Page 24 of The Alpha's Mates

“You better go. It’s not really smart to make him wait,” she informed Christoph.

“Is he always this intense?” Christoph glanced down at her with a guarded expression on his face.

She nodded.

“Your father is a fucking scary-ass dude.”

“Yeah, so I’ve been told. Zoe and I just follow our mom’s lead. Let him scream and yell then calm down. Once he does that, you can rationalize with him.” She shrugged.

Christoph nodded. “Got it.”

“Sometimes. You better go before he comes looking for you. Oh! He doesn’t really know about Jackson. Tread lightly.” Bell gave a nervous laugh. “Good luck.”

“Are you seriously advising me to lie to your dad?” He blinked several times before looking over his shoulder. “Shit, kitten, I can’t lie to you. He already knows about Jackson and us.”

“You didn’t tell him everything did you?” she replied.

“Uh...” He blanched. “No?”

“Good! Go.” Bell shooed him out of the house. “Good luck.”

“I’m screwed,” Christoph mumbled, trailing behind her dad.

“Let’s go for a walk. I need to check out the house,” Rapier said, knowing full well Christoph would follow him.

He didn’t know what he expected between the conversation on the phone and meeting Bell’s father in person. The man didn’t walk, he stalked. Every step was clipped. Purposeful. He prowled like the giant lion Christoph knew he was. The tension radiating off of Rapier could have been a combo of things, the letter Bell received and meeting her mate at the same time or the letter. Either way, he didn’t say a word, if the man meant to talk with him, he could open the conversation. Christoph would gladly give all the answers he wanted.

“For an alpha, you’re quiet. Are you sure you’re not a beta?” Rapier glanced over his shoulder before bending down to check out the wooden patio supposedly filled with termites.

“Jumping into the conversation with both feet didn’t feel prudent.” Also, how did someone go about saying, yeah, when I was eighteen my father forced me to have sex with all the females of the pride? Just didn’t seem wise.

“Well, unless you talk, I can’t help you.” Rapier blew out a breath. “Not termites but also not safe.”

“I don’t even know how to tell this story without it feeling like I’m just saying something to get attention.” Christoph rubbed the back of his neck.

“Start from the beginning. You said your father and some sorority girl is blackmailing you. Why? What do they have to gain from saying anything about your past?” Rapier checked one of the outdoor lights and frowned. “Loose and exposed wiring.”

“Because before I left home to come here, my father threw me into a room filled with females in estrus and forced me to have sex with all of them. Not only that,” Christoph took a deep breath then shuddered, “he forced me to shift, taking away any choice I had, or they had.”

Rapier’s attention snapped to his. “What? Run that by me again, son.”

“He forced my shift then threw me to the lionesses.” Christoph shuffled his feet. The instant humiliation and embarrassment flowing through him, left him uncomfortable in his skin. He wished he could rip it off and run away. “I don’t remember anything. Twenty-four hours later, he put me on a plane and here I am.”

“Fuck,” Rapier snarled, scrubbing his face. “Bell doesn’t know?”

He shook his head. “Didn’t or rather couldn’t find the right time to tell her the truth. Plus, who’d believe me. Everyone at this school thinks I sleep around with every woman on campus.” A theory he never squashed.

“First,” Rapier ticked off with his fingers, “You have to tell her. Second, what’s the blackmail associated with that night?”

“Laney would tell Bell herself, only, I assume, a version of it where I am the bad guy.” He rolled his shoulders. “Second thing, is my father has already chosen my mate, which Laney overheard too.”

Rapier laughed. “Mates aren’t picked by parents. Fuck knows, if they were, Bell and Zoe wouldn’t be mated until they were fifty. Mates are organic. They happen. Sometimes we wait our whole lives to find them. Your father might have found an agreeable female, but she will never be your mate.”

Exactly. Christoph knew that. He tried to explain it several times to his father, but the man had arrived only hours before, blowing any type of plan he might have, out of the water. “It gets better.”

“Oh, I bet it does.” Rapier snorted.

“He’s here, now. He arrived this morning with my mother and the parents of the female he chose for me. I’m supposed to have dinner with them tonight.” He wouldn’t be going alone though. He meant to bring Bell and Jackson, hence why the guy wasn’t with him when he showed up at the house.

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