Alpha's Mate

Chapter 26: Hunting Chances

I know it's been a month, but I am working on the chapters! I will be off 5 days next week so please expect a lot of updates! Enjoy this long chapter and please do not forget to vote and comment!

"Okay, spill. What happened?"

Gemma stood in the doorway of the living room, preventing Leanna from leaving at all. She sighed, sitting back in the couch. She had managed to avoid her for past few days, but there was no way around it now.

"What do you mean?" Leanna asked innocently. When in doubt, play dumb.

Gemma narrowed her eyes at her, crossing her arms, "Oh, you know what I mean. Don't even try."

Leanna had sunk deeper into the couch. "He just thinks you'd be better to train me?"

She really had nothing else to help her case and Gemma knew it. She walked over, taking a seat beside her, and grabbing the pillow Leanna was clutching tight to her chest.

"No, he doesn't. He is an Alpha. You really think he would admit if someone were better than him? Do not forget, he is also my brother. Besides, I have never seen him so riled up before. Now, come on. I'm not leaving until you tell me what the hell happened in there."

Gnawing at her lip, Leanna looked away from her intense stare.

"I really don't want to talk about it. I'm still confused myself..." that wasn't a lie either.

She still could not wrap her head around what happened. That kiss... It sent heat and chills through her. Vincent was her mate and even he never made her experience something so powerful. How did that make sense? What kind of cruel mistress was fate to let her feel that?

"Was it really that bad?" Gemma's tone shifted, her dark eyes softening.

"We kissed."

Her eyes widened to an unnatural size, her mouth dropping open, "Fucking shit, seriously?"

She nodded silently, "Yup."

"How the hell is that a bad thing? If anything, that's good!" She laughed.

A half-smile tugged at her lips, "It's not a bad thing, I guess. But the way it made me feel... Not even Vincent made me feel like that and he was my mate. If anything, I guess I'm confused and sad."

"I'm sorry, Lea. I did not realize... Phoenix has pushed everyone away since Maisie. He's felt so guilty to even let himself try anything."

"Maisie..." the name sounded vaguely familiar. "That was his mate?"

Gemma nodded, "Yes."

She remembered those stories. Before Hope Lunar disappeared, they were a feared pack. The power they held, the way they fought. They held the respect of every pack and an enemy in every rogue. From the stories she'd heard, a group of rogues kidnapped his mate. They forced her to keep her connection to him open so he could experience every inch of pain she felt. When they finished with her...

After that he, along with his pack, disappeared and no one had heard from them for nearly two hundred years. It was told that, in his grief and rage, he murdered his pack and then himself. They became the stuff of legends and myths, a bedtime story told to kids to keep them in line.

"The legends were never true," Leanna whispered. "He hid the pack to protect them, didn't he?"

"He felt a pain that couldn't be described. The best thing he could do was hide us from the world. But he is never forgotten. He felt everything Maisie felt, and it destroyed him. For him to feel something now? He is letting go of the past. It's good."