Sorry for the disappearing act folks! was travelling due to work and now I am back.

Chapter 28

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Both of them sat there looking at anyone but each other while the silence stretched out to the point of being unbearable.

Alex sat there tongue tied, he had opened his mouth couple of times but words simply refused to come out.

Shit. Man up Alex! He coached himself. She shuffled in his seat uncomfortably and dared to glance at her. She sat unmoving her head bent looking at her hands like they were the most important things on the earth, her hair covering her face so he could not really see it.

He stared at her for a minute realizing that she was never going to make a move.

"Ahem" He made a sound. Great start really! Books would be written about this day.

She didn't move an inch. She wasn't making it easy for him or was she absorbed in her thoughts?

"I am Alex" he said loudly, a little too loudly and winced. That was the best thing he could come up with! I am Alex? Really Alex? His brain taunted him.

She didn't make a move she sat still. Was his mate deaf? He wondered, nobody told him.

"I am Serena" She said softly from somewhere under her hair still not looking up.

Wow, she had a nice voice, sweet really! Something stirred in him in satisfaction. Wait? He felt satisfied that his mate's voice was sweet? Really? Is this what mates did to people?

In all this internal discussion of his he took a moment to realize that she had looked up and looking at him. His eyes widened and he let out a breath he was holding.

He realized that he had to saw something, anything "We are mates" he said and winced at his brilliant observation.

Stupid!stupid!stupid!

She looked at him like he lost his marbles and he was pretty sure he actually did.

"It appears so" she told him, her voice devoid of emotions but he did see a flicker of emotion in her eyes.

He stared at her shamelessly and then realized he had to say something.

"I am sorry" he said, it was safe wasn't it? You always apologize to a girl, that was good wasn't it?

"What for?" She asked her brows drawn together in confusion as she stared at him confused.

What was he apologizing for exactly? He wondered. Why was his shirt's collar suddenly feeling tight? He put a finger in his collar and wriggled at it. Did the room get stuffy all of sudden?

He looked away from her so his mind could start working again. He swallowed hard.

"For the way we met" He whispered, recalling that horrific day. He had sleepless nights, what if she had not turned, what if he had sent someone else to finish the job. He had been having nightmares on the what-if's since he met her.

She sighed softly, meeting his eyes briefly and looking away. "We are enemies...I mean...form sides that hated enough to kill each other, I don't think we could have met in any pleasant circumstances." She said and he hung on to her every word. "But yes, of all the scenarios I imagined meeting my mate, him pointing a gun at me was not in them."

He winced. Yes, he was sure...Stuff of romance, it was not. Not something he could tell his pup's about. He grimaced and paused.

Wait! Stop! Rewind!

Pups? What the hell? He had barely met her and he was thinking about pups...What a honrdog he was... not that he would mind begetting those said pups...he would surly enjoy the process...yes he would...especially with her...she was comely for sure and would certainly look pleasant under him...above him...in front of him and in multiple positions. Positions he would toughly enjoy. His pants were suddenly feeling a lot tighter.

Horndog!

"What?" she asked confused.

His eyes widened in horror as a streak of red spread across his neck, did he say that out loud? Shit!

"um...hotdog?" he said trying to cover up. Wow...he would get a noble prize in screw up's if there was one.

"What?" she repeated totally bewildered.

"I said hotdog" He repeated dumbly.

"Hotdog?" her voice was so incredulous he could not blame her.

"I think about food when I am nervous...helps me calm...I like food you see, I eat a lot when I am nervous too...I mean, it's a coping mechanism...It helps" he said lamely. For even his ears it sounded ridiculous, forget her.

"Sure" Her voice held utter disbelief.

"Sorry" he muttered sheepishly and shut up. He would not open his mouth again, he was not capable of speaking. His higher brain apparently was having a meltdown.

Silence streaked between them and Alex was busy beating himself up mentally.

"Would you have really killed me if I was not your mate?" She asked him.

He looked at her and answered truthfully "Yes."

"An unarmed girl who had nothing to do with you? You would have killed her?" she pressed.

"Evelyn was an unarmed girl who had nothing to do with your grandfather and he wanted to kill her" Alex stated bluntly "It's not who you are, it's what you represent."

"I am sure Gordon Lockbourne had no hate for Evelyn but it didn't stop him from trying to kill her because she represented the continuity of the monarchy. Like you represented the continuity of the Lockbourne bloodline." He elaborated.

"And yet here I am, representing the continuity of the said bloodline that you and your kind wanted to end so badly." She said despondently. "Oh! How you must loath me!" She said in self-pity. She could see how her life would be if she stayed with him.

"No...not really" He said, surprising her "You were a means to an end Serena" He said softly, trying to understand. Something flickered in her eyes when he said her name. "We wanted to hurt your grandfather where it would hurt him the most, we wanted him to be enraged so he would become reckless." Alex explained and added "And it worked. He shifted in to his wolf and tried to attack Roma in front of the entire world council. He believed you were dead." Alex said.

"So yes, you live but our objective was met, it worked and you are still here. Killing you or loathing you is pointless. Nobody here hates you, yeah sure we are weary of you and you are after all the enemy's kin. But nobody here has come out and shown their hatred or tried to treat you badly or misbehave with you. There is a reason for that and it is that we know rationally you had nothing to do with this mess and yet you find yourself in middle of it. In fact I think they pity you." He stated.

She absorbed his words and asked him "Do you pity me?" She was curious as to how he saw her.

"Pity? Not really, feel sorry definitely yes" He said "I can't imagine what you must be going through, your world has literally been torn apart and you are the last one standing from your family." Alex said with understanding on his face.

She looked at him and surprisingly he looked sincere. She did not know what to make of it...what to make of him. So she asked.

"So what do you want from me?" She asked.

He raised an eyebrow "You are my mate" he stated the obvious.

It was her turn to blush.

"I want to earn your trust, I want us to get to know each other...I want to do everything that mates do with you, but before we get there I want us to work together to get out of this mess, preferably alive." He stated.

She looked at him contemplating her options "ok" she nodded softly. "So we work on keeping ourselves alive for now and then...we try being mates?" she asked, just to be sure.

"Yes, however that does not mean we cannot spend time together...I would like to get to know you" He said gently.

"I would like that too" she confessed. He was her mate, was there any option really? She just had to make the best of what she had and he didn't look like a bad guy...not yet at least. She would take it slowly, cautiously but give him a chance she would.

"So do you agree to help us stake claim on the Lockbourne pack?" he asked her, he had to be sure she understood what she signed up for.

"How will that work?" she asked.

"You are of the alpha bloodline and me being your mate can stake claim to become the next alpha. However your pack has to fall in line." Alex explained.

"Will there be a problem?" She asked.

"Pack's run on bloodlines and the pack will rally around alpha blood in usual circumstances...that's not to say there will not be dissent. Which we will have to deal with swiftly."

"The pack has good wolves and my grandfather ran a good pack, can you promise me you will not cause unnecessary harm?" She asked. She was realistic, there would be blood but they could at least try to keep it to minimum.

"I swear to you that we will only do what we think is absolutely necessary to get the pack in control...we will not harm wolves that are of no threat to us." He swore.

"Ok" she agreed.

"Good" Alex gave her a reassuring smile.

"So what now?" she asked.

"First, we call the beta of the Lockbourne pack and let him know that you are alive." He informed her. "Why don't we go down to Nick's office to make that call?" He said getting up from his chair and she followed him.

***

"Five bucks they are making out in there" Sebastian commented, referring to Alex and Serena.

"Sebastian!" Roma admonished "They just met, it's highly unlikely they are doing anything.

"Yeah?" Sebastian grinned "They are mates, in confined place...you know...interesting things happen." He said.

She scoffed "Unlikely"

"Want to bet?" he asked.

"IS that what you did with me and Max? Placed bets?" she asked sharply and her eyes widened at his guilty look "You did! Didn't you? My god!" she said scandalized.

"What?" Sebastian defended himself "Some harmless bets might have been placed but let me tell you, you made me loose considerable amount of money, you were unpredictable."

"Unbelievable" Roma shook her head in disbelief.

He shrugged "It was just harmless fun"

"Was Max involved?" She asked.

"Max? Are you crazy, he would have blown a gasket ever if he had a wind of it."

"So who was it mainly?" she asked.

"You know...the guys" He said evasively.

She just looked at pointedly.

"It was mostly me, Arian and Alex" He said.

"Alex!" She asked surprised.

"Yes, Alex, your golden boy is not squeaky clean after all and come to think of it he seemed to win most of the bets...he had an undue advantage I would say, knowing you and all" Sebastian mumbled unhappy.

Roma narrowed her eyes at her house just as the door opened, Alex walked out with Serena trailing behind him.

Why that rat bastard!

Alex came over to them and said "We need to contact the Lockbourne beta and know that we are making the claim."

Roma was giving him the stinky eye and Sebastian was looking anywhere but him.

"What?" he said looking at them, why was this making him nervous "What? What?" He repeated.

"Sebastian told me something interesting" Roma said.

Alex looked at the traitor wondering what he told her that had her pissed.

"Half the lies he tells about me are lies!" Alex defended himself. What mess did Sebastian land him in now?

She just gave him a sickeningly sweet smile and her eyes moved to Serena.

"Serena, why don't we walk together, I have lot of stories to tell you about your mate." Roma said, dragging the poor girl along with her.

Sebastian followed them and paused and turned to look at a confused Alex and just ran a finger across his throat, like a knife and gave him an evil smile.

Alex gulped and hurried to catch up with them.

***

All of them were huddled in Nick's office and Nick had called the number he had for the Lockbourne pack on his phone and had put it on speaker so everyone in the room could hear. Not that they couldn't not hear with their wolf ability but it felt more of courtesy.

The phone kept ringing and when they assumed no one was going to pick up.

"Hello?" someone answered breathlessly.

"This is alpha Nick from Colarado, can I talk to your beta?" he asked.

There was a growl from the other sided "What do you want?" he barked.

"I want to talk to your beta...as I mentioned, can you get him on the line?" Nick asked calmly.

"He is busy and we don't talk to traitors!" the man on the other end spat.

"Pity" Nick said "I thought you would be interested to know about Serena Lockbourne but apparently you are too busy so..."

"What do you know about Serena?" The guy on the other end said in absolute anger.

"Your beta, wolf or I hang up" Nick threatened.

"Hold on!" the wolf said gruffly.

They waited for a few minutes silently as they imagined the guy had gone to get their beta.

"Hello" a different voice came on the line "Who is this?" it demanded, the voice held command behind it. Had to be the beta.

"Hello beta Ted, this is Alpha Nick of the Colorado pack" Nick greeted "I wish to inform you that Serena Lockbourne is with me in my pack"

"What?" the beta whispered in shock.

"Yes, you heard me right" Nick said and added "oh! By the way, forgot to mention one small detail, she found her mate" Nick said smiling.

"Your next alpha."