Chapter 4

(Jensen’s POV)

The first thing that came to me as I woke up was her scent. I opened my eyes and saw her fast asleep on the pillow next to me and smiled. Her features were relaxed and peaceful on her milky skin, and her beautiful light red hair cascaded across the pillow behind her head. I laid there next to her, just watching her. I could honestly stay like this all day. 

After our argument last night, and Kaeleigh’s devastating revelation that she would be leaving town soon, I didn’t know how to feel. My original plan was to tell Kaeleigh that I was going to petition for her to join the pack. I knew that she wouldn’t be happy about that part. But she had blown up about it so much that I hadn’t got to the best part. Once she turned twenty-five, then I would have been able to ask to have her as my chosen mate. It was an old rule that we had to wait until we were that age to consider a chosen mate, but it was there for a reason. Taking a chosen mate was a significant decision. If you then later found your fated mate, it wasn’t just as simple as breaking the original chosen bond, or rejecting your fated mate. Both of those actions carried serious consequences. Both were very painful and could very well risk the life of our wolves. But not everyone was so lucky to find their fated mate. The rule also protected against minors being duped into a bond. You got your wolf between fifteen or sixteen, but even then, the minimum age of being able to actually feel the mate bond was eighteen. 

There had been a lot of cases where a minor had been told by an older werewolf that they were mates and been bound by the mate bond before turning eighteen and realising that they had been lied to. So the rule was in place. But that didn’t matter so much. Kaeleigh was twenty-five in a few months and then we would have been able to ask to be chosen mates. Yes, she was right that any rogue that joins the pack can only join at Omega level, but once we had mated, she would have been upranked to Beta like me. I looked back down at her and smiled. She looked like an angel, fast asleep and peaceful.

I remembered the first time I saw her. I’d never been to The Cove before. Generally I avoided the city as much as Chase, our Alpha heir and my best friend, did. It was so overwhelming with all the different scents and things. But Zach, our Gamma heir, had needed a night out and his mate Nicole had begged me to take him off her hands, so laughing, I agreed to rescue her from her devoted mate and husband. He had said that some of the others were going to this bar, so we tagged along. Her scent, or what I thought was her scent, had hit me straight away. I had honestly thought I had found my fated mate for a minute there until Kylo, my wolf, had confirmed that she wasn’t my mate. But I was still entranced by her. The sassy bartender who dealt with the vile attitude of Adelaide with barely a flick of her hair. I had introduced myself with my rank, stupidly thinking it would impress her. It had worked on pretty much any other girl that I had wanted, and I wasn’t ashamed to say that there had been quite a few. 

But not Kaeleigh. She had smiled politely and then avoided me for the rest of the evening. And the subsequent evenings over the next month, too. It was only when I had finally cornered her one evening that she had said she wasn’t interested and didn’t like ranked werewolves. It turned out she had had issues with them in the past, especially Alphas. She had quite the hate for Alpahs. But I got her with my charm eventually and convinced her to go on a date with me. She had grudgingly accepted on the basis that it was just casual. I had agreed; I didn’t want anything other than casual either.

Yeah, that changed real quick. I knew I had fallen for her fast and felt that she was falling for me, too. I remembered back to my conversation with Chase after training last week.

“Seriously man, I can’t wait till you get to meet her, you’re gonna fucking love Kaeleigh,” I said, and he laughed.

“Well, I’m definitely interested in meeting the woman who can tame your man whoring ways.” and I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, but I knew he was right. Before Kaeleigh, I was interested in one thing, and it was with as many girls as I could. No woman had ever captured my attention the way she did. Well, maybe one woman, but that was a while ago, and strangely also a redhead.

“But I gotta get her here first,” I said to Chase, “If we can get your dad to agree to let her join the pack, then I can get her to agree as well.”  Chase screwed his nose up.

“I’m ready to help you man,” he said, but I could tell by his tone that there was more to it, “I am just wary of bringing in a rogue, you know with the Crimson Shadow lot being so curious all the damn time” I nodded. Crimson Shadow was our rival pack, and they did their best to make things difficult for us.

“Do you know why her and her people are rogues?” Chase had asked, and at the time, I hadn’t. But I did find out last night. And I couldn’t believe what I heard. The destruction of the Scarlet Circle pack was well known, especially in this area. Their pack had only been about forty miles from here, and I remember we had visited them while Alpha Daniel and my father had been working with their Alpha for a protection treaty. They were known for their inclusion of humans in the pack. At the time, it hadn’t been a massive thing. Werewolves aren’t the big, crazy wild animals that some in the supernatural community would have, you think. And from what I heard, their Alpha had mated with a human. The only issue with that was that even a pack of over two hundred was considered weak because half of their pack was human. So Dark Moon was discussing protection with them. The attack had hit my father and Alpha Daniel hard, and Alpha Daniel had declared that no humans were allowed in our pack because of such a case. Not because it made the pack weak, but because it made them a target.

I was brought back to the present by a hand on my face and looked over to see Kaeleigh awake and smiling at me. “Hey, beautiful.” I smiled at her and moved onto my elbows and leaned over her, slowly kissing her beautiful, soft, pouty lips. I broke away and caressed her face with my free hand. She really was beautiful.

“What were you thinking about?” she asked, and I donned my usual wicked grin before answering.

“Oh, only what I planned on doing to you when you woke up.” She giggled in response and I leaned in for a kiss again, moving so our naked bodies were touching down our full length. After the bombshell last night, I had pulled her into my arms. First for comfort, but it soon grew to more, and I had ended up carrying her into the bedroom to worship her stunning body in every way I could, for the rest of the night, and pretty much into the morning as well. We had finally collapsed around 5am, and she had fallen asleep, exactly where she belonged, in my arms, with that beautiful contented smile on her face. 

Feeling her soft naked skin next to mine, and thinking about last night, got me excited again, and I deepened the kiss. I roamed my hand down the length of her body before bringing it back up to cup her breast. I pinched her nipple lightly between my forefinger and thumb and she gasped and pulled me in closer. I moved to her neck and kissed down until I reached her marking spot and then I nibbled lightly as she shuddered beside me. I left that spot grudgingly and moved down to her breast that wasn’t being attacked by my hand, and kissed around it before taking her nipple into my mouth and sucking hard. She gasped again and pushed herself up as I swirled my tongue around her nipple. I grew hard and twitched at the sounds coming from her sweet mouth. Letting go of her nipple, I began my descent further towards my goal, peppering kisses along the way. 

“Jensen,” she panted, “No stop, I can’t stay. I need to get home.” I looked up at her and saw her serious expression. I tried to hide my disappointment, but I must have done a crap job because she sighed.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and I shuffled back up until I was inline with her amazing form again. I settled myself between her legs, and she narrowed her eyes at me when she felt how excited I was. I wriggled my eyebrows, and she laughed, causing me to groan as she rubbed against me. 

“Seriously Jen,” she said through her laughter, “I need to go.” She leaned over and grabbed her phone off the nightstand. 

“Shit!” she exclaimed and showed me her phone. There were several missed calls from an Elaina and a Jeremy. “I shouldn’t have stayed, you know that,” I knew all too well. This was probably the first time that she had stayed over. 

“I know,” I said as I bent my head to nuzzle her neck, “I just wanted to keep you to myself for a bit longer,” she moaned again and wrapped her arms around my neck. 

“Jen,” she moaned, “I really have to… oh!” she squirmed against me as I bit her earlobe.

“Okay, maybe just a little bit longer,” she sighed and relaxed against the bed, “But then I really have to-” she stopped suddenly as we heard the door to the apartment open.

“Hey Jen? Sorry to interrupt, but this is important,” I heard, and I cringed. Shit! That was Chase. If Kaeleigh knew that an Alpha had just walked in, she would freak. To make things worse, just than the bedroom door burst wide open, and I heard a familiar voice. “I hope all are decent in h-”

Several things flew through my head. First was what the fuck did he want that caused him to barge in like this. Then confusion as Kaeleigh froze beneath me, and Chase hadn’t finished his sentence. I glanced down at Kaeleigh, who was mouthing “oh my god” with a shocked look on her face, then heard a growl from the door and the single word. 

“MINE.” 

I suddenly realised two things: Kaeleigh and Chase were fated mates, and I was currently laid naked on top of not only my best friend’s but also my Alpha’s, mate. 

I barely had the words “Oh fuck” out of my mouth before I was ripped away and thrown into the opposite wall.