Chapter 9. Comfortable

I was downstairs in the kitchen preparing bacon when Mesalla joined me looking and smelling fresh from his shower.

"The bacon smells good." He remarked with a smile.

"I certainly wish I had something to do with that, but bacon naturally smells good." I responded with a chuckle, he joined in for a moment.

"We need to devise the plan for the attack on the Blackthorn pack." He was serious now.

I gulped on nothing. I had been avoiding the topic and now I didn't realise I was chocking on nothing.

"Are you okay?" He was beside me in an instant, not to mention with a glass of water. I drank it at once.

"Yes. I'm fine." I cleared my throat. "Like I said before , you can handle it. Right now, I would rather keep the memory of my parent's death to myself."

He seemed mesmerised by this, and not in a good way.

"I'm sorry." He started "I understand how you feel about all this. It must really disrupt you emotionally. I will handle it and keep it to myself unless otherwise. His last words sounded like a subject speaking to his alpha.

Breakfast between us was quiet. When we were done eating, he excused himself to go and make a few round of runs along our perimeters.

He left me with all my helpless thoughts about how I had led him on and allowed what had happened between us happen. I thought about Roman and how as his mate, I was betraying him but I didn't mind, he deserved worse than what I gave.

"Hello?" I stated into the phone two hours later.

"Alpha." Otis said in a tone of respect. Otis now happened to be my third in command, the family of Mega's.

I had seen and met him around before but I hadn't really gotten to know him.

"How are you? How may I help you? Do you desire my presence in your home?" He asked curiously all at the same time.

"Yes, that will do." I said to him after which he broke our call.

Ten minutes later, He was at my doorstep.

"Alpha." He nodded in respect.

"Actually I need a favor Otis." I responded getting straight to why I called him here. "I know we haven't really spoken before and I think this would be the good time to start." I stated.

He smiled warmly. "I agree. I always wanted to be best friends with the alpha." I giggled at this.

"So he has humour." I said.

"So she laughs." He countered with a grin.

We both laughed.

Otis had this incredibly red hair on him. It made me wonder a lot if it was natural or he worked on it every morning. His skin was a great fading cream that made me feel like touching it, just to prove it was real. He was incredibly tall, just as tall as Roman. (The thought made me think of him achingly). His eyes were so black that it was freakishly scary and sexy all at the same time.

"Well, you can tell me about your favor now, that way I may be of service to you alpha." He said politely, throwing me off my thoughts about his looks and instantly making me listen to his voice and just how it sounded.

"Yes, about that." I started, "I need you to find me a Lenny Martins from the Blackthorn Pack. It is important though, that you keep this to yourself." I finished seriously.

His expression was attentive.

"You can count on my discretion alpha." He nodded

"Okay great. Done with the serious talk. Tell me anything amusing that happened in the pack while I was gone." I said while relaxing around him. "All Mesalla talks about is the serious and crucial things, it gives me a headache." He laughed as I finished my sentence.

"Well, I found my mate!" He said with a shot of excitement in his voice.

I smiled feeling excited for him. "That's incredible Otis. I am so happy to hear that."

"Tell me, what's her name?" I asked him finally motioning him to sit down and relax with me.

"Sofia." He said, the word sounding like his favorite.

He and I spoke for the next hour and I got to know him a little more than I did before. It was in fact an incredible chance to get my mind off things.

When he left to find Lenny's number, I waited anxiously feeling a cringe everytime I thought of where we left things off between us. This was why I needed to speak to her.

Later that evening, Otis came by having completed the little assignment I tasked him with. To say I was grateful was an understatement.

I dismissed him and made my way to the home office where my father did all his pack business.

Lenny picked up on the third ring. " Hello?" She answered in a questioning tone.

"Lenny it's me, Arlene." I said hoping she would not drop the call on me.

"Arlene?" She questioned again, almost whispering this time.

"Yes. I missed you and we couldn't say goodbye when I left." I ran through the words fast.

"You don't need to feel guilty Arlene. It wasn't your fault. All I need to do now is find a partner whose mate is dead." She finished in an attempt to humour. It didn't work.

"Look, that is the least of the problem and you know that." she continued when I stayed quiet. "Arlene, he is falling apart. And most of it is not because he doesn't have you here but because of the guilt of what he did. Please understand that Roman acted on reflex and instinct that day, which of course happened to be wrong. But that doesn't mean he doesn't know that, because he does."

I remained silent. Taking in everything she was saying to me.

"Don't forget, he is your mate and you both need each other more than you know." She went on. "The pack is now affected by his gloomy character and frankly speaking, we need our alpha back."

Her words made me feel worse than before.

"Thank you for being honest with me Lenny. Reach me on this number if you need me." And before she could interrupt me, I dropped the call.

I then called Mesalla because the distraction seemed like a great idea right now.

He was in my house in a few minutes and this was probably because I used my alpha tone.

Upon entering the house, I shut the door roughly and kissed him hungrily, trying to forget all that Lenny had said to me. His response reassured me that he wanted it too, which made it much easier for me.

And like the night before, I let the pleasure of being in Mesalla's arms and comfort take me to an ecstasy that I could only imagine.

Weeks later, nothing had changed much. My mating process with Mesalla had escalated. This, in itself was an escapade only he and I saw no danger in. Instead, everytime we got the chance, we made the best of it and words never really mattered. When he came over, it was down to it and talking was unnecessary. I got so used to it that the guilt began to die down.

It was a Sunday and Otis came over with his mate, Sofia who I was meeting for the first time.

Otis and I had gotten along well since we spoke for the first time and I appreciated him and enjoyed his company.

"Thank you for dinner." Sofia told me as they were preparing to leave. She had these pearly dark green eyes that matched any bush you could think of that only had the color green around it. They shined so much that looking away from her was far from possible. Her long brunette hair fell over her shoulder so effortlesly it made me so jealous. I had long hair, yes. But hers was so long that a tied ponytail would still reach the small of her back.

"Likewise. I enjoyed the pie that you brought. We should do this more often." I said back to her warmly.

Otis smiled and when he opened the door to leave, Mesalla was about to knock on it.

Otis stared at me in confusion, but I ignored it and shrugged. He said goodnight anyway and left with his mate by his side.

"I told you I would be busy tonight!" I exclaimed angrily as he shut the door.

"I needed to tell you something." He quickly came to his rescue. "I'm not here for....that." He hesitated with a playful grin. I rolled my eyes.

"Well?" I said motioning him to get to the point.

"We attack tomorrow morning. We can't hold off any longer. I thought Otis would have told you?" It sounded like a question.

I was silent.

"You do know his pack is stronger than ours right?" I questioned. "You need to be very ready if you will go through with this."

"Very helpful alpha." His tone was sarcastic.

I knew deep down that I did not want this attack to happen. But as an alpha, I did give the go ahead and it would be too late to back down.

His plan was to go after the beta, and hold captive a few of their fighters. That would have Roman come back to fight us. But he was not the target, his people were. His fighters were.

What Mesalla however didn't know was that, with this element of surprise, Roman still wouldn't fight back because of what had happened before I left his pack. I knew that for sure.

"Look at it this way, he doesn't know a thing. I ordered someone to watch over their pack secretly and they are oblivious to what's about to happen." He explained trying to convince me.

But the truth is, I wasn't worried about how well my pack would perform, because I knew they had this down. I was more worried about him. About Roman.

Mesalla came closer to me and placed his hands on my cheeks. "Hey? We will be fine alright? I promise you, everything is set and no one will get hurt. That alpha will pay for what he did." His last words were said with a strong anger. It sounded like he had grown more angry throughout the weeks.

I shuddered at his tone, and he saw that too. He then tried kiss me, to try to make me feel better but I didn't want that right now.

He didn't understand that it was not him I was worried about, it was my mate.

"Don't, " I started, "You should leave now. Our meeting is dismissed. I feel tired." That was probably the oldest excuse in the book, but right now, I didn't care. I needed the space.

He then gave me a nod, and walked straight to the door where he turned to look at me and said in my mind, 'I"m in love with you.'

I went up to my room feeling so confused about what he has said.

I lay in bed thinking what Mesalla told me, was too deep. It was too deep to sink into oblivion, but at the same time, I was worried about the attack too. It was too much for my mind to take in all at once. I made my best efforts to fall asleep, but non of it worked. And by 02 am when I decided to get up,I thought it best to go for a run.

I walked out of the house and shifted into my sleek auburn looking wolf not caring about the ripped pajama's I left behind me. As I left, I put in my wolf mouth a backpack with an outfit to change into, money and my phone just in case I decided to change back into my human form.

I ran as far as the end of our territory where I stopped to view the beautiful scenery before me when I smelt something out of the usual.

The smell came with a stabbing pain in my neck and in seconds, everything went black.