Page 24 of Claiming His Virgin Mate

“Got a pen? You’ll need to write this down, my friend,” Dean’s smile was practically glowing through the phone, but Alex knew better than to disobey.

After ten minutes of taking dictation, he ended his call. With his new plan mapped out, Alex grabbed his laptop and startedoperation woo his mate.

His first call was toMoonlight Blossoms. After ordering enough flowers to keep the small shop in the black for the next six months, he did a search for local chocolatiers.

Luckily,Candy’s Confections, a new store that had come quite recently to Maccon City, was open for business prior to summer. Most of the town was not opened until Memorial Day weekend, when the tourist season officially began, but they were an exception to that unwritten rule. Thank fuck.

He was unsure what to purchase exactly, so he’d decided on a sample tower. Then he tripled it. Because why not?

Lastly, was a call to the best restaurant in town according to their ratings. He booked a reservation for that Friday night. What if she didn’t like Italian food” He panicked after he hung up the phone but shook his head.

Who didn’t like Italian food? Besides, this was authentic Southern Italian cuisine, not pizzeria food. Not that he had anything against pizza, or chicken parm, but this place served upscale dishes. Everything from homemade pastas, truffle oil focaccias, perfectly cooked risottos, to grilled steaks. Lamb chops, poached salmon, and pan seared scallops.

‘Iamo Bellawas owned by members of the Macconwood Pack, and according to the internet, they made the best agnolotti in all of South Jersey. Yeah, his mate would like it. And if she didn’t, he’d take her somewhere else.

Leaving his room, Alex intended on inspecting the progress of the construction crews on the various jobs he’d hired out The newOasis Beachside Resortneeded a serious sprucing up.

So far, so good.The plumbing was one of the last things to be updated, but they’d finally agreed on a direction. Each guest room was fitted with new fixtures, tubs, showers, and complete re-tiling. Maggie had insisted on environmentally sound toilets and showers as well. Just one more reason to love her.

The floorings throughout each room had been changed. The walls had been painted with their new motif. New furniture was being installed at that exact moment, as he did room to room checks.

Alex smoothed some ruffled feathers, signed a few checks, and told everyone what a great job they were doing. Keeping morale up was good for everyone. He even managed a call to the graphics designer who was going over Maggie’s code for her app.

He’d had her ideas for the look of the thing transcribed and sent to one of Randall Graves’ own employees, and the project was almost ready for the big unveiling he’d prepared for Friday night as well.

Finally, Alex made his way to the roof. He was shocked to find himself feeling anxious and irritable. A little tired, but nothing he couldn’t shake off.

The crew was on break, sitting and munching on sandwiches from a cooler he recognized as belonging to Maggie. Damn, she was sweet. Such a good person to pack lunch for the crew of roofers who’d been working all morning in the unusually hot sun.

Everything he learned about her proved to be better than he could have hoped for. She was an honest, hardworking, generous spirit, and he sent a silent prayer of thanks to the Fates for sending her his way.

“She’s not here,” a voice said from behind him, and his Tiger snarled in displeasure as he rounded on the man.

“Easy bro,” Tim smirked.

The cocky young Wolf lifted one hand in surrender, the other holding firmly to the roast beef and mozzarella sandwich he’d been eating.

Fuck, Alex had it bad. And his actions made him look even worse than a wet behind the ears cub.

Grrrrr.

“You know, I’ve known Mags a long time,” Tim said with platonic affability evident in his voice, but still, Alex wasn’t exactly a fan, “I want you to know I was just checkin’ in to make sure she was okay with the whole thing. I mean, bro, your animal was two seconds away from marking her. I never seen nothin’ like it.”

“Uh, I can understand that,” Alex forced the words out, “You were just being a good friend. That is fine, but you should know she is my mate.”

The two men squared off and looked each other in the eye. Tim nodded in the end and shook Alex’s hand with a wide smile on his face.

“I should probably mention, I thought I smelled something-”

“Dude, I like this truce and all, but if you talk about my mate’s scent, I don’t think my Tiger will be able to help himself.”

“Alrighty then,” Tim scratched his neck, “Be good to her bro.”

“I will,” he said and watched the Wolf walk away to sit by his crew.

The roof looked good far as Alex could tell. He walked to the edge and stared out at the Atlantic.

Fuck. He’d spent so much time away from the Jersey Shore town, he’d forgotten how stunning it was at times.

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