Alpha Loren novel Chapter 26

October 18th

I woke up securely in Leo's arms with my head rested on his chest as he held me close to him.

"I'm dropping you at my parents' house today whilst I go and meet a visiting Alpha from an allied back," he said, kissing the top of my head, "I'll be back in the late afternoon and then we'll have a bit of time before the Alpha comes over for dinner."

I grimaced, "Why is he coming for dinner?"

"Because he has a powerful pack bordering mine to the North and because he's a massive douchebag, we have to put extra effort into remaining civil in order to avoid a war," he replied, "A war that would be damaging to both of our packs."

"Sounds like so much fun," I groaned, "Do I have to be there?"

"Yes," he said bluntly, "You can't wriggle out of this one."

When Leo dropped me off at the Loren household, his little sister Lia opened the door.

"Good morning," she said with a yawn.

She was still in her little silk pyjamas with her fine golden hair unbrushed and swept over her face.

"Hi, Lia," Leo said quickly, his eyes glancing behind her into the house. "Is Dad, Mateo, Marco or Carlos here?" he added.

"Didn't Mom tell you?" she asked, "Mom and Dad went to New York for their anniversary but they'll be home this afternoon."

"And the boys?" Leo questioned.

"They went on a run earlier and said they'd be back but the time you got here but..." she said with a shrug, "We both know not to trust a word any of them say."

"For fuck's sake," Leo grumbled stepping into the house, "Guess we'll wait."

"Do you not trust us to take care of your mate, Leo?" Elena said from the kitchen. 

When we entered, she was stood leaning against the counter with a piece of toast in her hand and a raised eyebrow.

"No," he said bluntly.

"Do you really think I'm going to try and run away?" I asked him.

A smile crept onto his lips, "After last night, I'm not so sure."

Lia looked like she was going to vomit as Elena groaned in disgust.

"But then again, I didn't think you would try the first few times. So you never fail to amaze me," he said.

Elena rolled her eyes, "Driving your own mate to run away from you. Real nice," she muttered.

She then glanced at me with a cheeky smile as Leo just stared at her.

"Do you think you could avoid pissing me off before I have to go and speak to Alpha Haden?" he asked, "We don't want a war with the Ayas pack."

She forced a smile before she took another bite of her toast.

Just then the front door opened and Carlos, Marco and Mateo piled in, all sweaty and panting.

"You're here. Finally."

"Good morning to you too big bro," Carlos said as Leo gave me a hug and a quick kiss on the forehead and left.

"Wow, I miss living with him so much," Marco muttered, "What a nice guy."

The day consisted of a chilly run up to a lake and a lot of laughing and talking. Leo's siblings were warm and welcoming - the stark opposite of him. They made me feel like I was one of them within just hours.

"Come on, Carlos," Mateo teased after his younger brother had tackled him to the floor but he had managed to get back onto his feet. "Is that all you've got?"

"Boys huh?" Maria, the eldest of Leo's siblings who I had only met this morning, said.

We continued to watch them as they continued to roll around on the floor together, "They get so much entertainment out of trying to kill each other," she added. 

Just then Marco joined in, grabbing Mateo's legs as Carlos took his arms.

"And this is their favourite game: twins vs Mateo," she said with a laugh as Mateo seized Carlos in a head lock as Marco held him in one.

Lisa and Lenny, the youngest of the ten Loren children, were at the shore of the lake with their shoes off. The air temperature was cold enough and I could hardly bear the thought of how their toes felt to be dipped in the icy water.

Just as Lisa had decided it was maybe a little too cold, a cheeky grin came onto Lenny's face. He exchanged looks with me and before I could realise what he was thinking, he had bent down and slapped the water with so much force that a wall of water cascaded over his sister.

"No, no, Lenny, please!" she squealed.

She tried to run out of the lake and back onto the shore.

But he waded through the water at high speed to catch up.

"Lenny," Maria scolded, "Don't bully your sister."

He ignored the orders from Maria, grabbed Lisa and slam dunked her into the water.

With that, Elena kicked off her shoes and marched to the lake.

The fear on Lenny's face as he saw Elena coming was hilarious and a few seconds later, a waterfight had begun and all three of them were entirely drenched.

"I'll get some firewood," Marco said with a laugh as Lisa stood, her lips blue, shivering viciously.

Mateo took off his jacket and handed it to Lisa as Lenny and Elena just stood dripping and ringing out their clothes with their hands.

When Marco returned with the wood, a roaring fire was lit that they could both dry their clothes next to.

When we finally returned to the house, I helped Bella and Elena make some bread and soup for a late Lunch and was forced to watch my Senior Prince with Lia... again...

It wasn't long until Leo came to pick me up and I said goodbye to everybody.

"How was your day?" he asked as we drove home.

"Great. Your siblings are brilliant," I replied.

"You smell like forest, fire and soup," he replied. "It must have been a good day."

I nodded, "How was yours?"

"Alpha Haden gets on my nerves like nothing else," he said, "So sitting in a meeting with him for hours was got the trial."

"Do you enjoy being the Alpha?" I asked.

"Yes. It's what I was born to do," he said. "But sometimes I just wish I could get away from it all for a day or two."

"Then why don't we?" I asked. "We could go on a trip! You can leave the pack for a few days, can't you?"

He smiled and put his hand on my leg, "You're so cute," he said. "And maybe we will. Where to?"

"Paris! Or London...or maybe New York," I said already getting excited. "I don't know. I've never even left the country before."

He laughed again, "I'll take you wherever you wanna go. I promise."

A few minutes later, there was a sudden bump in the road and the car came to a halt.

"Shit," Leo cursed.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The tyre fucking burst," he replied getting out of the car to inspect the damage.

I got out too and walked round to see a pierced hole in the bottoms of the wheel.

Leo knelt down and picked something up, "I'm guessing this is to blame."

It was a large sharp rock that we had obviously just run over.

"Do you have a spare?" I asked.

"Of course I have a fucking spare," he said going round to the trunk.

I watched attentively as he worked on the wheel. I couldn't even drive and when it came to things like this, I was clueless but it was fascinating to watch...or more Leo was fascinating to watch.

"You're staring," he said without even taking his eyes off the wheel.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

He quickly finished off the change before he stood up and wrapped his arms around my waist. He then kissed me unexpectedly passionately on the lips.

"My hands are greasy," he said showing me his blackened fingertips after realising and taking them off my face. 

"It's okay," I replied kissing him again and guiding his hands to my waist.

With that he grinned and clutched my waist, lifting me up and slamming me into the hood of the car as he kissed me with rough passion.

I wrapped my hands around his neck and pulled his chest against mine as his hands slipped under my shirt. I felt my blood heat up with excitement as I felt his hands on my boobs.

He then grabbed my legs, spreading them wide apart as he pressed himself hard between them, squeezing my ass in the tight grip of his fingers.

I gasped as he brought his hands to my throat to pull me back into his lips.

But just as he was reaching for the buckle of my bants a car drew up behind us.

My eyes winded. The track was only wide enough for one car to pass and we were blocking the entire thing.

"Fuck," Leo cursed pulling my shirt back down over my stomach. 

He then looked behind us to the car and he let out an awkward laugh.

"That's my Dad's car," he said lifting me off the hood, "They must be on their way back from the airport."

I covered my hands over my face as my cheeks flushed red.

"Oh God," I said as he flattened my dishevelled hair before approach his confused looking father who had already got out the drivers seat started walking over to us.

"What the fuck are you doing, Leonardo?" he asked.

"Umm..." he mumbled, "The tyre burst so I had to change it and then..."

At that point, Antonio looked around the car and saw me stood, unable to make eye contact with him.

"Oh," he said, with a look of pleasant surprise, "Did we interrupt something?"

Leo just smiled awkwardly before waving to his Mom who still sat in the passenger's seat of Antonio's car.

"I'll just move out your way," he said before turning back to the car.

We both got in and he steered his car to the verge of the road and let his parents past before he turned to me.

"That was mortifying," I said.

Leo grimaced, "At least they came before..."

"Leonardo," I scolded, "I was not about to hand you my virginity on a car bonnet."

He grinned to himself, "Whatever you say..."

When we got home we just had time to shower before Leo had to and start cooking the dinner for this Alpha coming tonight. The air was soon filled with the beautiful smell of tomatoes, garlic and basil as various things sizzled and boiled downstairs.

About half an hour later, Leo came back upstairs.

"Have you found something to wear?" he asked.

I nodded, coming out the bathroom to show him the navy blue dress I'd picked out. It reached my mid thigh (we almost) and fit me perfectly.

"You look beautiful," he said examining me, "Do me a twirl, woman."

I spun around and he smiled again before his face dropped.

"But this Alpha doesn't need to see this much of you," he replied, his eyes all over my bare legs.

"Leo," I groaned, "It's fine."

"it's not fine," he replied, "Change."

I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, hey," he said, "Less of the attitude. I just don't want him to look at you the way I look at you, okay? And trust me, you don't want him to either."

"Whatever," I mumbled sauntering back into my closet.

I certainly didn't want to dress to appeal to another man and I value my modesty which is why I would never have gone down there in a tight bodycon dress with my boobs and ass out. 

But this dress wasn't tight, nor low cut nor particularly short. But I wasn't going to stand there and argue with him. Firstly because I'm not going to win and it would just piss us both off and secondly because it didn't really affect me. Whether or not it should, it bothered him that this Alpha would have been able to see more of my leg than he wanted so why would I not just wear a different dress?

When I came back out in dress number two, he was buttoning up his shirt.

He glanced at me, "Thank you. That's better," he replied, "And you still look beautiful."

I came over and took over buttoning up his shirt.

"Why are you so worried about this man looking at me?" I asked.

"He doesn't have a mate," he said, "And he's not like my pack members."

"What do you mean?" I questioned as I continued to button up his shirt, unfortunately covering up his beautiful abs.

"He doesn't bow down to me and if there's something to look at, he will look at it. He's not concerned about getting on the wrong side of me."

"That's a first," I said, "He must be powerful."

"He is, " he said, "And he also isn't a man that you should mess with. Or challenged or disrespected or tested or anything else. Do you understand?" He said sternly. 

I nodded, "Go it."

"I meet him a couple of times a year to maintain what is a very fragile and unstable alliance for the good of both packs so I don't need you to do anything that could shatter it. Because whilst my pack is bigger than his, I wouldn't want to take my chances challenging him unless it was for a good reason," Leo explained. 

"My lips are sealed," I said fake zipping them and throwing away the key.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

"They're here," he said quickly grabbing his tie.

He wound it around his neck and tied it incredibly fast before grabbing his suit jacket and taking me downstairs.

He opened the front door to reveal an unfamiliar man and Blair all wearing suits just like Leo. 

"Good evening Alpha Leonardo," The unfamiliar one said nodding his head.

"Alpha Haden," Leo said in his Alpha tone shaking Haden's hand. I could tell there was definitely some tension by the way they were holding each other's gaze so intensely. Haden's eyes eventually landed on me.  

"So this is your new... toy?" Alpha Haden said looking me up and down. Leo was right, he certainly wasn't afraid, but for some reason neither was I.

"Must you refer to me as-" I began.

"This is my mate Ella," Leo said whilst Haden continued to stare at me.

"But you haven't played with her yet?" He said a smirk on his face whilst he looked up at Leo raising an eyebrow. Leo glared back before forcing a half-sarcastic smile.

"Can we at least try to remain civilised?" Leo asked.

"You look beautiful tonight, My love," Haden said shifting his stare from Leo to me whilst Leo just continued to burn holes in the side of his head. He held his hand out to shake. Leo took a quiet but sharp inhalation when our hands made contact. 

Haden had a very strong grip and he watched me like he was begging for a reaction to it.

But all I did was grit my teeth and smile until he finally let go. Haden was about the same height as Leo and equally muscular. His hair was jet black and his eyes a dull brown. I tried not to look into them, remembering what Leo had said but forcing myself to look to the ground wasn't easy.

"Thank you," I said bowing my head and not looking into his eyes.

here was a pause as he watched me like he was waiting to see what else I'd say. 

But I held my tongue and Leo eventually rescued me by saying, "Shall we go through to the living room."

Blair followed Haden in and nodded to me. I smiled awkwardly, still embarrassed about what Leo did to me in the back of his car, but fortunately, he didn't burden me with his attention too long and just walked through to the living room.

"Can I interest you in a drink, Alpha Haden?" Leo offered.

"Scotch," he said, "On for you Luna too."