Her Alpha Mate 27

"I still have to do something," Zack whispered between kisses.

Freya pulled back a little so she could see his face properly, "What's it?"

He pressed another chaste kiss to her lips and gave her a small smile before letting her go completely. She tilted her head and gave him a questioning look.

"My family has a sort of obsession with dog tags, and I don't know if you've noticed, but we all have one with our names engraved on it," he said.

Freya paused for a moment, thinking back to the many times she'd seen him shirtless. She'd noticed that he wore a chain around his neck, but she hadn't thought much about it at the time.

"I noticed it. What about the dog tags?" she asked curiously, wondering why he brought it up.

He cleared his throat, "This is getting really corny and you might hate it, but I still wanted to see if you-"

"Zack," Freya interrupted him gently, "Whatever it's, I'm sure I won't hate it."

"Right," he licked his lips nervously, "so the male wolves in my family have this tradition when they adopt their mate.
They give them a personalized dog tag and put another one on their own chain. I don't think you've noticed this yet, but..."
he broke off slowly and pulled out his chain.

A smile spread across her face as she stared at the new dog tag hanging from his neck. She reached forward and held it up so he could see what was written on it. At the top of the tag were carved the words "Her one", below that was a small heart, and under the heart were her initials.

"Oh, that's sweet," she said softly, "but why is there a hole here?"

She ran her finger around the hole, which was shaped like a puzzle piece. Zack chuckled and reached into his pocket to pull out a small apartment box, "I thought instead of giving you a giant dog tag. I could give you this."

He opened the box and her eyes widened at the sight of the silver chain with a puzzle piece hanging from it. The words "His only" were written in the center and a small heart was attached to one of the corners.

"I asked my dad to cut a piece out of my dog tag to make them match. The initials are on the back, along with the date we met."

Freya turned the little piece over and nearly burst into tears again. "Zack, that's beautiful," she whispered, tracing the little indentations.

He kissed her on the head and turned it over. "It'll look even more beautiful when you wear it around your neck."

Freya shivered slightly as she felt his fingers graze the back of her neck as he pushed her hair aside. He quickly placed the necklace around her neck and hooked the ends together before pressing a kiss to the back of her neck, "Perfect."

He continued kissing the side of her neck until he reached the back of her ear.

"You're officially a member of the Steward family," he whispered, kissing the back of her ear.

Her heart warmed at the thought, and her wolf tail wagged happily.

'Let's mate our mate now,' Aurora said.

'What, we've only just accepted each other.'

'So, just seduce him.'

'Absolutely not.'

"Is your wolf acting funny, too?" asked Zack. She turned back around and giggled at his expression as he seemed to be arguing with his wolf.

"Yeah. We should let them out sometime," she muttered, brushing a few strands of hair out of his forehead.

"We should, but after my meeting with the
Deltas. I've been putting it off for days now," he said, giving her an apologetic smile.

She shrugged and let him take her hand as they walked towards the pack, "Sure. But can I train while you're in the meeting?"

"Train? With who?" he frowned and looked at the field where the warriors were training.

"I don't know. With Chance? Or maybe with Reece? I just want to do something useful while you're in an important meeting."

He pursed his lips thoughtfully, "Fine, you can work out with Reece. I don't want Chance touching you and giving me smug looks."

Freya laughed, "You know he's like a brother, right?"

"Maybe, but he likes to tease me. He thinks it's funny to tease my wolf until I almost keel over with rage."

"That sounds like him."

"Unfortunately," he sighed, stopping in front of his parents' house, "I've to go now, but Pearl will give you some clothes to train in. I'll let Reece know you want to train."

Freya nodded and kissed him on the cheek before blushing when she saw some pack members staring at her. She cleared her throat and quickly walked up the stairs, pretending she didn't hear Zack laugh.




***




"Okay, well done," Reece said, helping Freya up after she collapsed on the floor from exhaustion, "Now I want you to fight someone."

"Against who?" she gasped, taking a quick sip of water.

"Hmm... I want you to fight Chance."

"What?" she sat up and watched Chance walk toward her.

"And who am I fighting?" asked Chance, cracking his knuckles threateningly.

Reece nodded at her, which made him grin. "You up for a friendly duel, shortie?"

Freya slowly stood up and stroked her shorts with her hands, "Uh, sure."

He cracked his neck and took off his shirt so he was only wearing his undershirt,
"Alright, let's go."

They stepped into the chalk circle and waited for Reece to give them the signal.

"Remember," Reece said, standing at the edge, "you aren't friends. You two are enemies in this ring. Not a nice game. The first one to put his claw on the other's throat wins."

They nodded in understanding, and Freya cracked her knuckle as she squeezed her eyes shut.

She'd not go down without a fight.

As soon as Reece said "Go!", Chance let out a loud roar that caused all the warriors to stop and stare as he lunged at her. She rolled to the side and quickly kicked him in the back of the knee, but he grabbed her foot before she could reach it. She delivered a blow to his jaw that he dodged, but she took advantage of his distraction to yank her foot out of his grip.

There was a reason Chance was a
Gamma, and she could definitely tell he was an amazing fighter. He was absolutely relentless, and there was nothing left of the playful Chance, which was actually pretty scary. All she saw was a fierce look on his face as they fought ferociously.

In the end, though, they both ended up on the ground, claws at each other's throats. They looked at Reece, who seemed quite surprised by the outcome.

"Well?" asked Chance, spitting some blood out of his mouth. Freya noticed that he'd a large gash on his forearm, so she bit her hand and stroked the scratch mark with it. He gave her a grateful smile and pulled her into a side hug, careful not to touch her injuries, "Good job, little one. You're a tough one."

"Thanks," she grinned, "You too."

"Well," Reece said, forcing her to look at him again, "I've to say, I think that was a stalemate. You both managed to get your claws into each other's necks at the same time, which was pretty amazing. Well done, Freya."

She gave him a thumbs up as she gulped down her water.

"Now," Reece began, "I want you to..."

He was interrupted by a strong male voice.

"I want you to fight me."

Everyone froze, and she turned to Zack, who'd a determined look on his face as he tucked his hands into his sweatpants. He raised an eyebrow, the smile he usually gave her was gone, "So?"

Freya swallowed and licked her lips nervously.