Pierce POV
I place Libby down on my bed, or the guest bed I have been using a lot recently. For having not spoken to Reuben for years, the Red Stone pack was starting to become a home from home.
I needed to return to the Grey Howl pack, but my men were managing without me, however, my wolf was struggling to settle with a mate that isn’t marked, and a pack to run…but being in another wolf’s den.
Too much at once!
That’s what has happened to Libby, she ‘ received too much information for her brain to digest. Dad was a firm believer in bite-sized chunks. A little at a time, otherwise you would just become overwhelmed and made bad decisions as an act of protecting your own mind.
She settles on the bed, her arms wrapped around her legs as she rests her head on her knees. Her body protecting her by forming a small curled up positioning. I walk into the ensuite bathroom and start to run the shower. Coming back into the main bedroom, I place a fresh fluffy towel on the bed.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes. Have a shower, it will relax you.” I gently command before closing the door behind me.
Walking downstairs, I enter Reuben’s office to grab the files that we had been sharing with Libby. Reuben would be busy now, he won’t notice me taking the files. Plus she was my mate anyway, technically these were my files just as much as his. A step at a time. Rather than bombarding her with the information, we need to take it a step at a time. Let her read, digest and ask any questions.
“Alpha?” Nate walks into the office behind me, carrying another file in his hand. He raises an eyebrow at the files now in my hands.
“I’m just going to show her a file at a time, help her slowly digest the information. Her life isn’t what she thought it was, she needs time to explore our world but also grieve the life she had before.”
“I’ve been waiting to show this to Alpha Reuben, its just come in.” I can feel Nate’s conflict in showing me before Reuben. He sighs, as he finally passes me the file.
“Shit.” I cuss as I open the file to find a picture of my mate. She looks beautiful, pristine. Her long flowing blonde hair cascades down her face, adding a fairytale softness to her bright complexion and grey eyes with a small yellow slit.
She really does look like a fairy tale princess. The woman upstairs on my bed is just as beautiful, but her darker hair and more gaunt face show the contrast of what she has been through in such a short space of time.
“I found it on the dark web…with a reward. The search approved by Odin himself.” Nate looks at me, his own concern radiating off through his eyes.
If Odin has signed this search himself, it won’t be long before someone realises the sibling connection between Reuben and Libby. Meaning, the Red Stone pack could be attacked at any moment.
“I’ll call my men, I’ll get more here. But you need to put both Red Stone and Silver Moon alliances on alert. All warriors need to be on standby.”
“Yes Alpha!” Nate nods, turning to leave as I pick up the office phone to call my beta back at the Grey Howl pack.
“Wait, there’s another thing… I found these.” He hands me two documents which I struggle to actually keep hold of. I can’t believe what I am looking at, my own hands want to drop the documents as if even touching them would put a curse on us.
It was two death certificates, one for her mother and one for Libby.
“Says they both died from pneumonia.” Nate’s voice pulls me out from the image of my own mate laying dead on a hospital bed.
How could Odin do this? No wonder her friends abandoned her, they thought she was also dead. This will destroy her.
I was heading back upstairs having spoken to my beta Dane, he was sending more warriors and agreed to liaise closely with Nate. The details of Libby being on the dark web did concern me, her details were no longer only within the shifter community now. Anyone had access to that.
I find her sitting on the bed having showered and wrapped herself in my dressing gown. I loved how the mate bond was already starting to work on her.
“Feeling better?”
“Yes, although my hands still sting. If I was a werewolf, wouldn’t these have healed by now?” She raises her hands out to me, her palms covered in tiny cuts from the woods.
“As your wolf gains more awareness, you will heal more…” I say, sitting down next to her on the bed and taking hold of her hands. She doesn’t take her eyes off me as I run my tongue along each palm, using my alpha saliva to help quicken her healing.
“What are you doing?” She gasps, taking a deep intake of air.
“Alpha saliva has healing properties. You are my mate, I can help you.”
“Mates….what exactly are mates?” She asks as I continue to lick her hands.
“Destined by the moon goddess to be together. You are my mate Libby, destined for me. Destined to be my pack’s luna.”
“Right…” She frowns slightly as I let go of her hands and she places them around her legs again.
“How will I know we are mates?”
“Does this tingle?” I ask as I slowly trail a finger up from her toes to her knees. I can tell it does, I can hear the quickening of her heartbeat from my touch.
“Yes.” She breathes out.
“There you go then, only mates have that affect on one another.”
“So if I touch you, will you have tingles?”
“Try it…” I smirk but she just scoffs playfully, not falling for that.
“Was Mum mates with Father?”
“No, Reuben’s mother and father were mates. But Libby, not all mates are good. Odin wasn’t a good mate to Reuben’s mother.” Not all of us receive the mate bond that we deserve.
“Would my mum not have had the same tingles?”
“No Libby, your Mum was a human. If she was his mate then yes she would have felt the mate bond. Sometimes the Moon Goddess matches our kind to humans for reasons we do struggle to comprehend…”
“How so?”
“Werewolves are very strong. It would take a lot of self control for a werewolf to be gentle with a human mate. Plus it does put our existence in danger of being discovered to the wider population.”
“So I’m a product of a sleezy affair?” Her own voice cuts at her own existence, my wolf howls in my mind for her thinking so little of herself.
“No, your mum and father may very well have loved each other Libby. Only them two would have known.”
“I didn’t grow up with father, Mum never really mentioned him. I had photos of him but I just assumed he left, like some of my friend’s fathers.” She shrugs. She had a very modern outlook on life, she didn’t seem angry at her father which was plaguing me a lot.
She should be screaming, wanting to hurl abuse at him, but she doesn’t. It’s like she just accepts what he has done, or doesn’t truly understand the full ripples of what he has caused.
“You didn’t shift earlier?” She looks up at me, her eyes showing an interest in learning more. Her eyes flickering to the files on the bed side table next to me.
“No.”
“Why, he could have hurt you?”
“Peh please!” I chuckle back at her which creates a smile to form on her face.
“Does shifting hurt?”
“No Libby it doesn’t hurt. But, most werewolves start shifting from the age of twelve or most commonly thirteen years old. I won’t lie, we may need to prepare ourselves that your delay in shifting may mean your wolf needs extra help. But I’ll be there every step of the way, I want to help you.”
“Why?”
“Because we are mates…”
“Right.”
“I brought these files up. I thought we could go through each file one at a time, rather than all the information in one go.”
She nods, adjusting herself on the bed which causes my dressing gown to flash her upper thighs to me. I bite down the possessive growl from my wolf that wants to lick every part of her, not just her hands.
“I’ve got tshirts and boxers in the drawers over there…” I offer and she jumps off the bed to get changed. I place the files on the bed, but haven’t got the heart to show her, her own forged birth certificate. So I very quickly remove it from the folder and place it in the top drawer of the bed side table.
