Presley’s POV
Charlie’s mother Alice asked for just Charlie, her, and I to be left alone in the room after we had finished dinner. After the blowout with his father, we ate in silence and didn’t bother arguing with him to prove a point.
Alice sat down in front of the two of us. She slumped back into her chair and crossed her legs. She looked almost like Charlie, beautiful with weathered skin from being in the sun too long during her younger days. Her silver hair was braided and rested on her shoulder.
“So, what do you want to ask my son?” She asked, making Charlie scoot to the edge of his chair.
“I need to ask him what would be okay for our first heat together. I know this is a little personal, and you probably don’t want to translate, but it’s something I need to know.” I cast my gaze over to my mate.
“I prefer that you did ask him this,” Alice furrowed her brows and nodded. She was repeating the words to my mate. His face turned bright red, and he tucked his chin into his chest, trying to hide in embarrassment. His mom let out a string of words, and he mumbled a few words back to her.
“He said he would be willing to go all the way.” She paused when he said a few more words. “He just asked that you please be gentle with him.”
“Of course,” I looked him in his eyes as if to reassure him that what I was saying was genuine. I reached my hand out for him to grab onto; when he did, I placed my hand over his and rubbed my thumb over the top of his hand in a comforting motion.
“I’ll begin trying to teach him English while he remains here, I’m sure you won’t want translators for the remainder of your lives. A bond between two mates is sacred and should be treated as such. There are conversations and things you need to learn about one another.” I nodded in response, agreeing with her. “Now, I’ll talk more with my son on what he should expect with his first heat. I’m sure you have to make a call back home. Don’t you, Alpha?” I closed my eyes, swallowing back the lump in my throat.
“I’ll make the call to them when we wake up in the morning.” In reality, I knew no matter the time my mom would pick up. He always would. He always wanted to hear that I had made it to my destination safely, how the weather was, and other things.
This call would be different, and this is one that I dreaded to make. Something that should be joyous only made me feel dread. Because of who Charlie was- Alpha Ethan’s son. I knew both of my parents still had their ill feelings for the man. Now in a way, I did as well. Had he not killed my older sibling, I wouldn’t be the Alpha of my pack, and they would be. I wouldn’t have to worry about who his parents were. I wouldn’t have to take Charlie from his home, and I wouldn’t have to take him to a strange land, to a pack that was not his own.
But now he was to be my Luna, and I was to be his Alpha.
“You’ll most likely be in your rut in the morning.” She replied, taking me away from my internal struggles and thoughts.
I furrowed my brows. “I do have some control when I’m in my rut. I don’t let it take me over as other Alpha’s do.”
“The mating bond between two souls would beg to differ.” Her eyes held a knowing look in them.
“I don’t doubt it, but I’ve gone through several bouts of my rut and was able to control my actions and my wolf to certain extents.”
Do you realize this time it’ll be different, right? This time it’s our mate. This isn’t some rando you pick up from the bar. Ezekial huffed in my head. I rolled my eyes in response, letting out a huff.
“I’d try to get in contact with your parents. I know this will not be easy for anyone, but the goddess has blessed you to be together. Please treat my son right. He deserves the happiness and love I know you can give him. Despite him having less than any favorable words to say about my husband, your father has been nothing but impressive to August. I couldn’t be happier for someone to be mated to him than you.” She gave me a shy smile. “I hope your parents are happy like I am that you found your mate.” I nodded in response.
I squeezed Charlie’s hand one more time. His silver eyes held curiosity in what my next move would be. I brought his hand to my mouth, brushing my lips over his knuckles, kissing his hand. A blush spread across his face, and he fluttered his eyelashes to me.
“I’ll be back,” I spoke to him as if he knew a word I said to him.
His mother quickly translated the words to him, and he nodded his head, letting go of my hand.
---
“Good morning, momma.”
“Good morning, Pea.” My mom’s tired voice replied. “How was the flight? How is Italy?”
“It’s beautiful here, momma.” I swallowed, leaning against a tree. I watched Karsen and his warriors doing their evening workout.
“I bet it is, baby; I thought you would have given me a call tomorrow after you woke.” His warm voice responded.
“Yeah,” I cleared my throat.
“Hmm,” My mom hummed. “It seems like you have something you’re holding back.”
“What makes you think that?” Of course, he wasn’t wrong, but I wanted to stall, telling him what I needed to say to him.
I could hear my dad in the background grumbling at my mom to get off of the phone. “One minute, Pea, let me get out of the bedroom.” I hummed in response. I began picking at the bark on the tree, chucking the bits of the tree that I pulled from the trunk onto the ground. I could hear the stairs creaking over the phone, indicating my mom was heading down the stairs. “Alright, babe, so, you have something to tell me?”
“Italy is beautiful, mom. I think I might want to stay an extra week or so.” So I tried testing the waters, hoping my mom would get the hint.
“Pfft- You? Take time off?” My mom chuckled under his breath.
“I might be going into my rut soon. I can’t conduct an audit when I’m in a rut. Can I?” I raised my eyebrow, my voice raised an octave, indicating to my mom that there was more than just that.
“But didn’t you just have your last rut about-” My mom paused, letting out a shaky breath. I could almost imagine him running his hand through his hair in thought. “You found your mate didn’t you.” He almost shrieked in happiness.
My anxiety got to me, clenching my jaw shut tightly, inhaling a deep breath. “I did.” My voice cracked.
My mom let out another shriek. “Oh Pea, you’ve gotta tell me everything!” He shouted. “What’s their name? What’s their second gender? Oh oh, what do they look like?” He couldn’t hold back his excitement. “Alexandre!!!” He called for my dad.
“Mom, calm down.” I tried to say in a calm voice. Trying to prepare myself for the shift that I knew was coming in the conversation.
“How can I be calm? My baby found his mate!” He chirped. I heard my dad mumble in the background, meaning that he had joined my mom downstairs. “Xandre, baby, he found his mate!”
“Mom, please calm down.” I ran my fingers through my hair, taking in a deep breath.
“How can I?” His voice vibrated through the phone. “Oh goddess, when you get home, we should start planning your mating ceremony.”
I spoke up before my mom could say anything else. “He’s Ethan Berger’s son.” I blurted out.
The other end of the line went silent, and it was as if I had sucked the excitement out of the air around my mom. “Oh,” my mom finally replied, breaking his silence.
“Reject him.” My dad’s voice broke over the phone. My face scrunched up in anger, first his father, now my own. The mic of my mom’s phone picked up the sound of skin hitting skin. “What? I’d rather not look in the face of the son who stopped me from ending the miserable existence of Berger.” He growled. “I’d rather my grandchildren not look like the man who killed our first pup August. I just can’t.”
“You’re an idiot. What happened to supporting mate’s rights? Do you remember how hard you had to fight for us to be together?” My mom growled.
“This is different; this is the child-” My mom cut him off.
“Exactly the child, not the culprit. I’m not happy about it either, but there’s nothing we really can do. This is Presley’s mate we’re talking about here, his goddess-given mate. She put them together for a reason, some sick, twisted sense.” My mom sighed.
“Trust me. Charlie’s father flat out said the same thing dad did. I’m torn, mom.” I choked out, trying to hold back the tears. Alpha’s weren’t supposed to cry. We weren’t supposed to feel weak. Yet, for some reason, Charlie made me feel vulnerable. Wanting to chuckle at the thought, not even 24 hours after meeting the Omega, I had fallen under the spell of our bond. Twenty-four hours ago, I was thinking about how I couldn’t even see myself with an Omega, but now I had one as a mate. I couldn’t even see it any other way either.
I felt like a child again. It almost felt like the first time I had killed a rogue when I was eight. Then, I was scared and fragile. The first time I had taken the life from someone still lingered within me; it was something I hated to do but to protect my pack. After that, I’d do just about anything.
That anything also included something I dreaded to even think about, which was to reject my one key of happiness, just to balance everything, my family and my pack. My pack also held animosity toward Cervo Davanti just because of what happened all of those years ago. So if I didn’t reject him, my pack would. As much as I hated to think of it, to think of the words that Ethan Berger said about my pack rejecting him, it was almost a reality I could see as well. But I knew I would have to do everything in my power to stop that from happening.
The tendrils of darkness began to snack around me, almost feeling like they were dragging me down into the earth.
I spoke above a whisper, “I don’t want to reject him.”
“So don’t- just because we feel a certain way, baby. That doesn’t mean we’ll love you any less. It just may take us some time to warm up to him.” Swallowing back the tears that threatened to spill, I nodded, even though I knew my mom couldn’t see my motion.
“I’ll be home a week or two later; please relay the message to Perse. I’m sure I won’t be able to answer my calls for about a week when my rut hits this time. I love you guys.” I rubbed at my chest.
“We love you too, son.” My dad finally responded.
“We do.” My mom replied.
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