The Alpha and the Oracle (The Belesone Pack #1)

Chapter 30

Leo was still hovering in Milo's bedroom that morning, when the doors opened and Josanna walked in. Milo hadn't long left the room and he was a little surprised that she came to him, when he had planned to talk to her.

"Em, Milo said we should talk." He confessed, clearing his throat nervously. He wasn't prepared for this conversation and he wasn't sure if he was positive enough about what he felt or who was his real mate. Even now he was scared of making the wrong decision.

"Oh, I know that. What I want to know is why didn't you have the brains to think about it first?" Josanna huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest.

She was furious and Leo didn't have the faintest idea way. But he wasn't going to let anyone, especially Josanna speak to him with such disrespect.

Leo stood his ground and made sure to let her know that he wasn't a carpet to be walked over. He deserved better than to be talked down to. "Josanna, I am still the Beta of the pack. You will not speak to me like this." He demanded. But as much as he was sure he had made his point, Josanna continued to look defiant, glaring at him as if he was a piece of scum that she had picked up on her shoe. It irritated him.

Did Katarina treat Milo like that? He was the Alpha, he deserved respect and loyalty, just as Leo did, as his Beta. He was the second most important person in the pack; he had earned it.

"No? Milo is Kat's mate and she talks to him however she wants. I guess the Alpha is just a better man than you are and he knows that his mate is more important than status in the pack." Josanna claimed heatedly.

Leo was stunned. That wasn't how it worked between Katarina and Milo at all. He saw that and he didn't even really like Katarina, or at least understand her connection with Milo. But he did understand how they functioned together.

Milo was always the Alpha to Katarina, then he was her mate and then he was just a guy at school called Milo. That was the way she treated him. Respect and loyalty, then love and friendship. If Josanna couldn't see that, then he couldn't explain it to her.

"Milo tells me that you're my mate. Like I didn't already know it." She scoffed. "Then Kat tells me that you've been undecided between me and Janet all this time. I thought we had something." She asked with a tone that suggested pain and disappointment.

Leo wasn't going to listen to that. She could say whatever she wanted about his indecision and compare him to Milo a million times, but it wasn't going to change anything between them now. She had made him out to be a lying, manipulative sod.

"We did." Leo agreed that they might have had that feeling with each other once, but now he wasn't sure. He felt a sinking feeling, like betrayal settling in that she could doubt him so much. She was acting like he had been confused on purpose, like he had chosen to have a choice of two mates all along. But he hadn't.

"Katarina was right. I know the signs of a mated pair, Josanna. I felt it with both of you. I was confused." He admitted, though he didn't know why. "A Beta isn't supposed to put his own mating before the Alpha's in the first place. I certainly can't afford to be confused about which of two girls is my true mate." He decided he wasn't going to stand there and argue. He took off, out of Milo's suite and down the stairs.

Unfortunately for him, Josanna followed him all the way out of the house and into the forest. He was trying to walk off his frustration, but it wasn't going to work if she was following him.

"It should have been obvious." She shouted as she followed him along the well worn trail into the forest.

Leo wanted to take his shirt off and run as a wolf, but he knew how fast Josanna was. She would just run after him and bug him until she got her say anyway.

"Why? Because you feel it too? Then you should have told me. I'm not a mind reader." He retaliated.

He wished Milo was there with him, to argue his point. Even Katarina would see it his way. They would both agree that he didn't have a choice. Confusion was confusion and even the Elders had encountered it before. It wasn't unusual for a shifter to feel the pull towards different mates throughout their lives, that was why there were 'mates' and 'true mates'. The distinction was the important part.

"The Alpha is. He and Kat communicate inside their heads all the time now." Josanna argued.

"I'm not the Alpha!" Leo whirled and shouted at her.

Josanna took a step back, finding that they were too close now for a screaming match.

"And if Milo is what you want, then you're going to be sorely disappointed. Not only does he know that Katarina is his true mate, but he's in love with her. Like human in love." He informed her, uninterested in her opinion now. "Every aspect of who he is - human being, shifter, wolf - is in love with Katarina for every aspect of who she is. Even the crazy parts of her." He snuffed at the look of utter shock on her face. He didn't understand why it was there. She was the one who kept harping on about how Katarina and Milo were with each other. Well mates were mates and each pair were different. If Milo could talk to Katarina inside her head, that was more to do with her unusual talents than any ability of his.

"I don't want Milo." Josanna whined suddenly.

"Well you sure don't want me." Leo answered back gruffly. He turned and stalked away again, letting her trail after him. He had no idea where he was going or why, he just knew that he wanted away from her - from all women. "If you believed I was your true mate, you would do anything to be with me. Even if it meant giving me the chance to work things out for myself." He said, letting out a sigh.

"Katarina did it for Milo. She spent years thinking she wasn't good enough for him just because he was destined to be Alpha. She refused to push him into a mating she thought he would be ashamed of." He decided to let the truth fly.

He didn't care any more. Frankly, Janet was much less trouble. She didn't fight him the way Josanna did. Then again, after two years of school together, since she transferred into town, she still didn't call him anything but Beta. And that bugged him about as much as Josanna's incessant yapping.

"This is why I was confused. If we were true mates, you wouldn't doubt me like this. Doubting yourself is one thing, but doubting me and my feelings is unacceptable." He said.

Josanna stopped as she let his words sink in.

"Leo!" She called after him, asking him to stop walking away from her.

But he didn't. He just kept going, deeper into the forest.

Did Katarina feel like this when Milo hated her all those years? Did Milo feel the heartache she felt, when he thought Katarina would run away from their destiny?

Leo glanced back and saw Josanna sink to the forest floor and cry. It hurt, but he wouldn't change his mind.