Broken Mate

Chapter Four

(I'm starting to sweat, I can feel it.) 

I immediately avert my eyes from Kayden and focus on my task as he stares at me. He walks in with another guy that looks familiar. He has platinum blond short hair and dark blue eyes.   

(I think I have seen him when I was younger, he used to live here.) 

 They sit at the end of the table. We continue serving breakfast and I can feel his eyes on me or maybe it's my anxiety playing tricks on me but I am not going to find out. I keep my eyes down and continue my task. 

(This is such crap goddess, why? Why him?) That's all that runs through my head. 

Levi serves Kayden and I feel relieved, I serve the guy he came with and the guy looks at me.  

"Thank you." He says with a big smile and I look away feeling perplexed. 

(No one here ever thanks us.) 

Heidi walks in and whenever she's in the room, it turns loud. She just turned seventeen so she is still in that stage where some girls are annoying and loud. She sits on the chair next to Kayden that faces the guy he came in with.  

"OMG! I am so happy that you are back home permanently Kayden." She says almost squealing. 

I look up at him and he is looking at me. 

(Dammit! Why did I look at him?) 

He then looks at her with a serious expression. "Tone it down, it's too early for this crap." He says. 

The guy next to him tries to hold his laugh but he can't and starts laughing. Then Evan walks in and my body tenses up.  

"I'll do it." Levi whispers to me and I am so thankful for him right now. 

"Alpha Kayden, beta Grant." Evan says bowing his head towards Kayden and the blond guy. 

(Oh! That's going to be the new beta?) 

Only Alphas are determined from the bloodline. Betas and deltas are picked by the Alpha, usually, it is someone who is a friend or someone they trust. 

"So, I hear the Delta position is still open." Evan says while Levi serves his breakfast. 

"Then you heard wrong, Preston is taking that position." Kayden says. 

"Preston?" Evan asks confused. 

"My younger brother." Grant, the soon-to-be beta, says. 

(Ha, that means you have no position in this pack asshole.) 

"And the Luna position?" Heidi asks with flirty eyes and twirling her hair. 

(I'm done here.) I immediately walk back into the kitchen. I don't want to hear anything that has to do with any of that. 

(It bothers me, I don’t want it to, but it does.) 

I start cleaning up and after half an hour, everyone is done with breakfast. Levi walks in and doesn't look so good. I put a hand to his forehead and he feels a little hot. 

"Levi, go to the pack doctor, me and Layla can handle things here." I say. 

He doesn't argue nodding and that tells me just how bad he's feeling. Layla looks at me with concern. 

"He'll be fine." I say reassuring her. 

(I hope.) 

At lunchtime, we prepare the food for the Alpha like we always do. We don't serve lunch to everyone, if someone is hungry, then they can make their own food, we only serve breakfast and dinner to the pack members and lunch to the Alpha, that's it. Layla and I are almost done with the lunch when Celeste walks in. 

"Make sure to have another plate, the young Alpha Kayden is joining his father Alpha Felix in the office." She says and I internally sigh. 

We nod and she looks around confused. "Where is Levi?" 

"Pack doctor, he wasn't feeling well." I say. 

Her face morphs into anger. "Piece of garbage! You low lives can't do anything rig-" She stops yelling looking at the door at a guy who we have never seen before, he stands there smiling. He has platinum blond hair and dark blue eyes, he looks just like Grant but younger, more my age. 

"Who are you?" Celeste asks while he continues to smile. 

(I will admit, it's kind of creepy the way he's smiling.) 

"Preston, soon to be the delta of the pack." He says holding his hand out. 

Celeste looks at him surprised. 

"Oh, Celeste." She says and shakes his hand. 

"Just wanted to meet the people that work in the packhouse. I left to train when I was young so I don't really know anyone." He says still smiling. 

"Oh! Well, I can show you around to the other workers." Celeste says walking towards the door. 

"Oh no thank you, I like to do things myself." He says walking over to Layla. 

"Hello." He says holding his hand out. 

Layla gives a cautious smile. "Hi." She says softly and shakes his hand. 

Celeste looks annoyed and leaves.  

He turns to me. "Hello, and you are?" He asks holding his hand out to me. 

I look at his hand but I don't touch him. "Rain." I say. 

(I'm not trying to be rude, it's just that I don't like touching men or them touching me.) 

He puts his hand down. "Oh, you're Rain." He says and I look at him confused. 

He smiles again. "So that Celeste is a b***h, huh!" 

My eyes go wide and Layla gasps but then she starts to laugh. 

(Who is this guy?) 

"Preston, what the hell are you doing? We have to go." Grant says walking in. 

Grant looks at us and smiles. "Ladies."  

Layla giggles but I just look at both of them trying to figure them out. 

"Sorry, sorry, I heard some shouting coming from here and I wanted to figure out who was the howler monkey." 

Now Layla is laughing uncontrollably and I have to admit I almost laughed too. 

"Oh, who was it?" Grant asks. 

"You're not going to believe it... it was an actual howler monkey." Preston says smiling. 

Grant rolls his eyes. "Let's go." 

"Ok fine." Preston says pouting. "Bye girls." He waves at us. 

Layla waves back and I just continue making lunch. 

"He was funny." Layla says. 

"Yea well, men have charms to lure you... don't fall for them." I mumble. 

(I don't trust them, then again, I don't trust anyone.) 

We finish lunch and walk to the Alphas office. When we get to the door, I take a deep breath and knock on it. 

"Are you ok?" Layla asks. 

I nod. 

"Come in." We hear the Alpha say. 

(I hope he's not here.) 

We open the door and Kayden is the first thing I see looking up at me from where he sits. 

(Dang it!) 

I focus on the food as I put it on the coffee table and I feel his eyes piercing through me. My heart beats fast and my hand starts shaking as I lower the coffee next to him. He quickly takes it from me, grazing my fingers and I feel sparks run through my whole arm, and my breathing hitches. 

I quickly take the tray and we walk to the door. We turn around and lower our heads.  

"Alphas." We say and then turn around and walk out. 

I finally feel like I am able to breathe properly but what he does to me just by being near me scares me. 

"The new Alpha is really handsome." Layla says as we walk back to the kitchen. 

(I'm sure everyone else thinks the same thing. Women probably fall at his feet and he gets everything he wants from them without a care in the world... I hate men.) 

"I am going to go see Levi at the hospital, I'll be right back." Layla says. 

We usually have a break right about now since we start preparing dinner at around four in the afternoon but since Levi is not here to help, we have to start early. 

I start doing prep. I'm completely in the zone when I feel someone behind me. I panic and quickly start swinging my arms around but my hands are quickly caught and hold in place. 

"Calm down." I hear Kayden say. 

(Oh shit.) 

I yank my hands away from him and I take a deep breath, I hold my chest trying to calm myself. I back away from him and he just watches me.  

(He's so tall.) I think looking up into his beautiful olive eyes and my stomach does summersaults. 

"Is there something you want, Alpha?" I ask him.

"Yea." He whispers looking at me and my body gets goosebumps at the sound of his voice but my mind gets nervous at what he just said. 

He reaches his hand over trying to move a strand from my face but I recoil back away from him with my eyes wide. 

(I don't like men touching me and he is no exception although....my body wants to betray me.) 

He clears his throat and stares at me looking a little confused at my reaction. He then turns around walking away. "Don't tell anyone what we are." He says and walks out the door. 

I stay there confused.  

(But... not that I was planning to anyway but... if that's what he wants, he could have easily rejected me there.) 

Layla walks in and I go back to prepping, an hour later we are done. 

"I think we have everything ready. We can take a break until it's time to cook." I say. 

She smiles. "Good, I'm gonna go see Levy again." 

I decide to take a walk to the lake. Next to the packhouse, there is a huge lake where I love to walk and remember the times that I spent there with dad. 

I sit on the boulder I always sit on and watch the young kids in the distance play in the water, but then my mind goes to Kayden. 

(He told me not to tell anyone about us being mates, so why doesn't he reject me already? What is he waiting for? I hate this, the waiting. I don't understand how....why is he my mate...out of all the people.....why did it have to be an Alpha? I'm just a normal she-wolf.)  

I sigh and lie back feeling the sun on my face. It's a beautiful sunny day today. This is one of the other places that I feel safe, mostly because it's in the open so I know Evan and Asher won't try anything. 

After a while, I head back and all hell is loose in the kitchen with Celeste yelling. I walk in through the door and she looks at me with so much anger. 

"Where the hell have you all been?!" She shouts. 

"I... I." I don't know what to say. 

"You should all be here right now!!" She shouts again. 

(It's still early.) 

I don't argue because she gets like this when she is in a bad mood, there is no way to reason with her and she takes it out on us. 

"It's my fault, I told Layla that we had time for a break." I say. 

Not even a second passes and she slaps me. I hold my cheek in pain. 

"You are useless! Start cooking everything yourself, no one is helping you today!" She yells. 

I nod and get to cooking. 

(Good thing we already had everything ready.) 

I cook everything while Celeste watches me. Levi and Layla come back together but they aren't allowed to help me. They stand on the side watching too. 

I finally finish my last dish and just in time too. I put it on the counter and Celeste inspects it.  

"Good, now take the basket and go to the garden. Go pick the vegetables needed for tomorrow while Layla and Levi serve dinner." She says. 

I don't argue even though it’s going to take me a long time to do, there's no light in the garden and the sun is already going down. I take the basket and go to the pantry and get a flashlight. I walk outside and go to the garden on the right side of the house. 

"I need carrots, tomatoes, and potatoes." I say looking around. 

I start picking but it goes slow. Almost an hour later I am finally done. I take the basket and start walking towards the packhouse.  

*Whistling tone* Evan whistles walking towards me. 

I freeze and my body starts to tremble but then I realize that I am in plain sight.

(Calm down Rain, we are in the open where everyone can see us so he is not going to do anything.)   

 I stand there watching him carefully but keeping a distance from him.

"You do know that I own you...right?" Evan says walking around me. "I will get you eventually. No one else wants you anyways, so you are mine." He says and I just stare at him. 

He comes closer. "Maybe if you start behaving and complying, then I might keep you as my side piece. It's not like anyone else will want you. I'm sure that the reason you don't have a mate is because he already rejected you anyways." 

I want to say so much but I don't dare antagonize him. The warriors cut his ranting off when they start running towards the woods.  

"Rogues again?" Evan asks more to himself. 

Kayden comes out of the packhouse walking in the same direction as the warriors but looks to where we are standing. 

"Go inside." He says and turns his head back focusing on the woods. 

Evan is already walking away and I do the same but I look back at Kayden who is giving orders. He's calm and collected and has a serious stern expression. He looks like he will fit perfectly well in the role of Alpha. 

(Jus...like...his...father.)