The Rogue Alpha's Return

Chapter 6 - Cleaning Up

Conner

The room she had given me was better than anything I'd stayed in for years. I had clocked her bedroom as soon as I was on the upstairs landing, her scent was immensely strong from the end door of the hallway. Her home was incredibly inviting, not only because it was saturated with her peach scent, but because it was so cozy. I had noticed the art work on the walls downstairs and on the upstairs hallway, all done in pencil and charcoal. The detail and quality were astounding and something told me they were done by her own hand. My mate truly was a talented woman, I felt a huge sense of pride swell at that thought.

The walls of the house were all rich, natural colours of greens, browns, blues, lots of rustic wooden furniture and wooden paneling on the walls. Wolves loved the outdoors and many made their homes to mirror our woodland habitat. I had noticed upon entry of Eden's home the reading room on the right, filled with bookcases, a huge fireplace and a large armchair. So she was a reader too? Something we had in common.

Eden really had made the effort to make me comfortable in her home, clothes and toiletries, I noticed in the bathroom, had all been prepared for me. I thought on our walk here together, her bouts of silence were due to nerves or maybe awkward silence brought on by tense subject matter. But she must have been mind-linking someone to have this made up for me. That would explain the lingering faint smell of a visitor I had noticed.

I couldn't help but laugh at Eden's escape out of my room earlier. She was so easy to fluster, I wondered if it was just me that could elicit this state or whether it was flirting in general that she found difficult to tolerate. Although that latter thought had a wave of possessive jealousy run through me. She was an incredibly beautiful woman, I wondered if other male wolves in the pack openly hit on her? A low growl escaped me.

'They'll f*****g regret it if they do' Colt angrily stated.

'Cool it. We're not gonna be winning any hearts if we go around maiming her pack members.'

He grunted at my words, laying down to sulk.

Taking one more look around the dark teal coloured room, I headed for the bathroom. A hot shower sounded like a luxury right now, one I would happily indulge in.

I had left my coat and backpack on instead of hanging them up in the mud room downstairs because they were saturated, kind of gross and I needed to go through them before getting them washed. I decided to dump them in the bathtub for now and deal with them after.

First things first though, deal with this beard.

I had seen the shaving things left on the countertop next to the sink, Eden really had thought of everything. A small smile graced my lips at that thought, at her care. I took in my appearance in the mirror and was surprised to see it was worse than I had expected...and I expected to look like hell.

How exactly did I make it this far with my mate, I'd never know. Maybe the wild, rogue look was her thing?

I had dirt up the side of my face and most of my features were eclipsed by the beard. My hair was still damp and looked filthy, but I knew it wouldn't be matted. Two things I tried to maintain; one was brushing my teeth and the other was keeping my hair combed. I may be a filthy rogue but even I had some standards. The thick, long sleeved t-shirt I was wearing had seen much better days, it was torn and had holes in places. It was time to retire it after this. I took it off and threw it in the bathtub along with the coat and bag, now standing in front of the mirror in just my pants that had a few tears and dirt here and there.

The stab wound I had taken on my right shoulder had healed well and was barely noticeable now. It had only been a few days ago. I came across a rogue, a little desperate, who tried to steal my backpack. I had tried to help him at first but quickly changed tactics when he pulled a silver blade on me. Normally silver burnt our skin and interrupted the healing process where it touched leaving a scar behind, but because of my self-imposed training living in the wild I could tolerate the metal exposure well on my skin's surface. Having the blade in my shoulder though still hurt like hell, but it had left the guy unarmed. It was either him or me...he wasn't much of a challenge, but I disliked having to end a life.

"Strength is a shield, not a weapon" my dad used to say, words I wanted to live by.

With thoughts of my father, my eyes raked over the tattoo on my left shoulder and chest. Two wolf heads, one dark brown, the other pale brown, one on top of the other. My dad and mom respectively, surrounded by hawthorn branches that wrapped around the top of my bicep. I had it done around five years ago to remember them by, so they were always with me. When I ran from the pack I ran with nothing and I had had to shift to outrun my pursuers. So when I shifted back to my human form, literally all I had were my balls hanging in the breeze.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts I turned to the beard trimmer on the counter. Cutting through the thick hair, I made quick progress. I finished off with the electric razor for a close shave. I didn't mind stubble, but it had been months since I was last clean shaven so I took full advantage of the freedom.

The person staring back already looked like a different man. I really did look like my father and, unfortunately, Alex too. I had my mother's fuller lips and her unique pale, green eyes though but the rest of my features were my dad. A strong jaw, angular nose and high cheek bones just like my old man. The small, silvery-red scar that ran across my left eyebrow stood out more now, a lasting reminder of that night. I noticed the comb too on the counter so decided to run it through my hair before showering, once I had disposed of the beard trimmings in the trash.

Stripping out of the rest of my clothes and tossing them into the tub to join the rest, I finally stepped into the huge shower. Goddess, I had missed this simple thing. Much like the rest of my room, the shower was stocked with everything I needed: body wash, shampoo, even conditioner...fancy!

I spent the better part of 40 minutes in there enjoying the simple luxury most would take for granted, just letting my forehead rest against cool tiles trying to process the events of the last few hours. I was also slightly horrified by the colour of the water coming off me and how much soap I required before the water ran clear. But I was finally f*****g clean! For the first time in months, I felt somewhat like a person again and not a wild manimal.

Coming back to reality I remembered I had an incredibly gorgeous, sexy woman waiting for me downstairs, which had me jumping out of the shower faster than lightning. I quickly toweled myself dry including my hair, wrapping the towel around my waist and running the comb through it again. Now that it was clean and somewhat dry it really had the same curly, wavy texture as my mom and it had grown pretty long, just above my shoulders.

The stranger staring back at me now in the mirror was such a world away from that 17 year old of nine years ago. He was taller, even more so broader, more rougher and rugged around the edges, marked by the near decade of a drifter existence. I had seen things that would horrify some people and I had done things I wasn't proud of. This would be the end of that life, I hoped. I'm not sure where it was going to go now, but as long as I didn't f**k this up, I would have Eden there with me. That same warm feeling spread through my chest at the thought of her.

After brushing my teeth, I finished up in the bathroom and headed for the closet to get dressed. When Eden had shown me round I noticed there were items of clothing in there. They didn't have the scent of her home permeated into them so they must have just been brought over. That thought soothed me that she didn't keep a stash of men's clothing in her home just in case. I just wanted to be comfortable so I grabbed a pair of boxers and threw them on and selected a pair of black sweats and a black t-shirt. The shirt was a little tight across my chest and arms, and the sweats were maybe an inch too short. But they'd do.

I headed back to the bathroom with some hangers to sort out the things I'd left in the bathtub. The jacket was still ok, just needed washing, like everything. The pants and shirt were toast though. I left the jacket to hang up over the tub, anything that needed washing I would deal with later. The couple of items of clothing I had in my bag were ok, wet but wearable, so they joined the jacket. The backpack was pretty beat up but it had seen me through a lot so I decided I wanted to hang on to it for now.

The more solid items I removed and placed on the counter. The canteen I wouldn't need anymore, so I emptied its contents and placed it with the clothes for the trash. I had a large bowie knife, that had saved my life a few times and the silver knife that had, last week, been embedded in my shoulder. I certainly wasn't getting rid of these. The last item was a small, brown leather wallet that had cash in it, I had around $400 on me. Most of it was either found, earned doing odd labour jobs or taken from the couple of bodies I had left behind from rogues that tried to jump me. I hated doing it, but they brought on themselves; it was their life or mine.

I took the knives and wallet through to the bedroom and left them on the nightstand next to the bed. That bed looked real comfy right now.

'Don't you dare! Get downstairs. You're scrubbed up and looking pretty now so go to mate! You're keeping her waiting' my wolf practically shouted.

'Someone's eager.'

'Like you're not? Move your ass, human.'

I laughed at his impatience but swiftly moved to take the stairs, Eden said she'd be in the kitchen and I remembered seeing what looked like a kitchen to the left when I entered the house. As I entered she was already looking up at me and what I saw was an absolute treat. Her eyes were a few shades darker and I caught the sudden but brief burst of warm, baked peaches.

Guess my mate liked the new look.