Page 55 of The Alpha's Heir

“Sure, you do, honey. You have a sleep and I’ll be right here waiting for you.” He pulls his chair closer to my bed and I am once again astounded that he wants to stay.

Max Devine is rewriting everything I thought I knew about men. Is he someone I can rely on? What if he is the rainbow at the end of the stormiest and hardest experience of my life? Do things like that really happen to people like me? I don’t know. All I do know is that right now, I need an anchor to hold me still and Max has more than stepped up to the plate. Maybe my story doesn’t end here. Maybe the future is still unwritten.

*** Max ***

People keep telling me to go home and rest, but they don’t understand. Nothing about the small apartment where my belongings are temporarily housed is home. Home is right here, right here with my fated mate. Besides, my wolf, Ray, will never allow her out of our sight. Not now, after waiting 35 years to find the other half of my soul and then her almost dying within an hour of meeting her.

I'm still having trouble believing that I have a mate. The hope of finding my own mate faded many years ago. As with most things, it seemed I wasn’t quite good enough to be blessed with a mate, just as I hadn’t been good enough to take over the Gamma position when my uncle died. I therefore embraced the bachelor life.

As soon as Melanie set foot on our territory that day, Ray was on edge, already sensing something was afoot. When my Alpha entered the dungeon, my stomach lurched as Ray shouted in my head MATE. MATE. My face reddened when I realised I had said it out loud too. The overwhelming scent of honey and the sight of the blonde-haired beauty took me completely by surprise. Surely this couldn't be the Melanie that had an affair with the Luna’s ex-husband?

As she confessed her transgressions to my Luna and made apologies for her conduct, I wanted to dig this Ryan up from his grave and fucking kill him. How dare he treat her like that? It is bad enough that my Luna is hurt because of his actions. Now my mate is not only carrying the emotional scars of his treatment, but she is answering for his crimes against others too.

What had either of them seen in that scumbag? It smarted that my mate was carrying another man's pup, but it didn’t matter. As she so eloquently put it: that was her baby, not some dead man’s.

I accepted both her and her children in my mind because I want her, every part of her. I intend on claiming her. I just didn’t know how much information she had about us and our world.

The thought of Junior Woodward’s throat in my mouth intrudes my sleep, which is already broken from sleeping in a chair next to Melanie’s bed. I have only left the room to use her en-suite to shower when my friends and family bring clean clothes and towels for me. I don’t want to go too far since she may need me, and I would do anything and everything for her. From now on, she will be worshipped.

Her whimpers break me out of my pondering. She cries a lot in her sleep, and my heart aches for her and for what she has lost. Ray reminds me we can now give her our pup instead, but my human side knows it’s not as simple as that. She will have to grieve and heal. She will have to accept us. She will have to want to move on from this horrific event and what it cost her.

I gently wipe away the tears that rest on her cheek. Her pale skin is soft and cool, and the warm vibrations of the mate bond course through me, filling me with longing and desire. She is mine. At long last, I have my mate.

My Alpha comes to visit and congratulates me on meeting my mate. “It’s a small world really, isn’t it, Max? How is she doing? Eva is doing her nut worrying about her, so I promised to pop in and check up on you both.”

I thank him for his consideration and officially resign from the temporary Gamma position.

At least I try to, but the Alpha won’t accept it. “Just take your time, Max, there is no rush. Eva’s not going anywhere for at least the next six months, and she trusts you and will want to keep you.

I smile at him. “I’m going with Melanie and if she doesn’t want to stay here, I will go with her.” He gives me his blessing either way and tells me I will always have a home at the Onyx River. The Gamma position is mine until my future with Melanie is sorted.

“Hopefully, you can persuade her to come and live here with us, but I understand your predicament completely. When I first met Eva and still thought she was human, the pack were not happy about her being my mate and, therefore, their future Luna. I told her if they didn’t accept her, I would relinquish my position and move to a human town to be with her instead, and I meant every word.”

“What are the chances of Melanie having a secret Alpha father too?” Alpha Aiden actually laughs at that question. “What can I tell her about our world, Alpha? How can I tell her what I am, what we are?” I had run through several scenarios in my head where I explained to Melanie that I was a werewolf, but they all sounded way too cheesy and unrealistic.

“Just take things slowly, she’s been through a massive ordeal. Don’t be too fast to put labels on things just yet. Time is what she needs, time and care.”

I thank him for his counsel and send him home with my best wishes for our Luna.

Melanie seems to sleep a lot, but the pack healers reassure me that this is normal for a human who is healing. When she wakes, after I told her she is mine, she gives me a tiny smile. “You’re still here,” she says in surprise.

“I’m real, Melanie and I’m not going to just vanish. Can I get you anything?” I want to look after her, but she refuses when I ask. When I see the nurses giving her a bed bath, I am full of envy and want to rip out their throats. MINE. Ray growls in my head, but I know we have to be cautious and patient.

“I really want to get a shower, but they say no to me because my stitches will get wet.” I kiss her hand, just a small peck, and her eyes widen in alarm at the short, innocent contact between us.

“Leave it with me, Honey.” If Melanie wants a shower, I will get her a shower.

Twenty minutes later, I am wheeling her to the shower room. “Melanie, I will have to stay in case you feel faint or fall but I will give you privacy, okay?” She gives me a stiff nod of consent and starts to undress before I can turn around.

“Look, I have to be realistic, and we have to be adults about this. This body, this battered and scarred body, is just flesh. It's flesh that needs cleaning, and I need you to help me clean it.” She makes it sound so simple and yet Ray is already chirruping in my head at the thought of seeing and touching Melanie.

Moon Goddess, why do you torture me? What did I ever do to you?

I help her with her nightgown and socks and before I assist her so she can stand, I run the shower so it is warm for her. “Place your hands around my neck,” I tell her. She is fronting this out, but her vulnerability is evident in her expression. “Place your feet on the ground. Good, now I’m going to straighten up really slowly and help you to stand.”

As I stand and straighten, Melanie’s body follows mine. Her breasts press against my chest. “I need you to unfasten my…” She indicates around her back. My hands shake as I slide them down her back to the clasp on her bra. I undo it in one motion, though I don’t know how I managed that, as my hands tremble like mad. “Thank you. Now I need to take off the rest of my clothes. I’m sorry, Max.”

As a sweat breaks out on my forehead, my eyes flash open. “Why are you saying sorry?”

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