Her Alpha Mate 10

"Hola mi amore."

Freya opened her eyes and smiled at Chance, who'd a big grin on his face and was carrying a bouquet of flowers.

"Hola Chance, que pasa?"

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "You know Spanish?"

"It was my elective in high school."

His mouth formed an 'O' in understanding, and he walked further into the room until he dropped into the chair next to her bed.

"These are for you," he said, handing her the bouquet. Her smile widened as she recognized the forget-me-nots.

"Thank you, Chance. They're beautiful," she said, sniffing the flowers with relish.
Forget-me-nots were her second favorite flower, while peonies were her absolute favorite. She could never get enough of them. They were so damn beautiful.

There was a knock at the door, and she turned her attention to Reece. He gave her a small smile, "Glad to see you're alive."

"It's good to see you too, Reece," she said, rolling her eyes playfully. He stood next to Chance and handed her a Hershey bar.

"My mom tells me chocolate is the cure for everything," Reece mumbled, looking rather embarrassed.

Freya nodded in agreement, "She's right. Chocolate is like a drug."

He rolled his eyes at her choice of words and leaned back against the wall. She regarded them both with amusement.

It was funny how Zack, Reece, and Chance were all best friends but had completely different personalities. Zack was the more uptight and serious guy with the "I-have-a-permanent-spike-in-the-asshole" attitude, while Reece was the more sarcastic and snarky one who didn't want to show much affection. Chance, on the other hand, was like a ray of sunshine on a cold winter day. He was sweet, funny, kind, basically everything a girl could want in a mate.

"So, how are you?" asked Chance, snapping her out of her musings.

She shrugged, "Like someone ran me over. I feel like my bones don't even exist anymore."

He winced and shook his head sadly,
"Zack should have stayed with you.
Then none of this would have happened."

"Where's he anyway?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Was he planning to avoid her for the rest of his life?

"He's....busy?" Chance tried to explain, but his explanation came out as a question instead.

Reece rolled his eyes, "He's involved with a pack. Somehow they all found out about you and are all crazy about their new Luna. Zack's parents are apparently even planning on coming here just to meet you."

She stared blankly at the wall, trying to ignore the soft whimpering of her wolf.
"Freya, what're you thinking about?" asked Chance with a slightly worried look.

She looked at him with the most serious expression, pushing aside any amusement, "I'm thinking about rejecting Zack on the next full moon day."

"What?" Reece and Chance stared at her as if she'd said something terrible, which it was.

Rejections were rare indeed, and they only happened when the mate was abusive or couldn't accept the bond. Unfortunately, they were despised no matter what the circumstances. Wolves were only allowed to reject on full moon days because the moon goddess would then continue the process of mating. If she felt that the wolf deserved a second chance, she'd find him a new mate on that day.

It was almost something like a dating service.

"You can't do that. What about our pack?" snorted Reece.

She narrowed her eyes, "Zack ignores me because of the pack. He wants me to prove I can be a good Luna before he'll accept me."

"Then do it."

Her face contorted in anger, "I shouldn't have to prove myself to anyone. I'm who I'm, and I can only continue to improve. I'm not perfect, Reece, but Zack expects me to be all that when he's not himself. That doesn't make any sense at all."

"You must understand where he's coming from, Freya. He feels that he's let the pack down before. He doesn't want to let them down again," Chance protested.

"See, he doesn't even have faith in me.
He thinks I'm the downfall of the pack, which is absolutely incomprehensible, because if I wasn't good enough to be a Luna, why the hell would the Moon Goddess give me her blessing and bring us together?"

"Blessing?" asked Reece incredulously.

'Damn. I've said too much.' she sighed.

She gave him a pointed look. "Of everything I said, you only understood the word blessing?"

He raised an eyebrow, "What's the blessing?"

She shook her head, "That's a topic for another day. We were talking about the reasons why I might reject Zack."

"Which you shouldn't," Chance added.

She glanced at the two of them.

How could they be on his side? Didn't they see what he did to her? She was unconscious for two days because he couldn't get himself together to put on his big pants.

Reece sighed and sat down on the bed next to her feet, "Freya, I know that was totally unfair to you, but listen to me. Zack is a good guy. He just had a hard time as an Alpha. You know, he was forced into the position of Alpha at a young age, twenty to be exact."

She stared at him curiously - his sudden idea of telling stories piqued her interest.

"Shortly after Zack turned nineteen, his father was injured in a fight by a silver bullet. The bullet had narrowly missed his heart and hit his shoulder instead. The doctor managed to pull the bullet out before it could kill him, but the silver still got into an area of his heart. As a result, the doctor said his father couldn't continue as an alpha because the stress could potentially kill him if he panicked at some point."

She winced at the thought of even touching silver. She couldn't imagine how it would feel to be hit by a silver bullet. Zack's father must've been a strong wolf.

"So his father decided to step down and pass on the title. But Zack didn't want the title yet, and he wasn't ready for it. He was busy with his college work. So his father passed the title on to a wolf named Slyvester."

Chance decided to jump into the story at this point and give Reece a break: "Slyvester was a good wolf and a good
Alpha. The pack adored him as much as Zack's father. But everything went downhill when he met his mate, the rogue Patricia."

The menacing tone in Chance's voice made her heart sink. It was clear that the rogue was causing a lot of trouble in the pack.

"In the beginning, everything was great. Patricia was a pretty good Luna, and no one suspected her. After all, it was normal for rogues to join a pack after they found their mate. But on the day of their wedding, during the reception, almost all the wolves got drunk, except for some of the pack warriors and older wolves. It was the worst timing ever." Chance gave the blanket a hard look and spoke through clenched teeth, "Patricia got her army of rogues to attack the pack."

Her eyes widened in shock. Of all things, she hadn't expected this.

"Freya," Reece said, "Two hundred and three members of the pack died that day, including Slyvester and Patricia. A day meant to celebrate a new bond ended up being a day to mourn two hundred and three broken bonds."

She was absolutely horrified. Her heart broke for the pack members who'd lost their loved ones in that terrible war. She couldn't imagine the pain of losing so many pack members. It was devastating.

"Zack blames himself for this, Freya. He thinks he could've taken over the pack when his father asked and prevented something like this."

"But he wasn't ready. It's not his fault," she said quietly, still processing all this new information.

"That may be true, but that doesn't stop him from thinking that way. That's one of the main reasons he's so reluctant to accept you. He's afraid he'll be blindsided by his love for you, just like Slyvester was blindsided by Patricia. He's afraid that if he's distracted, he'll lead the pack to ruin."

She frowned, "I can understand his fear, but he needs to look at this more logically. Patricia was a rogue with malicious intent, I'm not. I'm the daughter of an alpha who was raised to want only the best for the pack. Patricia and I are completely different people."

Reece and Chance were silent.

"Let me ask you guys something. If you found your mate, would you ignore her until she proved she was good enough to be a beta or gamma female? Would you expect her to be perfect?"

"Of course not," Chance snarled angrily,
"That's ridiculous."

She gave him a pointed look.

Reece sighed, "I see what you mean, Freya. We'll help you with Zack. Just don't give up on him yet."

"I'll give him some more time, but if I don't see a change by the full moon, I'll turn him down. Capisce?"

They glanced at each other for a split second and nodded in agreement,

"Capisce."