The Beta's Young Mate (bk 1 of Young Mate) (Completed)

Chapter 15- Lizzie's POV

My heart pounded in my chest as he made that promise. I had no idea if it was true or not, but I prayed that it was. I had a feeling that he had not gotten tired of me like I had thought and prayed that he never would.

"Your letters have kept me sane," he mumbled into the towel on my head. "When they stopped coming... I panicked and was about to leave."

I tensed. I could tell that he was telling the truth, but I had no idea why he didn't. I vaguely remembered hearing him talking to me when my father had called me that day, but I didn't pay attention to it.

"Your father had stopped me from leaving," Axel said, probably knowing what I was thinking. "I wanted to talk to you, but your father didn't give me the phone and told me not to call you."

My heart broke when he said that, and I felt betrayed by my own father. I had no idea why he wouldn't let him call me when both of us needed each other just as much as he needed Mama.

"Your father had said that something was written about us," Axel said, causing me to pull away from him and looking up to make sure that he was telling the truth. "I don't know what it is about, but I have been trying to do some research." He shrugged and pursed his lips. "Well, as much as I could with the pack that we were staying at."

"Was it bad?" I asked, causing him to nod his head. "How?"

"It was so bad that I had to give you a nickname when I checked in on you."

I furrowed my brows and cocked my head. I knew that he did not call my mom to ask about me, so I had no idea who he would ask.

Axel raised an eyebrow a smirk appearing on his face. His lip disappeared into his beard, and I found it rather weird but kind of cute. "Don't tell me you don't know," he teased.

I shrugged my shoulder. "Who?" I asked. I had no idea if he would talk to Parker about me, and if he did, then I had no idea why.

Parker... wasn't one for gossip, then again that might have been because Axel had left with my dad. He did talk a lot with Axel in the room and would sometimes have these weird ideas and both of them would talk about it.

Axel didn't really know Clara, so I knew that they couldn't talk. He probably didn't even know that Parker had a mate, or if he did, then he wouldn't say anything to me about what he thought, not until he had processed it.

My mate raised an eyebrow and studied me. "I do talk to Parker about you and have him keep an eye on you," he said, finally. "Sometimes Clara is in the room with him, other times it is just us."

"You two sound like a gay couple," I said, causing him to roll his eyes. "When are you two going to get married?"

Axel finally let go of me and pulled the towel off of my head. He started to dry my hair for me, his scent filling my nose. "Very funny, Liz," he said, causing me to grin up at him. He smiled but then had this glazed look in his eyes as someone linked him. "Mom said that we should stop having sex and that you need to go over there so that Caroline can do your hair."

I furrowed my brows, frowning. "But... I thought you would like to do my hair," I said, vaguely remembering Axel doing it for me for as long as I could remember when my mother couldn't do it.

"You had promised Carrie that she could do it," he said. "I will do it later." He grimaced and moved a hand through his beard. "Mom wants me to shave, anyway."

I narrowed my eyes and looked at his rough looking appearance. I found him attractive even with all the extra hair on his face and head, but I did like him clean shaven. "Why do you have so much hair?" I asked, going to my closet to get some flip flops.

"I hadn't had a haircut or shaved in four years," Axel replied. "Your father had told me not to."

I walked out of the closet when I found some shoes and noticed Axel sitting on the bed. I had no idea why he didn't have another letter in his hands, but he didn't. He was just sitting down, waiting for me come out of the closet, looking rather cramped. "So, are you going to get a haircut too?" I asked, causing him to nod his head.

"Paige, my... youngest, is probably going to be confused," he said, moving a hand through his beard.

I paused and looked at him with wide eyes. I had forgotten that he was now a dad, having eight children that he had adopted in the past four years.

"Liz?" Axel asked, standing. He walked over to me, hesitantly, worry filling his eyes. "What is it? Are you hurt?" He stopped in front of me and looked down, studying me.

"You have kids..." I breathed out, finally. "I-I am too young to be a mom. I-I am still a kid myself." My heart started to pound and it started to become harder to breathe.

"Hey," Axel said, pulling me into his arms. He picked me up and placed my face in his neck as if I was still the little girl that he had babysat all of those years ago. He rubbed my back as I clutched him tight, soothing me in the way that only he could.

I buried my face in his neck and wrapped my long legs around his waist, not wanting to be put down by the man that I l- admired. I took in his scent, ignoring the scratchiness of his beard and his hair.

"You don't have to be called their mom. I have already talked to them about you and about our relationship," he said, softly.

"What did they say?" I mumbled, calming down.

"They said that they would call you Liz and understood that you might not want to be called mom. Besides, Paige already calls me Mama and Papa."

"How old are they?" I asked. "And, what are their names?"

"Annalisa, or Lisa as I call her, is eleven. She is the oldest and the most excited to meet you," Axel said. "Then it is Brett who is eight with his seven-year-old biological sister, Kit. Next, are the five-year-old twins, Bridget and Lolita, or Lollipop."

I smiled a bit at that nickname but stayed quiet.

"Then there are Ridge, who is four, Lucas who is also four and then little Paige who is one."

"Are Ridge and Lucas biological brothers?" I asked.

"No," he replied. "Only Brett and Kit are related to each other and then the twins are related to each other."

"How did you get them?" I asked. "The letter..."

"... didn't go into too much detail about them, I know," Axel said, finishing my sentence. "Your father didn't want me to write a lot about them, and I was running out of paper. They're at the house if you want to meet them."

I nodded my head. I was excited and yet nervous to meet them. I had no idea if I would be a good mother, even though I had been helping my parents raise my siblings since there were a lot of them. "Carry me?" I asked, too lazy to get down.

Axel chuckled and placed a kiss on the top of my head. "Of course," he said, softy. And with that, he walked towards his children, and I prayed that they would like me as much as I was going to like them.