Stronger

EVERETT

“Answer me, little mate,” I demand as I watch her eyes go wide and her body freeze. I know I caught her in a lie, but she seems thoroughly paralyzed by my question.

“I believe in miracles. But I believe there are reasons that miracles happen. Ophelia had an impossibly curable disease. And she was cured. I wanted to know why.”

The words are convincing, only if she wasn’t the one saying them; she’s a terrible liar.

Why is she hiding things from me? I don’t know why. With her, my instincts are heightened, like I know what she’s feeling and what’s going through her mind in the most basic form.

Of course, that’s due to the strong mate bond. If we were fully mated, I would know what she’s thinking and feeling.

“Very well. Go to sleep, Aurora,” I declare, brushing the other books aside and peeling back the sheets so she can get under them.

She slips her legs in and just watches me, following my every movement.

I stand to head back to my office, where I had smelled her scent and became furious over the invasion of privacy, but I’m stopped by her angelic voice.

“Are you not coming to sleep also, Alpha?”

Every time she calls me Alpha, it infuriates me. As much as I value the respect she holds for me, she doesn’t feel comfortable around me.

I want her to call me Everett, but I know I’ll enjoy it too much, and that will blind my judgment. I have to think like an Alpha, not like a mate.

But I will comply with the hidden request she has made, for me to go to bed, to sleep beside her.

I turn to face her, expecting her emerald eyes to be staring back at me, but I watch her snuggle into the covers and her head rolls to get into a resting position.

A soft almost inaudible sigh falls from her lips that makes my body tingle with excitement.

“Fuck you, Chaos. We need to be rational here,” I tell him.

“Bullshit! She’s our mate, and I can get excited if I want to be by her. She’s adorable and intelligent. I don’t even know why you were scolding her,” he argues back with a huff.

“She was told specifically not to go in there.”

“But she’s our mate. She’s allowed to be in our space. Don’t tell me you weren’t excited too when you sniffed her scent in there,” Chaos advocates.

I roll my eyes and stalk toward the bed, sliding into the other side and turning over so I can look at her.

My little mate. My curious mate.

I guess I can’t just expect her to stay in our room forever. It’s understandable that she’s bored.

Lucius and Ace even told me she asked about going to school, her human high school, with her human fucking boyfriend.

She didn’t tell me about him, but Ophelia did, knowing that I’d most probably lash out if Aurora told me. I lashed out when Ophelia told me, but she’s used to it.

I don’t like getting angry at my mate, especially when she hasn’t done anything really. Just dated a guy who isn’t anything to her now.

When I hear her light whimpers, I automatically stroke her cheek to calm her as if it was a reflex action. And she does calm.

She leans further toward me whilst still in her slumber, sensing my protection of her and wanting to be close to me.

My girl, my clumsy girl, my little mate.

I wake up to a harsh crash on the ground beside me and a quiet “damn” from the other side of the bed—Aurora’s side of the bed.

Shit!

I almost hurtle over the bed toward her and a shy smile appears on her face as her eyes connect with mine. A red tint colors her cheeks as she scrambles up and back onto the bed.

“I’m sorry for waking you up, Alpha,” she apologizes meekly, trying to decipher my reaction to her casually falling out of bed like it’s normal.

Maybe it is normal for her. She’s only spent two nights in my bed.

If this is what I have to wake up to every morning—my little mate smashing her body onto the floor—Chaos and I might go crazy and strap her to the bed or start holding her close and tight, never letting her go.

“Are you hurt?” I ask, sitting back on the bed and checking all over her little body.

Please tell me she’s not hurt. Although I have a feeling I’ll be praying for that a lot.

“I’m fine, Alpha,” she replies with a sweet smile. “It’s just my morning routine,” she jokes with a giggle. Her giggle is what makes me chuckle, not the fact that this does happen regularly.

But then she gazes at me like I’ve done something obscene. Then she smiles. A real smile, not the shy or sweet or embarrassed ones she gives me.

She needs training. She needs toughening up and knowing how to defend herself and maybe learn some balance along the way.

She’s a fragile little thing, body covered in bruises—old yellow ones and new purple ones.

I want to protect her, but she has to help me out a little. She has to be able to walk without hurting herself at the least.

“Aurora, you’re coming to my warrior wolves training.”

Her eyes widen and a little unconscious pout works its way onto her lips. I take a second to admire her cute expression, her “I don’t want to” face.

But she’d never tell me that, she wouldn’t outright disobey me. Because she’s a good girl. My good girl. And she respects me.

“Why, Alpha?” she asks shyly.

“Because I want you to train. Are you disobeying me?” I question her, even though I know she’ll do as she’s told.

As easy as that makes things for me, my Luna can’t be so submissive.

I know that her life in her old pack warranted her to keep her head down and follow orders, but to be my Luna, she has to be a leader and stand up for what she believes.

Maybe she can learn that, but sometimes it’s just nature whether you have the will or not.

“No, Alpha, of course not. I’ll get changed,” she declares with a wary smile and skips over to the closet, almost falling over clumsily.

I leave to allow her some privacy and wait for her outside the door. I hope she doesn’t get tangled in her own clothes. But I wouldn’t put it past her. Are all humans this graceless?

“This isn’t a good idea. What the hell are you doing?!” Chaos yells at me.

“What?”

“She’ll get hurt, you know she will.”

“She’ll be fine. I’ll put her into some boxing gloves, and I’ll be there, and Ace and Lucius. Even though they don’t like her, they know she’s my mate. That assures their protection over her.”

“I’m telling you, this is a bad fucking idea.”

“She needs to get tougher. I can’t watch over her all the time.”

Just as I am about to imagine more scenarios of her getting hurt, and worrying myself even more, Aurora pops out from the door in some sweatpants too big for her and a baggy hoodie.

Thank God she’s small and the clothes are too big. With all my unmated warriors about, my little mate showing skin could result in some violence, by me to anyone who looks at her that way.

“Let’s go.” I reach out to grab her hand in mine, giving myself a calming feeling and a sense that she’s a little safer.

Her little hand interlocks with mine, almost sending me into overdrive by the skin contact. “Walk beside me. I don’t want you falling again,” I tell her, and she nods.

As we reach my training grounds, my warrior wolves turn our way, narrowing their eyes at the human holding my hand.

Thus, I drop it and allow her to walk in front of me so that I can watch her step. I growl lowly at a few wolves I see checking her out, although they can barely hear me.

I don’t want them to know she’s my mate yet. She’s just a girl I helped in rogue territory and brought back here.

“Alpha, what’s Rory doing here?” Ace asks me as both my Gamma and Beta stroll up to me with questioning looks.

“She needs to train, to get stronger,” I reply nonchalantly. “Take her and get her some boxing gloves her size,” I command Ace, who nods and leads my mate away.

“Training with the warriors? She’ll get laughed at by them,” Lucius tells me, although hiding his wicked smirk.

He doesn’t like my mate because she is human, and she’s clumsy and he doesn’t think she can be the Luna. I do share his doubts, but she is still my mate, and he will respect her.

“Watch it,” I growl to him, which makes the hidden smirk slide right from his face. “She’s my mate, although no one else here is to know that.

“She’s a human we found in rogue territory and gave a place of refuge. But she is my mate, you shouldn’t forget that.”

I give off a threatening tone to make him understand, to which he slowly nods.

“Sorry, Alpha. I meant no disrespect. It’s just... don’t you think Rory training with the others is a little... The girl can’t walk without falling, let alone train.”

“I know, but I can’t constantly watch over her all the time. She needs to get stronger quickly, and training with the warriors from time to time will get her there faster.”

Hopefully before she falls or trips or drowns and dies.

I don’t think I could ever live with that.