“And your brother?” Benjamin asks curiously.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “Part of me misses him, but the other part has moved on. Even if I meet him again, I don’t know if we will reconnect.” I muse. “Okay, that’s enough soul-stripping for today. Let’s head back home.”
“Already?” Benjamin asks, sounding disappointed.
“We can repeat this anytime,” I promise him. “There are still plenty of tricks I can show you. I also learned some stuff while I was hiding and being a rogue for a couple of months. But for now, we should go back, so that you can finally go to sleep. It’s afternoon already, and you must be exhausted.”
“True,” Benjamin admits, surprisingly honest. “My body feels drained.”
“I will need you over the next couple of days, for our new pack members who will arrive,” I say. “Micah and I were at Alpha Ezra’s pack and talked to the so-calledproblem cases. Guess what? They aren’t problematic at all. They will arrive on Friday. And Cass will take the wolves he is hosting to our pack on the same day.”
“That’s great,” Benjamin beams. “I want to help!”
“Alright, then let’s get home to have some rest and be ready for the upcoming work.”
twenty-three
My Mate, the Vampire
*MARCELLUS*
Benjamin goes straight to bed, while I make sure to seek out Silas and tell him what I’ve accomplished. Maybe it’s silly to feel proud, but I just feel like I truly reached a milestone with Benjamin, and that for the first time, I actually made him understand, and to give himself a chance.
Silas listens patiently and doesn’t call me out for being insanely joyful. Instead, he just smiles and listens. Once I am done, he wraps his arms around me. “You did amazingly,” he says gently. “I knew you could do it.”
“I can’t believe I managed to make him listen,” I admit.
“You proved to him that you respect him, his boundaries and his fears despite being an alpha. I strongly believe that wasextremely important for him. Hopefully, he can start moving forward from now on. Goddess knows, he deserves it.” He pauses. “How did he react when you told him you want him as the future gamma?”
“The usual. At first, he claimed he is not worth it. However, after talking about the rank, I believe he is realizing this could be it for him.”
Benjamin is an alpha’s son. The fact that his father never properly trained him and that his wolf is weakened, maybe doesn’t make him real alpha material. There are also his many traumas to consider. However, he is definitely made for a rank.
“He just needs to believe in himself,” Silas agrees. “He would be a great gamma. Looking out for others is exactly what he is good at. Lucian thinks so, too.”
“Oh, right, Lucian. Did you talk to him?” I ask.
“Yes, and he said he’d be honored to become beta,” Silas says. “As long as he can still be my right hand.”
“We are co-rulers, so he isn’t just my beta, he is ours. We are an unconventional pack anyway,” I say. “Can do everything our way.”
“That’s what I told him, too,” he chuckles. “It’s just a bit of a foreign concept for us vampires, so be patient with us.”
“Don’t worry, I will be,” I say. “Oh, and I was thinking about adding Micah or Sheila to the ranked members, also. Seeing how we are growing and most of our pack members come with trauma or difficult pasts, a delta would be good. Micah is an omega, so he isn’t really suited to take a rank where he needs to fight a lot, but as a delta, he would be perfect. As for Sheila, she is very capable and already works a lot with the victims, plus, a female, ranked member would be good.”
“Absolutely! Both would deserve a rank. Let’s talk to them to see what they think,” Silas announces. I feel his fingers againstthe back of my neck, gently brushing through my hair. “And now, how about you pay some attention to your mate?”
He certainly manages to get my immediate attention with that. I make sure to hold him tightly while he wraps his legs around my waist. Silas is tall, but more on the slender, athletic side than I am. “You know,” he whispers huskily. “I didn’t know the benefits of having a hot, alpha werewolf boyfriend until I met you. Vampires usually can’t carry me around. It’s hot that you can.”
He really is in a flirty mood! Lucky me!
We make it to our bedroom, where I drop him on the bed and climb on top of him. Silas enjoys his old-fashioned clothes, which look handsome on him but are a pain to undress. And, he doesn’t like it when I rip them off his body.
I’ve tried!
Once.
“You need other clothes,” I point out.