7: Stalking my little mate

Alpha Caden's POV

Aurora is still on the floor thirty minutes after she's tried to wear her clothes but couldn't. I can't help but feel a pang of guilt at the thought of me doing that to her. I don't even know what is going on anymore, but I cannot stop being this person.

She is my mate now, no matter what she does. She has no other option but to stay with me as her maid because I am doing all of this to save her. I'm sure she wouldn't want Lucas and Lilian looking at her with this whole thing.

I don't even know how I am going to explain stuff to them if they ask me. They might not be staying here with me, but I'm sure they will know what is going on. She is going to hate that, which is why I want this to work out the way I have planned in my head. I had to work with my instincts and make her my maid so they won't know.

But I can't hide this from her parents. I am going to tell them everything that is going on, knowing how her father is. Beta Knox Woods is the most complicated man I have ever met, a decade older than I am. He found his mate late, and she couldn't give birth the first few years of their relationship until much later.

I won't exactly say Knox is my best friend, but we have been friends forever. He helped me with the whole alpha title when I was given one after Flora's father passed away. He taught me everything I needed to know about the pack and things I should not dare do for my people. We are pretty close, and I'm not sure how she will take this.

Deep down, I have wanted to find my mate my entire life, but I couldn't do that to Flora after all she has done for me. Taking an unknown orphan from the woods, a rogue no less, choosing him as her mate when there are other eligible males in her pack. She wanted me and was willing to fight for me. I did the same to her. I will find my mate much later on.

But along the way, I didn't want to find her. I want to be by myself, so I won't be bothered with any other responsibilities. I am not going anymore. I am forty-two, which isn't saying much to a werewolf male, an alpha too, but I feel old. I have gone through so much that I can't carry on anymore.

Flora's last words to me were: "Find your mate, Caden. I don't know where or how, but I'm sure she is out there waiting for you. Don't waste your time away thinking you don't need her after what we shared. When you find her, you are going to realize that we shared nothing, absolutely nothing. The bond between fated mates is so much more amazing and beautiful. You deserve to know how it feels in your lifetime because I knew how it felt with my fated one. Don't hold back for me anymore. Do what makes you happy for once."

But how does she expect me to do that? Maybe because she didn't know I was going to end up with a girl we literally helped bring up. The girl we used to babysit along with our children. The little girl that used to cry in my arms because her toys were lost or broken. I even changed her diaper one time.

Flora had no idea I was going to end up with Aurora Woods! She is probably turning in her grave at what we did the night before, which I am still trying to remember in case this is just destiny's trick. I don't want this whole thing to be true. At least not the marking part.

When she came yesterday, I was shocked to see how much she had changed. She doesn't have any mark around her neck nor does she smell like another male's mate. She was mateless the night before, but she woke up with a mark, with no hymen intact. Goddess have mercy on me. I can't believe I did that.

And how is she still a virgin at twenty-two? I'm sure Lilian has gotten that out of the way a very long time ago even though it is something I don't want to know, I just do. She isn't waiting for her mate and I don't know why. Maybe she doesn't want to have a mate in her life? Some females are like that.

Or… has she been rejected? No, no, no, no! I would have known if she had been rejected because she would have told her mother about it. She is actually closer to me than her mother. Lilian is a daddy princess while Lucas is a mommy's boy.

I focus back on the computer to see naked Aurora finally standing on her feet, still fatigued and exhausted from the mere effort. She slowly sat down on the couch behind then start looking around for her clothes strewn all over the place like a possessed man removed it from her body. Me.

Wait, did I? Why would I intentionally remove her clothes like that when I know that shouldn't have happened between us? Drunk or not, I knew Aurora was Aurora because her scent hasn't changed since I knew her and the color of her eyes. They are so beautiful and unequal.

Her scent, holy hell. I have always loved that scent but smelling it again made my mind off. The air was saturated with the intoxicating fragrance of honey and milk, a sensory symphony that delicately permeated the surroundings. The sweet, golden notes of honey intertwined with the creamy richness of milk, creating an olfactory dance that stirred a profound sense of desire and need.

Each inhalation carried the luscious scent, evoking a yearning for something beyond the mere aroma. It was as if the essence of honey and milk held a key to unspoken cravings, an invitation to indulge in the warmth and sweetness lingering in the air—enough to make Lucian stir within.

The scent, like an unspoken language, conveyed a nuanced understanding, wrapping the senses in a cocoon of comfort and familiarity. It was a fragrance that whispered of gentle intimacy, leaving a trail of unspoken promises in its wake—promises I have fulfilled but can't recall.

"Look at that!" Lucian echoed in my head because I mistakenly let my guard down for a second.

"Get away from here, you pervert. She is years younger than us. Don't be a pedophile," I say, but my eyes were also fixated on Aurora as she walked around the room to get her clothes.

She started by wearing the short-sleeved white cropped top over her fully naked breasts. I almost hated her for veiling that perfect view from me but stopped myself at the last minute. What the heck am I even thinking about? Perfect view? Hating her for closing her own body after what I did? Darn it.

"Yeah. You think you can fight the mating bond. I'll be here watching and see how you fail woefully," Lucian chuckled in my head like the heckler he is.

"Fuck off, will you?" I snap instead of getting riled up like he wants me to be. Little traitor.

Aurora stayed with only the crop top on for a minute too long, then went for her jean jumpsuit. Where are her panties? She doesn't travel around with no panties, does she? Then my eyes fell on the black pair of thong by the desk, but she won't see it because it looks like the rest of the desk. Somewhere deep inside, I don't want her to find it. Heck.

When she clipped both ends of her jumpsuit on both shoulders, my shoulders drop because I know that bold Aurora I saw in my office hours ago is gone and never to return. She is going to become a shadow of herself, the one she has once been. Or would she not? Because I love this version of her with those tattoos.

I zoomed in to see the tattoo on her shoulder, a large brown tree. Does that signify this pack? Or is it something else? I cannot see any other tattoo because she has closed all of them. But her mark was so prominent I could see it from every single angle. So possessive, large, deep, and freaking real.

"And you are blaming her for not being able to stop your own fangs from piercing her flesh?" Lucian quipped with a small chuckle that sounds too mocking for my liking.

I refuse to give in to the jeer and watch Aurora tie her luscious black hair in a bun around her nape. Done getting dressed, she sat down on the carpeted floor in the study instead of the tiles. She brought her knees to her chest and continued to cry.

Time to call for her parents, but before they come, there is something I need to do.