Dear Colten and Abigail,
I've been very selfish.
I thought running away to Maine was going to change my life and give me freedom from Forenone but I'm so glad that's exactly not what happened. Like meeting my mate...
And I was so afraid he'd be like the man my father was, the person who we've hardly ever spoke about, but Braxton's not even close, I know that now, I see it and I owe him real chance.
As you both always say, 'Never put off tomorrow what you can do today.'
I'll call you as soon as I can.
Love you,
Ella
Ella woke with a jolt, her eyes squinting open to the bright, bright morning sun. Her neck craned as she tried to shake the knot in it against the headrest. The car was cool and her jacket wasn't doing a sufficient enough job of keeping her warm anymore. She turned over the engine and the car idled in the rest-stop as she woke, taking in the fact that she still had hours and hours of driving to get through.
She felt she had already memorized the lengthy drive to Maine, even if it was only her second time driving to the irriguous state. As she became more coherent, her heart palpitations and clenched stomach muscles returned. Some of it was from her guilt of leaving her aunt and uncle in the middle of the night, the rest of it was nerves, that she'd soon see Braxton Hall and soon be on the territory of Crest. A place she'd one day, in theory, be the Luna of.
Her fists clenched as the pressure rushed her. Deciding she had to start driving before she got to wrapped up in her thoughts, she put the vehicle in drive and pulled back out onto the highway.
“Luna.” She said the word aloud. For the entire drive thus far, it was the only word she'd been saying and thinking, wether it be over the music playing or the dead silence where her sedan couldn't pick up a radio station, it had been on repeat in her mind.
She knew not to be afraid. That she'd come first, once she showed up at Crest, Braxton would make sure of that but she worried about the rest of them. What would they think about her not mating him by now? Would they accept her... and his mother...
She shuddered as her phone beeped on the passenger seat and she snatched it up as she drove the car along a dark winding path of highway.
The text lit up the screen of the phone.
Colten didn't condone cell phones and driving.
She shook her head to get her thoughts off her uncle and read the text. It was from Cheri Foster and it was the directions to get to Crest's territory in northern Maine.
#
The pitch dark, old streets and forested surroundings made the GPS in her new sedan useless, which made the remaining hour of her drive stressful and eerie. Just when she was beginning to think she turned off on the wrong road, it appeared. A large cement barrier with rod iron gates and quaint lantern lights.
Her foot on the gas eased as she rolled up in front of the entrance and the large cement overhang that read 'Crest Private Estates'.
“Holy sh--”
The tap on her wind scared her and she swung around the stare out her window.
A man stood outside her door, looking in at her.
She gulped and pressed the button on her door to make her window roll down.
“Evening, miss.” He said in a stiff voice, “Lost?”
“Uh--” Ella sputtered to form words, “N-no.”
His brow creased, “No? Do you have your member ID?”
“Member ID?” She questioned, “Are you part of Crest?”
His expression tightened, “I'm not answering questions.”
“Okay, well,” she searched for words, “I'm here to see Braxton.”
He smirked, like he didn't believe her. “Braxton?”
“Yeah, I'm--”
“We're not allowing guests, sorry, under strict lockdown.”
“No, I understand that,” Ella figured she should just spew it out and get it over, “I'm Daniella Turner, h-his mate.”
The guard's brow furrowed, “I don't have your name on the lists. I think I would, if you were someone's outside mate.”
“Can't you ask him to come out here?” Ella didn't see what the big deal was.
He smirked, “I think you're missing the point.”
“No, I'm his mate. Like I'm gonna be your Luna, so you should go get him!” She pointed to the rod-iron gate.
He started to chuckle and stepped away from her car, “You'll have to get in contact with him and get clearance to come in. I can't do anything for you tonight.”
“I drove a long way!” She exclaimed, undoing her seat belt and getting out the vehicle. She couldn't believe Cheri hadn't warned her about this.
“Miss, please get back in your car.”
“No!” She snapped, “Go get my mate!”
“I've already told you, you have to get clearance first.”
She glanced around her, eyeing up the large cement perimeter fence.
“It's electro-shock protected, don't even think about it.” He warned.
She put her hand on her hip and looked him up and down. “Well, it must not be working if someone breeched and got your alpha!”
“That's confidential information!” He attacked her, grabbing her by the wrist and slamming her against her car in a locked hold.
“Let me go!” She struggled against him, trying to get away.
He increased his hold till it hurt her and she knew she wasn't strong enough to fight him off so she stropped her struggle.
He grabbed the radio on his hip and brought it to his mouth with his free hand, “We have a security breech. Outside intruder.”
“I am not an intruder, you pig headed idiot--”
He pressed her into the car, “Shut your mouth, girl.”
There was a sudden bright light and two other men walked behind it, toward the cumbersome gate on the other side.
“You okay, Will!” A man shouted.
The guard that had Ella, replied with a yes as the gate rolled across the drive and the two men approached, shinning their flashlights in her face, making her squint.
“Let me go!”
The guard swung her around to face them, “I believe she's a distraction technique.”
Still keeping their blinding lights in her face, they spoke. “We'll take her to a holding room.” A man stepped up to her, man-handling her away from the gate-guard.
“Park her car in compound parking and have a nice night, Will!” They called as they dragged her inside the gate, toward a blacked out SUV. They grabbed a zap-strap and bound her wrists behind her back.
“Now, no shifting.” One of the men patronized.
“Or, we'll kill you.” The other man flashed her a smile and a glimpse at the holstered handgun on his rib cage.
She sneered, “Don't worry yourselves.”
They shoved her in the back of the vehicle and she sat, waiting as they got in, the man in the passenger seat swung the laptop in the middle of the console toward him and typed.
“What's your name?” He demanded.
“Daniella Turner.” She hissed.
“And your purpose at Crest?”
“I'm Braxton Hall's mate.”
They both paused, taking a glance at her from over their shoulders.
The man in the passenger seat turned back away and typed, then grabbed his radio. “This is patrol-car. I need Aaron Williams to the guard house.”
The radio crackled back over with a reply. “Ten-four. He's in a meeting, won't be available till Twenty-three hundred hours, unless it's an emergency?”
The man glanced at his watch, “Ten-four. Not an emergency. That's fine.”
“Where's Braxton!” Ella demanded.
“Please, Miss, your cooperation would be appreciated.”
Ella rolled her eyes, mimicking him under her breath.
The truck rolled forward, up a long dimly lit road and then the cap-cod house appeared, then the next. It had suddenly turned into what Ella could only closely pin to as a suburban area. The houses were all the same craftsmen style with cement driveways, filled with parked cars and bikes on the front lawns.
“Holy...” She stared at the quiet, nestled family dwellings, losing count after fifty-two.
The vehicle weaved through the gentle sloping road as the houses disappeared and a series of government style buildings stood. They stopped out front of a double story brick building, and both the men got out. Opening the door for her, one took her bicep.
“You'll be placed in a holding room till eleven o'clock. If you're found as an intruder, you will be destroyed.”
A hard lump built in her throat, even if she knew this was all for nothing, it was still starting to scare her.
They walked her inside and it resembled a police station. She glanced at the men that walked on each side of her and saw how much they mirrored policemen. Crest had it's own civilian police force?She couldn't believe it.
They walked her down a corridor and sat her down in a enclosed, secure room at the end.
“If I were you, I'd sit here and not do much to provoke anymore attention.”
Ella stared at the clean shaven man as he straightened in front of her. “I get to see Braxton, right?”
They looked between each other and then turned, leaving and slamming the door of the cell shut. Upon the strike of the bolts locking, her heart slammed in her chest.
She rubbed the insides of her wrists together, the plastic of the zap-strap cutting into her soft, flesh.
Couldn't they see she wasn't a threat, couldn't they just take her to her mate... ?
Her eyes watered, and as much as she told herself it was silly to be crying, she couldn't help it. This wasn't what she thought coming to be with her mate would be like. At all.
#
She hadn't stayed in the chair but she hadn't caused any problems. Curling up in the corner of the room had been more comfortable than sitting in the hard molded plastic they'd put her in for three hours anyway, and that's when the door opened, right as she teary eyes had started to close.
She snapped awake, the patrol-men walked in and then...
“Aaron!”
The boy stopped dead in the doorway, looking across the room at her. “Daniella?”
She started to nod, tearing up again.
Aaron almost ran to her, helping her to her feet. He swore under his breath, realizing she was restrained at the wrists. “Get her undone, now!”
They walked toward her, turning her and cutting her free.
“You should have come to get me right away!” Aaron shouted at them, “This is Braxton's mate!”
Both the patrol-men held the same stunned look.
“He won't be happy with this.”
The man with the handgun on his ribs, spoke, “She breeched security when you were in the meeting. She was being combative.”
“It doesn’t matter!” Aaron reprimanded the older man, “When a woman shows up claiming she's your Alpha's mate, you don't lock her up in a cell!”
They both nodded with a yes, sir.
Aaron took her arm. “Come with me, Ella.”
She walked with him out of the building, keeping close to the only person she felt safe with.
“I'm sorry.” He led her outside and she noticed two other men had joined them since, walking exactly three-feet behind.
Aaron brought her to another blacked out SUV, opening the door for her and helping her inside, joining her along the bench seat.
The other two got in the front and the vehicle started.
“Alpha House.” Aaron instructed.
“Yes, sir.”
Ella swallowed, “Tight getup.”
Aaron glanced at her. “I'm really sorry about what's happened, Ella. They are on strict security but this was a bit much.”
“I get it.” Ella nodded, looking to her hands.
Aaron sunk his shoulder to the seat. “You're not hurt?”
“No. They weren't that rough.”
“That rough.” He echoed in an unsatisfied tone.
Ella sighed, “So, this is Crest?”
Aaron nodded, “We're a gated territory. Each member pays taxes, so the community is up-kept.”
“Wow.” Ella let out a soft exhale, “I've never seen anything like it...”
Aaron shrugged, “There's different styles of packs, this is just one of them, I guess.”
The vehicle started up a narrow, serpentining road that suddenly plateaued and revealed a large brick mansion with six colonial style pillars and a front staircase that lead to double wide french style doors and stained glass windows.
“Shit.” She swore under her breath, staring at it.
“This is Alpha House.” Aaron swung his door open and got out, holding his hand for her to follow.
She slipped across the seat and stepped out beside him. Her knees felt weak all of a sudden, in the presence of the home.
Aaron took her arm again. “Come with me.”
Ella walked beside him and he jogged the stairs, this was nothing new to him but to her, well, she wasn't sure if she was dreaming or not.
He stopped at a key pad, the screen lit and he hit a button.
“Enter code for door access.” A monotone voice crackled over the speaker.
Aaron casually punched in the correct format of numbers and hit a pound key. The unlocking jolt of the doors made her jump back.
“Ella?” He summoned her forward and she stepped inside the historic mansion with all it's original wood finishes and furnishings.
She looked up to the crystal chandelier and her lips parted, it was huge, if it fell from the crown molded ceiling, it would kill.
Aaron slipped off his leather boots and Ella followed in the removal of her runners. He walked down the narrow hall that led them past a large sitting room and into a doorway that opened up into a huge vaulted ceiling television room and open concept kitchen with dinning area.
The woman standing at the fridge, slammed the door and swung around the face them.
Ella's stomach dropped, it was his mother.
Azalea's eyes widened, “Aaron.”
“Evening, Mrs. Hall.” He cleared his throat. “Daniella is here for Braxton.”
“H-hi again.” Ella gave a meek smile.
“Oh-uh...” His mother stammered, finally settling her confusion. “He's in the meeting room still.”
“Follow me.” Aaron started across the television room and it's white carpets.
Ella bowed her head and hurried after him, coming to his side. “This is so awkward.”
He finally gave away some emotion and smiled at her. “Oh, come on, isn't this how you pictured coming into Crest?”
“Not at all!”
He grinned, stopping at door that also required a passcode. Punching it in, he put his hand to the door knob. “Oh and – don't jump on him, he's still broken.” His protectiveness of Braxton made her smile.
Aaron turned the knob of the door and swung it open, stepping in ahead of her.
“So, what's wrong now?” Braxton's voice hit her from where she stood in the hall and it froze her to the wood floors.
“Security breech wasn't so much of a security breech.”
“What do you mean?”
Aaron glanced over his shoulder when he noticed Ella hadn't follow him inside. He gave her a weird look and shook herself out of her solidified state and stepped into the room. Revealing her mate in a leather swivel chair at a long glass meeting table, accompanied by a few others.
His breathing hitched and he flicked the pen in his hand across the table, “Daniella?”
“Surprise.” Aaron tried out the word but his deep, chest-locked voice had returned and it didn't come out right.
Braxton got up quickly, the chair he'd been in, rolling a few feet away before stopping.
When he was feet from her, she had no words but she did jump on him, much against Aaron's advice.
He caught her though, holding her around her slight waist. “What are you doing here?”
His pack had just put her through hell and that's all he said to her, it irked her.
“Nice greeting,” she said in an unimpressed tone.
He gripped her lower back and turned his cheek to speak to the room. “We'll finish this discussion tomorrow.”
With a mutter of yes, sirs, Braxton took her hand and led her out of the room. She noticed his aching step right away and it was worse she'd yet to see it. He brought her down a near hall toward a staircase and stopped.
“You look bad.”
He grumbled, “I've been shifted all day.”
“Oh.”
“I didn't mean to sound rude back there but you caught me off guard. Though, I would like to know why you're not with your aunt and uncle, like we decided.”
“Because,” was all she stated on the subject.
His brow furrowed. “Because what, Daniella?”
“Because,” she huffed.
His looked annoyed and couldn't shake it. “Colten's going to kill me.”
“I explained it all.”
“You explained all of what?”
“Well, I left a note.”
He smiled. “Awesome.” Running his hand over his forehead he glanced down the hall. “Like I didn't already have enough to worry about--”
“I thought you'd be happy I'm here.”
He paused and dropped his hand to his side. “I'm not trying to sound like an asshole, Daniella.”
“I know,” she said softly, seeing his worry and nerves. He didn't understand why she'd come and she took the opportunity to enlighten him. “But I'm trying out this new thing; where I stop running away from everything that scares me. Because all those things I have been running from,” she
reached out and touched his arm at his side and whispered the last of her sentence, “are all the things I need.”
Upon her forwardness, his jaw dropped and his tired eyes suddenly became more aware and focused.
“Do you--” She got nervous, “Do you understand me?”
He looked her over, his eyes giving away to his thoughts. “Am I taking you to bed? You must be exhausted.”
She didn't want to smile but she did. “You don't want to talk about how you're embracing your alpha role or how they had me locked up in a cell for three hours first?”
“They what!” he snapped.
She took his hand and stepped up against him. “It was a bit weird but I lived.”
His teeth were gritted as he spoke, “I'm sorry.”
“I was being combative.” She joked.
Braxton didn't respond, but his mouth formed a line of displeasure.
“Actually,” She let go of trying to make light of her welcome to Crest, “It was sort of scary.”
“Yeah, exactly.” He took her wrist and led her up the grand staircase. “I'll talk to patrol in the morning, you'll receive an apology.”
She followed behind him, “So, you get it?”
He turned into her at the top of the stairs, “Get what, Daniella?”
Taking his cheeks, she forced his eyes back to her. “I came here to protect you, Braxton.” His furrowed brow disappeared and his lips parted, like he might say something but she spoke before he could. “Mate me.”
His normal intelligent and aware eyes, glazed over and he moved so fast, she didn't even have time to react. He wrapped an arm around her waist and picked her up off the ground and she wrapped her legs around his midsection to hold herself up.
Walking backwards down the decadent wallpapered hall, he made it a total of ten steps before he slumped against the door he wanted and pawed at the knob to release the door from the frame.
She looked over his shoulder as it swung opened and he walked in, fast, slamming it with his foot and reaching back to lock it.
He dropped her back to her feet, walking her backward into the room, till her calves hit his unmade bed and she sat with a playful bounce.
Braxton crouched in front of her, slipping to his knees, his hands to her waist and his eyes followed where his finger tips had begun to trace beneath her plain shirt. She wiggled on the large bed, his hands disappearing under the cotton, inching, lifting along her lean abdomen till she helped, grabbing it and removing the shirt.
His still body only stayed that way a moment longer and then he leaned into her, brushing his mouth against her stomach.
It made her come alive, made the tension in her subside and the always present uneasiness between them vanish.
He laid another kiss along her rib cage as he moved up her body, his mouth ghosting against her bra and kissing the exposed curve of breast, eventually find his way to her collar bone. His hands on each side of her, braced against the bed and he kissed his alighted mark.
Her body craved and she reached out, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and pulling him directly on top of her. Her soft waves settled in wrinkled dark quilts as he settled above her.
His neglectful breathing made each of his inhales and exhales shorten. “Are you sure about this?”
“Very,” she said, pushing her hands beneath his shirt and coaxing it off.
He took the liberty of removing it for her, grabbing it at the back of his collar and pulling it over his head.
In a quick exchange of his weight, he chucked it across the bed and her eyes went straight to his bare chest, her hands joining her exploration.
He dropped his mouth lower, his nose rubbing against hers, about to kiss her. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” She took his cheeks and brought his mouth to her lips, kissing like they'd never kissed one another, never touched one another and never would again.
She felt her wolf get greedy and her hands went to his jeans because of it.
He broke their locked lips and paused, looking down at her. “I'll let you see what you're in for first.” It was a joke but it excited her.
Letting out a grunt, he got off the bed, his hands going to the top button of his jeans.
“Wait!” She put her foot to his hands to stop him.
He looked up at her, swallowing hard.
She saw his worry that she might be stopping what he so badly wanted to do with her. Sitting up, she reached her hands behind her back and unclipped her bra. “Now, we're even.” She stripped it, letting it slip her fingertips to the floor.
His brow arched and he did that same gulping.
“You look nervous, Braxton Hall.” She teased but she was nervous too, so nervous her stomach was in knots and her limbs were starting to quiver.
“I just want my mate.” He dropped his jaw, looking her over like she was something to look at, exquisite, luscious, his. His shoulders straightened, making himself appear less and less boy-like.
Her eyes went to his hands and she dropped her foot so it skimmed his jeans to floor.
His fingers worked the top button free and the zipper followed, he skipped any need for more tension and removed his boxers with his jeans.
She inched back on the bed, bringing her legs with her, letting herself look at him and it made her throat tighten.
He gave her a moment to adjust to the idea he'd be inside her and sensed when she'd come to to terms with it. He climbed over her, taking her jeans off and throwing them behind to the floor.
If he wanted a look at her, he hadn't given himself much time to do so, because she found him on top of her and very near within seconds.
She gripped his biceps as he caged around her.
“It's okay.” His breath on her cheek relaxed her.
“There's a lock.” She was nervous about that detail.
“Yeah, let's not focus on that.” He shifted his weight onto one arm.
“W-what d-do we focus on then?”
He kissed her, dropping his hand between them along her side, grabbing her waist to let her know where he was and where he was going.
Her lips broke his and then he continued his touch to between her thighs and when she parted them, inviting him to touch her – he did.
She gasped as his gentle fingers circled and rubbed, and she wrapped her arm around his muscular neck and kissed him, this time with desperation. This wasn't what she thought it would be, she didn't think he'd spark or rouse anything in her, at least not this time.
The arching in her back strained against him and it made him tense and become hurried with his actions. He slipped his fingers from her and grabbed her thigh, pushing it against the bed.
She continued to arch into him and he stopped their kiss so he could bite into neck and take her, with whatever amount of control he had left.
Ella grabbed at him, taking fistfuls of his hair as she clung closely to her mate. Her eyes slammed shut, but this was it, this was when she submitted and relaxed and trusted him, and her wolf did most of it for her.
She sunk into the bed beneath him, letting her grip slip him and his mouth left her mark as the mating lock subdued them into euphoric paralysis.
He leaned into her so their chests were against one another, their paralleled breathing not the only thing joining the fuse between them anymore.
She felt every ounce of him, who he was, who he'd be, how he'd love her – forever and she knew, right in that moment she'd done the right thing coming there for him.
He started to shake, bracing himself against it and his lips pressed to hers to whisper her name.
“Shh.” She knew what was happening to him. It was his blood transforming, mixing and the lock penetrating much more than just physically, he'd never be the same again. It fascinated her, because she was the reason for it.
He buried his face into her hair and closed his eyes as his muscles tightened, bulked and made his skin taut to touch. Her hands grazed his shoulders, back and waist, he was solid at every angle.
A sharp snap, that sounded like bone on bone breaking came from inside him and he groaned into the pillow so loudly, she wrapped her arms back around him.
“Braxton.”
His breathing hadn't improved and she grabbed his cheeks to make him look at her.
“Braxton.”
He opened his eyes but they were still glazed and she didn't understand what it meant or why the lock hadn't eased.
“W-why are we still locked?”
His eyes rolled shut as he dropped his mouth to her mark and his arm, suddenly dropped and wrapped around her waist, lifting her off the bed.
He bit into her and it seared her tender skin, making her call aloud. But as soon as the discomfort had come on, it vanished. The trained circles of his tongue on the mark made her soar, and that was something she'd never felt or experienced. It made her arch, bend, and brace against him, seeking more pressure and release from her mate. Her brain had gone into override and everything she felt and liked, now had to do with her wolf, under her alpha-mate.
He didn't stop at getting to the point either, growling at her, she replied with a soft purr of affection, making her flush with hormones.
Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at his bare shoulder, her mouth watering. She didn't understand the urge but her wolf did. She kissed the base of his neck and then bit.
His arm around her pulled her clean off the bed and her wrapped legs, kept the lock between them strong.
He rolled onto his back, taking her with him and grabbed her cheeks.
She pushed herself against him, not wanting to break her mark but he didn't try to do that, he actually encouraged it, holding her to him.
Her hips rocked and he also encouraged that.
The more their locked bodies heightened, the louder and more ravenous their wolves got and then that was it. In between her final yelps of pleasure, he put her back under him.
Her eyes flashed open and he smiled down at her and then, it broke them, and she rushed with release and a racing pulse. He groaned, burying his face in her neck and biting into his mark one last time.
“Oh!” She clung to him as she finished the locking between them by taking him with her.
He stiffened against her, his hips digging and rooting himself inside of his mate.
She panted as her eyes opening clearly to the world around her.
Braxton continued to recover atop her and she let him, rubbing his broad shoulders and comforting him.
He mumbled into her ear, “I don't think that was totally normal.”
“Yeah, no.” She agreed as he slowly lifted off her.
He glanced down to where they were still voluntary joined and he eased out of her.
She looked away from embarrassment as he moved off her and settled in the bed. His arm wrapped her waist and he brought himself against her naked form.
She looked at him, finally feeling like her cheeks weren't as red as before.
He smiled at her.
“What?” She asked in a weary voice.
“You fixed me.”
She rolled her eyes at him, “Oh, that's rich, Braxton. You mated me, Ella, I'm fixed forever!” She mocked him.
He laughed, shaking his head, “no, you actually fixed me, babe.”
Her eyes focused on him as he propped himself up beside her, “What?”
“My ribs.”
She turned to him suddenly and put her hand on his hurt side.
“Punch it.” He joked, dropping his mouth to hers.
“You're really better?”
“Yeah,” He kissed her. “And I didn't think I could ever feel this good. So, thank you.”
She let out a sharp exhale, taking in his euphoric and elated expression.
“How do you feel?” He asked.
She shrugged a shoulder, biting her cheek so she wouldn't smile too wide for him.
He leaned into her and said against her lips, “Not pregnant then?”
“Braxton, shut up!” She went to hit him but he grabbed her arm before she could.
“I'm just joking,” he laughed. She settled and he let her go with a tentative grip, “Be a good Luna.” He warned.
She eyed him and then shoved him to his back, “Not a Luna yet.”
He ran his hands along her slim waist and enjoyed his mate on top of him. “You're just wow.”
“Braxton.” She sunk her hips down on him as she slipped her arm self-consciously around her bare chest.
He reached and brought her down to him and she yelped from the unexpected relocation of her body. He took her chin and kissed her softly. “I'm not going to be able to leave you alone, Daniella.”
She paused, “Is that a bad thing?”
He smirked, “I'm not sure, is it?”
She giggled and kissed him and that's when she truly understood what mate-happiness was, that was what she'd always called the look between mates who always seemed dumbly satisfied with each other no matter the circumstance. Now it all made sense to her, made her feel so many things at once but all of them were good and all of them had to do with him.