Alpha's Mate

Chapter 8

Ayden's Pov

"What about Christina?" They questioned.
"I don't need you to choose a Luna for me" I growled.
"You won't go looking for a Luna. You won't accept any girls from the pack. So then what do you want?"
"Who are you to question your Alpha that way?!" Milo growled and they bowed their heads.
"I'm sorry Alpha. Ever since your mother-" I slammed my hand against the table and heard it crack.
"Do not talk about my mother!" Milo yelled and the room went silent.
"Something is wrong with Rose," I told Milo and he gave me back control.
"Lance, what's going on" I opened mindlink with him.
"We were walking and she zoned out. She said she was fine, but I overheard some wolves talking about the girls. One of them mentioned that they looked like they belonged in the trash. She probably heard it"
"Okay, make sure you show them their rooms and eat breakfast. Find out who were the wolves who said that." I closed mindlink and sighed.
"Give me one month to find my Luna if not I'll mate with someone in the pack" They looked up and nodded.
"We have a list of requests from our people regarding other concerns," they said and I motioned for them to proceed.
They read a list out loud that included, funding, meeting, appearances, and other stuff.
"She is panicking" Lance's panicked voice rang through my head.
"What did you do?"
"Caden mentioned the fact that she is our Luna and she freaked"
"Fucking idiot! Where is she right now?"
"She pulled Skylar into the room and started ranting about Luna things. We gave them some privacy and now we are grabbing breakfast in the dining hall."
"Alpha Ayden?" I closed mindlink and looked up at the council.
"Get me a copy of that list and have someone leave it on my desk. If you'll excuse me I have to go deal with something. Meeting dismissed." I stood up and stormed out of the room.
I went straight to her room and knocked on the door. Skylar opened the door and gave me a small smile.
"Hello, Skylar where is Rose?" I asked trying to peek into the room.
"She is resting. Did you want me to wake her?" She asked.
"No, it's fine. Is she okay?" I asked and she looked up at me.
"I don't want to start off by lying to you Alpha Ayden. No, she is not okay." Milo whimpered inside me and I frowned.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Give her some time."
"Skylar, What happened to you in Alpha Roy's pack?" She shook her head furiously and backed away.
"I-I can't. He'll come b-back" Tears started flowing out of her eyes and she began to shake.
"What's going on?" Rose's sleepy voice asked. She looked at Skylar and got worried.
"He wants to know about Alpha Roy" Rose looked over me and gave me a small smile.
"Alpha Roy was respected. There nothing much to talk about. I'm sure you are as well Alpha Ayden?" The way my name rolled off her tongue made my dick throb. I want to hear her call me that while she's on her knees in front of me.
"Yes I am"
"Alright. Well with all due respect we don't want to talk about our Alpha" I tried my best to not let a growl come out when she said 'our Alpha'. I want them to become part of my pack, but I needed them to trust me first.
"Wow, No one has talked to Ayden like that in a long time" Caden put his arm around me and chuckled. I can see her shaking and tears were threatening to fall from her eyes.
"Lunch is ready. You will come to eat with us" I said and she didn't react.
Everyone around us was quiet. She put her hand in front of Skylar and pushed her behind her petite body.
"We are not hungry. Thank you for the offer" My fists clenched.
"You need to eat," I said between gritted teeth.
"No."
"Rose, You haven't eaten since yesterday."
"I'm fine"
"It's not good for you to go that long without eating something."
"I have gone longer without eating" As soon as she said that she put her hand over her hand and slumped down.
A growl escaped my mouth and they both bowed their head. Skylar was silently crying and Rose had a blank stare on her face.
"You're scaring them" Lance mindlinked. I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.
"Come on. Nothing is going to happen to you I promise" I reached out for her and she fell to her knees.
"I'm sorry for disobeying you Alpha! Please don't hurt me!" She cried. I froze in my spot and glanced back at the boys. I stepped back and turned my attention to Skylar.
"Please calm her down. I won't hurt you girls" She squatted down next to her and hugged her.
It pained me to see them both like this. Rose was my mate and I couldn't even touch her without her crying or flinching away. I don't know how I am going to get her to talk to me about what happened in the other pack. They both sat there for a couple of minutes and Rose looked up at me.
"Alpha Ayden forgive me," She said and I nodded. They both stood up with their heads still low. They stepped out of the room and we began to walk to the dining room.
"She's submissive. there is no doubt in my mind he did something to her" Milo said
"And I have a feeling they weren't the only ones" I replied.
Once we arrived at the dining room they looked around. There were a couple of wolves around us but thankfully didn't look our way.
"Where is the kitchen? Did you want us to start there?" Rose's voice asked from behind us and we turned around.
"Start with what?" I questioned. She looked confused and then shook her head.
"Go ahead and take a seat. I'll go get us someone to bring us food." They nodded and followed Caden and Lance. I asked one of our helpers to get us some food and sat down at the edge of the table. They brought us the plates and the girls stared at their food.
"Is there something wrong?" I asked and they shook their head.
They began to eat in bits and pieces. Skylar looked over at Rose and smiled as she took a bite out of the chicken. They only ate a couple of bites of the food and left the rest.
"Was there something wrong with the food?" Lance asked.
"No. It was very good thank you" Skylar smiled over at us.
"Why didn't you guys finish the rest?" I questioned and they shrugged. As we finished eating they looked around at everyone around us, especially at the workers who were serving the food.
"Our helpers look different from what we saw at Alpha Roy's pack," Lance commented and I nodded.
A group of young pups came in jumping around and asking for food. Rose's head snapped towards a worker and she instantly got up to talk to her.
"Hey, I overheard you needed help serving? My friend and I have years of experience in food handling" Rose said and smiled.
"Yes, please! We would really appreciate it!" Rose turned to Skylar and called her over. She scurried away towards her and they began serving all the kids.
"She has Luna instincts" Caden mindlinked me.
"What do you think she meant by years in food handling? If our theory about them volunteering was correct then she would've said something else?" I questioned.
  "Why would she say they have years of experience? Wouldn't they just say they are volunteers" Lance added.
"The way they act and talk about anything involving that pack is suspicious," Caden said.
"How much did they eat?" I asked.
"Not even half of the food" Caden replied as he examined the plates they left.

Jade's Pov

"Thank you so much for the help! You guys are fast!" Gaby smiled at us as we handed out the last of the food.
"Excuse me, miss!" A little voice called out. I looked down and saw a small pup waving at me. I crouched down to his level and smiled.
"How can I help you?" I asked and he pointed at my eyes.
"Your eyes are purple!" He smiled and I laughed.
"Jacob! It's not nice to point at people!" One of the older ladies said to him.
"No worries" I smiled at her and looked back at him.
"Jacob is your name?" He nodded "Yes my eyes are purple. Just like my mother."
"What's your name?" He asked.
"It's Rose" It felt wrong to lie, but I don't know who could be listening.
He jumped and gave me a hug. I was surprised but hugged him back.
"Pretty Rose" I felt my cheeks turn warm and smiled.
"Thank you, Jacob. You're quite handsome yourself" I tickled him and his laugh echoed throughout the dining room.
"Come on Jacob!" The same lady from earlier called out. He waved to me and then ran after her.
"He is adorable," Skylar said as I walked back to her.
"They all are" I smiled at the kids who were now quietly sitting down and eating their food.
"Can we help you with something else?" I asked Gaby.
"No don't worry about it hun! We just need to clean the dishes." She smiled.
"We can help with that! Did you eat already?" Skylar asked her.
"Yes of course. Did you girls already eat?" She asked and Skylar looked at me.
"Yeah, we ate already" I smiled nervously.
"Then yes we would appreciate the help in the back" We nodded and headed over to where she pointed.
"None of them look mistreated, malnourished, or sad to be here" Skylar whispered over to me.
"That's a good sign right?" I shrugged and she giggled. We walked through the double doors and they all stared at us.
"H-hey Gaby said we can help you with the dishes?" I said and they smiled.
"Yes of course!" One of the girls motioned for us to go. We got to meet a bunch of girls that work there. Turns out they get paid for doing this job. None of them are mistreated or forced to be here.
"How did you guys not get tired washing all of that?" Delilah, one of the workers, asked us.
"We are used to it. One time we had to wash days of piled-up dishes. It felt like we were never going to finish" I laughed.
"Where are you guys heading right now? Maybe we can all go out?" I looked over at Skylar nervously and shrugged.
"Uhm, I don't know. I need to ask Alpha Ayden"
"Why would you need to ask the Alpha to go out?" She questioned.
"I am underage and he is in charge of me" Skylar blurted. Alpha Ayden hadn't told us what to say just in case people started questioning us. I started panicking and Delilah raised an eyebrow at us.
"There you guys are!" A voice said behind us.
"Alpha Ayden," We all said and bowed our heads. I instantly relaxed as his scent hit my senses.
"Alpha, we were just asking our new friends if they wanted to go out with us," Delilah asked and he looked at me.
"That's not going to work out. I need them for something else" Every time he looked into my eyes it made my knees shake. The power he had over me was insane.
"Would you like more help Alpha?" She asked stepping closer to him.
"No we're good," He said never taking his eyes off me.
"Let me know if you need anything" She got closer to him and he walked over to me.
"Ready to go?" He asked and I nodded. I looked back at Skylar and she walked next to me. We walked out of the kitchen and into the dining room.
"Are we ready boss?" Caden smiled at us.
He nodded and we walked out and got into the same SUVs we came in.
"Where are we going?" Skylar asked as soon as we sat down.
"You said you didn't have anything, so we are taking you to go buy everything you need" Caden explained as he drove off.
"How come we couldn't go with them?" I asked.
"No one knows about you yet. I don't want everyone finding out until you are ready" He glanced over at me and then looked ahead at the road.
"What does he mean by that?" Sara's voice ran through my head.
"I think he is talking about me being the Luna of the pack" I replied.
"Oh yeah. That will definitely catch the attention of everyone"
"We still don't know if he is going to reject us. What if he is just playing nice so we can trust him? For all we know he can throw us in the dungeon just like Alpha Roy did. I was still a kid. I only knew him for a couple of days"
"It's fine. You have me now you aren't alone."
I looked over at Skylar and smiled at her. She looked confused but then she giggled.
"We also have our best friend to look after" Sara nodded and laid down in the back of my head.