Matefinder (8 page)

I stared across the lawn at Kai. He
met my eyes. The walls deep inside of me, that I had built to keep me safe,
crumbled. In that moment, the look he gave me, I could see my future with him.
I could see what it truly meant to find your mate. He would never hurt me, more
than that, he would protect me, support me. I had spent so many years learning
to protect myself, teaching others to protect themselves. I didn’t realize that
I had been searching for someone to protect me, to make me feel safe.

We held our gaze with each other. I
slowly crossed the yard towards him as his lips curled into a smile. He licked
his lips to wet them and I took stock of his tall muscular physique. His teeth
were perfectly straight and bright white; his canines were just a little larger
than a human. The dark brown stubble looked so sexy on his medium brown skin. I
reached him and he lifted me up as I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling
him in for a kiss. We could hear whistling from the pack as we spun around
kissing. I laughed as he sat me down.

“Meri Pyari.” He pulled my long
blonde hair away from my face.

“What does it mean?” I queried.

“If I told you, then I would have no
secrets.” He gave a devilish smile.

                Anna and Jake approached us. “Aurora, I’m
going to move in with Jake now, so you can have your room back.” She paused
looking at Kai and I wrapped in each other’s arms. “If you want.” She smiled
and they left holding hands.

After the bonfire, Kai and I were
cleaning up. “So, I told my parents about you too,” he said with a hint of
nervousness to his voice.

I dropped the plate I was scrubbing
in the sink. It landed it a loud thunk but didn’t shatter.

“Your parents are alive?!” I asked in
shock. “Oh my God, I feel so selfish. I haven’t asked you anything about your
family. I figured they were long gone. Are they werewolves? What did you tell
them about me? Where do they live?”

He laughed. “Slow down. It’s okay. My
mother, father, sister and I were all
changed
in a werewolf attack in
Delhi.” He paused thinking. “My sister didn’t survive the
change
.” A
look of sadness crossed his face and it was gone. “My mother and father turned
out to be mates. They have since given birth to my twelve siblings including
Akash. They still live in India and I told them you were my mate.” He smiled.

My mouth dropped open. “You have
twelve brothers and sisters?”

He smiled. “Eleven rowdy brothers split
between six packs and one sister. She is the princess of the family and is
still a member of my father’s pack in Delhi. He’s the Alpha of the New Delhi
pack.”

“Whoa.” I let that information sink
in. “Isn’t the population of New Delhi like ten million people?”

Kai took a deep breath. “Yes, and my father’s
pack is about three hundred strong.”

“Three hundred wolves in one pack? It
must be hard to be an Alpha of a pack that large.” I pondered.

A look crossed Kai’s face as if he
contemplated telling me something. “Fights break out daily and my father spends
his time keeping the peace. There are constant battles for territory as my
father’s pack grows and they fight other packs to open their land. My father is
a traditional wolf and a traditional Indian. My sister won’t leave the pack
until she is mated, and even then my father will fight to have her mate
transferred so he can keep an eye on her.”

I nodded. “So you left then?
Transferred packs?”

Kai ran a hand through his hair.
“You’re a dominant wolf, you know that feeling you get when someone tries to
hold you down or order you around and you just want to jump out of your skin?”

“Like earlier in your office when you
told me I couldn’t see Sylvia anymore?” I reminded him.

He laughed. “Yeah, like that. Well, I
battled with more dominate wolves in my father’s pack daily. As I grew older,
my dominance grew stronger. Brother wolf didn’t like being told what to do. I
eventually fought my way to becoming my father’s second. That wasn’t high
enough for brother wolf. We wanted to be Alpha. I knew I could be Alpha. My
mother could sense my feelings and asked me to leave before it sparked a
challenge fight with my father. I agreed. I transferred to a pack in Australia
for a while and then to a pack with Shamus and eventually took over Mount Hood.
I didn’t want a huge pack that couldn’t be controlled. I wanted to do things
differently.”

“That must have been hard leaving
your family like that.” I finished the dishes and came to sit on his lap.

“I’m more at peace with the decision than
my father is. I think he struggles between his human side wanting me to have my
own pack, and his wolf wanting to challenge me to prove he could have won a
fight. He wants to prove I would always be his second in command and never
above him. Eventually, Akash transferred here and my mother visits twice a
year. So I guess it has worked out.”

                He rubbed small circles in my back.

“When is the last time you saw your
father?” My heart hurt for Kai. I could see that a part of him was just a boy
who wanted his father, but another stronger part of him was a werewolf that
needed to make his own place in the world.

“I see him once a year at the annual Alpha
conference. Every year most of the Alphas and their second in commands meet for
a conference to discuss pack issues and make laws. My father is on the council.
It’s pretty intense and I’m glad every year when it is over.”

I jumped up from his lap. “So you are
telling me that every year you put a bunch of dominant Alphas in one room and
expect them to sit around politically and talk about issues?”

He laughed as he picked me up and
walked me down the hallway. “For the most part, only a few fights break out.
There are rules to keep things from getting out of control.”

He stopped at his bedroom door. “So,
are you continuing to stay in my room?”

The fact that he asked and gave me
the choice brought a smile to my lips. “Of course, as long as you behave,” I
reminded him playfully.

“I make no promises.” His eyes roamed
up and down my body.

In the morning, Kai and I ate
breakfast hunched over his laptop looking at commercial properties in Gresham
for Safe Haven. When he entered a price point of 1.5-2 million dollars my eyes
bugged out of my head. “Kai, you can’t.”

He glared at me playfully. “I’m an Alpha.
I can do whatever I want.”

We called a realtor on three of our
favorite properties, and a few pack members went to take video of them. Kai and
I reclined on the sofa. He was playing with my hair when I started thinking
about Sylvia. She was a high priestess witch and I was related to her coven. My
biological mother was a Matefinder wolf but I was born a human witch mix. How
did that make sense? I relayed this question to Kai.

His face looked concerned. “I
wondered the same but figured we shouldn’t prod into something we might not
like the answer to.”

I chewed on that. “No, I want the
answer. I always want the answers.”

He sat up and took a deep breath. “Well
then we can ask Sylvia later today when she comes for the barbeque. I’m sure
she has a spell for everything.”

                I jumped up and began taking off my shirt. Kai
grinned. “Now that’s my kind of morning surprise.”

I shook my finger at him. “Turn
around! I want to go for a run.”

Kai let his eyes rest on my pink lace
bra, and then lowered his eyes and undressed himself. We shifted incredibly fast
and leapt out an open window in the living room.

We ran through the forest all the way
to the edge of the mountain and back. I loved running with Kai. We were both
fast, really fast, and running next to him made me feel free. After getting
home, I took a shower and then we got the backyard ready for the barbeque. A
light sprinkle of rain fell as we set the tables and it created a foggy mist.

I sighed. “I love this mountain.”

Kai smiled. “Now you see why
werewolves can be territorial.”

I laughed. I was excited to see my
mom but even more excited for her to bring me all of my stuff. I had called and
explained the entire ordeal (or at least the moving in with the boyfriend
version) to Lexi, my roommate, and apologized profusely for having to move out.
I told her that I would pay her rent until she could find a new roommate.

A few minutes later, Sylvia drove up
the driveway. I had also called her and explained the alcoholic treatment
center cover up and she was happy to play along as a therapist or patient.

I greeted Sylvia and asked her if she
wouldn’t mind staying after so we could talk, that I had questions for her. She
agreed. While Sylvia and Emma were chatting, I saw the huge moving truck pull
up with my mom at the wheel.

Kai grabbed my hand and we walked out
to greet my mom.  She parked and jumped down from the truck and rubbed her
hands on her pants. Now that I knew she wasn’t my biological mother I could see
that we looked nothing alike. She had dark brown hair to my light blonde. She
was shorter and I was tall. I didn’t care. She
was
my mother. I chose
her as my mother now, even knowing she didn’t give birth to me. She was the one
who held me when I was sick or pushed me to follow my dreams of opening Safe
Haven. We had been through so much together, the death of my twin brother, the
abuse of my father, and so much more.

Oh my god. My father wasn’t my real
father. I had always hoped as a child, when the abuse started, that my mother
would one day tell me that he wasn’t my real father. My mother and I had
crawled through a disaster and made it out alive together, because we had each other.

“Mom!” I ran to her and hugged her.

She smiled and grabbed me in a tight
hug.

I stepped back. “This is Kai.”

Kai shook her hand. “It’s a pleasure
to meet you, Ma’am.”

My mom looked at me. “Ma’am? Do I
look that old?” We shared a laugh and Kai looked nervous.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Kai.
You have a beautiful home. You can call me Beth,” my mom told him, looking at
the large modern house that stood before us.

Kai smiled. “Thank you.”

“So you live on the grounds of the
rehab center?” She mused.

Kai cleared his throat. “Yes Ma’am,
umm Beth. I own over twenty homes on the mountain that have been converted to
sober homes for the patients that come to stay at the facility.”

My mom smiled genuinely. “You and
Aurora are one and the same, always trying to help others. You’re a good boy.”
She patted his shoulder and shared a look with me.

She liked him. I laughed to myself at
the fact that she was treating the Alpha of the Mount Hood wolves like a little
boy.

We walked towards the backyard and
introduced my mother to the pack. We made sure to tell everyone not to bring
beer to the event and blow the cover of an alcoholic rehab center. My mom
talked with everyone thinking they were struggling alcoholics. It was pretty
comical to watch.

When we got to where Sylvia was
sitting with Emma, I could see her looking at my mother with pinched eyebrows.
I could see alarm register on her face. She masked the expression and shook my
mother’s hand. “I’m Dr. Sylvia, the resident psychologist.” Sylvia held my mother’s
hand longer than appropriate. My mom pulled her hand away looking confused.
“Have we met before?”

Sylvia looked at me as she answered.
“Not that I remember.”

Okay, something weird was going on
and I would have to ask Sylvia about it later. As we ate and Kai and my mom got
to know each other, the pack unloaded the moving truck and I “officially” moved
in with Kai. My mom asked Kai one-hundred questions about India and he seemed
to enjoy talking to her and teaching her things.

After a few hours, Kai and everyone
said goodbye to my mom. I walked her to the truck and pulled out a wad of money
I had borrowed from Kai.

“Here ya go, mom, to cover the cost
of gas and the moving truck.” She took the money but after seeing how much it
was her eyes widened.

“Aurora, this would cover ten moving
trucks. It’s too much.” She made a move to give it back to me. I wanted better
for her. I tried to help her when I could but owning a nonprofit didn’t exactly
make me rich. Now that I was staying with Kai, I could afford to help her. I
closed my hand around hers. “I want to help you more, mom. Let me.” I held her
gaze. She looked behind me at Kai’s large house. It must cost at least half a
million dollars, not to mention his other properties on the mountain.

“Okay,” she said and stuck the money
in her pocket.

I hugged her tight. “Love you.”

“You too, sweetie. I’m glad you’re
happy. I like him. He looks at you as if you were the only woman in the world.”

I was shocked at her appraisal of
him. She never liked guys I dated; no one was good enough. I looked nervously
at my shoes. “Good, because I think this one will be around for a long time,” I
admitted.

I waited until she got to the end of
the driveway and then went in search of Sylvia.