Page 41 of His Temporary Alpha Mate
“Alright.” I really didn’t want this to end. “Can I see you later?”
“Dinner? You cook at my house? The door is always unlocked.”
“Are you sure you should be telling me that? I could creep in anytime.”
Dalton’s laugh was so genuine and warm. “Maybe I’d like that.”
“Don’t give me ideas. Get back to work and I’ll see you for dinner.”
He left looking happier than I’d seen him for a while.
“Here.” Melody reappeared next to me to get our plates. She tossed me a shirt. “You are so whipped for that man.”
“I really am.”
There was no point in denying it.
Offer
Dalton
“Today’s the day!” I was so hyped for the testing to begin properly, I felt like I was walking on air. “I can feel it. He’s going to restart the testing!”
“Hmm,” Axel’s expression was carefully blank. Unlike me, he didn’t seem to relish the idea of testing. Was it because of his alpha gene? Not everyone expected him to take over the pack. So many of them loved Blake, and with Axel’s relationship with the elf, a prince no less, we all knew it would make things more complicated.
Getting Axel out of his own little world was a task and a half. Further proven when he barely replied to my enthusiasm.
“Oh, come on!” I urged. “This is exciting! After all the false starts, it’s good to have some news.”
“It is,” he agreed, then put a downer on it all, “but there’s so much research still to do. It’s not like thereare a ton of alphas lining up to bite betas, especially if they are going to turn into alphas.”
Okay, so he had a point there. Did he really have to make things depressing? For the betas who were omegas, like me, getting the testing going again was great news. For the alphas, less so.
“Oh, we had a call from Poppy!” Blake was keeping me close to the project, probably so I wouldn’t darken his door every morning to ask about it. “The witches might have something this time. I’ve got a good feeling.”
“Right, well, I better get to the meeting.” Axel didn’t seem to care at all. “Are you coming to take notes?”
“With the way you remember conversations? Yes,” I snipped as I picked up my tablet. It was quicker to type things than write them. I had a feeling there would be a lot to remember.
Ask him, my alter urged. The raccoon side of me was impatient. All we’d done the night before was make a plan about how we would do this.
Not now, after, I told them.
Hiroshi had suggested two betas going for testing would be more likely to be chosen in the first round. I had to hope that Axel would go for my plan. We didn’t have to stick together for long. Who knew, he might find me irresistible after going through a heat with meand decide to ditch the elf after all. Gotta dream of the best-case scenario, right?
My mind flickered with an image of Larken. He’d offered, but he only did that to be kind. Plus, I wanted the best chance to get a slot in the program. Another beta was my best choice. Axel was my best chance. He was the only one aside from Larken who I could see getting me through this.
I could feel Axel’s eyes on me as we walked along to Blake’s office. Being so wrapped up in my thoughts, I wasn’t paying proper attention and kept bumping into him. I stopped and started saying something to him so many times.
The office was crowded, with Teagan and Ívarr representing the elves. Kade, Deke, Dakota, Roan, Chase, Aldrin, and James were all sitting comfortably, ready to get the meeting underway. They even had Poppy, the witch from the Northarbor coven, on the video screen.
Taking a seat next to Chase on the floor, I bumped shoulders with him in greeting.
“Excited?” he mouthed.
I nodded. This was all I’d wanted in so long. Now that it was finally here, I wanted to scream and probably cry. Excited? I was also so nervous!
Blake kept the unnecessary chatter to a minimum, no small feat with some of the people squished intothe office. Before I knew what was happening, the testing was back on, and we were all getting ready to leave.
