Page 49 of Rise of the Alpha

“I’m sorry, Magnolia. If anything bad happened, I trust that you’d tell us instantly. I just don’t like you smelling like someone who isn’t one of us.” Sighing, I try to settle my wolf, so I don’t keep upsetting our mate.

“Us?”

“Yeah. Me, Jude, Zeke, and Wylla… us.”

“Oh, okay,” she responds softly. Why would she question it? Who else would I be talking about? She has been gone forty-eight hours, and she’s acting like she’s forgotten we’ve all told her how we feel about her. I fucking hate her father and her pack. I will destroy them if it’s the last thing I do.

Arriving on campus, I park the truck and jump out, hurrying to her side and opening her door for her. She slides out and gives me a beaming smile as she follows me to the back of the truck, so I can grab her suitcase. I pick it up and head toward the dorm building, with her following close behind me.

“Blaine, I can carry my own suitcase,” she scolds.

“Yeah, but with a mate who very much wants to take care of you, why would you?” I snark back. She is silent and continues to follow behind me as we make the small journey to the dorm building. Once we get to our building, I open the door and let her in first, then I follow her, watching the sway of her hips and ass as she leads us to the elevator. She huffs as I reach around her to hit the button, and when we get inside, I hit the floor number before she can. She growls at me quietly, and I chuckle at her annoyance with my over-caring.

When we get to her door, she unlocks it but doesn’t open it. Instead, she turns to me and gives me a once over with her eyes from my hair down to my shoes. “Thanks for coming to get me, Blaine. I was ready and willing to take an Uber or taxi.”

“Well, if we let you do that, then how would we know if you got home okay? How would we have known if we were declaring war on your pack to get you back?” I tell her, and I mean every single word. I would raze the world for this wolf standing in front of me.

She looks shocked at the seriousness in my tone. “I ju–”

I lean in and kiss her softly. “Magnolia, you’re still confused about things, I know. I’m trying like hell to give you whatever you need to figure things out, but you are my mate. I would go to hell and back for you. You need to realize it for yourself. You’re so worried about leaving that pack and being packless or going feral, babe. Did you ever think that you could be a part of my pack? We wouldn’t let you be alone because you’d be with us at all times.”

She gasps, and I see her eyes start to glass over. Hopefully, she's listening to what I’m saying and not just hearing me. I mean every word, and I know Wylla and the guys feel the same. I don’t want to see her cry after experiencing a weekend from hell, one that she hasn’t shared anything about yet, but I’ll soon get details. I grab her shoulders, turning her body, so she is facing the door. Leaning down, I whisper into her ear, “Now get in there and talk to your best friend, then go take a shower and wash that wolf’s scent off you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She turns the knob, and I smack her ass. “Good girl.” She quickly looks over her shoulder as she gasps at my words. I throw her a wink and saunter off back toward the elevator. I check behind me when I’m a few feet away to make sure she got in the room, and sure enough, she’s not standing there anymore. Stepping into the elevator, I adjust my cock in my pants as the doors close. Her little gasp and the way her pupils were blown after I called her a good girl has me hard as fucking stone in my jeans.

Getting to my room, I walk in and see the guys sitting on their beds playing some zombie video game. They look up as soon as I enter and shut the game off. “Well, how was it? Is she okay?” Jude asks right away.

“Yeah, she’s fine. She didn’t tell me much about the weekend. Which is probably for the best, so she can tell us all at once. But she did smell like another wolf, and it was strong, almost like he had his hands, his body on her. My wolf and I were not happy. Luckily, the little minx is so sweet and innocent, she soothed him easily enough.”

“What do you mean, she smelled of another wolf? Did they touch her?” Zeke shoots off the bed, coming close to me.

“Relax, man. I’m serious, she was fine. No visible marks, but she did cry when she saw me. I think it was more like a ‘thank Goddess you’re here and I'm not there anymore’ reaction, if you know what I mean. She did tell me the scent was probably Jeremiah, one of the Betas she is promised to. She had two choices: change her flight or get a ride with him, so he took her. She also said, which ticked me the hell off, that he seemed different and not so bad.”

They both say nothing but stare at me in confusion.My thoughts exactly, friends.I cross the room and change into a pair of sweats and pull my shirt off. “Tomorrow, we ask a few questions about what happened this weekend. But I don’t want to push her so much that she feels like she’s being interrogated. We’ll go from there. Until then, I have some homework I can finally focus on and get done, now that our girl is back where she belongs.”

I sit on my bed, Zeke returns to his, and we work quietly on our homework. Seems I’m not the only one who couldn't get shit done this weekend with Magnolia athomewith the cult.

As soon as I finish the last assignment, I stand up. “I’m finally done, fellas. I’m going to go take a piss, then I’m headed to bed for the night. What do you two have planned?” I ask them.

“I’m with you, I need sleep. I barely got any this weekend. I was so worried,” Zeke replies as he’s shoving his books back in his bag, his bed now cleared of debris, and he looks to Jude for his answer.

I see Jude stand from his bed and stretch, “I think I’m going to go for a run and clear my head, then hit the hay. I’m hoping to find a couple or two hooking up along the running trail, so I can fuel up my energy reserves.”

I nod, understanding this is how he has to feed right now until he talks to Magnolia. He turns and quickly exits the room, and I finish packing the stuff in my bag I’ll need for class tomorrow. I head to the bathroom to do my business, then I need to go to sleep. Good ol’ fashioned beauty rest now that I can be at peace, knowing my mate is just a floor below me and not being held captive by a crazy wolf cult.

Magnolia

Steppingintotheroom,I drop my suitcase to the floor, shutting the door behind me. Lifting my fingers, I let the tips glide along my bottom lip as thoughts of the kiss from Blaine replay in my mind. Not to fucking mention how him calling me ‘good girl’has my pussy wet and begging for attention.

I’m lost in my thoughts for a moment, well, more like my daydreams of Blaine with his head between my legs as he feasts upon me, my hands gripping his hair when my eyes scan the room, the very empty room.

Thank goddess, I would have been so embarrassed to have been caught in the middle of a sexual daydream. But where is she? I could have sworn she told me she’d be waiting for me. Actually, I was hoping she’d be here; I fucking missed her. I know some would say it’s only been a couple of days, but I’ve gotten used to seeing her every day.

I begin to panic, fearing that my father and Alpha Johnson sent someone here to hurt her, holding her responsible for my change in appearance. Or even worse, they had somehow discovered my attraction to her. My eyes scan the room again, eagerly looking for any clue that would give me some kind of information about where she is. Then I stop, my gaze lingering on the empty spot on top of her dresser where she keeps her shower caddy. A deep sigh of relief escapes me. She's just in the shower.

Picking my suitcase up, I carry it over to my bed and lay it down on top of it, debating whether to unpack now or wait until later. Later wins out when I slip my hand in my pants pocket, once again finding the note that I fretted over and read multiple times while on the plane. At this point, I have each and every word memorized, forever committed to my memory. But still, I sit down on the bed, gripping it in my hands as I read it yet again, praying to the Goddess that this time some answer will jump out at me. What is he trying to tell me? Can I trust him or is this just a game?

I’m still scouring my brain, trying to figure it out when Wylla steps back into the room. Her hair is wet, and she’s wearing only a towel. She literally looks like a wet dream come to life. I give her a forced smile because I’m so racked with anxiety I can’t generate a genuine one. “What’s wrong? Did something happen at home? Did the puppy do something to you? I’ll neuter his ass if he did.” She drops her caddy on the floor and rushes over to me, taking a seat on the bed beside me and wrapping her arms around me.

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