The Alpha By Her Side, page 6
He wrapped an arm around her and just pulled her closer to him, hoping that the physical strength that he had would be enough to help her fight off whatever was bothering her at the moment. He knew that he had opened up a horrible can of worms for her and didn’t want to actually have to deal with all of the aftermaths of something that had happened so many years ago. She deserved to know her history, though. She deserved to know what her mother and father were like. She had probably been lied to her entire life, and she didn’t actually know any of the reasons why she had been kept secret for so long. Soon he felt the warm tears through his shirt, and he knew that he wasn’t exactly sure of how he was supposed to continue when this was actually physically hurting him as well. He was more aware of her pain, both mentally and emotionally. He thought about it. First, it was because of the gifts he had, but he knew it was because of the blood they shared. In many ways, they were one already.
“I’m sorry.” she gulped as she kind of pulled away. He didn’t know how to react to that. Instinctually he just pulled her closer again. His large hand spread out on her back and just held her there gently. He knew if she was hurting, he was as well. Now he understood how sometimes he would just get waves of pain that ran through him when he was hunting for her. They were connected. It was more than a simple thing. It was something he could not explain at all. He just knew it was there.
“Don’t be sorry. You have every right to be upset. The sad fact is I don’t know the correct words to try to help you. To try to make things a little bit easier for you. I don’t have those magic words.” he said softly. “I wish I did, Desi. I wish I could say something and make all the extra emotions disappear.”
“My entire life, I’ve been told that I didn’t fit in. That no pack would want me. Little did I know that it was because my pack was completely gone. You know she wasn’t a bad person. She tried her hardest to make sure that we had food and shelter. She moved from pack to pack because they kept kicking us out because we were a burden to them. We weren’t blood. Now I find out that I have absolutely nobody.” Desiree said softly. She just shook her head. It was one thing to find out that she was a Princess of some sort, but it was more to find out that there was no one left from her own bloodline. There was no one there that she could rely on without a doubt. She had no real family left. She never even had the chance to know them. Everybody else in the world was going to want something from her, and she didn’t know if she could actually provide that. She didn’t know anything about her own history until today. And it took him kidnapping her from the one place that she felt safe for her to know any of this. No one had actually ever thought to tell her why the other packs that hated her so much from the beginning to the end. Not even the woman who was supposed to be her mother or her brother. Desi was left to wonder if the other woman would have told her before the ceremony within the pack in a few days. What if, on the off chance, someone had chosen Desi to be their mate? There were so many what if’s that hung around her as she sat there wrapped up in his arms. They hung like swords pointed right at the young girl’s heart.
“You’re not alone,” he said softly as he pulled back just to look into her eyes. Much like his own, they were completely different from most of the packs. That was one of the things that always shocked everybody was their eyes when they were younger. They could have been brother and sister with the unusual color that was there. He knew that they weren’t because no one would have allowed the simple blood ceremony to happen if they had even remotely been closely related. They might be more animalistic than normal humans, but they were not rushed in the way that they did things for the royal family, at least. He wouldn’t speak on things about the pack because he didn’t know, “you don’t have any family, but you have me. I know that might not be much right now, but hopefully, you can learn to trust me and rely on me as well. We are destined to be together. It was written in the stars supposedly. It’s one of the reasons why I had to find you. There would be no next generation without you. But even more than that, you are my other half.”
Chapter 15
When the two ate in silence and then went to the second level of the cottage, she looked around. Though it was one floor, it was also one room. It was more like a loft than an actual second floor. She had lived in a few of those before as well. She didn’t mind the openness of the room.
There were two pallets made that were side by side. She didn’t care because she had slept in a lot less with nothing to her name. Gabriel had not tried anything with her, and she knew he did seem to care about her. She did not believe that he would force her to do anything that she was not ready for. She didn’t even know what she was ready for in the end. She laid down and was out so very quickly.
Gabriel also laid down at the same time, and he could feel the pull to her. He knew that she had been exhausted, and she also needed to rest. He hoped that she would have some clarity in the morning, but he also knew it would take time. He had uprooted her entire life in one quick move. He was surprised that she still seemed pretty open to him and the idea that he was there. Though he knew that it was probably nothing more than her being overwhelming tired. He watched her as she slept and knew that he was blessed to have her as a mate. She was everything he remembered her to be. Though it seemed she was much smaller than she should have been. He didn’t care. There was nothing that was standing on his way to find her to be what she was, perfect for him. This was just the beginning for them.
He closed his eyes and waited for the sleep to take him as well. Sometime during the night, he found himself wrapped around her. When the morning light finally filled the room, though, he had tried to draw the curtains to make sure that nothing got in so she could continue to rest, knowing that she needed it. The light was still coming throughout them, though. It was dancing on the floor in spots, though he could see it wasn’t near them for the time being. He stayed there next to her with her tucked under his arm, knowing that she was dead to the world and probably had cooled off throughout the night as well. All he was doing was trying to keep her warm.
She blinked her eyes open a few hours later and, for a second, was filled with a mild panic as to where she was. Then she felt the arm wrapped around her. She was surprised by the touch, which added a little weight to her, but in a good way. She felt better now that she could think again, though everything was still muddled.
“Good morning.” He said as she turned to lie a little flatter. He didn’t find the need to remove his arm, and he just let it stay there as she moved. He didn’t think it bothered her too much. She had not said anything about it yet, at least.
“Morning.” She said as she stretched a bit more. Her voice was rough when she did talk. Though she didn’t want to move. It seemed he didn’t either.
She turned to face him, and he couldn’t hold back himself anymore. This was what he had been waiting the last ten years for. When he knew that, he had to find her and only her. He moved quickly and then found himself only a few centimeters away from her mouth. He looked at her to try to read her, and when her eyes closed slowly, he knew that it would be okay to move forward.
His lips softly touched hers, and it was like it was an explosion within him. All the feelings he had been holding back on were there. They were in front of him and all-encompassing him as well. There was no resistance from her, and then he began to deepen the kiss slowly. He could only hope she didn’t feel rushed by his actions, but he simply had to do this.
The time stood still. He found himself pulling her close to him. She was melting as much as he was into the kiss. He had not meant for it to feel like they were drowning in the depths. He wanted her to know he was there. Now he was feeling something new in his veins. She was too.
Soon they wrapped up even more. The blanket that was between them was no longer there. They were pressed up against each other. He pulled back slightly to see how she was really reacting to the kiss. Though she was responding to him, he wanted to make sure that he was not overstepping any lines that were there. She opened her eyes slightly and looked at him, and the color had deepened as they were hazy and trying to focus on him.
He kissed her again to see if they had the same burning result. They both did. She let out a little hum, and he knew in this was he lost. All the reins were now gone. Even the self-imposed ones that he had placed on himself so she would be able to find her feet. The explosion that was happening within themselves and the room was something that he never expected to have to deal with. He had heard that it was completely different when you had a mate, but he didn’t realize the huge difference between the different kinds of mates. This was much more powerful than what he had heard about.
She was his blood mate. Almost in a way, she had been born just to fulfill that prophecy that the two lines would cross. That wasn’t the way that he looked at her, but it was the way that some had. He had heard the rumors that people had already taken a huge dislike to her without even knowing if she was still alive or not. It was this simple fact of their kind. He would have known, though, if she wasn’t still alive. Then he would be stuck for the rest of his life without a true mate. He was happy to find her. He was happy to have her there. He was exploding with her soft touch. This was how it was going to be between the two of them.
Right now, they had something that they had both not expected. No one had expected that they would be able to find each other with seven billion people on the planet, including many of their own kind. He had done the impossible when he had found her. Now he understood how powerful the two of them would be to each other. This connection between them would only grow.
It was almost something like a fairy tale. He never expected any of this that he would actually feel the attraction and know that she did as well. However, he also knew that he had to hold back just a little bit because she needed more time. He didn’t know if he could, though. That might be too much for him to do.
Chapter 16
As the two just lay there continuing their kissing and the slight exploration of each other and themselves, they knew that nothing more than this could happen, so they were going to make the most of it. At least right now. A lot of things that Desiree has been told to her entire life were now coming to the forefront of her mind. She wasn’t trying to think of things that her mother, or the one that had raised her, had actually said numerous times throughout her life that people would only want her because of her body. It had to be completely different with Gabriel because he was her mate. He was the prime reason that she had been found in restored to this island. In a way, she felt better than she had and for a very long time, but at the exact same time, she felt a lot worse than she ever had before.
The fire between them just grew even more than she had expected it would. It seemed like both of them were burning. His large hand was splayed across her back, and in the coolness of the morning, it was burning like almost leaving the brand. When he pulled back to just look at her for a moment, he lifted her wrist and then placed a small kiss right there on the small scar that she never understood why it was there.
“This is from the ceremony,” he said as he looked at her, knowing that she probably had no idea. Then, somehow, his mouth found hers again. The explosions continued in the room between them. These slight small touches that they were exploring each other with were enough to keep driving them to not part or get up for the rest of the day. It was like they could not pull apart from each other for even a minute without diving back into the fire that surrounded them.
The heat in the room was rising to a fever pitch. They both knew they needed to slow things down, but every time they pulled away from each other, they found themselves being drawn back in. With the quickness, they found this pull. They were both sure this was perfectly fine to do, but they both didn’t want to go further than this.
Though they were both feeling the pressure of the other one. There was a line. Neither of them would cross it. The surrounding air was hot and heavy, though the air outside was probably cool.
“We need to slow down.” Gabriel finally stated out loud, and she agreed. He managed to bring the fever down a bit with a few well-placed kisses, and then he held her against him. As soon as they were more cooled off to the point, they could both look at each other without the fire jumping up to burn them again. The room changed. It seemed there was air again. It seemed like the two could breathe without being consumed by the fire that had been circling around them since the first kiss.
“Thank you for not pushing for more,” Desi said as she looked at him. “I do know that you have the right to use me when you choose to.”
“Who told you that?” he asked.
“It is the way of most of the packs.” She said as she looked at him. “When the alpha wants you, that is what you have to do. It really doesn’t matter where or when either. You simply can’t refuse.”
“And did an alpha want you before?” he asked. He didn’t even realize that his voice had growled the words out. The idea that someone could have used her was one thing. She was his. It was another for someone not to care at all about their mates. Even secondary mates were still important to some, and they should have been treated better than cast-offs.
“Why would anyone want me?” Desi replied with a laugh that filled the room. “Most of the packs we lived with hated me. They would use me to do tasks. They would never mate with me because I was worthless in their eyes. They did use my mother, though.”
“And she was the one who told you all of this?” he asked again.
“No. It was more understood.” There was nothing else she could say. It was a fact that her mother was the one the alphas had wanted. Desi was often left either in a group of others her age that also didn’t like her or at home while her mother tried to earn her place in the pack. She had not ever seen anyone be nice or kind. It was all or nothing. If they liked you, it was better for the pack for you to be treated well. No one liked Desi. She never had a chance to be liked before.
Desi had always thought that if her mother had become one of the Lunas that she would be treated slightly better. Now she knew that her mother had done everything to protect her. She had used herself as a bargaining chip to gain some protection to help save the girl. Desi felt even worse than she had.
“What?” he asked as he pushed the hair back off of her face. He could read her so well already. Something changed within her when she thought about the other packs.
He had been glad she had never been used by another alpha. The reasoning, though, was not that of one he could agree with. She was perfect. They were blind. However, she was and always had been spoken for.
“My mother did all of that to protect me,” Desi replied. “She used herself to gain protection for me. She moved us to stronger packs over the years. She was trying to always find a way to protect me.”
“That was her task,” Gabriel said with a sigh. He thought Desi was sweet right then and there. She loved these people who had been around her and who had saved her. He knew what he had to do. “I will talk on her behalf when the council meets to judge her.”
“You will?” Desi asked with widened eyes. That was something she didn’t expect from him. However, it was exactly what she needed to hear. The fact he was willing to do that for her meant a lot to her.
“I cannot promise you it will change anything, but I will. I see how much they mean to you, and that doesn’t mean nothing to me as well. She kept you safe. She kept you alive. She did exactly what she was asked to do. She should not be punished for that.”
“Thank you, Gabriel,” Desi said as she leaned forward and kissed his cheek.
“Well, I think that might actually deserve a little more than a kiss on the cheek.” He chuckled as he pinned her again to the floor. He knew they had just cooled the fires within them, but he could not resist. He kissed her again, knowing that it was going to start them burning again.
Chapter 17
As the morning grew, but the pair only stayed in bed. They knew they did have to get out of it. Though neither one of them actually wanted to. Eventually, his stomach started to growl, and he knew that it was time for them to eat something. For right now, he was the one in charge. He was the actual adult. He didn’t actually know how he felt about that or not because it was something that he never expected that he would have to play the role of. Not that he wasn’t responsible, but he was now completely responsible for her and her safety. And that meant her health as well.
“Come on, we have to eat. Then I can show you around the rest of the island if you want. We don’t have to stay in this little cottage all day.” Gabriel said with a smile. He wanted to share everything with her. He wanted her to understand where she came from. Even though he couldn’t replace the things that had happened over the past few years between all of the packs in the world, he could give her back her past.
“Are my parents buried here?” she asked as she looked at him, knowing that she had to change her clothes, and she looked in the bag that was next to her. There was a dress and some small pants. Luckily, they did actually fit because she was smaller than most women her age. She was definitely going to be considered the runt of the litter, even though she was the only child that was born to her parents.
“They are,” he said as he looked at her, and she could see the cloud of pain that was clouding over his face. She didn’t actually want to go see them, and if it actually hurt him at all, she didn’t want to be the one to inflict that pain. She just wanted to know.
“One day, but not today. Today is a new beginning,” she said with a slight smile as she looked at him, and he relaxed again with his features, and his eyes cleared quickly.
He knew that this wasn’t going to be easy between the two of them with finding their balance, but he was hoping that at least having her there in the cottage for a week or so was enough that she would be able to find her feet again. She had a lot to learn about their kind, and she also had a lot to learn about the ruling. He wasn’t going to push her in any direction until she was comfortable in her own skin.
