Page 47 of His Temporary Alpha Mate
Letting Dalton down wasn’t part of the plan. Unfortunately, that’s what happened.
The results from my tests came back with an excessive amount of magic in my system, making it unsafe for me to take Dalton through his transition. It was essential for the tests to work effectively that there was nothing to skew the data. As much as the elves were hoping to turn betas into alphas and omegas, they needed to have control of the process in order to replicate it. Or at least, that’s how it was explained to my poor Dalton.
“I am so sorry!” Over and over, I apologized to him.
“Why? It’s not your fault. They aren’t saying never. Just a few more weeks. That’s fine with me.” He spoke with such a calm demeanor when I was on guard for fireworks, it completely confused me.
“But—“
“But nothing.” He shrugged my apology off. “It’s fine, Lark. As soon as the magic is cleared from your system, we’ll be first in line,” he added reasonably. “They’ve promised that to us already.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“Yes. It’s not a no, or never, or a maybe. They’ve told us the steps you need to take and you’ve assured me over and over you’re going to follow them to the letter.”
Okay, that was my warning not to let him down.
“I will, I swear.” Everything and anything he and the elves needed me to do so I could be his partner would be done. My lizard growled his agreement. He wanted our raccoon happy.
“Then it’s fine. Yes, I wanted it to happen sooner, but with everything going on, I’m alright with it taking that much longer.”
Since the testing had finally started, Teárlach gained an owl form, Axel had changed into an omega and was now pregnant, and things had escalated with the Northarbor aviary once more, with attacks injuring people and damaging stock. We had also lost our Seer, Janet.
The pack had grieved her loss even as we celebrated the truth of the elves being our ancestors and Axel’s pregnancy. I’d worried about Dalton’s mental health there for a while, especially with the baby news,but he had congratulated his friend with real and enthusiastic happiness.
“We’ll be next,” he assured me when I broached it with him.
Instead of being jealous, Dalton had been joyful. He took it as a sign that The Luna was fulfilling her promises to her betas by letting them change and start families. He believed his turn was next. I just hoped he was right.
Over the weeks, as I adjusted to a new stricter schedule, where they treated me like a baby and made me take naps, I worked on my diet and fitness. Next time, nothing would get in our way. The naps really helped. I’d been supplementing my lack of sleep with energy potions, which had been asking for trouble. We had new elves working as enforcers as they figured out how to get a shifted form, so I was asked to do less with that. Being woken at night was still a problem while I was living with Roan, something that would have to change soon, likely when I was mated to Dalton.
One of the many things we had to discuss. Was this temporary? How far were we taking it?
We reached the clinic bright and early in the morning, on the day we were going to finally do this thing. Dalton had been up with the sun, anxious to get going as soon as the clinic opened for the day.
Was I nervous? As fuck! A lot was riding on this. It seemed as simple as just a mating bite sealing me to Dalton for however long as he wanted me to be his alpha. Yet, there was so much that could go wrong. What if one of us rejected the other or our animals couldn’t connect?
“Lark, could you relax for one minute? You’re squeezing the blood out of my fingers.” Automatically, I loosened my hold. “I need them to type. You know, at my job.” Dalton being snippy was a great sign. He wasn’t questioning everything like I was.
“Sorry, I’m just nervous.”
“Why? It’ll all work out like it’s supposed to.” His being so calm was actually making things worse.
The clinic loomed ahead of us. I wanted to pull him to a stop and ask all one hundred of my questions and just get it all out there. One glance at his determined face told me this wasn’t the time. Just because I was freaking out, didn’t mean it would go badly. At the end of this, Dalton would be my mate, even just temporarily, and he’d be on his way to making his dream come true.
Everything else we could discuss later.
“Okay, we have drawn up a contract for you both to sign stating your obligations because of your…um…unusual situation,” Teagan said as she passed over the paperwork for us to read and sign.
“Could you give us a rundown of what is in it?” Dalton asked as his eyes skimmed over the text.
“Well, this is just a legal document agreeing you are entering this mating of your free will. You are aware there is a minute chance it will be unbreakable.”
“Like Tate and Hiroshi,” Dalton confirmed. I had forgotten it appeared as if they were fated mates after all. Hiroshi’s ex-betrothed had tried to break their bonding. We were all grateful it hadn’t worked.
“Yes. This is just to show you are aware of any consequences of this temporary mating. We left this part blank because we did not know if you wanted Larken to take you through your first heat should this work.”
“I do. Could this be amended?”
