Chapter 3

'Damn. Look at our mate! He's hot! Look at those arms.' Freya mentally rolled her eyes at her she-wolf's drool. She rolled around and purred as Freya kept eye contact with her mate. He had beautiful gray eyes - with a few black flecks in them - and silky black hair that he combed to the side. Freya could almost feel how soft his hair was. Basically, he was stunningly handsome. Also, as her wolf so graciously noted, he had very muscular arms under that navy blue hoodie. Guys in hoodies. Her weakness. There was just something very attractive about that. 'Freya! Awe... you have a staring contest! Can I play along?' Freya's eyes fell on little Rey, who had climbed onto a barstool and was staring at her. She was confused for a moment before realizing he was trying to have a staring contest with her. "How about we do this after lunch, Rey?" she said, reaching over and setting him back on the ground. He shrugged and walked over to the kitchen table where she had put the first batch of cookies. Freya turned her attention back to her mate and swallowed. 'How did that work, exactly? Should I have waited for him to say something? Should I have shaken his hand? What if he thought I was scary?' 'Just shut up and kiss him.' 'Then he would definitely think I am creepy.' Her she-wolf snorted and shook out her fur. 'At least I have an idea what to do. Do you have one, your highness?' Freya pursed her lips and tried to ignore the lump in her throat. 'Why doesn't life prepare us for situations like this?' Finally, Freya found the courage to take a few steps forward and offer her hand to him. It was probably better to just start. "Hey, I am Freya," she smiled, wishing in her mind that she could slap herself for that awkward introduction. Her she-wolf seemed to agree, because she covered her eyes with her paws and shook her head. She waited a few seconds for him to shake her hand before slowly withdrawing it and coughing awkwardly. 'Was my greeting really that bad?' Her mate seemed to wake up from his daze and walked away without another look or word. She frowned and watched as he sat down at the table to play with Rey, causing her she-wolf to whimper at his lack of appreciation for her. His beta and Gamma gave him sympathetic looks before joining their Alpha at the table. Slowly, she turned back to the stove to finish frying the roast chicken she had given up on. It felt like an elephant was sitting on her chest, crushing her soul. She had been waiting for her mate for three years, since she had turned twenty. All of her friends had found their mates within six months of her twentieth birthday, and she was the awkward third wheel whenever they did anything together. She could not have felt lonelier in the last three years, and now it looked like she would most likely have a future alone. "Hey princess," She took a deep breath and turned to her father with an artificial smile, "Hey Dad. Sorry, I realized I left my cookies in the oven when we got to the top of the hill." He chuckled and kissed her hair, "It's okay, sweetie. You did not miss much, but did you get a chance to meet the Alpha and his Commanders?'" "Uh, no, not really. I was in here most of the time," she murmured softly, taking out the last of the chicken pieces and setting them aside. "Well, come here. I'll introduce you." Before she could protest, he turned off the stove and pulled her to the table where the four of them sat. "Sweetie, this is Alpha Zack, Beta Greece, and Gamma Chance. This is my daughter, Freya." he introduced her, unaware of the awkward atmosphere. 'Zack. I love his name.' Freya quietly agreed with her wolf. Even though they had not been in his presence long, they could feel the power emanating from him, making her wolf tremble in her fur. 'The benefits of being an alpha, I guess,' her she-wolf said. The three just stared at Freya as she did her best to avoid her mate's gaze. Then Gamma Chance stood up and grabbed her hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Freya. These rumors do not do your beauty justice," he kissed the back of her hand, letting his lips linger on it a little longer than necessary. Her cheeks turned slightly pink as he winked at her, eyeing his alpha out of the corner of his eye. 'He's trying to make his Alpha jealous,' her she-wolf said. Her she-wolf was eager to see Zack's reaction, but Freya did not dare look directly at him, knowing she would probably turn into a quivering pile of mush. Instead, she watched him out of the corner of her eye and saw his fingers tighten around his cookie. She mused: So he was affected by the mating bond. Good to know. Suddenly he stood up, "Alpha Nathan, can I talk to you in private?" His father seemed confused, but nodded anyway. "Sure, we can talk in my office." The two quietly left the kitchen, leaving the others to ponder the situation and listen to Rey noisily eat his cookies. *** Once they were settled in Alpha Nathan's office, he gave Zack a questioning look. Zack bit his lip and thought about how to break the problem to him gently. "Your daughter," Zack began, and this immediately caught his attention, "is my mate." Zack waited a few moments to catch himself, but Nathan seemed even more confused than before, which was understandable. Most mates were joined at the hip when they first met, and it's hard to separate them again. He probably wondered why Zack wasn't glued to his daughter at the moment. Zack's wolf growled angrily. He wanted him to go back downstairs and kiss Freya to death. She was extremely attractive, he'd to admit, and she smelled stunning. But she was his Luna, and he'd to make sure she was good enough for the position. She'd to live up to those expectations. "I can't take it. Not yet." declared Zack. He frowned. "Why?" "If I accept her now, I may regret it in the future. You've to understand that my pack comes first, and I can't have a mate who can't do her job." The frown on his face turned into a glare, "Freya was raised to be an alpha. If anything, she's more than qualified to be your Luna." "You raised your daughter to be an Alpha? When she might've a mate in another pack and would have to move there once she found him?" asked Zack incredulously. Alpha Nathan sighed and rubbed the spot between his eyebrows, "The future is unpredictable, Alpha Zack. If something happened to me or my wife, who'd take control of the pack? It made sense to teach Freya the rules in case something happened before Oliver was ready to take over the pack. He's still learning, and he's too young. He just turned twenty last summer." Zack's face turned into a confused scowl: "Isn't that unfair to Freya? To teach her everything and not give her the position?" It almost seemed like they were giving her false hope. Alpha Nathan shook his head, "There are some things you don't know, Alpha Zack, and I'd explain it to you, but that's more of her story I'd have to tell. But to give you an idea: We knew from the moment she was born that Freya wasn't going to be a Luna." "What?" "I know this sounds strange, but if you want to know more, Freya will explain." Zack sighed and shook his head. 'Even though she was raised to be an Alpha, I need to make sure she's good enough to be a Luna. We should be working together, not having a power struggle. We'd spend even more time fighting for dominance if she didn't accept her position. After all, as my father said, there are some things that Lunas can do that Alphas can't.' "That doesn't change my opinion, Alpha Nathan. I hope you understand that. If you don't mind, please try to explain it to Freya. I'll extend my stay here to observe her for one month. At the end of that month, I'll let you know whether or not I'll take her in." Alpha Nathan seemed very upset. Well, he wasn't the only one. His wolf growled fiercely, trying to convince Zack to stop. "This isn't fair to my daughter. You can't forget that you're soulmates first, not Alpha and Luna. Is it fair for you to ask so much of her when she hasn't asked anything of you? She just wants her mate, Alpha Zack. She has no expectations of you like you've of her." "That may be, but that's who I'm, Alpha Nathan. Please understand that." said Zack, getting up to leave. As expected, he didn't understand why Zack wouldn't accept his daughter. 'I hope Freya would be more understanding. It's not like I'm rejecting her.' 'But you don't accept her either, and that will hurt her feelings.' Dickson replied. Zack felt sorry for his wolf, who really just wanted to be with his mate, but it had to be done. "And what about her being in heat? You know she's going into heat in two days since she found you!" Alpha Nathan suddenly exclaimed. Zack froze in the doorway. Damn. He hadn't thought about her heat. 'Are you seriously going to let mate get chased by a bunch of horny wolves? Just because you can't pull your head out of your ass?' Dickson asked. Zack pinched the area between his eyebrows. 'Damn that stupid heat concept. Who came up with that idea anyway? Aren't wolves horny enough on their own?' "I'll think of something," Zack muttered, walking out of his office toward the stairs.