Maverick's Mate

Chapter 5--Maverick

Immediately after I walked back into Grams’ hospital room, she asked one question. "Is Aspen your mate?"

I turned towards her with a massive grin on my face, "yep."

She clasped her hands together in glee, "I knew it! I knew she was special. This is a perfect gift from the Goddess for you. I will die in peace knowing the pack is well situated with a wonderful Luna."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Grams. She’s a normal, I have a long road ahead to get her to accept me and the pack."

"Please. I saw the way she was looking at you. She will come around. I know it here (she pointed to her heart) and here (her gut)."

I sighed, "I really hope you're right."

After meeting with the doctors, we agreed grams would be discharged the next day with home health support to live out her remaining days at home with the pack. She was perfectly at peace with that decision. I was less comfortable, but mostly because I didn't want to face even more loss. Regardless, further treatment wouldn't add longer to her life and would just make her miserable. Given this, I had a narrow window in which to make a move on Aspen, since I wouldn’t have a built-in excuse to visit the hospital. It was going to be challenging enough to walk away from her tonight knowing she was heading out of the hospital unprotected and unwatched. In spite of my modern leanings, when it came to protecting my mate, I guess I was still a little caveman and very Alpha.

Patiently (or not that patiently), I waited in Grams room until the nurses had their shift change. My plan was to "accidentally" bump into Aspen on her way out of the hospital and ask her out. Aspen walked in with her co-worker to do their sign-out, but first I needed to see her again. Frankly, it was impressive that I had been able to hold Axel back from following her around all afternoon. It took a lot of energy and constantly reminding him that our mate was human, we had to be cool. He huffed around quite a bit and protested, but eventually calmed down.

“Hi.” I said.

“Hi.”

We sort of just stared at each other. I tried to think of something clever to say but I was at a loss. She was stunning and I wanted to pull out her bun, tangle my fingers in her hair, and kiss her. I couldn’t wait to see my claim on her neck. Since I couldn’t do that, I just stared into her molten caramel eyes. I'm not sure how long we stood there, but finally her co-worker spoke up.

"Yo! You guys. Get a room or something. I've got s**t to do. You must be Maggie. I'm Tara and I'll be your nurse tonight."

Aspen blushed and giggled a little. She and Tara went through their little sign-off process. Aspen wished my grams good luck, winked at me, and walked out.

I kissed Grams good night and headed down to the hospital lobby to put my plan into action. Now that I had Aspen's scent, even if I missed her, it wouldn't be a problem to track her with my heightened Alpha abilities. I was right, about 15 minutes later, she emerged from the elevator with several of her co-workers. I timed it just right and "bumped" into her as I was "reading" my phone.

"Oh! Excuse me. My apologies ..." I started. Goddess, my c**k rose to half-mast with just that little contact. I needed to get a grip, quickly, before I was pegged as some sort of perv.

"No problem," Aspen started, as she looked up at me, "Oh, hi Mav. I thought you left?"

"I'm on my way out. Had to set up a few things for tomorrow before I headed home. Can I walk you to your car?"

"Sure," she replied with a smile.

Fortunately for me, her car was several blocks away. We played 20 questions while we walked and Aspen became increasingly more interesting. I learned it was also just her and her Grandma left, but her Grandma lived six months of the year in the south, avoiding cold weather. Aspen had been a nurse for four years, which I figured put her in her mid-20's. I was 24, and didn't mind an older woman...especially one who looked like Aspen and happened to be my fated mate. It was hot. She lived alone and was currently single. At least I had that going for me.

Our arms brushed several times as we walked and the tingles were amazing! I resisted the urge to pull her close to me and bury my face in her neck. Axel was pawing in my mind to come out. Now that we were clear from all the smells of the hospital and in the fresh air, I could fully appreciate her magnificent scent. The rich citrus (maybe orange?) and spice scent made my mouth water and my c**k rise to attention. I subtly adjusted myself while Aspen adjusted her bag. I offered to carry it, but she deferred. By the time we reached her vehicle, I knew I had to quit stalling. The direct route seemed best, so I dove in.

"Aspen, I was wondering if I could take you to dinner on your next night off? There's a new Indian place I've been wanting to try and I would love it if you would join me."

"That sounds great. I would love to. I'm off the next few days and could probably make something work," she looked up with a sweet smile and I was done. It took exactly one conversation for me to fall in love with the idea of Aspen.

"How's tomorrow night?" I asked hopefully. It was already going to be painful to walk away from her for any length of time, but I was going to try.

She giggled. "Wow. You don't mess around, do you?"

"Eh. I'm not much into game playing. When I see something I want, I ask for it."

"And you think you want me?" Oooh! She was sassy. I like it.

“I know I want you.”

She rolled her eyes and grinned, "Fine. Tomorrow night, dinner. Put your number in my phone. Text me the restaurant address and I will meet you there." Hmm, she liked control. Well, so did I.

"I'd be happy to pick you up if you prefer. Besides I'm not sure I could face my Grams if she found out I let my date drive herself." I countered as I entered my number and sent myself a text so I would have hers.

"I bet she would have you by the balls," Aspen giggled.

I grinned. Aspen could talk about my balls anytime.

She tilted her head to the side and sort of squinted her eyes at me while our conversation paused. "Fine, you can pick me up, but on one condition."

"Anything." (Way to play it cool, idiot.)

"Put Maggie's number in my phone because if you are remotely creepy, I'm calling her and letting her deal with you," she smirked.

I grinned, "deal" and dutifully entered my grams number in Aspen's phone as well. Not that Aspen had anything to worry about, I would never hurt my mate. If I did anything remotely close, Grams wouldn’t be the only one who kicked my butt.

Thankfully, I had been to university so I knew more about human ways than some of my kind. Even though I was tempted to follow Aspen home that night to make sure she stayed safe, I resisted the temptation and drove back to the pack instead. I suspected following her home would get me labeled as a stalker or something and I didn’t want that. As I drove home, I realized that I didn’t feel as sad as I had earlier in the day. Aspen’s mere presence was already making me feel better.