Charlie’s POV

The heat that radiated off the adonis of a man- that was my mate- almost made me want to get on my knees and worship him. I met his gaze, his eyes were the color of the forest on a sunny day. His nose looked crooked as if someone at one point in time had broken it, that was a story I looked forward to hearing. My eyes focused on his lips, they were so plump and kissable, making me blush at the mere thought of even thinking about doing so. He was now wearing clothes, unfortunately, his body was almost god-like, and I most certainly didn’t mind looking at him. Even clothed, I could see his muscles bulging through the clothing. 

Snapping my eyes back to his I reached my hand out, placing it on his chest. Both of us communicated with our eyes, not able to exchange words quite yet. My stomach twisted in knots, from excitement, and from nervousness. His hand firmly covered mine, stopping my hand from shaking, I hadn’t even realized that I was shaking until he did that.

I could tell he had many words to say, as did I, but the big barrier right in front of us was our language. I couldn’t ask him the things I wanted to, I couldn’t tell him about myself. The same for him, he probably knew a few words in my language, but it wasn’t enough for us to have any sort of conversation. 

I felt safe in his presence, and that’s what mattered the most. 

“Alright then fun's over, you need to get downstairs to eat dinner. Papa wants to speak to the both of you.” My brother interrupted, making Presley rub his thumb over my fingers to calm me once he noticed the change in my stature. My brother repeated what he had told me in our native tongue to my mate, making him give my brother a small nod. He didn’t change his confident stature, he didn’t fear my father by any means, but he didn’t know how my papa was when it came to me.  

“Is there any way for someone to translate for him so that we can communicate until we get to my pack and I can have one of my translators teach him English?” I cocked my head to the side, looking to my brother to tell me what he had just said. Karsen sighed, rolling his eyes, repeating what he said to me. 

“I’ll do it,” Karsen replied. Presley didn’t like my brother's response. 

“I have to ask him questions I’m sure he would prefer his brother did not know.” His lips settled into a thin line, clearly irritated. 

“I’ll do it, it’s nothing I haven’t heard before, you forget I too am an alpha?” Karsen’s voice dropped an octave lower, it almost sounded like he was about to growl. 

“What did he say?” I questioned. 

“He’s wanting a translator and I offered to be the translator, he’s not too keen on it being me.” He put his hand on Presley’s shoulder, making my Alpha’s jaw tick in aggravation. 

“I would prefer you not to either, I’m sure he’s going to ask me questions you might not be comfortable with about the things he discusses with me.” I pulled my hand from my alpha’s grasp. 

“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” He shrugged. 

“So, if he asks about my heat, which we both know could happen at any time, you’re comfortable with both of us asking how far is okay?” I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms, almost mimicking Presley’s look of aggravation. 

“If you think that you two are going to be close enough to each other when you go into heat to even do anything, you’re funny. As if I- or papa would be okay with you being tainted by that man.” 

“That’s my choice, not yours.” I snapped through my teeth, making Karsen chuckle at my anger. “I want mom to be my translator, you and papa don’t need to get into my love life, and it’s clear you’re wanting to control that too.” 

“Whatever.” Karsen rolled his eyes.  

---

Dinner was no better, my papa was very combative with the tone of voice he was using with Presley, my mate took the harsh tones that both my brother and papa had used. My mom met my gaze every once and a while, and she would give me a sad smile. Presley, he had his hand placed over mine, from time to time he would squeeze it to either reassure me or to calm me down. 

What I hated the most though, was that they were only talking in English, meaning I couldn’t defend myself or say anything. The few words that I did know didn’t come in handy either so I couldn’t piece together what was being said.

Then the word came up again, ‘reject’ that one I knew, the one that would cause knots to form in my stomach and made my heart clench at the thought of it. Presley’s hand clenched on mine, clearly upset that it was even brought up again. I turned my hand to clench onto his, wordlessly letting him know I didn’t agree with what was being said either. I wished I would be able to communicate with him more before this meeting with my parents. If anything I would have preferred to keep my family out of this until we had a basic understanding of one another. But the goddess brought us together for some odd reason, and at the weirdest of times. 

Presley’s response was venomous, he didn’t hold back his ire with my brother and my papa, the words that came from my mate’s mouth were harsh and snappy. My papa stood to his feet, slamming his hands down on the table, making the items on the table clatter. I jumped in surprise, he had never done that before, not even when he was angry at me for having an attitude with him. 

“Ethan you need to sit down,” My mama finally spoke up, calm, almost too calm. “Our son finally found his mate, you may not be happy, I might not be happy, Karsen might not be happy with who it is. We have to accept it, either way, they’re mates. It’s clear they accept this bond.” 

“I want to accept the bond papa,” I muttered, barely audible. If I spoke any louder I would probably begin to cry. My throat was already tight, and I could feel my breathing become labored. 

“The hell you will, over my dead body. You wouldn’t be safe in his pack. I refuse to let you go off to that pack, there are reasons why I never took you to the Alpha’s summits with me. It’s because we would go to that bastard’s pack,” He sneered pointing his finger to Presley. “That pack would reject you as their Luna.”

I swallowed feeling nauseous from those words, my vision became blurry with tears. “Why would you say that?” 

“Because it’s true!” My papa roared, jerking his hand from my mom’s, baring his sharp teeth at Presley. The alpha’s hand clenched onto mine tightly, his knuckles turned white, and my hand hurt from the pressure. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but there’s no need to shout, to bare your teeth, do not challenge me, I’d hate to bring you down alpha or not. My mate’s father or not, I will end you.” My papa snapped his eyes to me. 

“You see, he has no handle on himself, he just threatened to kill me.” My heart lurched, making my throat swell, tears pooled in my eyes and I tried to remove my hand from my mates. 

Had he really just threatened my papa? I might not be the biggest fan of him at the moment, but that didn’t mean I didn’t love him. 

“What did he say?” Presley asked, looking from me to my family. 

“I told him the truth. Your pack will never accept my son as their luna, and you know it. I bet you’re still trying to figure out a good way to tell your parents about your mate. Please tell me Reid, have you already accepted the bond to Charlie?” My father sneered. 

“It’s damn near 2 in the morning there, no I haven’t told my parents yet. I planned on calling them in the morning. I haven’t said the words to accept the bond, no, but I do accept the bond I need help accepting the bond because of the language barrier. None of you seem to want to help me with that either.” 

“I’ll help.” My mama quickly responded, earning herself a glare from my papa. 

“The hell you will.” 

“Like it or not Ethan, our bambino Charlie has found his mate. We knew this would come one day, we need to accept this and help them the best we can.” My papa sat down in his chair, defeat clear in his expression. “Let’s start this over shall we?” My brother and papa glanced at each other giving a small nod.