Chapter 13: Entering the Small House

After I walked off of the stage, a crowd of unmated men tried to talk to me and get my attention. I tried to find Alfie, but I couldn't find him. Men were pushing each other to try to get near me and I couldn't see if Alfie was in the crowd or not. The pushing started to get harder and I started to lose my footing. Every man around me tried to reach for me at the same time but I was caught by familiar soft hands.

I look up to see Delilah. Her beautiful light blue eyes glowed softly as she helped me back on my feet. Alfie finally got to the middle of the crowd and grabbed me around my waist. I looked down to see if Royce was behind him, and thankfully he was. I grabbed their hands and Delilah followed us back to our house.

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"Wow, you guys got lucky! Our house is one of the small ones near the far corner of the city. We barely even fit in it! This house is huge." Delilah exclaimed when we started to open the doors of our house. "You guys are free to do whatever you want; I will meet you at the house before dark." She stated to her mates and they all scattered slowly. Alfie started shutting the door behind us when Royce saw his friends from the village waiting for him to play. He looked at me and without a word I nodded my head, and he was off. Alfie shut the door completely this time and the three of us sat on the bed around the fire pit. "So, is Royce the only child you have?" I nearly choked on air as she asked that question. My chest started to burn as I remembered the four babies I had lost.

"Ummm… Royce is my only child so far."

"Well, if my senses are correct, you have one on the way as well! That's amazing! You're lucky to be in heat in the spring, many females are only in heat towards the end of fall or beginning of winter."

"Where I come from, females are in heat about once every four weeks."

"WOW! I would hate that! I'm glad I am only in heat at the end of spring each year. Sadly, we hadn't had any pregnancies yet."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I get how that feels." Alfie coughed a bit and when I looked up at him, his face was starting to turn red. "Well, where do you and your mates come from? Is your town far from here?"

"No, it is only about a half a day's walk in the direction of the setting sun. How about you guys? Is your town big?"

"Our village is about a full day's walk in the opposite direction. It isn't too big, we have about ten females, but we are hoping to grow after the gathering."

"Well, our town has about 50 females. Maybe you should consider moving your village to our town? I'm sure there isn't much keeping you in such a small village."

"We can't leave the village. We have responsibilities there."

She looked up at Alfie and noticed his golden eyes signifying that he is an alpha. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize he was the alpha there. I could move my family to your village then, and with you being a shifter, I'm sure it will grow significantly after the gathering."

"We are hoping so. I didn't want to be announced as the shifter quite yet, but now that everybody knows, hopefully they plan on moving to our village. If you feel comfortable moving to our village, that would be great! I don't want to rush things though, so your mates would have to dig you your own cave for now."

"Oh, okay, that's fine! My mates are pretty quick diggers, so I'll have a cave done in about a day once we get there. So, did you both grow up in that village?"

"I come from a place quite far away from here. It is much different than here. Alfie…" I paused since I didn't know if Alfie wanted to reveal that he is the City of Forms' alpha's son or not.

Alfie picked up where I left off, "I grew up here and moved to the village when I matured."

"Oh, interesting. Well, it is starting to get late, would you like to join me and my mates for dinner? I'll just have to run to our house to let them know and they can hunt extra prey for the three of you."

"Sure, we can do that!" Alfie grabbed my thigh tightly as I said that. For some reason Alfie didn't want to do dinner with Delilah and I didn't know why.

I turned to him with a questioning face and he responded in his mind, 'You never let another male hunt for you unless you intend on mating with them. I will hunt for you.'

I turned back to Delilah and when our eyes met, I could see the same sparkle that Alfie gets when he looks at me. "Actually, I want Alfie to hunt my meal today it that's ok. We can walk to your house together with Royce while Alfie goes hunting and we can meet everybody back here to eat. How does that sound."

"Oh, I was thinking we would have dinner at the community fire."

"Community fire? Sure! I didn't know that there was one." I chuckled awkwardly as we all got up to walk to the door. As Alfie opened the door, Royce ran in to hug me and tell me about his time playing. I explained to him that we were going to walk to Delilah's house and then eat together at the community fire.

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Once we got to Delilah's house, we gathered up her mates to get ready for our dinner. They had already hunted enough meat to feed their entire family and probably have enough left over for the three in mine, but I know Alfie would get angry if I would even think about that.

One of her mates whispered something in her ear that I couldn't quite make out. Delilah looked at me with her beautiful eyes and said, "I'm going to be right back, I just need to talk to Brian about something." I nodded my head in agreement and me and Royce waited for her to return. I could hear a quiet conversation between them, "Brian, I know our town is bigger and we would be safer, but her mate is the alpha. He can't leave his village and his people. I already told them we would move to their village, and since she is a shifter, I'm sure there will be a lot of people that will move to her village after the gathering. Please don't be mad, I am doing this for our family, and besides, she's my true mate; I need to be with her."

"Okay, fine. I won't fight you on this anymore, I know how hard you have been looking for your true mate." As Delilah and Brian started to come back into view, I acted like I hadn't heard their conversation. I really liked how Delilah treated her mates, she is much kinder than the females used to be in my village. I know how hard it is to pack up everything you have and move away from your home, but I hope she will be happier in my village.

Just as Delilah got back to me and Royce, I saw Alfie coming back carrying a large deer over his shoulders. I smiled the moment I saw him and ran to give him a hug. It was starting to get dark out, so the temperature was dropping pretty fast now. As Alfie held me in his embrace, he could feel how cold my skin was, "Alyssa, you need to put some warmer clothes on, your skin is freezing cold." His body heat felt so satisfying on my skin, so I didn't want him to let go of me.

"Hey Delilah, I'm getting kind of cold, so we will meet you at the community fire for dinner after I grab some warmer clothes." I said as Alfie released me and the heat was gone from my skin once again.

"I brought some warm clothes; we are about the same size so why don't you just wear some of my clothes?" Delilah gave a 'naughty' smirk and her light blue eyes started to glow slightly.

I looked at Alfie and gave a matching smirk and grabbed his hand, "Alfie likes to see my outfits before I go out in them, is that ok?" I looked back at Delilah and winked as my eyes started to glow bright.