Her Broken Human mate

Chapter two

At 5pm I was out the door. Usually I'd get Ben to drive me, but as we were headed to a small town an hour away, I got Jessica to drive instead. Whilst I had every faith in Ben covering me, to have us both out for such a long period of time was a risk that just wasn't necessary to take.

Jess's driving style was interesting to say the least. It concerned me that the rear view mirror was pointed towards her face rather than towards, well the rear, but I wasn't convinced that would have changed the comfort of the journey. She seemed unable to keep the vehicle at a constant speed. She accelerated along the road until our car was almost dry humping the one in front and then quickly stomped on the break so that my seatbelt nearly cut me in two. By the time we reached the Sea-blue Moon pack house I was visiting I'd made the decision to never travel with her again.

"Thanks for the ride" I said as genuinely as I could muster but she wasn't listening to me, she was staring out of the windshield at the house in front of us.

"You can not marry in to this Aunty Piper!" Jess exclaimed, horrified.

"Why ever not?" I was looking at the same building as her and honestly it looked fine.

"It's only on two floors" She pouted. "And I can't smell a swimming pool"

"Jess I'm not asking you to live here," I sighed "Now get gone and leave me to it, ok?"

"Ok, What time do you want me to pick you up?"

A wave of nausea hit me as I thought about travelling as a passenger in her car.

"I'll make my own arrangements home, save you having to come out again."

I put my wrist through the strap of my evening bag, jumped out of the car before she could argue and walked up the small path towards the front door. The house was moderate in size but then it was a small pack, hence the reason the Alpha had been so eager for me to meet with his Beta. They had around 50 pack warriors and their families, but the majority of the wolves lived away from the territory and worked 'normal' jobs in amongst the humans. There wasn't the need for full time warriors as there wasn't much call to arms these days. I'd done my homework and studied their pack history. They weren't big enough to challenge for any territories and so had lived in peace for decades. Beta Shaun was pleasant enough on the eye and, according to Alpha Michaels, was an all round nice guy who wanted a shot at being involved in a bigger pack. So providing we could find some common ground my future Alpha could be right behind this fuchsia pink front door.

I wrapped my knuckles against the solid wood and instantly took a couple of steps back, the porch was a little on the small side and if the door opened out, I was likely to lose a couple of teeth! I had a bottle of very old and very expensive red wine in my hand in order to show willing and I held it securely at the neck whilst I tried to steady my nerves.

I'd done this countless times now and yet it still felt like I was going to meet a guys parents before our first date. I took a couple of deep breaths and fixed a smile on my face as the door opened outwards.

"Luna Avery, such a pleasure to meet you." Said the man that I assumed was Alpha Michaels. He looked more nervous than I felt, which was worrying.

"Alpha Michaels," I said cheerily trying to ignore the feeling of dread in my stomach. I extended my hand to him, and he shook it limply. He pulled back and wiped his very sweaty hand on the leg of his trousers. My smile slipped slightly but I don't think he noticed. We stood for a few awkward moments before I cleared my throat to speak.

"Alpha Michaels aren't you going to invite me in?"

"Of course, I'm so sorry, please do come in" He turned on his heal and allowed me to follow him into his hallway, he was muttering under his breath but I couldn't catch what he was saying. 'Nothing good, I'd imagine' My wolf Roxy pointed out.

I continued to follow the Alpha down a narrow corridor. Out of habit I started to sniff around the air to see if by any chance my fated mate was actually a member of this pack. Within a few seconds I knew it wasn't to be. It was a long shot but I never gave up hope that he might be just around the corner.

Alpha Michaels stopped outside of a closed door. I could hear talking on the other side and assumed it was the dining room.

"Is everything alright Alpha?" I asked. There was definitely something not quite right here and I couldn't ignore it any longer.

"Luna, our Beta Shaun will not be in attendance this evening" The Alpha replied whilst looking anywhere but me. "But don't worry I have his deputy here, so that you didn't have a wasted trip" Before I could respond he dramatically threw open the door.

"Luna this is our Deputy, Toby."

My mouth dropped open and I made a small squeaking noise at the back of my throat. Deputy Toby was covered in teenage acne and looked around 12 years old.

"It's a pleasure to meet you" He said in an overly loud voice. The first four words he did in the style of Minnie Mouse and the last two, Ving Rhames. Oh my Goddess!!

The room was pin-drop silent for a couple of seconds before polite Wolf etiquette won out and I stepped forward to shake his hand.

"Deputy Toby," Christ even his name sounded childish "forgive my directness but how old are you?"

"17" He answered automatically.

"Try again son" I asked trying not to come across as patronising

"16?" He asked. I shook my head

"And the real answer is?"

"I'm 15 Ma'am"

"Right, well, thank you very much for offering to meet me in Beta Shaun's place. Might I ask where he is?"

"He's with his mate, my sister." Toby declared proudly "He thought he'd be able to marry you but he said he just can't do it."

'Oh for f**k sake!' Roxy despaired.

I turned to look at Alpha Michaels. My humour had vanished and I was trying to hang on to being reasonable.

"So have you brought me here to humiliate me Alpha, or did you just assume I was so stupid that I would marry a minor?" My voice was laced with an authoritative growl. He needed to know he'd pissed me off.

'Take it easy Piper' My wolf warned me.

"Neither of those things are true Luna." He replied panicking "I didn't want to cancel at such short notice and thought the least I could do would be to give you a decent meal and an evening away from your pack."

My blood boiled under my skin but I managed to keep a lid on my temper. "Alpha this was a business meeting, not a dinner date with friends." He said nothing, just hung his head. Coward!

I grit my teeth and spoke slowly "I think it's probably best that we leave it there. I will leave you to your evening. Goodnight"

I walked out of the dining room with my head held high, thanking the Moon Goddess that I hadn't handed over the bottle of wine. When I reached the front door I heard the Alpha calling after me. I turned towards him and gave him the most menacing look I could manage, he stopped dead in his tracks. I slammed the door behind me with such force that I almost wrapped it around the house. What a f*****g waste of my time!

I stood outside of the door for a few minutes willing myself to calm down. Deep breathes Piper, no need to kill anyone over this!

'Now what?' Roxy wondered.

My stomach rumbled loudly. It looked like we were going in search of food.