Ten
~Devina's POV~
Once we got to the packhouse, Zane leads me upstairs to his office and shut the door behind us.
There was no one else in the room. I smiled at the memory of meeting him in here, but the smile soon faded when I remembered what he had told me.
He was special. I couldn't help but feel ordinary compared to him. Boring. Plain.
"Okay. Not everyone knows about you." I slowly nodded and looked down.
"It's okay. I can stay in here. You don't have to-" He shook his head and stepped forward towards me, grabbing my hand.
"I want them to know. I do." I nodded, showing him I understood but I was waiting for one word.
"But," Ah there it is. "Once they find out about you things are going to change.
A lot. When an Alpha has a mate, she's called the Luna of the pack.
Like the mother. You're so young I don't want to rush your growing.
I don't want you to feel like you have to grow up completely.
I don't want you to be unhappy." I removed my hand out of his and brought mine up to his cheek.
"I won't be unhappy Zane." I softly said and he closed his beautiful eyes. "And plus, I'm almost seventeen," I added and he snapped his eyes open.
"When's your birthday?" He eagerly asked and I giggled. "When is it? The suspense is killing me." He huffed out and grabbed my hands, rubbing circles on them with his thumbs.
"Tomorrow." He narrowed his eyes and dropped my hands.
"Were you going to tell me?" I shrugged and looked away.
"Birthdays haven't always been the best for me." He pulled me into his chest and kissed the top of my head.
"It's going to be a good one this year. I'll make sure of it." I pulled away and looked him in the eyes, they held and unsaid promise. A promise that was about more than just a birthday.
"I don't want a party. I don't do well at parties." I frowned and he laughed.
"We'll see. Now about this meeting." His happy expression turned grim.
"It's your choice if you want to be introduced to the pack -or some of it rather- or wait a little bit.
It's all up to it Sunshine." I nodded and bit my lip, causing Zane's eyes to travel don't wot my lips and focus on them, with a hungry expression in his eyes.
I released the piece of skin and looked away.
"Sorry," I mumbled. "But I don't think I'll ever be ready," I said and he flinched.
"No! No not like that. Just hear me out.
Please." He was still tense, but he nodded for me to continue.
"This is all still so weird to me. Just a week ago I didn't believe in any of this and now, I'm an Alpha's mate.
I don't understand it and I'm scared." He relaxed and tried to comfort me but I pushed him away, I couldn't be distracted during this.
"It's kind of funny because the biggest of my concerns is if they'll like me.
I'm just a weak human compared to everyone else. I'm nothing special."
"Listen. You are special. You're special to me and that's all that matters. And besides, I like you as human. I like you for who you are." I looked down at my hands and played with them. "You aren't weak Devina." I scoffed and rolled my eyes.
"Who didn't defend herself when her mother tried to kill her?" I asked and Zane just shook his head.
"She caught you off guard."
"Okay, and who didn't save Mr. Freddles? Huh?" Zane grabbed my face with his hands and sighed.
"Now that one was me, Sunshine." I shook my head and pulled away again walking to the other side of the room. "No. Stop doing that. Please, Sunshine don't pull away from me." He pleaded and I sighed. Walking back to him, I bumped into his chest and he wrapped his arms around me.
"I don't think I'll ever be ready," I repeated as he stroked my back. "So we might as well do it now." He tensed and pulled me away from him a little to look me in the eyes.
"Are you sure?" He slowly asked and I nodded. "After this, I'm going to take you out." He stated with a huge grin on his face.
"Like a-" I started and he nodded.
"Like a date." I slowly nodded. "If you don't want to that's fine. We don't have to." He quickly added. "We could go as-um- as...friends." He frowned and I could tell he was holding back a growl.
"No. I want to." I started. "It's just that, I-um I've never been on like a real date.
I mean there was this one time where I went on a double date with one of my friends but then the guy tried to kiss me after a couple hours of meeting and it was just weird.
Also, we went to the beach which was really cold and windy and it wasn't that nice.
And my friend's date was hitting on me, her and other girls so it wasn't that great of an experience. " I rambled making Zane scowl.
"Don't tell me that." He calmly said and I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Why?" I slowly asked.
"I don't want to know who all you've been with." He simply replied and my face reddened.
"No! I haven't been with anyone. I've only had one serious boyfriend." I assured him and he growled. "Oh. Sorry. You don't want to know." I felt stupid now as I tried to clamp my mouth shut.
"Well, now I do. Who was he?" He started and I looked away. "Do you still like him?" He tried to calmly ask but it didn't sound so calm.
"His name was Forrest. And no." I said the last part quietly.
"You don't sound too sure Devina." I refused to meet his gaze. "He never took you out on a date?" I shrugged.
"I mean, we were friends at first so we hung out a lot and I thought that was all he wanted. But then he said he liked me as more than a friend and things kinda went from there." I explained.
"When did you guys break up?" This was the dreaded question.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
"You're scaring me, Devina. Please tell me you guys broke up.
..?" I shook my head and he let go of me.
"You-what? You said you didn't have anyone back at home!
You said you've never been with a guy before! You lied to me?" He sounded so hurt.
"No. No, I never lied to you. I swear. We never did anything big.
" I quickly said and he examined my facial expressions, trying to gauge if I'm lying.
"I really did like him though. He was in a car crash.
" I started with tears in my eyes. "He was driving home from his dad's house when a drunk driver hit him and drove him off the road into the ocean.
They couldn't find his body, but they said there was no way he would have survived it.
" A tear slipped down my cheek as I looked up at Zane.
"You're hurt. You miss him." He said slowly.
"Well yeah, he was my best friend, even before we said we liked each other we were best friends. The crash was only a few days after we told each other how we really felt." Zane nodded and looked away.
"When was this?" He asked.
"Last year." He sucked in a sharp breath and took a step back.
"The meeting is about to start we should get going." He tried walking past me but I grabbed his arm.
"Zane," I started but he just brushed me off.
"You're more important Zane. I-I may have liked him but I never liked him as much as I like you.
I don't know what exactly I feel, but I do know that everytime you're disappointed in me or sad because of me, it makes me feel terrible.
So please don't just walk away from me Zane.
" My voice cracked, letting a flow of emotion through.
"Sunshine. I want to talk about this more, but we really just need to get going.
I promise you, We will talk about this later, okay?
" I nodded and he pulled me into his arms. "I-" he stopped himself from saying what he was going to and sighed.
"I really like you, Devina. A lot." I smiled against his chest and nodded.
"Now let's go before we get in trouble." He laughed and led me to the meeting room.
With one short knock on the door, it swung open revealing a bunch of young people.
"Everyone," he started and looked over to me, with a smile on his face.
"This is my mate, Devina." Some people smiled and welcomed me, others whispered to each other, clearly confused.
"This is why I've been away for awhile. But I'm back now, and so is she so I expect you to treat her with respect.
" Everyone nodded at this and Zane lead me to a seat.
There was only one left so he sat down first and pulled me onto his lap.
He kissed my cheek and laughed. "You're doing great Sunshine.
" I nodded and giggled. "Okay, what's the meeting about?
" Zane asked true group and they shifted uncomfortably.
"Alpha, there's been a few sightings of vampires." I almost stopped breathing, but Zane wrapped his arm around my shoulder and squeezed it.
"Where at? On my territory?" He growled out making me tense.
"Yes, Alpha." One of the men replied. "We were able to chase them away but, obviously we couldn't catch them." I quirked a brow and the man smirked. "Vampires are faster than us," he started to explain as Zane pulled me closer to him. "But we're bigger." He added and laughed.
"Okay, thanks, Kyle," Zane said with a warning tone in his voice. "Is that all?" He asked and Kyle shook his head.
"We have reason to believe that they want something here. That they're looking for something." Zane cursed under his breath again and tightened his grip on me.
"Place more guards on the boundary line and keep looking for them.
If you can, catch one so I can question them.
" Everyone nodded and Zane thanked them.
"Ready?" He whispered in my ear and I nodded, standing up.
"Let's go." A few people stopped to say hi, and being my shy self, I just buried myself in his chest. "Alright I think we're gonna go.
You'll get to say hi later." He told everyone and ushered me out of the room.
"What's going to happen?" I worriedly asked but he just smiled and shook his head.
"They won't be able to get in. Nothing's going to happen to you. I promise." I nodded and continued walking. "I was thinking maybe we could stay in the town tonight?" I eagerly nodded my head and smiled.
"I still don't really know that much about all this." I laughed. "I want to though. I want to learn more." Zane stopped walking and grabbed my hands, covering them with his.
"You will. You'll learn everything." He assured me and lead me outside to his Audi. "Do you want to take this one or a different one?" He asked and I grinned.
"What all do you have?" I shyly smiled as he took a step towards me.
"What do you want?" I rolled my eyes and slapped his shoulder, but before I could make contact, he grabbed it with his hand and pulled me into his chest. I gasped and tried to pull away but he was holding on too tightly. "What do you want?" He repeated and my cheeks flushed.
"The Bugatti..?" I asked and he grinned.
"When you get your drivers license, we'll have to get you one of these." He said as he zoned off into space.
"No, we won't." I laughed but Zane didn't respond.
"Zane?" I asked as I waved my hand in front of his face.
Nothing. "Zane?" I tried again but he still didn't respond.
My heart started to race. "Zane!" I shook his shoulders trying to get him back to reality.
"Zane wake up!" My voice cracked, but this time it worked.
He snapped out of whatever happened and looked at me with wide eyes.
A tear escaped my eye and slid down my face.
"I don't know why I'm crying." I laughed and wiped it away.
"Are you okay?" He asked and took a step back from me.
"I'm fine. Are you okay?" I turned his question back around and he shook his head.
"Are you sure you're okay Sunshine?" He hesitantly asked and I quirked a brow.
"I'm positive. What's wrong Zane?" He just shook his head and snapped his head towards the left, where the Bugatti pulled up.
"Nothing. I was just mind linking someone to bring the car around."
"Oh," I said, remembering how Zane had explained the whole mind linking thing a few days ago. He turned his head back towards me and looked me up and down as if he were expecting to see a wound. "I'm fine Zane," I assured him but he just nodded his head.
"Then let's go." He tried to smile as he opened the passenger door open for me. Something was wrong. I felt it in the way he looked at me, and I felt it in myself. I felt different.