Chapter 10
When we make it back to the dining room I see my mother has joined the party. She is sitting on my dad’s right side. I haven’t seen her in a while so I took Madi over to her. I give her a kiss on the cheek. “Hello, mom. This is Madi.” I pull Madi up so she can say hello to my mom.
Madi bows her head. “It is nice to meet you Luna.”
My mom smiles and takes Madi’s hand. “I can tell you are going to take very good care of my son.” This gives Madi a smile as well.
I decided to break it up. “Well, we should return to our seats before we look like we are being rude.”
My mom doesn’t stop though. “We will get together soon. I want to hear all about how my son treats you.” She smirks. Clearly she knows about the kidnapping.
Madi nods. “I look forward to it.”
I drag Madi away, clearly there is nothing good going to come from my mom and Madi being alone together. I would be in the dog house for sure.
We take our seats. Justin looks at us with curiosity. “You don’t look so sick.”
“Oh, it was just a little nausea, it passed after a few minutes.” Madi waved him off.
“I see, well I am glad that you are feeling better. As I was saying about being open. Maybe some time I could take you out, show you a different view of things.” Damn bastard doesn’t quit does he.
“As I said, Justin, I am quite happy with Ethan. I don’t feel that is necessary, but thank you for the offer.” She is so much better at this diplomatic shit than me. I would have killed him already and led us to war.
Sam decides to step in. “Why don’t you tell us a little about your pack? I am sure that things are handled differently there.” See this is why he is my Beta.
“Well, I don’t really think they are all that different. I think the only difference is that we don’t mingle with humans if we can help it. We are primarily a wolf community. Some of our community have mated with humans, a damn shame if you ask me. Other than that, I think it is the same.” Justin looks bored with the conversation. I’m bored with the whole thing. I want to go home and be alone with Madi.
“Are you short on she-wolves?” Curt asks.
“Why do you ask?” He looks insulted by the question.
“I was just curious. If wolves are mating with humans and you are looking at Madi like she is a steak, there has to be a shortage of females.” Curt just lost all the tact of the conversation.
Justin just smirks. “Who wouldn’t look at Madi like she was the steak at a buffet? Look at her. Plus an unmarked female at that.”
Curt keeps it civil, I have no idea where he is going with this. I am also not sure if I should stop it. “Clearly she is hot, but she is with someone, that is rude. I doubt you would like it if anyone was to try to steal away your date right in front of you.”
“True, sorry, Ethan, I wasn’t thinking. It was rude of me. I assure you that I will not be asking her out in front of you again.” He smiled over at me.
I smiled back, “I assure you that after tonight you will never be asking her out again.”
“Oh, I highly doubt that.” He continues to smirk at me.Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.
“Would you ask out a marked female?” I counter, making my intentions clear.
“Really, well, congratulations are in order. A chosen mate is a great thing. Too bad you will never know if she was your fated mate though.” He is trying to plant doubt.
“I have no doubt in my mind that she is my mate.” I put my hand on her thigh to try to quell her fears. I know she is worried that I am not.
“I am sure you are, but is she?”
Madi takes my hand. “I wouldn’t have agreed if I wasn’t sure.”
Sam pats me on the shoulder. “Congrats man, I knew that first day.”
I beam at him. Finally someone gets me. This is my woman and I want everyone to know it. After tonight everyone will.
Curt decides to ruin the moment. “I for one can wait for a mate. To be locked into one chick, that just sounds sucky.”
I shake my head, “You have no idea how amazing it feels. That one person can be your everything. I for one don’t know what to do when I am not around Madi. She keeps me sane.” I forgot for a second that Justin was there.
Sam nods. “I can see it. I can see that she makes you a little crazy too.” He smiles at me, he is referring to the day I kidnapped her.
“Well, yeah, a little.” I concede.
Madi smiles. “Yeah, he drives me crazy too. Like when he leaves his shoes all over the house. I feel like killing him everytime I trip on one.”
We all laugh, even Justin.
“Yeah, what about how much of a wimp you have made my dog. I can’t get him to hunt anymore.” I nudged her.
“It’s not my fault that he likes my cooking more than yours.” She counters.
Justin looks at me a little surprised. “You have a dog.”
“Yeah, he’s a good dog. Used to hunt with me, now I can’t get him out of the house. He just wants to stay with her.”
“He likes that I rub his belly.” Madi looks pleased with herself.
“Men do not rub dog bellies.” I counter.
“That is why he likes me better, that and when you take off on your hunts, he curls up at the end of the bed and lays on my feet. You always kick him out of bed.”
“Because he is a dog.” I laugh. “He’s too big for the three of us to use the bed anyway.”
She nods her head. “True.”
Curt jumps in. “Wait, you guys share a bed?”
I look at him like he just landed on the planet, that is the only explanation for how he did not read that. “What have you been living under a rock, of course we share a bed.”
Madi jumps in. “Ok, enough bedroom talk. How do you all think the alliance talks are going?” She busies herself with her plate, eating small bites. Not how she eats at home. I am glad. That means she isn’t comfortable.
Justin looks down the table. “It seems to be going fine. My uncle isn’t yelling his head off. That is always a good sign.”
I nod. “Yeah, my dad hasn’t raised his voice once. That has to be a good sign.”
Justin looks down at his plate, “My uncle doesn’t want to bring this up but he is expecting a pup soon. I know that means that I will no longer be a part of these pleasant functions, but on the plus side. I don’t have to be at these functions.” He smirks about the last little bit.
Curt gives him a funny look, I know he is getting ready to be a smart ass. “Oh, are we that bad Justin? I thought we were getting along smashingly.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I loved meeting you people, especially Madison, but I hate always having to be on my best behavior. I am more laid back than this. I hate stuffy meetings. I don’t think I will be able to avoid them all together though. I think my uncle wants to keep me around for some advice. For the pup, not him.”
Sam watches Justin for a moment. “I’m sorry if this seems offensive but it seems that you don’t like your uncle very much.”
Justin shrugs. “Yeah, he’s an aggressive bastard that killed my father. Don’t get me wrong, my father deserved it, but I am not so sure that my uncle was the right one for the job. He has always treated me right so I can’t complain too much.”
“I see.” Sam is not convinced, I can tell. He thinks something is off with Justin.
I link over to him. “What is it?”
He relaxes a little. “Something doesn’t feel right with this guy.” He links back. “Not just because he hit on Madison right in front of you, but he just feels off. I don’t trust him.”
“I agree.” I linked back.
My father at the other end of the table clinks his glass with his fork. “I am pleased to announce that we have a new alliance with the Blue ridge pack.” Everyone around the table starts to applaud. I only do it so that I don’t look weird. “This calls for a celebration. Jordan, bring out the wine.” He calls to the Omega that seated us. I think he is supposed to be an acting butler or something. We don’t have servants unless it is a special event, even then they get paid well.
I don’t really want to keep hanging around, I am ready to go home. I can see that Madi has finished eating. If there is one thing that I have learned from living with her, she doesn’t drink. Still it would be rude to leave before the toast. I lean over to her and whisper, “Don’t worry baby, you don’t have to drink. Just take the glass. After the toast I think we can leave.”
She nodded to me. I can tell she didn’t want to be rude, but didn’t know what to say. I’ll block her from view so that no one notices that she doesn’t actually drink the wine.
I link to my dad. “After the toast Madi and I are heading out.”
He makes eye contact with me. “Fine, but I expect you back tomorrow. We have things to discuss.”
“Sure.”
I can imagine it has to deal with the alliance. There are things to iron out and probably changes to be made. I can handle that. I just need to get home with Madi.
Jordan fills all our wine glasses. My father starts his toast. “Here is to a long and successful alliance.” He raises the glass and we all follow suit. I block Madi from view and she pretends to drink but doesn’t and places her glass back down. I take a drink. Not bad, but I have been avoiding drinking with Madi, so it just seems like something old. Like the old me.
I smile and take Madi’s hand. “Well, gentlemen, I think we are going to call it a night.” I put my hand out to shake Justin’s hand. I don’t really want to but it would seem rude if I didn’t. “We have a bit of a drive home.”
He shakes my hand but looks at me questioningly. “You don’t live here?”
“Sometimes. Right now, no. We have our own place. Deimos is waiting for us.” I try to keep the fake smile on my face.
“Shame I was hoping to spend a little more time with you two before we left.” He looks over at Madi, clearly he wants to spend more time with her, without me.
“I will be back tomorrow. Madi has plans.” I squeeze her hand, asking her silently not to argue with me. “I am sure I will see you when I return.” I nod to him as I leave the table and head to my father and Alpha Tyler.
I give my father a formal good-bye then turn to Alpha Tyler. “It was a pleasure meeting you. I look forward to seeing you when I return tomorrow. I wish you all a pleasant evening.” I pull Madi out the door after me.
Once we are outside she heaves a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank God that is over. Justin was creeping me out.” She shivers a little.
“He creeped out Sam too, if that makes you feel any better.”
“Oh, good so he is just a creepy guy.” She says sarcastically.
“I guess so.” I laugh a little and open my truck door for her. I have to lift her up into it. The dress she is wearing makes it impossible to climb up there. I was surprised that she could get on her knees in that thing. “I can’t wait to get home and pay you back for your little game earlier.”
“Oh, that was no game.” She smiles at me.
I jog around to the other side of the truck after closing her door. I really can not wait to get home.