I was on route to the kitchen when my lion started to pace in my mind, growling lowly. Mate. Taking in a deep breath, I smelt the pure lavender scent that I had paired to Autumn. Starting to walk a bit quicker, I neared the corner in the hallway when I heard her talking to her brothers.
“Could you say he still would have wanted me, with all my physical and mental scars, even if I wasn’t his mate?” Her softly spoken question lanced pain through my chest.
Our mate doesn’t trust us. I felt my lion growling, especially when her brothers fell silent, conveying their thoughts on the matter. It wasn’t that Autumn or her brothers were wrong that caused the pain to deepen in my chest, it was because they were right, partly anyway. I wasn’t saintly by any stretch, but I never allowed my relationships to progress beyond casual flings. I knew how much my mother hurt that my father’s previous serious relationships were thrown in her face and I didn’t want that when I found my mate. I wouldn’t have courted Autumn seriously for that reason, not because she was less than. If I thought she would have been receptive, I would have offered to bed her angel or no, not just because she was physically beautiful but because of her inner strength. I needed to prove to her she was the singular most important person to me.
Need plan to win mate. My lion had finally settled at my last thought.
“Come on. Let’s try and find somewhere to train again.” Autumn’s next sentence snapped me out of my mental ramblings.
Trying to appear as though I wasn’t eavesdropping, I rounded the corner before stopping at the sight of 4 angels sitting on the floor. I pasted a confused look on my face before speaking.
“You know, if you were wasting away with hunger, you were only 3 doors away from the kitchen.” I tilted my head in the direction of the kitchen.
The suspicious looks on their faces faded at my statement, before looking at each other and then back to me.
“Actually, we were looking for somewhere to train.” Autumn said as she stood up, followed by her brothers although they all looked rather stiff and uncomfortable.
“Then we got lost.”
“Thank you for the obvious Hawk.” Clay sighed before shaking his head. “So bossman, got anywhere to train?”
“Bossman?” I arched an eyebrow, “But yes, we’ve got a couple of places. How much room do you want?”
“As much as you can give us.”
Turning to face Autumn, I took a moment to just look at her before I nodded. It still hurt that she thinks I don’t really want her, but I couldn’t blame her for feeling that way. Many shifters had this issue with non-shifter mates.
Wyatt? I contacted Wyatt through the mental connection, or mindlink, that all high ranking shifters had with their pack members.
Yes Alex? His voice came through annoyed, which in turn made me smirk.
Interrupt something did I? I chuckled mentally.
Not quite that far, but it would have been if not for you. A mental sigh sounded. What do you want?
I’m heading to the outdoor training arena with the angels, bring along the warriors that are awake. Oh and before I forget, I need your advise concerning Autumn.
Ahh, so she is your mate then? I thought so. And yes, I’ll bring the warriors along. Give me 30 minutes.
30 minutes? You’re getting old, my friend.
Cutting the connection, I let a chuckle at the outraged gasp I heard before I ended the conversation. Turning my attention back to the angels, I noticed they were staring at me.
“I was contacting Wyatt.” I tapped the side of my temple. “I’ll show you to the outdoor training area.”
“We gathered.” Again, I didn’t know how to respond to Hawk’s emotionless statements. So I decided to just ignore what he said.
With that I turned back the way I came, ignoring the grumble in my stomach at the lack of food. The angels all followed behind me, silent except for the soft footfalls and occasional rustle of wings.
“How was the accommodation?” I asked, turning my head slightly to look at them over my shoulder.
“It was okay.” Autumn, Flint and Clay all stated easily.
“Uncomfortable.” Since Hawk said that, I was leaning towards that being the truth.
I heard the other three sigh in exasperation.
“Hawk, we are guests. We don’t complain about accommodation. It isn’t polite.” Autumn quietly whispered and admonished before raising her voice to address me, “It wasn’t anything major, Alexander. The beds were just a tad small for our wings, so we all woke up a little stiff.”
“Ahh, yes, I apologise. We don’t have many visitors requiring beds large enough to accommodate an angel’s wingspan.” I nodded whilst making a plan to get all the beds changed. I would not have my mate and her family unable to sleep properly because of something easily changed.
“Anyway, here we are.” I pushed through one last set of doors leading directly to the outside training area which was large enough to fit another mansion sized building in it.
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