Chapter 17

ANASTASIA MULBERRY

Anastasia frowned and dropped her eyes, unable to look at him any longer. With his dark brown hair that appeared darker under the low dimmed lights of the den, his deep hazel eyes and strong jaw, she had a hard time paying attention to what he had to say as his looks were far too distracting.

Too bad he was a total asshole.

Despite her informing him of the fact that she was rightfully on pack lands with prior permission from the Beta, it appeared that Alpha Storm wasn’t in a very agreeable mood, choosing to bark at her rather than speak to her. As if she was some sort of animal that didn’t understand basic instructions.

She couldn’t help but snort at the thought as he was far more animal than her.

“What’s so funny?” Alpha Storm asked in a deep, throat voice, the sound of it quiet yet forceful as he questioned her, watching her every move and expression.

“Nothing.” Anastasia lied quickly, not wanting to anger him anymore than he already was.

If she continued at this rate, she wouldn’t be able to live long enough to meet the child she was bringing into the world, especially since she was aware of the short-tempers and anger issues that most Alpha’s seemed to suffer from. Not that she would know as this was the first Alpha wolf that she had ever met but rather, this was something her father had mentioned to her a few times.

“What’s your name?”

“Human.” She rolled her eyes and when he growled at her, she gulped and regretted the attitude immediately.

Now was not the time to crack jokes, not when her life was being threatened by a very angry Alpha who looked like he would be able to squeeze the life out of her with just one arm.

“Don’t act smart with me.” He warned her with a growl, taking a threatening step closer which caused her take a step back yet lift her chin higher, confusing even herself with her conflictive actions.

“I’m not acting.” She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, but immediately uncrossed them as she feared she would resemble a petulant child. “Anastasia.”

A moment of silence passed, lasting so long that she had to glance up to make sure that the Alpha had heard her. Much to her surprise, he was staring intently at her, his eyes not even wavering when she stared back at him and held his gaze; not the least bit ashamed for being caught staring so blatantly.

She spied Raphael and Justas watching the exchange with wide eyes, but she was quick to turn her gaze back to the Alpha; still watching her with a neutral, slightly strained expression on his face. Almost as if he was battling his inner self or in this case his wolf.

“Anastasia what?” He mumbled quietly.

“Anastasia Mulberry.” She replied in a slight daze, a pleasurable shiver running down her spine and her body tingling at the sound of her name rolling off his tongue, wrapping around each syllable perfectly.

“Anastasia Mulberry.” Alpha Storm murmured quietly, reaching a hand up to rub against the underside of his jaw and over his mouth, almost as if he was trying to hide something.

She frowned at that but before she could question him about it, Justas chose that exact moment to inject Raphael and himself into the conversation.

“Alpha.” Justas dared to take a step forward as he addressed the Alpha, pausing to clear his throat before he continued. “I asked permission from Beta Dalton before about Anastasia being on pack lands.”

“But you didn’t ask me.” Alpha Storm snapped back almost immediately, glancing back at the two from over his shoulder, his hard, defined body still facing her.

Anastasia took the moment to shake such thirsty thoughts from her mind and instead, turned her focus on her friends. She couldn’t help but frown at Justas’ words as she was a firm believer of only taking the fall if they had done something wrong whereas in this situation, it was a simple case of miscommunication. Also, it wasn’t as if her presence in the pack was causing any issues so she didn’t understand why the Alpha had chosen to make it his business when they were so many other things that he could turn his attention to. Like leading the pack.

“Sorry, Alpha.” Justas bowed his head with a grim look on his face, his cheeks heating slightly for the shortcoming on his part. “This is my fault. I should have run this by you instead of going to the Beta.”

“Yes, you should have.” His lips stretched into a thin like as he turned his head to face her again, looking down at her from under hooded eyes as he towered over her modest height of five-foot-six by at least eight or nine inches, putting him at around six-foot-three.

He was tall, even by werewolf standards.

“If you still want me to leave then I can leave, even though I do have permission from Beta Dalton.” Anastasia pursed her lips and resisted the urge to roll her eyes even though that was all what she wanted to do as well as cuss him out for such a foul attitude.

Instead, she kept her less than pleasant thoughts to herself in hopes of cutting this moment short and getting away from the big bad wolf. Even if a small part of her wanted nothing more than to press herself as close to him as possible.

She had to shake her head to rid herself of such thoughts, almost fearful that he would somehow be able to tap into what she was thinking even though she knew it was impossible, even for supernatural creatures.

“Well, do you want me to leave or not?” Anastasia groaned as she threw her hands up in the air in frustration, already tired of what this back and forth was.

When he didn’t answer her but instead chose to assess her silently with a strange glint in his eyes and a slight twitch at the corners of his lips, she was sure that he was laughing at her despite looking as if he wanted to personally throw her out of the pack a few moments ago, pregnant or not.

“It’s unfortunate that Beta Dalton doesn’t run the Lupum Griseo pack, isn’t it?” A sarcastic chuckled passed his lips, his hazel eyes turned into a dark ember colour, bordering on gold, the longer he assessed her as if she was some sort of code which he couldn’t crack.

She took great satisfaction in that but refused to show it.

“Yes, very unfortunate.”

Alpha Storm growled loudly at the same time Raphael gasped and Justas took another daring step forward, followed by a few more timid ones until finally, he was stood between both her and the Alpha.

“Alpha, I apologise on Anastasia’s behalf. Her hormones have been all over the place lately so she’s not really thinking straight. She’s usually not this rude.” Justas apologised quietly, silently begging the Alpha to go easy on them all.

Her jaw threatened to drop over with what she was hearing but before she could jump to defend herself and deny those silly accusations, Raphael shook his head frantically, silently begging her to keep quiet. However, it was too late for that now.

“My hormones are perfectly fine, thank you!” She huffed and rolled her eyes, this time not bothering to hide how annoyed and frustrated she was with the situation. “And there’s also nothing wrong with my manner of thinking.”

Justas gulped but didn’t bother to spare her a glance back and instead, continued addressing the Alpha in a respectful tone.

“I’m sorry, Alpha. She doesn’t mean that.” He chuckled awkwardly. “But would it be okay if Anastasia stuck around for a while? You see-” He tried to explain but he was cut off before he could continue.

Anastasia snorted and shook her head before bracing her hands on her hips, her position mirroring that of the Alpha’s.

As if she would want to stick around now!

“I’ll leave, but you don’t have to be rude about it or put up this big charade.” She craned her head to glance at the Alpha from over Justas’ shoulder, only an inch or two shorter from the glowering wolf.

“There’s no charade.” Alpha Storm stated simply, a bored expression on his face though his lips continued tugging at the corners which confused her immensely; unable to decipher whether he was bored of the conversation or was poking fun at her.

Her money was on the latter.