"Duh we noticed." Ellie was the tom boy in the family and was without a doubt the feisty one; she had no interest in education, though she was into most sports and ready for a ruckus at pretty much anytime. Ellie essentially went to school for two reasons, the sports and her twin, she achieved good grades but these meant nothing to her.
Ellie was fiercely protective of her twin May, who was the polar opposite of her. By the time they were three, the differences between them were becoming more obvious as they aged. By five May was tested and identified as having an eidetic memory, meaning she recalled every piece of information that she looked at with absolute accuracy.
Both girls were very pretty with their fair hair which was naturally darkening every year and blue eyes; they stood out because they were damn tall, just like their father. May was sweet and kind, while Ellie was unforgiving and loyal. With May everything was about the facts, the downside of this was that she was often the focus of teasing at school. Lucky and the girls seemed to find this harder to bear than May did; Ellie however took it personally. She was not jealous of May in any way, on at least two occasions Lucky and Phil had been summoned to school, following Ellie getting into skirmishes over May being picked on. Ellie was vicious when pushed; she seemed to be developing the excessive strength that Lucky had.
"I am not sure what you mean; I am a bit tired and distracted but it has been a long weekend."
"You have been reading the same page for the last twenty two minutes, you keep staring off into space and picking up the phone and putting it down again." May was looking very serious. Lucky had been looking at her phone which was ridiculous, Ben didn’t have her cell number. She also knew that she was already missing him which in turn increased her own anxiety. This was strange, her empath abilities have never stretched this far, She could normally only feel the emotions of people in close physical proximity to her.
Her thoughts which had drifted again were brought back into the here and now by Claire.
"And we also found the phone number of some dude called Ben on the dresser in your room. So the question is who is Ben and is he gorgeous, because if not he's not worth it."
Claire was fourteen and for the last two years she had changed her look at least three times each year. Right now she had bright red hair, which was better than the black from last month. Claire was into her recycling and saving the planet, as well as listening to some awful music. When she supported a cause, Lucky was proud to say Claire supported it completely and right now she was into a Goth phase and against the stereotyping of alternative groups.
"Girls how do you know it isn't a colleague's number?" With a smug smile she beat them at their game.
"Well it was sort of hanging out of your blue purse, which you save for nights out so you wouldn’t take it to work." Damn Beth was observant.
"Ah so you were being nosey. Come on lets have some ice cream it always makes a film better." Distraction was definitely the way to go, she had always tried to be honest with the girls and she expected the same in return, until now. Ellie and May jumped up, Beth just coughed and they immediately sat back down.
"See we told you, she would try to distract us and you two dopes fell for it." As Lucky looked at Claire, she realised her girls were not only getting older, but brighter too.
"If I said I did not want to talk about it, would you drop it?" Lucky knew the answer before she finished asking the question, her girls were tenacious.
From the chorus of no's, Lucky knew they would not stop going on at her.
"Well I am not sure where to start but before I do I want you to hear me out completely. You need to know that nothing will change if you don't want it to."
Before she could start, she received a text from Ben. "I am really sorry; Darius gave me your number although it took some convincing before he would hand it over. He is definitely championing your cause which is good. I handled things all wrong, can we talk, Please? I thought of sending you flowers, but my mother refuses to give me your address in case I stalk you!!!! Lol."
Well he was resourceful, she thought as she smiled; she wasn’t quick enough to stop Claire peering over her shoulder. "Oooo it's from a man saying sorry."
"Hey stop." As Lucky explained everything in brief details, there were some boundaries a mother needed with her children. She limited it to telling them about Ben, Silver Pack and this possible mate business.
"So what do you think?" Maybe her girls would give her a way out.
May was the first to answer. "Since the wolves became known in society, there have been numerous articles exploring this issue of 'mates'. Some packs don't adhere to the belief of one true mate and these tend to be the packs that are more susceptible to disputes. Rogues struggle to form long term relationships, those wolves that adhere to the myth of the one soul mate are stronger and closer. It may be that the nature of these relationships, take away the need for jealousy. You see if the whole pack is in tune and recognises the bond between true mates, negative feelings are less likely to grow. It is also known that if a mate is found and the relationship does not develop the wolf slowly takes control of the person, the loss is too much for the wolf. Eventually the internal organs of the person start to shut down but the why is not known. It really is fascinating."
Lucky was intrigued. "Why?"
"Well if you consider that a wolf has three aims in life, and each action is aimed at meeting these needs. These needs are to feed, protect and mate. Each is equally important but if the person on the outside fails to secure these needs, his wolf will. The man will then weaken, which is when the wolf becomes more dominant. For you the feelings you have towards him, will get stronger as Ben told you and you will not be able to forget him, or ignore those feelings. OMG you had sex with him which is soooo gross mom."
"I did not." Even though she tried, she could not prevent the blush that hit her cheeks.
"You must have."
Great, Lucky was starting to feel a little uncomfortable, and May was just getting into this.
"I did not. Why would you say that May? How do you know this, you are way too young for this conversation." Now she was just blathering.
"A wolf only knows when he or she has found their mate through sexual release, which means that mom is just gross. You are too old for that now." Feeling indignant yet unable to remind her children that she was not too old, Lucky just stood there feeling like a little school girl.
"Don't worry mom, I won't let anyone tell you what to do, wolf or not and May is right that is gross." Ellie was so sweet and protective. Recognising this need Ellie had to protect her resulted in Lucky questioning why people felt that she needed protecting, first Ben and now Ellie?
"It's fine Ellie; no-one is trying to make me do anything. To be honest he told me pretty much the same as May, but her explanation was better."
"Mom I don't know about the others, but I want to meet him." Beth was looking excited.
"And you will Beth, when the time is right; I don't know him that well yet."
"You knew him well enough to err well you know, and if May is right which we know she is, then actually time is kinda short here." It started with Beth, and was continued by Claire and then May, they carried on and on. Only Ellie tried supporting her.
Lucky was finding it hard to remember why she was so mad at Ben. Normally she was so protective of the girls but for somehow she found herself swept up in all of the excitement. Before she knew it she had rung Ben to see if the girls could meet him. Following these discussions Lucky shouldn’t have been surprised, when three hours later they were on the way to Ben's. For Lucky today seemed to be a day for the unexpected, having no intention of allowing Ben to dictate her life, she could not work out why she had allowed her girls to dictate her life.
Chapter 12
For the last three hours Lucky had unintentionally panicked over everything. Would the girls like him, would he like the girls, what would happen if they didn't? What would being mated to an Alpha be like? Well she knew it
would include lots of hot, steamy sex, could she do forever with Ben? He was already over 300 year's old, meaning her aging would slow down, but what about her girls? As they neared Silver's, she found that she was not as anxious and more okay with everything. This was her last thought as she turned off the highway and saw his car.
She felt relieved when all of the tension slipped away from her. Crap Ben was right, her body already needed him. In her head she knew she should be worried, but as he got out of the car and the gates were opened, she smiled before she even realised what she was doing.
As Ben saw the car come to a stop, his wolf purred inside at being in close proximity to Lucky again, but damn the man was nervous. Ben had spent the last three hours trying to make everything perfect, the house, the food, himself. What if her children didn't like him? What if they didn't want them to be together? What if being with the wolves scared them? How did he greet them? In the end he opted for affection without possession, now he just had to work out how to do that. He bent to kiss Lucky chastely on the cheek, as the other car doors opened; taking the chance to whisper discreetly in her ear.
"Do you think I should be scared of them?"
"Only a little."
"Good because I am."
"Errhmm." Ben looked up to see two matching girls with shoulder length fair hair and blue eyes, he smiled what he hoped was his most charming smile.
"Hi." Looking past them he saw the other two girls, smiling in recognition at one.
"Hello again Blondie." As Beth laughed, Lucky looked between them in confusion.
"I wondered if you would be here, I didn't realise…. You and my mom, I might be able to deal with this. This is the guy who helped me that night in Silvers."
Just how good could one man be? "You're a regular knight in shining armour aren't you?" Lucky felt herself relax, maybe he really was that nice.
"I have my moments." Ben almost relaxed until he saw the grim look on the face of one of the girls.
Ellie was the one frowning. "Her name is Beth, not Blondie!" Her voice was laced with annoyance which was directed at Ben.
"I will try to remember that but there are four of you and one of me, so I need some help remembering names to start with. I know that when I think back to when I first met you, there will be things that I remember."
"Like what." Ellie was intrigued even though she was trying not to show it, Lucky watched Ellie's face peer at Ben as the gentle breeze blew strands of her hair over her eyes.
"Well Beth has blonde hair and the rest of you don't. From what your mom said on the phone and now that I have met you, I would say you're the feisty one who protects your family, so I would see you as the fighter."
Turning to Claire, Ben continued. "From what your mom said you are a strong female with a sense of individuality, and the hair marks you out from the rest, so I will always think of you as Red."
"Well that does not make sense; obviously that is not her natural colour. The henna colours are much less damaging than the dyes she used to use. Do you realise that when you dye your hair, the dye strips away layers of the hair shaft causing serious damage?" Lucky was quite surprised when Ben started laughing at Mays words. "Well now I know never to dye my hair, and that also tells me that you are the brains."
The ice was broken, and as they arrived at the house Ben introduced them to his parents who welcomed them like they were already family. The girls seemed to like the house a lot, and spent the first half an hour deciding who would sleep where if they did move in with him. Ben had also come to realise, that Lucky was right and it would not be fair to expect this to happen overnight. As they sat down to dinner Ben was a little pissed that Nicky had failed to show, he had left several messages asking him to come to dinner.
As he and Lucky finished setting the table, he came up behind her and snaked his arms around her, nuzzling her neck. The girls had gone to look around the house again so they were alone. "Thank you for coming back."
"Don't thank me yet, do you have any idea what you are letting yourself in for?"
"I see the honey moon is back on." Ben looked up to see Darius in the doorway with a big grin adorning his face.
"Shit Darius, do you know how rude it is to sneak up on people?"
"I do which that is why I only do it to you Ben. Normally you know when I am here, but maybe you are not concentrating, you seem distracted I don’t know why. Hey Lucky I wasn't convinced I would find Ben intact today, I am happy for you both. Hey this is good, you can drive me to work and back." Darius plonked himself down in a corner chair, relaxing as he watched his friends until Ben started speaking.
"Speaking of work, we need to talk about that Darius. Apparently it would be possessive and archaic of me to dictate what Lucky does and doesn't do. This means I am holding you directly responsible for her safety at work. If she gets hurt in any way, I come looking for you."
"Fuck Ben, what happened to having a human for a partner is dangerous, she can't watch your back, she's a liability Darius, blah, blah, blah. Now it's all protect her, don't let her get hurt. Does our centuries old friendship mean nothing?"
Darius was grinning as he spoke, winking at her when Ben glanced away. Part of her wanted to laugh, while another part wanted to be annoyed at Bens inability to see her as capable of looking after herself. She looked at him feeling the mixture of affection and warmth that was inside of him. She also understood his genuine fear for her as well as his fear for his friend, making her feel lost in his sweetness. Lucky gave into the urge to kiss him.
"Get a room please." Darius laughed as he rolled his eyes at the pair of them.
With that there was a commotion as his parents came back with the girls, who had been given a quick tour of the house and stables. As they sat down to dinner the conversation flowed with ease, Ben sat back and realised that this was what was missing from his life, this sense of fulfilment which was about to be completed, as he heard Nicky coming in.
"Hey folks I got your message, what's the big deal sorry I'm late." Everyone looked up expectantly as Nicky made his way to the dining room shouting on the way through. "Something smells….Oh Company." As he looked around the room, his gaze came to Lucky.
"OH Company, nice to meet you again. Um did I miss something? Like twenty years?" He was focussing on the girls.
Lucky watched as Nicky looked towards the girls, noticing when Beth and Claire blushed. She certainly did not want to go there; thankfully Nicky seemed oblivious to their stares. Ben did the introductions and Lucky had a surprisingly good time. At the end of dinner Sylvia offered to take the girls horse riding, within minutes everyone else seemed to discreetly disappear, leaving Ben and Lucky to walk in the wood. For a while they just walked in silence, it felt pleasant, comfortable and natural. The grounds of the land were luscious, she could hear the birds above their heads, and she could smell the trees surrounding them. As the leaves crunched under her feet she grasped at twigs as they passed.
"Tell me about your wolf Ben, how does it feel?"
"At the start it's a strange feeling. We are brought up knowing about our heritage, the pack elders tell us stories when we are pups. At the onset of adolescence our senses develop and similar to the normal adolescent male our moods fluctuate, except the emotions are stronger. Slowly we can feel the inner animal develop, eventually the person knows what the wolf is feeling and vice versa."
"Does it hurt?"
"The first change is painful; it almost feels like you are breaking the bones, only for them to knit back together again. After that it comes much more naturally and the pain lessens over time. When my emotions are running high my wolf senses this and tries to react. Finding the balance is really hard, if you don't get that balance the wolf can take over, and trying to come back from that becomes harder the longer you stay in wolf form. Alternatively if you try to suppress the wolf, the stronger the wolf fights for its place inside, and outside of you. The design that covers our backs gets larger becoming more developed as we come t
o grips with the almost dual personality. It's hard to describe it; I have lived so long with my wolf, it is like having a second skin."
"How does this mate business work? I don't really want to get married again."
"You don't have to, there is a mating ceremony conducted by the pack elder. It involves the mixing of blood and a blessing; this links us in mind, body and soul. I will always know how you are feeling and vice versa, we will be able to talk telepathically, which I am sure will take some getting used to. Lucky how have you managed to handle this so calmly?"
"I am not sure I have fully handled this, I certainly didn’t feel calm this morning. Being an empath has helped."
"You…. How dumb am I? Darius has said that before but I didn't put the pieces together. Tell me about being an empath?"
"It wasn't easy growing up knowing how other people felt, it took a long time before I could separate the feelings and dampen them to the point where I could function. For my parents it was quite har,d I always knew when they weren't telling me the truth, I knew when they had argued, not that they did often, I knew when they had a surprise planned. When we were out, I could always tell what was happening with other people, and it took me a long time to remember not to talk about it. There are some benefits, take today; it has helped me by knowing that what you are saying to me is the truth as you believe it. Your feelings are genuine and sometimes this mating thing has also scared the shit out of you."
Ben was laughing. "That it has, don't get me wrong, I have been looking for you for a long time, but I don't think I ever really believed that I would find you."
"Can I ask you to do something for me Ben?"
"Anything."
"I would like to meet your wolf."
"My wolf would like to meet you too." He really meant that, his wolf needed her acceptance.
As Ben sat next to her on a fallen log, he knew without a doubt that she was his, and he loved her. It had happened quickly but he knew it was the case, he loved this woman. Nodding Ben willed his wolf to calm down and thought of the wolf taking form. Within a split second, his already superior hearing and eyesight increased, he could smell the forest and animals around them more acutely, his nose tingling at the aroma of some nearby flowers, his eyes tracking the birds high in the trees; he could feel where the other wolves were, even though they were several miles away.
Silvers Alpha (The Silver Series) Page 11