Beloved

12

Dante's alarm woke him from the best sleep he'd had in ages. He turned off his alarm and stretched, then sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. The bed on the other side of the room caught his eye, and he focused his awareness on her heartbeat and breathing pattern. Neither had changed, and his wolf was satisfied the girl was safe and healing nicely.

The door opened and Dante's eyes riveted on the nurse standing in the doorway.

"Apologies Alpha, I need to check her vitals."

Dante nodded, gesturing for the nurse to enter and stood to watch the young man note numbers from the machines and check through a list on the clipboard. Soon enough, the nurse offered him a nod and a tight smile and left the room.

Dante ducked into the bathroom to change into workout wear then headed down to the gym. The hospital gym was equipped with the basic machines, and equipment, though his workout would be relatively stilted until he could rejoin pack training. He wouldn't lose any ground with just a few days away, but he wouldn't make any gains, either.

When he returned to the room, his parents were just arriving with coffees. They'd also brought a portion of the baked goods to him.

"That pan of dough your father found? Its savory with garlic and rosemary. We'll bake it later today and bring it at dinner. I have a brisket in the crockpot."

"Go get your shower, son. Breakfast will still be here."

Dante quickly showered and dressed in clean clothes, exiting the bathroom with his hair still damp.

The doctor was in the room, peering over the machines and the chart.

Dante was immediately by his mate's side, asking the doctor when she thought Gaia might wake.

"Her vitals are good, and her injuries are healing better than expected. She'll wake up probably in the next day or two."

"Thank you, doctor." Dante saw the doctor out, then sat across from his parents and took a swallow of his coffee. It had cooled significantly, but he didn't care.

His mother had brought in a picnic basket she'd filled with the baked goods, utensils and small plates, which she'd unpacked onto the coffee table. Right now she was plating the quiche.

"Thanks mom." Dante took the plate she handed him.

Arianna smiled, "She's quite the baker!"

"Yeah! She says she learned quite a bit from her grandmother," he lifted a sweet roll to his plate, "and these rolls are exactly how I remember."

"You've had her grandmother's rolls," Florian asked, suspicion heavy in his tone.

"We all have. Her grandmother was Mrs. Bianchi, she owned that Italian restaurant that sold baked goods at the border we went to a few times" Arianna said, "her daughter was one of my best friends in school, Michelle Bianchi, she mated into the Greenwood pack, then moved back with her pup after her mate died."

"Oh, right, I remember now. That was a great little restaurant, shame what happened. So son, when do you think you'll mark her?"

"Um, I haven't thought that far ahead."

"You haven't thought that far ahead," his father repeated, his face deadpanned.

"I'd like to get to know her."

"You had her move in, so what have you learned?"

"She's stubborn. I had to write to a pack in the midwest to accept her mother's transfer so she could accept some job she'd applied for before Gaia would move away from her mother's house."

She's adorable when she's embarrassed. And when she's shy. And when she's happy.

Arianna frowned and turned her glare at her mate, "Florian, you didn't write to the silver spring pack? I asked you to do that months ago."

Florian's eyes bulged, and he side-eyed his mate. "I'm sorry, love, that must have slipped my mind."

Dante's eyes flicked between his parents, "Anyway, she's not a pushover, either."

She's beautiful when she's angry. A verifiable goddess.

"That's good."

Oh, so beautiful when she was so focused she was completely oblivious to everything around her.

"She's wicked smart. An intellectual, she's wanting to go into medicine."

Arianna's brows rose, "Oh, well ... ok, I can see that."

"You have your work cut out for you, love," Florian nudged his mate playfully.

"As do you, my love," Arianna winked at her mate, patting his hand.

After they'd had their fill of food and family talk, Arianna acquired the phone numbers she'd wanted, and excused herself from 'her boys' to 'attend to business'.

Florian and Dante set up their laptops. Dante had been learning to handle pack business in his father's absence since his sixteenth year, and he would begin taking over the CEO and board positions of the family owned businesses in the nearby towns upon graduating with an MBA. He would fully assume the alpha title at twenty, and with that would come a transfer of power over the family's businesses. As such, he was expected to take classes in business at the local college upon graduating high school.

Dante shared with his father the data he'd been tracking and the choices he'd been making in the capacity expected of him, and Florian seemed pleased. They corroborated and discussed until Arianna interrupted them, carrying a tray of sandwiches and sides from the cafeteria.

"So, I reached out to both her little friends and they are coming here in about an hour and I will be taking them to lunch and shopping to get a few things for Gaia, so this is for you two. Florian do be a dear and call the principal to let her two friends have extra time to turn in work for this coming week." She set the tray down on the side of the table Dante had cleared for her and eyed the bags that were Gaia's.

"Yes, love." He poked at the sandwiches until he found one he wanted, and slapped it on a plate.

"Mother, shouldn't you wait until Gaia can go with you?"

"That little lady has barely anything that isn't threadbare. She needs clothes." She knelt beside the duffle and opened it.

Dante leaned back in the chair, laying his head back, with an exasperated groan. His mother was on a mission and wouldn't be talked out of it. She wasn't wrong, though, either. A thought occurred to him.

"Mom?"

"Don't think you can talk me out of-"

"Will you get her a laptop?"

Arianna stopped rifling through Gaia's clothing and looked over her shoulder at her son, not certain if she heard him correctly. "Does she not have any computer at all?"

"I didn't see one when she was packing to move to the house."

Florian asked, "And you're saying she doesn't even have a laptop?"

"I'm pretty certain Darla and Lucas would've packed it if there was one to pack. Her only electronic device is that old flip-phone I'm shocked still works."

Arianna shifted so she was facing her son, her head tilted. He could see sadness in her eyes.

"I told Michelle she shouldn't have sold that restaurant or the land it was on, but she didn't want the headache of watching over someone else running the business or even renting the lot. She had her dream to go to school for, I think history or something... she's wanting to teach. So she sold the restaurant and the land, and went to school. She ended up having to get a part-time job anyway."

Florian asked, "What's at that lot now?"

"Just that ugly gas station."

"Oh, right."

Florian's phone rang. He looked at the ID and got up saying he needed to take the call, quickly leaving the room.

Arianna smiled at Dante. "How are you doing, my lovely boy?"

After a moment's hesitation Dante answered, "I'm not sure." He turned his head to peer at the figure in the bed.

Arianna nodded, "That's understandable."

A pair of female nurses came in saying they were there to bathe the patient.

Arianna's brows shot up and she suggested to Dante that now would be a good time for him to take a walk and stretch his legs. She would stay in the room.

Dante nodded and stood, kissing his mother's cheek before leaving the room with a nod to the nurses and several glances at the sleeping girl on his way out the door.

He decided to take a walk around the facility's garden. As he rode the lift to the ground level he checked his phone and saw a few missed texts from his gamma. Reading the texts he realized he'd be talking with his father about Angelica again very soon.

Dante had relied on a belief Angelica would tell her parents the truth. Her twin hadn't said anything to their parents believing it wasn't his to tell.

His gamma was now letting him know the twins' father had been led to believe that Angelica and Dante were happily mated on his birthday. This unfortunate lie had led to their shock and dismay some twelve days later, when they learned from a friend of their daughter that their beautiful little girl had been kidnapped and was being held against her will. And then they'd received the call from Alpha that their daughter was mated to the alpha from another pack.

Randal had never seen his father so angry. His parents were demanding a meeting.

Dante replied: Great.

He walked off the elevator and through the door to the garden walk.

__

After everyone had left for the day, Dante laid himself on the couch with a sigh, resting his head against the armrest. It had been a full day.

Gaia's friends arrived at the same time as the Gamma family, Peter and Martha with their son.

Arianna murmured, "I don't envy you," as she kissed cheeks with her mate and son before sweeping the wide-eyed teens out of the room with her, with a nod and a wave to the Gammas.

Martha huffed and strutted to the couch and chairs, "This is unprecedented. I should think you'd have the good sense to hold meetings at your home office, alpha, and to insist your luna be present."

"Where and how I choose to conduct pack matters is not yours to question, madam Gamma. Please sit." Alpha Florian spoke mildly, but his meaning was definitive.

Dante and Randal remained standing, shoulder to shoulder in front of Gaia's bed, watching the adults.

"I want to know, Alpha, why you're asking us to sit with you here? We should be preparing to get our daughter back to us! She's mated to your son and pregnant with your grand-pup!"

"She'd better not be," Florian's eyes slid to his son.

"She can't be pregnant with my pup. I've never had sex with Angelica."

Martha and Peter gaped at Dante for a moment, then she blustered, "But ... why? Why would she tell us-"

"Angelica is my second chance mate. I felt faint tingles with her the morning of my birthday when I picked her up before school. I thought that's what the mate tingles were supposed to feel like, and at the time I was attracted to her scent."

"So, you mate her," Peter barked. "Get my daughter back, Alpha!"

"No, Peter. My son met his true mate-"

Peter turned to peer at the bed on the other side of the room behind his son and the younger alpha. Dante felt Cordut rear alert, sensing a threat to his mate.

"Angelica doesn't feel the tingles. I sensed my true mate the moment I arrived at the school, and I realized I had been mistaken to believe I was mates with Angelica."

Martha pushed, "But you want to be mated to my daughter! And she wants to be mated to you!"

"It was a childish fantasy," Florian said, "Angelica found her true mate. He's the Alpha of our longest standing ally."

Peter lunged out of his seat and advanced towards the hospital bed, growling, "Out of the way, boy! I'll make you get my daughter back!" He swung at Dante.

Dante grabbed the fist Peter had swung at him, halting the older man in his tracks, and exerted his Alpha energy until Peter knelt before him. "The hand of your daughter isn't worth going to war for," Cordut snarled.

Dante said, "Gamma Peter, my wolf is insanely protective of our true mate. Do not ever threaten her again."

Martha swayed on her feet, aghast at the power behind the words out of Dante's mouth over everyone in the room. Peter glared up at Dante, but grunted assertion he understood. Dante released his fist and straightened to his full height, his eyes tracking every move of the elder gammas.

Peter eyed Dante as he stood and straightened himself out, "Well, I know where we stand." Then he turned about and marched himself and his weeping wife out of the room.

Dante watched Peter until he'd left the room, then his eyes immediately sought his father's. When would he outgrow that habit? Was that pride he saw in his father's stance?

Dante turned his head to look at the girl laying prone on the bed. Was she really worth giving up the love of his life for?

Hours later, laying on the couch, as he was still mulling the question, her scent and heartbeat gently lulled him to sleep.
__

Damian sat on his couch in the morning room, sipping his coffee and checking reports, while Angelica fumed and paced the confines of his house like a caged tiger. He'd had to put additional alpha order on her that she wasn't to leave the house after the fifth time she'd snuck out and run, causing a scene at the border between his and Florian's territory.

The patrols weren't amused, and neither was he.

He was aware she had reached out to her parents for help, though she'd had to go through a friend she had in this territory to do so.

He wasn't too pleased with the story she'd told them, and the very idea she might already be pregnant by the male she'd wanted to be claimed by had made his blood boil. It didn't help much to learn she and Black hadn't actually crossed the sex line, it had just shifted all that anger toward her. And he didn't like being angry with his mate.

Having known her growing up, he knew she was prone to throwing tantrums, and he was used to waiting them out. However, if memory served him, her tantrums usually lasted less than an hour. This particular tantrum was going strong for several days, now. Someone must have worked hard to give her everything she said she wanted.

His parents were returning to congratulate him and prepare to pass the titles to him and his mate, and he knew that would be a help. Angelica had always been attracted to power, after all.

In the meantime, he ran the pack with the help of his beta and gamma, and kept up with the businesses he would soon be taking over as best he could from the comfort of his home.

***
Dante's parents arrived at the hospital a little later than they had the previous morning, giving Dante time to shower and change, and look over Gaia before being handed a cup of coffee.

He accepted the cup with thanks.

His mother had also brought a new suitcase with clothes and personal care items for Gaia.

"She has clothes here, mom. You sure you should be springing all that on her?"

"Dante, my lovely boy, I have been looking forward to the daughter you were going to give me for ever since you were born. I am going to spoil her rotten, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Dante held up his hands in surrender. He and his father settled down to pack business as Arianna sifted through Gaia's bag, transferring all essential items to the new suitcase.

"Son you have clothes that need washing, I can smell them. How about you put them in this bag and I'll bring you new clothes when we bring dinner tonight?" She held up the worn duffle bag she'd just emptied.

Dante exchanged a nod with his father and rose to do as his mother asked.

His parents left after lunch.

Dante spent the afternoon on the tasks from school his Gamma had brought him Friday afternoon. A student from each class had volunteered copying their class notes for him, which was helpful, and he wrote personal thank you notes to each of them.

He took breaks between tasks. Approximately every twenty minutes he'd set everything down to stand and stretch, and move around a little. He'd either find himself by the window looking at the reflection of the girl in the bed, or he'd be by her side, feeling Cordut trying to control his hand, yearning to hold hers.

At half past four he heard a knock on the door, and Dante opened it to find his Beta, Gamma, and Brent as well as Lucas all at the door. He welcomed everyone in, not the least surprised to see Lucas heading to the bedside to whisper with his friend.

He was surprised to see the way his Gamma was watching the boy. He'd been aware for some time his Gamma likely had a preference for males, but this was the first time he'd caught evidence of longing in his gaze. Randal was adamant he was waiting for his mate, but he wasn't against checking out the numerous possibilities among his pack mates, which he was usually discreet about. His and Angelica's birthday wasn't until late July, and it was just now June, so he had awhile.

He briefly wondered if Angelica was well, but decided he'd ask Randal only if he could get him alone. If he tried texting, Angelica could be alerted, and there was no sense getting her hopes up.

As if knowing his thoughts, Randal handed him his phone, saying, "I upgraded my phone. I slipped to your dad that Angelica had programmed my phone to alert her of every text from you guys and he demanded I buy a new one, giving me a warning. I've also been sentenced to extra training on the weekends."

"Yeah, I never liked that she'd done that." Dante took Randal's phone and tapped in his information.

"Your dad is going to address the school tomorrow," Colton murmured. "Mandatory assembly."

"He said he would be doing that."

"Man, my sister's friend Brittney over there in Glenwood Spring told Heather here the same as what she'd told my parents. Angelica was popular, and she has a really huge following."

"It's like half the school is ready to fight tooth and nail to bring her home and force you to mate with her. They're pissed at your dad, and I overheard a few calls for a raid. Fucking ridiculous." Colton rolled his eyes and shook his head, his hands stuffed in his pockets. "I alerted my dad. He's posting extra security."

"Oh, goddess," Randal said, "you don't think they'd really, y'know, do anything."

"Randal, we're meeting up at the hospital because our future luna was jumped in the girls bathroom on the way to lunch, over your sister's complaining that Gaia just wanted to see her friends," Colton said.

Randal's shoulders rounded and he slumped in defeat, "Okay, yeah, well, when you put it like that, I guess so."

"Hey Colton."

"Yeah, big D."

"I'm sorry I didn't make your party last night." Dante cast his gaze toward the bed. Lucas was painting her nails. He wondered why Darla hadn't shown up.

"I figured you had other things going on. I understand man. Gotta spend time with your mate. I hope she wakes up soon, though."

"Doctor said maybe today or tomorrow."

Randal said, "You get to go home soon, then."

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it."

"Looking forward to getting to know Gaia?"

"Looking forward to not sleeping on a couch."

Colton and Randal both chuckled.

After painting Gaia's nails and brushing her hair, Lucas left with a wave and a lingering gaze at Brent.

"Maybe Darla will come later," Colton mused.

Dante asked, "Was she at your party last night?"

Colton shook his head, "No. And neither was my mate."

"At least you've had your birthday. You know you'll find your mate soon. I have to wait nearly two months."

"My folks aren't back from retreat yet. They are so ready to retire."

"Well, that gives you time to clean up after that wild party."

"Yeah, mom just wants me to have the house respectable before the staff returns tomorrow."

"I hope you had a drink for me," Dante said.

"Hell yeah! My dad saved back a couple special bottles of cognac. I saved one of the bottles. We'll have a drink together soon."

Soon after his friends left, his parents returned. His mother had been too tired to cook, so they had stopped for carry-out. They didn't stay long.

After Dante had readied himself for bed he found himself standing beside her, committing her features to memory, once more.

"You couldn't wake up today?"

Leave mate alone,, wolf waking,, mate exhausted, needs rest

Wolf waking... her wolf was waking? Did Cordut mean Gaia's wolf was emerging?

If so, it would be so hard on her. The age of seventeen was a year of intense physical growth for werewolves. Their bodies and minds were entering the final stages of development that allowed them to handle meeting their wolf, sharing their minds with, and shifting into their alter-identity, as well as mind-linking with other adult werewolves within one's pack.

Gaia's wolf waking early would put all the steps in the wrong order, in a timeframe that would be gruelingly painful. Her wolf would meet her, then her body would enter a stage of "riotous growth" that would last until her wolf fully emerged, a period that could last as little as a few months, that would end with a spontaneous shift.

He could well remember the discomfort in his bones, joints, and muscles around this time last year. It had lasted a good nine or ten months, and he'd gained several inches in height, and doubled his strength and speed.

She was going to be experiencing much the same, except in roughly half the time he had. The discomfort had been bad enough. He couldn't imagine what she would be going through.

"Will it help her if I lay next to her?"

At his wolf's excitement Dante realized his wolf would answer yes to anything that remotely suggested he might touch Gaia, but he decided to go ahead and do it, anyway. He turned off the lights and grabbed his pillow and blanket before gingerly scooting her body a few inches to to give his larger frame a touch more room. It was early for him to be in bed, but he was bored.

The steady rhythms of her breath and heartbeat, the tingles dancing over his skin, and her summer at the beach house scent lulled him to sleep.