Alpha Benji

♕Chapter Twenty♕

Silent days passed since the dinner with his family. We didn't speak on the drive home. After the altercation with his father, Benji was in a sour mood and just about stormed off as soon as the dessert plates were cleaned off. I had hoped that the weekend would have brought better news – freedom from the house and a taste of independence.

He had teased me with his generosity on Friday. Allowing me out of the house not once, but twice.

I thought he would be home, taking time off from work on the weekend. But Benji found a way to make himself busy. He was constantly on the phone with someone, arguing about upcoming plans. When he wasn't shouting on his phone in the living room, he hid behind the closed door of his office.

I had thought things were getting better. That they were improving. But I was wrong.

♕♕♕

When you're trapped in a single place for an extended amount of time, you need to find creative ways to entertain yourselves. Gwen and I used to pass the time recounting stories, vividly living in our past. I wasn't fortunate enough to have Gwen with me this time, though.

I had searched the house for anything that remotely piqued my interest that wouldn't get me in trouble. The only thing I settled on was taking a book from the dusty shelf downstairs. I'm almost certain he has it there just for appearances. The books still smelled fresh and had no weathering. I didn't recognize any of the titles, considering they were all human books I hadn't seen before. I settled on one about a warrior and his lover, fighting through the brick of war together.

I sat on the floor; my back pressed against the frame of the bed with the book clutched in my hands when he knocked.

"One second!" I called out, panic quickly seeping in through my words. My hands scrambled to find a hiding place for the book – I hadn't asked whether I could take it. I shoved it behind my back, hoping my frame would cover it completely.

He appeared in my door frame after a few moments of waiting. I was impressed that he even bothered to wait, instead of just barging in and demanding whatever he came here for.

"What are you doing?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at my tense body language on the floor.

"I'm just...relaxing." I lamely finished, feeling the sharp edges of the book dig into my back.

His eyes swept over my face one more time before relaxing as he leaned his shoulder against the frame of the door. "Alright, I just came here to talk. I spoke to Elise about you this weekend."

Who is Elise? I quickly tried to rake my head of anyone with that name. No one I had been introduced to came to mind. Immediately, I crafted up a vision of a vixen mistress he's been seeing behind my back. It would explain why he's made no physical advances on me. There is no need when he already has someone to satisfy that need.

"Who's Elise?" I finally found my voice after he made no effort to elaborate.

"Elise is our head guardian of the pack pup center. Dotty said you wanted to help out there, right?" His eyebrows furrowed, trying to figure out if he had misinterpreted something.

The pressure of the book behind me felt like a sharp knife biting into my flesh. My cheeks flushed against my will as I realized Elise wasn't someone stealing my mate, but instead a guardian. I had thought Dotty's admission about my desire to help around the daycare would have gone ignored. It has been days since the dinner party and Benji has made no effort to talk to me besides pleasantries at meals. If I knew any better, I thought he was beginning to lose interest, despite the mate bond.

"I do. I just didn't know that was a...real possibility."

If he was bothered by my admission, he didn't acknowledge it. Instead he shrugged, "Elise is happy to have some help. We have volunteers but the staff for the pup center isn't as strong as we would like."