Chapter 68: Her Alpha’s Orders Chapter 67

West POV

West was prowling around in his Alpha Suite, both Ricky and Cole were sitting watching him.

He’d sent T.J. off to go and find out about that gift from Alpha Jayden, that he did not want Jo-anne accepting to be honest. He didn’t want her accepting gifts from any man, but he could not stop her.

He couldn’t even lay claim to her until tomorrow night, and the closer that the full moon got, the more anxious he was becoming. Their history was terrible. Although he knew he really did want he, would she accept him back? Could he sway her into giving him a second chance?

West also knew that he was going to have to sit down and try to explain to her, why he’d been the way he was, not an easy thing to do, not when he couldn’t really understand it himself. Those compulsions he’d had to hurt her. He couldn’t explain that, not even to himself. He’d been trying to figure out the best way to word it for days now, nothing seemed right, just sounded like a bunch of lame excuses to him. Probably would to her as well.

Ricky already knew what was going on. Being the Gamma, he’d actually already started noticing how connected he was feeling towards Jo-anne. He had walked into Wests’ office 2 days ago and stared right at him, stated point blankly to his face. “Jo-anne is confused and unhappy.”

West had looked at him and raised an eyebrow. Only T.J. knew the actual truth of the situation. His mother had hedged her bets, and even managed to get Jo-anne to pull a Luna Duty for her. To his surprise, she’d gone off and done it. This had made his mother smile, she’d even hugged him. It had been her own way of confirming what she suspected he supposed. He’d heard his mother call her sweetheart, and Jo-anne hadn’t seemed to object to it at all.

“ls she?” had been his only reply to Ricky.

“Yes, now as the Luna. She should be happy West. You need to sort this out.”

“I can’t, not until the full moon.” West had answered him, effectively acknowledging she was to be the Luna.

“If you know, you should tell her.”

“She doesn’t know yet. Not till the full moon.”

“And you think shocking her, is the best way to handle her?” He’d not been happy.

“No.” West had explained to him “I think she has the right, to scent out her Mate on her own.

Ricky had not been able to argue with him about that. It was how it was done. You couldn’t just walk up and claim a she-wolf any old time you liked. If they did not scent you back, they would not believe you and their wolf would certainly not accept you.

Though Clova was happy, it seemed, allowing Volt to mate her, when and where ever he felt like it, in human and wolf form, they still seemed very attracted to each other.

Jo-anne however, had the right to find out for herself, who her Mate was. Then he was going to have to convince her to give him a second chance, to prove to her he could be a better person this time around. Had to redeem himself, he knew.

A very long road, he was sure of it. It wasn’t going to be the usual excited “Mate” growled at him, or her leaping into his arms, he knew that. In all likelihood she was just going to stand there and stare at him with a deep frown on her lovely face.

It was also likely that from his behaviour over the past month and his lack of shock, when Jo-anne scented him out and hunted him down, and he was going to let her find him. She was going to know, that he already knew she was his Mate.

Explaining that was not going to be fun either.

Might just leave that one well enough alone, if she didn’t ask. Considering he’d, over the past 10 years, had gone out hunting another Mate and stayed away from her altogether, thought he had convinced himself he’d been wrong about her long ago. Had wanted to be wrong about her.

So that Jo-anne could find a better person to be mated to, a person that could make her happy and move on past him. He had truly wanted that for her. Now he just wanted her and had no idea if she was going to outright reject him on the spot or give him another chance.

West was pretty certain that Clova was going to be alright with it. West was hoping that this would go in his favour.

Looked at his watch and frowned, how long did it take to ask one question? Though T.J. could just be down there hanging out with Jo-anne, he did seem very happy about finding out she was his little sister. Not that he or T.J. had been able to get near Belinda to talk to her about it. She was always with Jonathan or Ava or Sonja, never walked anywhere alone.

He had mind-linked her all about Jo-anne’s training, kept it light and casual, as though he did not know anything, that T.J. had not informed him of who Jo-anne’s mother was. Belinda had agreed to start her training. It would start next week and then she had severed the mind-link. West had not pushed her, she was dealing with her own trauma from her past. Those memories of how Jo-anne was conceived and who her father was and what he’d done to her in all likelihood, how could she not be when T.J. had forced her to state the truth, not fun for her.

The suite door finally opened and T.J. walked in. West was looking right at him, asking the unspoken question.

“An art print.”

“Of what?”

“I don’t know. She wouldn’t show me. It’s her private business.”

West sighed “You couldn’t convince her?”

“No, and I wouldn’t go down there and try.

She… don’t know, ready to defy you on it. I guess you could say.”

“Excuse me?”

“Stated you put an Alpha Order on her and you won’t like the outcome.”

West sighed again, just bloody great. She was still annoyed with him. “Anything else?”

“Not that you’ll want to hear West. Best leave it alone. I think she’s about had enough of your possessiveness over her.”

So tomorrow was not going to go down well then, just great, was likely to just outright reject him on the spot. He did not want that, nor need it. It had hurt to blazes the first time around. How was he going to get through it a second time?

“You might want to rescind all those other orders you have on her!”

“What orders?” Ricky was suddenly on his feet, and glaring right at West.

“Never mind. I will rescind them, just not right now. I need her to stay put until the moon sets, then I’ll take them off of her.”

“You Alpha Ordered her again. Are you insane, Westley? Did you not learn from past mistakes?

“I need her to stay here. They are in place to keep her here, is all.”

Ricky was furious now. He could see the man practically vibrating with anger. “No wonder she is unhappy, West.” he snapped, “Clean up your own mess. I will not help you.” and then he turned and stalked out of the suite, slamming the door shut behind him.

To be expected, the Luna was his job after all.

Cole didn’t say anything at all, just raised an eyebrow at him. Looked at T.J. then got up and strolled out after Ricky. No surprise there, those two were very close.

“That went well West.” T.J. looked right at him.

“When did Ricky know about the last time and my orders?”

T.J. shrugged “Likely being the Gamma, he might have always known, just never go involved.”

“Great, maybe he could have helped back then!”

“Maybe the man didn’t know how.”

West didn’t know the answer to that one. Only Ricky would have those answers and if he wasn’t willing to talk about it, he wouldn’t if he’d known all this time and never said anything at all, wasn’t likely to talk about it now. Though it was very clear that he was unhappy about how she was feeling at the moment. Not that he could go down there and talk to her or comfort her.

Being the Gamma, she might suspect that something else was going on. Ricky wouldn’t out West. Ricky also knew she had the right to find out about her Mate on her own. He would let her scent out her own Mate.

It was a restless night in his suite, prowled around mostly, didn’t sleep well when he tried, ended up going downstairs to his office to find work to do. There was plenty of it to do. He had emails to read and respond to. Contracts to go over, was still in there when the sun came up.

The moon was not going to set until 9:36pm. It was going to be a long day. He was tired, which only made him even more grumpy than usual. Ella had already told him she and Jo-anne, plus a few others were going to have a girly day and head for the spa in the Pack’s town centre to relax and get ready for the mating ball.

West had already called ahead and put it on his own pack card. Whatever anyone in the group wanted, he’d be paying for it. It had shocked the woman, Fiona, on the other end of the line, but he’d ignored it. The whole pack would be shocked, he imagined, when they found out that he and Jo-anne were actually Goddess-Gifted Mates. Considering they had all been expecting him to banish her month ago.

Only higher ranked members would be in attendance for this mating ball, though that would not stop any visiting pack members from scenting out someone else in his pack. If they were Mated to them. It just meant that only those higher ranked would be allowed in the ball room itself during the mating ball.

He had many un-mated ranked members, his whole Alpha Unit was un-mated, though he suspected something was going on where Ricky and Cole were concerned, he’d left that one alone, those two would sort themselves out when they were ready. Cole’s youngest brother and Ella, his sister, were both un-mated. T.J.’s two younger sisters, Ava and Sonja, were also un-mated and several of his most highly ranked warriors were also un-mated at this time. 45 of them, in fact male and female.

West was hoping that some of them would pair tonight, find their Mates. It would make his pack stronger and happier. Though most within the pack were happy, there were just too many un-mated for his liking.

West had already snarled at his unit and his mother this morning and it was barely lunch time, his tension was running high. Alpha Jayden was lounging around in the foyer once more, his Beta Ben with him, chatting and laughing, didn’t seem at all concerned about the up-coming full moon.

Waiting to speak with or see Jo-anne, West could only presume of the man. It was really starting to tick West off, he wanted to go over there and tell him she was his Mate and to back the f**k off. But refrained himself. Most of the other visiting pack members were wandering about just doing their own thing. A fair few of them were lazying about by the pool. It was a hot day and it was a good way to cool off.

Though West preferred the lake to the pool, more natural and no chemicals against his skin.

Every time he left his office, his eyes landed right on Alpha Jayden who smirked right at him, that man was so darn sure of himself. West knew the man’s pack ran heavily into the arts, owned art galleries and two museums, had an import export business for antiquities. He had way more in common with Jo-anne than West did. That bothered West a lot.

Even though West now understood that he had known this whole time, since she left him, that she was actually his Goddess-Gifted Mate, he did not like others thinking she was theirs and the man himself seemed to be very sure of himself. Had told West her would be back for this mating ball and here he was. Had brought her a gift and something she was into at that.

It was not sitting well with West.

Alpha Jayden, who West had known for many years, seemed to be a laid back man, very calm and his pack liked him. He’d seen the man interact with his pack when visiting. They all liked and respected him. He was the complete opposite of West, who was very controlling, demanding and appeared angry and annoyed all the time. His pack members knew better than to come up to him without reason.

If the worst happened and she turned out to be Jayden’s, she was likely to smile and go willingly with the man. West would have no hope of stopping her. You could not separate an Alpha from his Luna. It would be all out war. He would have to let her go.

But even Ricky felt her now. He reminded himself, she had to be his, he couldn’t be so wrong about her. He wasn’t wrong.

Her scent was so strong to him now she smelled like Rosewood and Cinnoman with a hint of Ylang Ylang thrown in. It was driving him nuts, every time she walked passed him, or he walked somewhere she had already walked, or been, he could smell her. She was lucky he hadn’t yanked her into his office this morning when she’d been headed out with Ella and ripped her damned clothes off of her so he could bury his face between her thighs.

Damned woman and her not knowing, was nearly killing him.