her error; another part of him felt like pulling her into his arms to protect her from him.
“Cassy don’t.” He whispered and took her hand in his. “Don’t do that.”
“But, I was wrong; this is the correct way for me to behave.”
“Not when we are alone.” He smiled when she looked up at him. “And as I am sure that you would never do anything to publicly insult me, there will never be a reason for you to do that in public either.”
“Alex;” she stated firmly. “I am not afraid to admit when I am wrong.”
“Which you have, and I have accepted your apology. End of story. Now; did you order us something for the road as well?”
“Mm, yes; I ordered sandwiches. I didn’t know if you were going to want to stop or not, with us being behind schedule like this now.”
“Well, no help crying over spilt milk. We would have arrived there this evening, but now we will most likely get there some time tomorrow morning. Which is better I think anyway.”
“Good. Now there is enough time for you to tell me all about your brothers.”
Once they were on the go, Cassy made herself comfortable and started asking questions. Alex answered most of them. She noticed that he did not like talking about his father, and he flatly refused to answer any questions about his mother. On the other hand, she could not get him to shut up about his brothers.
Although he is the eldest by only a year, he sounded like a proud father, instead of the eldest brother. Brian; his beta was twenty years old, then there were twins, Conrad and Carter at nineteen, the second set of twins aged seventeen, named Dennis and Derrick; and lastly Ethan aged fifteen, the only one who had not changed yet.
Alex was only twelve when the rogues attacked. Now as far as Cassy knew, this was the time when his mother allegedly ran off; there were no details. The rest of the pack had packed up and left to stay in the local town; they had refused to remain part of a pack where the alpha female could run off an abandon every one in a time of crises. Alex’s father had not been himself since then, but at least had the foresight to make arrangements so that Alex would be able to have access to funds to support and care for the seven of them.
Alex had to raise his own brothers, had to go through his first change alone, had to support his brothers when they went through their first changes, make sure they got at least some kind of schooling. He also made sure they were safe and trained himself and them to be the superb fighters they were during the rogue war.
As Cassy listened to the way Alex described this all to her, she almost felt like crying. No one person should have to go through alone what he went through. Not once did he complain about how hard or how unfair it was that he had to do this all alone. And it was abundantly clear to her that he cared for his ‘ragtag pack’ as he referred to them; very much.
She could not wait to meet them.