Alpha Mate

XIX

Morgan Pov

It surprised me how natural it felt to wake up in Calum's arms. His warmth was comforting, though it made me sweat. I imagined it would be awkward opening my eyes to see his face mere inches from mine, instead it felt normal and I moved my body closer to his. This was where I belonged.

"Good morning."

Calum kissed my forehead in response. A girl could get used to this.

"Will you be fine today?"

"I'll find something to do. I have a friend now, remember?" I rose my brows in a teasing manner.

"Oh, yes. When is our date?"

"Friday."

"Sounds great." He rolled out of bed, causing me to pout at the loss of contact.

He turned towards the bathroom for his daily shower. Recently, each day we would greet each other in the morning and he would take a shower and dress before leaving for work. It was a simple thing, but it made me smile to be part of his routine.

As he got ready, I made my way to the small kitchen of our room. The one downstairs was much too far now that I was lacking the same energy and enthusiasm from yesterday.

I prepared breakfast for the both of us, though I kept it simple. Before long, Calum was out of the bathroom and I served up two plates of toast and easy over eggs.

"Thanks for breakfast again. Should I expect this every morning?" He asked me.

"Don't expect it. I'm just doing it now because I want to. I don't want it to turn into something I have to do."

"You're right, but I want you to know that I really do appreciate you cooking for me."

"Of course."

When breakfast was done, Calum kissed my forehead and left for his office.

I had just started washing the few dishes before Lucas walked into the room.

"I'd prefer it if you knock." I didn't look at him while I spoke.

"Don't act like I was interrupting anything." His jaw ticked as if it unnerved him that I was doing the dishes.

"I could've been in the middle of changing." I argued now facing him.

He gave me an award winning smirk. "Well now you're just giving me more reasons to barge in unanounced."

I blushed at his statement, unsure of how to respond.

"I know you didn't come in here just to tease me. What did you really want?"

"Now that the alpha has released you to some degree, I was wondering if you'd like to work out at the gym with us."

"Us?"

"Yeah, it'll just be me and a few other guys in there. I figured you'd like to do something more active than sitting around the house." He put his hands in his pockets while waiting for my answer.

"You thought correctly. I'd love to do that. Just let me change first."

I walked to the closet where I changed into my workout clothes. When I came out, Lucas was drying the dishes I had just washed.

"You didn't have to do that."

He turned to look at me. His brows were furrowed and a frown marred his lips. "Neither did you."

"What-"

"Tell me something. Does he always make you wait on him?"

"He doesn't make me do anything." It seemed like I had to defend Calum to Lucas more often lately. I couldn't understand why Lucas kept trying to convince me that Calum was no good for me.

"Whatever. Let's just go."

I followed him towards the gym. It was the first time I had ever been there, so I didn't know where it was.

As Lucas had said, there were a couple of guys that were already in there when we arrived. They gave me curt nods and Lucas introuced them as Nate and Matt. Apparently, they were brothers. Each had a buzz cut, brown eyes, and big muscles, but Matt was shorter than Nate.

After our warm up, the atmosphere of the gym became much lighter. Nate and Matt didn't have as much of a problem talking to me as they did before and Lucas was back to teasing me again. We started out by lifting weights and Lucas kept picking on me for how little weight I could do. I was proud of how strong I was, but since Lucas' biceps were three times the size of mine I was weak in his eyes.

My muscles soon began screaming with exhaustion from the exercises. They weren't use to that type of exertion from the past few weeks of lying around and I could tell they were going to be painfully sore the next morning.

"I can tell you're getting worn out with this. Let's move on." Lucas suggested.

"To what?"

"How about sparring?"

I looked up at him incredulous. "Me? Sparring with you?"

"Yeah. Come on. I promise I'll take it easy on you."

With those words, I was angered enough to want to fight. It was offensive for him to suggest that he could beat me without even trying. Hoping to catch him off guard, I tackled him onto the nearby mat.

Though my move did surprise him, he didn't stay down long. I had him on his back for a mere two seconds before he flipped us and had me pinned underneath him. Lucas was unrelenting. I couldn't move under his weight.

My heart raced as he leaned down closer to my face. I could faintly hear the clinks of the weights, which told me Nate and Matt were continuing on with their own workout unaffected by us.

Lucas was now so close I could feel his breath on my lips. "I like it when you get feisty."

His scent surrounded me. The cologne he used this morning, his minty toothpaste, and his natural woodsy odor filled my nostrils. With all my senses overrun by him, I could hardly think. I didn't even understand what was going on.

I thought he was going to kiss me. The problem was, I didn't know if I wanted him to or not. I liked Lucas. He was good to me, one of my best friends. I did have a mate though. And he did too. A large part of me knew it wouldn't be right.

Despite whatever was about to happen, it was all put to a stop at the sound of a very familiar growl.