Endeka [ 11 ]

He was still beside me when I woke up.

With an arm draped over my waist and his head over mine, his scent was the first thing I smelled when I opened my eyes. He was warm to the touch, emanating some body heat that kept me warm too. I almost couldn't help myself when my palm flattened against his muscled abdomen to feel the hard ridges under my fingers.

There was something about him not being able to see my emotions that made me more willing to show them. He truly was beautiful—he even looked calm as he slept and the first thought that came into my mind was:

How could anyone look at him and see a monster?

Granted, he had done some terrifying things, but this Tristan, a sleeping Tristan who had his arm around me and his guard down didn't seem like he could do anything but love. Of course, I didn't know the true story of how he reclaimed his position of alpha, but the rumours depicted him as an uncontrollable and merciless leader. And I couldn't just ask him flat out because of what he said the last time I tried.

That I was asking for his heart and soul. And I didn't think I was ready for that yet.

His breathing was steady but when I felt his heart speed up, I looked up to see he was still asleep. The only difference was the frown that seemed to always be on his face as he slept was replaced with a soft smile. I lifted my hand to the silky strands of his dark hair and threaded my fingers through them.

His hair had to be my favourite thing to touch. It was so soft. I could tell that he liked it when I would have my hands wedged in his hair during a kiss because he would kiss me harder when I did.

A smile made its way onto my face and when I glanced at him again, I was shocked to see his eyes open and watching me. My hand withdrew from him like he was on fire and a sound of surprise fell from my lips. Suddenly, I was very uncomfortable and he just laughed softly in response.

Instead of saying anything, he reached down to hold my wrist and brought my hand back to his face again. The tips of my fingers brushed his hairline, but my hand didn't move as he pulled me closer with the arm around my waist.

"You show me affection when I'm not conscious enough to bask in it." He pointed out, keeping his hold on my wrist so I wouldn't pull away. "You don't have to be shy to touch me, Kara. I'm yours to touch."

A shiver surged down my spine and I dropped my gaze to his shoulder. "I can't trust you to keep your hands to yourself if I'm just admiring you."

The hand on the small of my back inched lower until my eyes shot up to his again. With just one movement of his hand, my body was set alight and I couldn't even think of anything else but him.

"You love it when I touch you." He boldly responded. "You're so responsive and that means I can't stop myself." The blues of his eyes seemed especially dark and I gulped as I realised that we were headed into dangerous territory again. Sleeping in the same bed as him proved to be a bad idea.

I held my breath as he stared back at me in silence. An air of desire floated around us and when I got the mental image of him dragging his lips down my neck and sinking his teeth in to mark me, I put some distance between us.

"I need some water." I choked out, throwing the covers off me as I stood up to stretch. I had almost lifted my arms up completely when I felt the cold brush against the skin of my legs and noticed that I was only wearing his shirt and underwear. Tugging the shirt down and keeping my hands by my side, I didn't spare him a glance as I sped out of the room.

The water cooled me down and I sighed when I realised that I had to keep my desire for him in check. Mating was permanent—he would have control of my mind, body and soul, and that was something I couldn't come to terms with. I needed more time to get to that place, but there definitely was a change since I had been in his arms more often than not in the past twenty-four hours.

When I had gained my composure, I went to the bathroom to freshen up and only returned downstairs when I heard Tristan getting in the shower.

I was making breakfast when his voice sounded through the almost silent room. "Do you want to come out with me today?"

Turning around, I slightly widened my eyes at what he was suggesting. "What? To meet the pack?"

He smiled gently. "You'll meet some people, yes. But, you wanted to see where I go every day, right?"

I wet my lips and nodded, wringing my hands together as I leaned against the countertop. "Y-yeah, I do." I mustered up a grateful smile and turned back to the pan to flip the pancakes. He stepped closer to me and simply watched me cook breakfast for a good fifteen minutes before I plated his stack of pancakes and slid it over to him.

He stood still until I lifted my gaze to meet his and gripped my chin to pull my face closer to his. He softly slanted his lips over mine and kissed me tenderly. It didn't last long, but he pulled back with a soft smile on his face. "Thank you."

It took me a moment to gather my bearings again, solely due to the fact that I wasn't used to such easy displays of affection. A weak smile pulled at my lips and I picked up my cutlery to begin eating my breakfast.

His routine, it seemed, was to eat breakfast with me but spend most of the time looking at me rather than actually eating. It was endearing but made me wonder what exactly about me was so amazing to stare at.

"I'll wait for you outside." He murmured as I went upstairs to change into more presentable clothes.

Like always, I was spoilt for choice and chose something warm but nice, briefly touching up my face with some makeup before I made my way back downstairs. When I pulled open the door, Tristan was standing near the gates and from the way his eyes were glazed over, he was most likely talking to a member of his pack.

He rounded up the conversation and his azure eyes focused back on me as I trudged towards him. He slowly smiled and nodded over to the gates. "Where we have to go is a short way from here."

"Where are we going?" I could barely contain my excitement since this would have been the first time that I properly stepped outside of the house. I was excited, yet scared, to meet a few more people.

"That's a surprise." He tapped the side of his nose and I rolled my eyes as he turned around to face the gates.

When they opened, a shiver travelled down my spine as I settled my gaze on the three sentinels, who seemed larger and taller than I remembered. Taking a good look at them, they seemed menacing and scaring. No wonder they were chosen to guard Tristan's mansion.

Without noticing, I clung onto Tristan's arm and linked our fingers as he lead us further away from the mansion. When I was sure we were out of earshot, I looked up at him with wide eyes. "They are scary."

Tristan chuckled and squeezed my hand when I shivered in fear. "They are more animal than human, but they're solely there to protect. They're the fiercest warriors I have."

I pushed the image of their faces out of my head and grimaced slightly. "Still. They all move in unison. It's like they're one entity."

He nodded in agreement but had a fond smile on his face like he loved them. I could already see that he had a deep love for everyone in his pack. "You're right—that's the only creepy thing about them. But, they're also very loyal to me, and for that, I trust them with my life."

I had to smile at that. The best gift any alpha could get was pure loyalty. The fact that Tristan had that had to mean that he was an amazing alpha.

Before long, we arrived at a house that was painted all blue. From the outside, it seemed bright and happy, and when the door opened before Tristan could even knock, a grin instantly climbed onto my face.

"Alpha!" a small blonde boy came running the small distance between the door and us before colliding into Tristan. With his fast reflexes, he caught him in his arms and chuckled deeply when the small boy wrapped his arms around his neck.

I was frozen in my spot as I watched the interaction between them. Tristan's laugh exuded pure happiness and something deep within me twisted as I realised that I wanted him to laugh like that more. It was also endearing to see such a tender moment between him and a member of his pack—it reinforced the fact that he was an alpha who ruled on love and respect.

"Good morning, Lucas." He patted his back and the grin on his face took my breath away.

He was mesmerising.

Lucas said something back to him in what I presumed to be Greenlandic as he rested his nose and top lip on Tristan's cheek. I watched the interaction in curiosity and concluded that it must have been a way to greet people in Greenland.

"And how do you say that in English?" Tristan probed, still grinning.

"It's nice to see you, Alpha!" Lucas greeted with an equally as wide grin, but it dropped as soon as he realised that I was standing beside them. He instantly seemed shy and nuzzled his face against Tristan's shoulder, looking at me with one eye.

Tristan glanced at me and directed a small smile my way before slightly pulling Lucas away from his shoulder. "Luke, this is Kara...she's my mate."

At that, Lucas gasped and stared at me in wonder. "M-mate?" he quickly glanced back at Tristan. "You're our Luna!"

My face heated up and at his exclamation, six more kids ran out of the house.

"Luna?" they all echoed, staring at me expectantly as if they were dying for me to confirm it.

Tucking one side of my hair behind my ear, I quickly glanced at Tristan who nodded encouragingly. I smiled and crouched down so I was eye level with the child closest to me. "That's right."

They seemed ecstatic since I was all but tackled by them, falling back into the snow with a sound that bordered between a grunt and laugh. A small girl, with thick curly hair just like mine, hugged me tightly and placed her tiny hand on my face.

"You're so beautiful, Luna." She said kindly as all six kids echoed her sentiment, filling me with a sense of happiness that I had never felt before.

Holding all of them as best as I could, I sat up on the snow and grinned. If there was one thing I loved more than nature, it was children. "Thank you."

When I glanced at Tristan momentarily, my heart practically skipped a beat when I caught sight of the expression on his face. It was the same look he had when we first met; he seemed enchanted by me. Placing Lucas back on the ground, he held out his hands to the kids on me.

"Come on guys, let's all go inside. You promised to show me your drawings today, remember?"

They seemed too preoccupied with me to rush to their drawings but still listened to what he said as they stood up, pulling me with them. Tristan hung back for a few moments to brush his hand over the back of my hair, ridding the strands of the snow.

When we all sat down, the girl who had complimented me introduced herself as Arianna. There were seven kids in total, including Lucas and Arianna. The other five were all identical quintuplets and were named after the months.

January, April, May, June and August. There were two boys and three girls who had to be the most adorable kids I had ever seen. They all seemed attached to the hip and stayed together while Lucas settled on Tristan's lap and Arianna on mine.

"Are you babysitting us again today, Alpha?" January piped up, sneaking a glance at me and smiling shyly.

Tristan nodded and smiled warmly at him. "Yes, I am. I told you I'd be back, didn't I?

Arianna sat up against me and frowned slightly. "Don't you have more important things to do than look after us?"

"I always have important things to do, but nothing is ever more important to me than making sure you're all happy," Tristan responded back without a beat of silence.

I continued to listen as he spoke to each and every child, listening to every word they said and I found myself unable to take my eyes off him. It had been an hour later when he finished his conversations with them all and allowed them to play outside.

He finally met my gaze after what felt like forever and jutted his thumb in the direction of the door the kids went through. I followed him silently to the threshold where he simply watched over them beginning to build a snowman.

"Do you babysit them often?" I finally asked the question that was on my mind.

"I do it when Maggie needs me to." Before I could ask the other question that was burning in my mind, he continued with a sombre tone. "They're all orphans and Maggie has no children so she looks after them."

My heart immediately broke for the children in front of me and upon seeing the pained expression on his face, I hesitantly wrapped my arm around his waist. With a smile that didn't meet his eyes, he brought an arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him before I could say anything.

But, it seemed that just me touching him made it a bit better.

"They're great kids though. They're all crazy smart and have the biggest hearts ever." He stared at them fondly and I continued to gaze up at him, watching his expression closely.

"How did their parents die?" I quietly asked so he was the only one who could hear me, and when the frown deepened on his face, I was quick to take it back. "You don't need to answer that, I'm sorry."

Tristan shook his head, sighing deeply. "They died in the war."

I couldn't stop myself from thinking back to the rumour I had heard that Tristan had supposedly killed anyone who didn't accept him as an alpha. Before I jumped to conclusions, I forced my thoughts down so he could tell me himself.

But, he didn't seem in an entirely sharing mood. "Their parents were good people and didn't deserve to die." Before I could say anything, he pulled away from me and proceeded to join in with helping the children build their snowman.

Staring after him with a frown, I felt the guilt course through me as the thought crossed my mind. I had never thought of the things Tristan had to go through to have the reputation he did. From the mere expression on his face as he thought back to the war, I could tell that he had witnessed horrors and I knew that that would have been enough to turn anyone's heart cold.

My chest tightened painfully and I sighed in regret. I had judged him too quickly.