She had actually asked to meet the pack today something that excited him, if she didn’t want to be part of this life she wouldn't want to meet them. He had made contact with people, and they were all going to meet at the house this afternoon. They knew things about her already, they knew she was here and had children but he had told them that she needed some time to process everything. Most of the pack had understood this though he suspected the women more so than the men. The girls had met some of the pups, and May had spent most of yesterday in their make shift hospital, apparently she was a very promising student. Things seemed to be going well.
Theo though had surprised him, Ben knew that Theo was suspicious of Lucky but trusted him to protect her. Theo was a warrior and without doubt his strength was phenomenal, but he did not talk to many people and respected even fewer. Last night when they were back at the house, and he was freaking out over the black eye Lucky had received, he saw something between her and Theo. When Theo glanced at Lucky there was the same respect that had taken years for some of the pack to develop with him. He was both impressed and relieved.
He sat up when she wandered into the room swaying that all woman body. With a grin he pulled the towel from her. "Hey what are you doing?"
"I want to watch you get dressed." Lucky saw his eyes heavy with lust as he looked at her, he couldn’t get enough of her and she had to admit that the feeling was mutual.
"Well I need the towel to dry." She was laughing as Ben watched her pull some underwear from her drawers; well to call it underwear would be an exaggeration, it was basically black string with a bit of lace, he liked it.
"Without the towel you will just have to keep walking around with that luscious body on display."
With that she jumped on him trying to grab her towel back which didn't work. It only resulted in making him harder than he had been two minutes ago, this in turn led to some more time in bed and on the floor, which is exactly where they ended up when they tumbled from the bed.
Twenty minutes later he had his hands behind his head as he lay in bed with a huge grin adorning his face. Lucky had locked him out of the bathroom this time taking her clothes in there with her ruining his fun. Ben decided it was time to get showered and face the day, which would have worked if the only free bathroom had contained anything male.
Wandering back to the room that he now shared with Lucky, he had to walk past the girls rooms. Mays room was unsurprisingly full of books and looked meticulous. She had models of planets and what he assumed to be cells, as well as drawing boards with sums and notes all over it, the room seemed very studious unlike his own room when he was young male. May was sat at the desk reading when she saw him.
"Hey Ben."
"Morning Brains I like what you have done to the place." It also seemed well organised; the complete opposite to his office, maybe she could set him up like this it might help him be more productive.
"I think that Ellie's pleased to get her own room; she no longer has to worry about messing my things up. Leyland said this room gets some great views of the stars and he was right, it is amazing. This whole place is great, the hospital is really cool; I actually watched Danny's bones knit back together within an hour yesterday. His healing rate was phenomenal; he said that I could record it next time so that I could watch it back, then I can slow down each frame to watch in close up, apparently he breaks things quite a lot."
"What did Danny do this time?" As he came into the room he sat on the edge of the bed, not wanting to invade her space.
"He fell from a tree while trying to spy on what was happening here. I felt really sorry for him, but he was very brave and strong. It was weird, I sat with him watching this amazing thing happening and he just sat there letting me prattle on about bones, and cells and he didn't seem annoyed or bored at all. Most people do get bored of me you know."
"I don’t know if its boredom or a lack of understanding, being around someone so bright can be intimidating however if you want to talk come see me, I might not understand but I'll listen. If I am not here go find my dad, he is very impressed with you and thinks you are pretty amazing. Right now he's trying to convince my mom to let you turn their spare room into a lab."
"Really do you think that your mom will agree?" He could see the light in her eyes, if his mom saw that look May would get her lab.
"God knows, hold on did you say Danny was quiet during the recovery?"
"Yes he didn't say a word, is he normally loud?" She had clearly seen his look of surprise though it didn’t last long as she grabbed a note book quickly scrawling something illegible.
"Not loud but he talks the hind legs off a donkey, when he is recovering. It seems to distract him but he gives me headaches, and don't worry he does spend a lot of time at the hospital. What was he spying on?"
"Us apparently he and the other pups wanted to know why you suddenly had young females at the house." Shit maybe he needed to address this with the male pups. The girls were clearly off limits, he might have to get Theo to assign some warriors to the girls for a while just to make sure they were not bothered by randy boys.
"So next time Danny comes sniffing and breaks yet another bone, I can call you and he will be quiet?"
"It was probably the pain, but please let me know so I can video it." Ben could see she was secretly pleased at the thought of helping Danny. Giving her a smile he left her to her studies which seemed to be about bone regeneration.
The next room had to be Blondie's. Beth was all things feminine; she had posters of actors and singers all over the walls already, perfumes and makeup all over the dresser. The wardrobe was already bursting at the seams, though from the amount of clothes on the floor; she must have run out of space. Ben made a mental note to order another wardrobe and soon, by the looks of things she would need a second room. He couldn't see Beth but he did hear the shower so assumed she was in there. He was secretly commending his decision to paint the room's beige instead of Nicky's suggestion to paint them all blue.
The next room was Ellie's; he could see boxing gloves on the bed causing him to smile. He had given them to her yesterday after he had shown her how he used to do pull ups in this very room, using the pole in the built in wardrobe. He had forgotten that the gloves were in the top section of the wardrobe and hadn't used them in years so when he found them it seemed right to hand them to Ellie. He could see that she had since removed the clothes from the wardrobe and put them in a pile in the corner, so she could use the bar. Note to self; get another wardrobe in here too. Ellie had the heart of a warrior, a soldier; one day she would be a scary woman a thought that secretly pleased him.
As he passed the next room he could smell paint. Knocking, Claire gingerly opened the door peering round sheepishly. "Connor said it would be ok."
He could see the anxiety etched in her face around the facial piercing in her mouth and eyebrow. "Then I am sure it is but what is IT?"
As she opened the door Ben was almost overcome by the fumes. "Er morning Connor how long have you two been painting?"
"I couldn't sleep. Connor was downstairs and when I told him that the room wasn't really me, he said you would want me to make it mine and so he helped." Claire was talking so fast he couldn’t get a word in edgeways.
"Did he now? Well thank you Connor." Telepathically he followed this with. "I will get you back for this."
"Just because it's not to your taste Ben, I knew you wouldn't mind. I thought you would want to welcome her into your nice, clean home."
"I have to say painting all of the walls and ceiling black does change the tone of the room. Was your room at home black?"
"God no, mom wouldn't let me." Shit now what did he say?
Ben could hear Conner smothering his laughter by coughing. "Would it help if I told her?" Claire's face instantly relaxed putting him on alert; maybe he shouldn’t have said anything.
"Yes she can't really tell you off in your own home, can she? I know that she worries and thinks all of this black is
unhealthy but it really isn't."
By this he assumed that she meant the whole Goth looks, he was pretty certain he was out of his depth here.
"Do you need any help?" Ben wasn't sure that helping was going to make things better; maybe he should ring his mom and ask her what he should do before he told Lucky.
"If you could kind of distract mom until it's finished that would be great."
"Er okay, Claire do you know where my things have gone from the bathroom at the end of the hall?"
"Of course Beth moved your stuff out yesterday. She was going to put them in your bathroom but moms stuff was there. Anyway she made you space in the bathroom downstairs, Connor was kind enough to give you one of his shelves." He just stood looking at Connor, while contemplating the fact that he had been relegated down stairs.
"Ah that makes perfect sense. Remind me to thank you personally Connor."
"No problems I was pretty accommodating yesterday, I even gave up another shelf to Phil."
Walking into his room Lucky was sat on the bed brushing her hair; sitting behind her he took the brush.
"Let me." He started brushing it through, her hair was gorgeous, long and thick, falling down her back like a cascading waterfall.
"Lucky do you think I could have a shelf in the bathroom in here. It seems that I have been relegated to the one downstairs."
"What do you… oh the girls have taken over haven't they. I am so sorry Ben, let me talk to them." Her hair was shiny and soft, the almost blue black glimmering in the light streaming in from the windows.
"No don't. I actually like it which is bizarre cos I have always loved this house, but that's what it was, a , now it's a home and it's nice, strange but nice."
"Really?" Her tone was somewhat startled.
"Really, oh before I forget Beth needs an extra wardrobe. She must be dreadfully disappointed; she has had to leave some of her clothes on the floor."
"She doesn’t need an extra wardrobe; she left them there because she's a lazy teenager Ben." Ben wasn’t sure but bowed to Lucky's experience.
"Are you sure, there seemed to be a lot of clothes. Ellie needs another one but that's my fault, oh and I told Claire that she could paint her room black I hope that's okay." Before she could speak he carried on without pausing for breath, "it's nice I feel like I am building a relationship with them."
"Ben you don't have to agree with them to build a relationship. I will tell Claire not to paint the room black and Beth will clean her room. They are children Ben and they will manipulate you if they think they can."
"I am sure they won't; maybe you could wait until this afternoon to talk to Claire. Give her some time to settle in."
"Why… oh hell, she's already done it hasn't she?" Lucky gave a mighty sigh but he could feel her happiness, she didn’t appear to be very angry.
"Sort of but it's Connor's fault. He did it to jerk my chain so you can't really tell Claire off."
For some reason she found the whole thing funny. Leaning into him she kissed him. "I think living with girls will be real interesting for you Ben. I am pretty certain that Connor jerking your chain is just the start."
With a hefty sigh he wrapped his arms around her. "I suspect your right. I might need you to protect me. Are you sure that you want to meet everyone today, you have a huge black eye and it was a long night?"
"I need to do this but what happens if they don't like me?" The fear was lurking in the back of Lucky's mind, so she needed to face it and get it over with.
"They will." He seemed sure of it and she wished that she shared his certainty. It was one thing meeting his family but the pack would have expectations and what if she didn’t meet them?
"But!"
Leaning her back she tilted her head, he silenced her with a kiss. Having her wrapped in his arms felt so natural.
"They will."
As she opened her mouth he kissed her again.
"You are so unreasonable Ben." But she was smiling and felt utterly contented.
Chapter 22
Throughout the day people kept popping into the house with food and drink for the gathering this afternoon, everyone pulled their weight which surprised her, everyone working in harmony. The day had turned into a hot and humid afternoon; the sun warmed her skin every time she stepped outside, the wild wolves in the woods had gathered closer to the house watching the festivities. Lucky had pinned her hair up allowing the breeze to kiss her skin as she moved in and out of the house, she was becoming more relaxed in her surroundings, more at home.
Around lunch time an older man came to the house, helped by a teenager who despite his size was extremely gentle with him when helping him up the stairs. Seeing the glint in the man's eyes, she wasn’t convinced he needed help. Ben came over to introduce them; his respect for this man was clearly enormous, meaning he was an esteemed member of the pack.
"Lucky this is Zachariah; he is our pack elder and will perform the mating ceremony when the time comes." Lucky had been helping Sylvia with some of the dishes and was well aware that she looked a mess, with her hair mussed and food on her shirt. Never the less she put out her hand which he ignored; instead he chose to step forward and hug her.
"I can feel your goodness child so do not be conscious, Sylvia will teach you what you need to know, but you need very little teaching in mating with a leader. I can see you two have already done that." When he winked Lucky knew that her cheeks were flaming red.
"Argh gramps, do you have to that is gross and you're freaking her out?" The boy looked older than his words, his dark hair tumbling over his ears, with green eyes he seemed alert and happy.
He turned to cuff his grandson round the head. "Lucky this is Danny my wayward great grandson who will one day step into my shoes, when he finally learns some manners."
Danny actually shook her hand, she saw him wince in pain. "I'm sorry about gramps; he is getting a little senile."
"Oh I don’t know about that, what happened to your hand?" Lucky instinctively liked this boy, he had a goodness that poured from him, though he also looked mischievous and energetic.
"I had a little accident yesterday and May helped me out, actually is she around?"
"I'm here." She had wandered in reading but her smile brightened at Danny's appearance.
"What are you reading?" Danny asked as he followed her into the study leaving the adults in the kitchen.
"Ah maybe she can teach him something, I have failed in this endeavour." Lucky could see Zachariah was saying it affectionately but there was a look of wistfulness in his face. Compared to Ben this man was somewhat smaller, and undoubtedly much older. He looked like he was probably in his late 60's which she knew meant nothing to other species. His hair was long, past his shoulders, she could see that it used to be black but was now streaked with white, his nose long and straight, his sea green eyes were sharp, observing everything around him, he reminded her of an Indian of some sort.
"Danny seems nice but so big for someone so young." Lucky smiled at the man's playful expression as he answered.
"Daniel is my successor, I am to teach him the ways of old, but he likes to run wild all of the time. He is still young but needs to start his learning."
Ben passed Zachariah a cold drink. "I think I have a solution to that, listen." They went silent as they listened, though Lucky could hear nothing over the din of the dishwasher so she was thankful when Ben explained.
"If you listen I think you will find Danny learning about broken bones." Lucky saw Zachariah take an interest.
"You are right." Zachariah's face was listening intently while confusions settled.
"May sat with him yesterday, watching as he healed from a broken arm. Apparently Danny sat there the whole time listening to her talking to him about bones. She actually thought he was the quiet type, he didn’t say anything to you about it did he, Zachariah?"
"No he didn’t but he was in an unusually good mood." Zachariah was listening to Danny and May in the other roo
m. "He really is listening to her, why?"
"I have no idea but he came with you today to see May." Ben was clearly impressed with May and her ability with Danny.
"Ben what are you saying?" She hoped he wasn’t trying to set her baby up with some older boy, she wouldn’t accept that. From Ben's next words Lucky knew that her face had betrayed her concerns.
"I don’t mean like that, hell if any of the pups go near the girls I will gut them. You can't hear them but he is genuinely interested in what she is saying. Wait, she just asked him why he came to see her."
Zechariah carried on eavesdropping, initially with a frown which he quickly explained. "Thank the gods; he just said he liked her voice she made things sound understandable. Oh really, apparently Danny thinks that when I talk it sounds boring and gobbledegook!!!!" Zechariah was deep in thought.
"Do you think she would be interested in our history and traditions Lucky?" The hope was there in his tone and Lucky had no doubt of May's willingness but it was Ben who answered.
"Well May loves to learn, if you can teach her the old ways then Danny can learn them through her."
"She wouldn't be bored?" Zachariah didn’t know May so he was not aware of her daughters thirst for knowledge, so it was with a laugh that Lucky answered.
"Oh May wouldn't mind and if Danny's needs to learn there's a good chance she can help him. If not she could get Ellie to bully him into learning." Lucky relaxed a little, she knew that May would be excited at the education Za+chariah could offer her.
Leaning back Zechariah looked at them both. "We have a plan, now how soon can we hold the ceremony?"
Lucky was drinking her cola and started to choke, Ben thankfully bailed her out. "Lucky's had to take a lot in, she needs a little time to adjust."
"Rubbish she's strong, a warrior. Her strength and character will be an asset to the pack, neither of you realise the magnitude of her joining us."
Lucky looked at Ben whose gaze had narrowed on Zechariah. There were people coming in and out of the kitchen, but Zechariah was mesmerising his words called to her however it seemed that they meant more to Ben. "What do you know Zechariah?"
Silvers Alpha (The Silver Series) Page 17