Beloved

11

"Ahem."

Dante's attention riveted to the person who'd cleared their throat. His parents were in the room. He slowly returned to full human form, let go of Damian's shirt, and stepped away, releasing him.

"Father, mother. Welcome home."

"Uh-huh. I think I've seen enough," Alpha Florian said. "Damian, Angelica, congratulations on finding your true mates. Damian, please take her home with you. Angelica Anne Crowly, I witness you are mated to Damian Edward Richards of Glenwood river pack, and you will leave with your mate. You are hereby no longer a member of the Glenwood springs pack. You may return as a guest after you've accepted your mate and his mark."

Angelica gasped, horrified at the order she'd just received. Alpha Florian had delivered it using his alpha tone. She wouldn't be able to fight it. She stomped her feet, screaming he was a horrible man.

Dante growled. "Father!"

"Stand down, son."

As angry at his father as Dante was, his father was still his Alpha, and his wolf didn't share his sentiment, so he stood alone. Clenching his fists, he held his father's gaze for several moments before turning his head and lowering his eyes.

Damian grunted approval and quickly shouldered a squawking Angelica, carrying her out of the room.

As soon as the door closed, Dante's parents both rounded on him, beginning with his father.

"As an alpha you had no business pursuing a woman who isn't your true mate!"

"We've been warning you for years, son." Arianna swept over to the bed, and gently stroked Gaia's forehead.

"Angelica is the love of my life and my second chance! It could have worked!"

"It doesn't matter that you think you care for Angelica. You and she have been friends since childhood, of course you care for her. But that's no excuse to risk everything, and you were risking everything. You realize that? Our bloodline, our heritage, our pack, our ally... All because you and Angelica are confusing lust with love."

Dante winced and averted his eyes. The importance of his heritage had been a popular lecture topic in his house growing up.

"We were planning this trip home for some time, but our timetable got pushed up," Arianna glided back to her mate's side, "We wanted to surprise you, and I can see we did." She smiled warmly and gestured toward the seats.

Florian remained rooted where he was, glowering at his son. He grumbled, "On our way we heard that you'd found your mate, but it seemed questionable of you accepting her. When our plane touched down earlier we heard what happened at the school and it's clear you were letting a situation spiral out of control. We confirmed events with your beta and gamma before coming in here to find you preparing to declare war with our closest ally."

"I'm sorry, father. I've been telling Angelica to play nice-"

"Son, you are the alpha! As soon as you realized this girl was your true mate, you should have broken off whatever it was you were doing with Angelica. Period. If she was putting up that much of a fight, and I see she's been putting up a good one, you should have ordered her to wait for her mate. It wouldn't have hurt her, beyond bruising her pride a bit. And as soon as you realized Damian is her mate, you should have encouraged him to mark her. Sure she's resisting, but that," Florian gestured toward the bed, "might have been avoided."

"My lovely boy, a second chance mate isn't like your true mate," Arianna said. "Your second chance mate mirrors you, your true mate balances you. You and Angelica are too much alike, and being with someone so like yourself can be addicting, but it can also hinder you. Especially since you're an alpha." She held her hand out to her son, smiling when he approached her to take her offered hand in his own. She gently urged her son to sit with her.

Dante let his mother lead him to the couch. "What do you mean?"

"Neither of you will ever reach your full potential with your second chance. A second chance mate meets you as you are, and with her you'll stay as you are, which might not seem horrible because you are both decent people, but you'll end up holding resentment for each other as your weaknesses become prominent and fight your strengths for dominance. It's not so evident in the lower ranked wolves, but for an alpha whose mate bond is so much more intense, such a dynamic can mean destruction of a pack."

"Gaia isn't a warrior. She's weak. Won't a weak mate bring destruction of the pack?"


Florian said, "Angelica is physically strong, and capable, no question. You don't need a mate with those qualities, son. You're Dante Black. You're on track to be the strongest, most capable Alpha in the region, with a name known worldwide as the only living hybrid descendants of the royal line. Your name is associated with strength and greatness. You don't need a physically strong mate, you're more than strong enough by yourself. You don't need a mate who can fight alongside you.

"You need a mate who is strong for you in other ways. One you can be completely yourself with, one you can unwind with, one who will hold you together when you're falling apart. That's not Angelica."

Dante furrowed his brow as he considered his parent's words. He was vaguely aware of his father at the door, handing the dish and cooler bags Angelica had brought to Randal, telling him they wouldn't be needing it, and he should share it with the others or just take it home.

"I love Angelica."

"Yes, Dante," Arianna laid her fingertips on her son's arm, "of course you do. You and she have bonded over many years, and you both intended for that bonding to bear fruition. But you and she aren't meant for each other, not in that way."

"The mate bond is just hormones," Dante sulked, sinking into the couch. His father scoffed and shook his head.

Arianna chuckled, "Oh my lovely boy! The mate bond is so much more than that."

A knock at the door signaled the nurse entering to check on the patient. She had also brought bedding for the couch. Dante and his parents left the room with the nurse, and headed to the cafeteria to have dinner together.
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His parents left after dinner, and Dante returned to the suite assigned to Gaia, his gaze riveting to her upon crossing the threshold. He stood at the door studying her for several minutes before crossing the room to sift through the things that everyone had brought. He went through his school bag, immediately recognizing Angelica's hand in organizing his folders and books. He was able to find the work he needed to complete before the coming week, and quickly scanned the tasks, putting his work away.

Next he opened his overnight bag, knowing right away his Gamma hadn't packed his things. He sifted through the clumps of clothes and found everything he'd need, including his laptop, had been tossed in. A nurse came in to check on Gaia, turning on a lamp for him and switching off the overhead lights of the room.

He thanked her as he quickly refolded his clothes and packed the bag neatly, hooked his devices to their chargers, then took his toiletries, his pajama pants, and a tee shirt to the bathroom.

After he'd changed and brushed his teeth, he neatly tucked away the clothes he'd changed out of. Gaia's school bag caught his eye.

He knew she was an excellent student, but he didn't know much else about her. He poured himself a cup of water, then sat in the chair and set her bag between his feet, opening the large compartment. She had three folders, two five subject notebooks, and two textbooks.

He recognized the yellow folder as the one she used in first period, and slid it out of her bag. All of her work, her tests, and work in progress neatly stored. He closed it and slid it back where he'd found it, and chose one of the notebooks.

It was purple, and she'd labeled it Civ, APEng, Phys. Opening it revealed a neat, precise hand in what looked to be terrible spelling. Upon closer inspection he realized she had her own system of short-hand. And plenty of time to sketch in the margins.

Most of the sketches were typical girlish doodles of flowers and puppies, she played tic-tac-toe with Darla, but some sketches were intricate works of art. He studied her drawings in both notebooks. He recognized a few of the scenes she was sketching on the dividers she'd kept in the notebooks, and he realized he now knew she liked a few of his favorite places in the territory.

He slid everything back in the bag and looked in the smaller compartments. She owned a wide array of pens in many colors, mechanical pencils and two stick erasers. He found her phone and set it on the table.

He remembered the bag Lucas had brought, but realized it was probably just the rest of her books and folders. He closed everything back up as he'd found it and set it against the wall near his, moving the bag Lucas had brought beside it.

He eyed the bag Darla had packed for Gaia. He was glad he'd decided to send his beta to pack his personal belongings rather than risk Angelica poking her nose into Gaia's things. He was also irritated he had to admit it.

Was Angelica a mirror to him? What did her recent behavior say about him? He refilled his water and set it back on the table near the seat he'd been using. He lunged for the bag, reasoning she'd need her devices charged.

Darla had packed two changes of day clothes and an extra shirt that was worn thin with age and looked much too large for the tiny girl laying in the bed behind him. Her phone charger, a fantasy novel from the library, a plain bound book, and what looked to be a ream and half of printer paper bound into six separate books, each labeled a different class.

Dante reached for the plain bound book, putting her phone charger beside her phone on the table. Opening the book and leafing through it he found drawings, and sketches, some pairing entries in a flowing script dating over a year, each with a sign-off grumbling about the alarm. He studied the sketches, noting of particular interest the art that accompanied the written entries, then put the book back in the bag. Something red caught his eye. His hand grasped something soft and he pulled it out for a look.

A moose in red overalls. He vaguely remembered his mother taking him to buy it. He'd thought they would be shopping for a toy for him, but he'd ended up handing it to a sad little girl with dark curly hair that day. One of many lessons in sacrifice he'd received during childhood.

And that toy was important to her, enough so her best friend packed it. He gently laid the toy back in the bag and carefully zipped the bag closed before settling it near his.

He was surprised how late it was when he looked up at the clock on the wall. He hooked her phone to charge and folded out the couch, then stepped over to her bedside one last time.

The swelling had lessened, and the bruising was beginning to fade.

"You aren't at all what I was expecting."

He checked his messages on his phone as he climbed into bed, and read through his beta and gamma, corroborating what he'd guessed or already knew. He was surprised though to see several texts from his parents starting from about the time they would have arrived home.

His mother would be moving Gaia's belongings to the suite opposite his.

*seven minutes later*
His father agreed with his decision about the girls who'd attacked Gaia. Good work.

*nineteen minutes later*
His mother thought she should be able to move everything in two loads.

*two minutes later*
His mother would be having a girl's day with Gaia soon, and they would be shopping.

*two minutes later*
His mother was going to just pick a few things out for Gaia in the morning. On second thought, maybe she'd use that time to invite Gaia's friends, since they knew her best, and she'd take them to lunch. Did he have their numbers.

*five minutes later*
His father had found the stash of baked goods and both parents sent texts demanding answers.

Dante was amused to see that his mother had figured out, over a handful of texts with his father, that a) there was no packaging, so they weren't bought, and b) Angelica couldn't possibly have made all that food and left anything to clean.

*forty-two minutes later*
There was a pan of dough rising in the refrigerator. Did he know what temp and time?

Dante replied three hundred fifty degrees for thirty minutes, and asked them to bring him some quiche and muffins in the morning.

He fell asleep to the rhythm of her heart, and the scent of berries and honeysuckle in a salty breeze wafting over him.
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