Chapter Two

Her heart picked loudly as the man walked towards her, she couldn’t fathom this strange feeling between her and this Adonis of a man walking towards her,

damn! He was handsome,

Aramina had never seen someone whose pace was so precise, he walked towards her intently, with his gaze in her eyes, he got to her and he stared at her for a moment before uttering the weirdest greeting she had ever heard…

“Hey mate”, and in a split second, hugged her.

Aramina felt like she belonged here, well for a few seconds before she realized that a stranger was hugging her, she instinctively pulled back and slapped him.

But he smiled and murmured, “a fiery one” confirming her earlier presumption that he was weird.

He was a weirdo, she should have known, no man suggested a weekend getaway with a lady on a first date, not like she would know but she knew he was inappropriate.

The lady behind him gasped, “How dare you” And raised her hand to hit her but the weirdo stopped her.

“Don’t”. “Greg, take Miss Mira home, it seems like she had too much to drink”. The lady didn’t argue, she knew that this was a lost battle.

He looked at Aramina again, with what looked like amusement playing at the corners of his lips

“We will meet again …soon”, he turned and left.

********

As Zach entered his car, he touched the spot she slapped him, and smiled, she was a fiery one. her lashes were long with a taint of red, the colors of her pupil were teal, so deep that he felt like he could easily drown there, her lips were shaped like an almond, she didn’t need a lipstick on it since it was already pinkish red, and her scent was one he could bury himself in for eternity.

He looked down, damn, he was aroused…with just a slap… he could feel his wolf demon, Derrick, jumping in excitement.

Celeb cleared his voice, “I can watch her if you want”, smiling mischievously, Zach growled at him.

“Handle it, Karen”.

********

Aramina watched him go, he reeked of danger, his scent still lingered, and who the hell goes about hugging people? I have seen it all, she sighed and continued her chores.

“Excuse me, madam, I think you are done here, this is your pay and your ride home is waiting outside”. The manager approached her, a little timidly, a far cry from the man ordering her sternly earlier today.

“But I’m supposed to be done by 7 pm Sir”, Aramina pushed

“Don’t worry, we’ve got it covered”. The manager insisted, practically sweating.

Aramina couldn’t reject such an offer, after all, she had a science project to complete.

She thanked the manager and went out.

********

Karen could not believe her luck, she had squealed in the excitement of being the first to talk with Zach’s mate.

She was excited and happy for Zach, Zach had a mate, he had spent his whole life believing that his hybrid nature will prevent him from having a mate. She and Caleb had beted through their mind link on whom to drive her home. She could still hear Caleb complaining about the disappointment of not being the chosen one.

She had known Zach since she was nine. She had saved the handsome teenager from a group of werewolves’ rogues at the back of the school and when she realized that he was being bullied by his stepbrother and other good-for-nothing werewolves in the school, she had decided to be his guard.

No one dared touch Zach when she was with him, her Beta blood gave her an advantage since most of these bullies had no title.

Zach had mysteriously disappeared when they were thirteen. He had come back after seven years, but gone was the innocent, talkative but weak young lad, in his place was coldness, pain, ruthlessness, and one who barely talked.

His father was ill, rumored to be poisoned and Zach must prepare to be the next Alpha.

He had ordered her to be his Beta and she had agreed, she was unbeatably the better choice.

A lot of betas in the pack had thought differently about her position, but she had defeated them all in a sparing contest, therefore, showing herself worthy of her position.

“Hey” she waved towards the girl.

She was quite young, with a cautious look around her eyes, like she was expecting to be attacked.

“I’m Karen, I was instructed to take you home”

Aramina recognized her, she had walked in with the weird guy,

“Thanks but I prefer to walk” she left the lady and strolled down the driveway.

“Shit” Karen hurried after her. “I’m sorry I came unto you, just that I could lose my job if I don’t take you home”, she knew she was exaggerating the whole thing but a little lie won’t hurt.

Zach’s mate stopped and looked at her, her tough exterior gradually melting, “he is going to fire you?”

Karen dug in, “yes”, making a sympathetic face, “and he doesn’t like unfinished jobs”.

She looked into her eyes gauging if she should trust this lady, but the lady seem so innocent.

“Ok, let’s go”.

And that was all Karen needed to hear before she let out a squeal of excitement and practically

frog-matched her to the red sports car.

“I’m Karen, Zach’s PA and Beta.”

‘I’m Aramina … just Aramina, what do you mean by Beta?”

Karen immediately slammed the brakes,

“Emm… I’m sorry, you don’t know what Beta is?”

She was shocked, the young lady should be up to 16, and sure, she should have manifested signs that would make her want to ask questions about herself.

“I think I will explain when next we meet. We can exchange contacts. You see, I don’t have any friends except Caleb but he is a guy. Maybe, we can be girlfriends you know”.

Aramina didn’t understand this lady’s open personality, but her eyes looked like she earnestly wanted to know her.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have a phone but I can give you my school counselor’s, you can call me during lunch break, I’m always in her office”.

Karen managed to successfully hide her shock, what type of life had this girl been living?

“I will drop down here”.

As they pulled up to a big blue house. “Thanks for the ride”.

The girl hopped off and walked towards the house.

Karen waved back. Immediately the door was shut, her face regained its seriousness.

“Tom, are you there”

“Yes ma”. Her chief security guard responded.

“Get to work then, I need to know how she sleeps, what she eats, her family, school, and people she communicates with. Don’t bother sleeping until you get me everything about her, down to her hair shampoo. Make sure you put a tail on her, if Zach found his mate, it is obvious that his rivals might know.

********

Zach threw the file on the wall, what the hell had he been doing all this while? He couldn’t believe that the tough fiery girl that slapped the hell of him had such a tough life.

“Dig into her stepmother”, he growled, “I want to know why a jobless woman has so much money”. The situation seems fishy.

He could feel the agitation of his wolf. He suddenly needed a release. He needed to run.

He ran into the woods and let Derrick go. It took him over two hours before he got a hold of his anger and frustration.

As he dressed up, he looked over his pack’s territory, for four years now, his pack had not faced any chaos. He was generally a good Alpha, but Zach wasn’t comfortable with quiet. Quiet was too suspicious.

His gaze fell on the figure walking towards him, he couldn’t dismiss the frown on his face as his cousin, Max walked toward him with a smile on his face.

Zach had never liked Max, Max had his pack, smaller than Zach’s but his fighters were well-trained and cannot be easily trifled with. Max was too smart and cunning. Zach knew that he didn’t exactly accept him and rumor has it that he was not exactly innocent of the last attack on his pack, but Zach hadn’t been able to find any evidence to attack him…yet.

“Alpha Zach”, Max greeted,

“Alpha Max, what are you doing around here, the last time I checked, this was not a part of your territory”

Max simply widened his grin, “Common, Zach, why are you always uptight, I was on my way to see you when I noticed your wolf.

I decided to stay low, nobody wants to come in contact with Derrick on the loose”.

Zach looked at him for a second

“What do you want”, as he strolled towards his pack house,

“Nothing”, throwing up his hand innocently, “just came to chit-chat with you. I realized that we’ve not seen each other since our last discussion, neither have I gotten any response from you with regards to our last discussion, you see, my sister is getting impatient” Max explained.

Zach knew there was more to this, but he was not willing to entertain any marriage talk, not when he had a mate to worry about.

“Well, tell your sister that I’m not interested, I don’t plan on getting married now, and even when I decide to settle down, it won’t be her”. Zach responded angrily.

He disliked Jenet, he only tolerated her because of their father’s bond, but she was one mean wolf.

“With that said, I don’t think we have anything to discuss again. Have a beautiful day and please, when next out wish to see me, meet Karen first. We are not friendly enough to have you come here talk of without an appointment”.

********

He watched Zach go, “you can come out now”

The shadow walked excitedly towards him, he could tell that it had something that would please him.

“Master, Alpha Zach found his mate”.