Avoiding Alpha

Chapter Seven

He lay her gently down on his bed and spent a good few minutes simply brushing her hair back from her face and staring at her. He finally had a mate and she was beautiful and strong; courageous. She looked after her brother, her strength in doing that only seemed to entice her to him more. He grew to respect her, and that was an important part of a relationship.

                Her hair felt silky on his fingertips and sometimes he could barely feel it, his own fingertips were rough from many years of hard work; an Alpha did much more than simply command, they took charge, set an example and most importantly, never gave any task out to someone that they themselves would not do. Ray was an Alpha who did the hard tasks himself, because the irony was, he hated doing them and so refused to put such tasks on anyone else. Sometimes he simply pitched in, this was his home as well and its upkeep would be a joint effort between all who lived here, not a select few. In this manner he had gained unwavering loyalty from his pack. He was one of them, he just happened to be the leader.

                She didn’t stare. He had looked at her pretty face for a long while, admiring her sharp jawline that outlined her petite face. He had eyed her lips, slightly plump and imagined himself meeting her lips with his own and imagining what to kiss would feel like. He longed to see her eyes, to gaze into them, to see what colour they were but she never opened them, so instead he traced her closed eyelids with his thumb, gently stroking them. He had waited long for a mate, and what he was feeling was ecstatic joy; mixed with crimpling sorrow. Tendra did not want a mate.

                He left her to find the cooling cream he knew would take the sting from her bruises. He vowed to court her, to woo her and show her the benefits of having a mate, he would not lose her, but he did wonder why he tingled at her touch and why her image circulated in his mind when she did not. He knew why she resisted him, he suspected it anyway, what woman would want another man in her life? But he was going to show her, not all men were brutes.

                He found the cream and paused as an afterthought, she might wake up hungry, his mate should never feel hungry so he grabbed the bread and raided his fridge looking for something with which to make a sandwich. He needed to shop more. Remembering at last moment to get her a drink of water he took everything up on a tray. Still she lay on his bed, sleeping away peacefully.

                He knew if she woke up she would be angry but she as his mate and he would care for her. He applied a little cream to the bruise on her cheek, he rubbed it but not very well, it was verging on black and he knew it would be sore, he didn’t want her waking to pain. Then he rolled her onto her side and he unclipped that pretty top part of her shirt. Such an unusual design, the clasps were silver and in the shape of a wolf on all four, howling to the night.

                Slowly he slid it up, making sure she was facing away from him, so if she woke, she wouldn’t panic too much. Her back was covered with red strap marks and each one brought a howl from his wolf, his anger notched up with every mark. How dare someone hurt her?!

                It was the growl that woke her up, with a start she opened her eyes and immediately notice, her shirt was loose and something cold was touching her back.

“What the-;”

“It’s alright, lie stay.”