Her Chosen Mate

Part 21

He inadvertently slammed the door shut behind him, locking it and chucking the key onto his desk. It was piled high with old clothes - all Helena's, salvaged from their house in the hopes that her scent would help calm him down.

But it hadn't worked. It had only riled him up even more, his wolf going berserk in its blind search for his mate that would never soothe him again. The only reason they were still in his room was because he couldn't bring himself to throw them out.

He sighed and stripped out of his dirty clothes, the cool air hitting his skin and raising goosebumps. He stepped into the bathroom and didn't bother closing the door, turning the shower and waiting for the water to heat up. He glanced at himself in the mirror, glaring at the dark circles under his eyes, the gray of his irises dull. If Helena was still around, she would have chastised him for how dead tired he looked, and she probably would have told him to get a haircut.

It had gotten pretty long, in all fairness. The ends brushed his shoulders, curling gently. He preferred to keep it tied back and out of his face, and it was easier to do that when his hair was this long. With a sigh, he shoved away from the basin and stepped into the shower, hissing when the water hit his hands. The boiling water hit his split knuckles with the kind of force that made his knees weak, and he resisted the urge to yank his hands out of the stream. It was the kind of pain he had to bear, for losing track and hurting himself.

As much as he wanted to stand under the hot spray for hours, he had responsibilities, and he needed to be present at the meeting. He made quick, thorough work of cleaning himself, careful to steer clear of the ache hanging between his thighs and begging for attention.

With a barely restrained grunt, he got out of the shower, drying himself off and walking back into his room, the sweat and grime finally off of his skin.

He was probably late, but he didn't care to check his phone for the time being, opening his closet and pointedly ignoring the heap of shirts on his desk. He dressed quickly, pulling on dark wash jeans, a black T-shirt and his old Converse sneakers that may have once been red but had turned an earthy black with age and, well, the forest.

He didn't bother toweling his hair; it was way too hot and the cool water dripping off the ends and down his back helped cool him off.

Without another glance at the mirror or the messy state his room had been left in, he walked out. He made his way back down to his private office, where he found the rest of his sentries already waiting.

"Morning Alpha," they chorused, and Marcus nodded before taking his seat at the head of the table that lay in front of his desk. He was grateful that this one room hadn't been destroyed by the previous Alpha and still felt like home. The huge boardroom table took up most of the space, but it was perfect for meetings like these, where he needed most of the warrior wolves present.

"Let's discuss the borders, shall we? 

The meeting had droned on for far too long before Marcus had raised his hand and called for a break. The wolves gathered around the table had complied immediately, keeping their heads low as Marcus walked out, itching to stretch his sore muscles out and grab some water from the kitchen.

Even though he had been the one to call for the meeting, he hadn't expected the wolves to present so many problems with less than half the solutions they should have thought about. All they had to talk about was that they were tired and couldn't facilitate the shifts that were required on patrols at the borders.

Marcus had already come up with a few solutions, but it frustrated him that none of them had come to him with viable options to their problems. Maybe it was just his impending rut making him short-fused and easily aggravated, but he needed to take a breather before getting back to the meeting, or he'd end up proving Jaden right.