Her Alpha's Orders

CH 3

West POV

Knowing Jo-anne was coming did not go down so well, he’d stalked out of his father’s office; soon to be his office. Slamming the door shut behind him. He understood why, but didn’t honestly see why she had to be here. She was still loyal to his father; wasn’t that enough?

The girl, he sighed; the woman he corrected his own thoughts; she was a woman now. Would be 28 now, her birthday had come and gone, just like it had every damned year that she wasn’t here. He hated that day.

West did not want to see her. Knew that his father and mother had seen her on occasion, his father and the current Beta had seen her at least once every year for the past 10 years; had contracts for her to sign. She seemed happy living away from this pack, out there in Seattle.

He lived here, and she was an hour and a half away. Had never come back, not even once. But now that he was about to take over as the Alpha, his father was insisting on her coming back to the pack, just for his swearing in ceremony, to have her pledge her loyalty to him. West had doubted she would come.

He stalked all the way to his old room, unlocked it and banged inside. Stared at it, still all sealed up. No-one was allowed to come in here but him; usually only to break s**t. The entire place was already destroyed; only the bed wasn’t.

He was trying to calm himself down. Why didn’t she just refuse to come? Hell, he didn’t care if she pledged or not. Hell, she could go and find another pack for all he cared. He heard his wolf Volt snarl at him inside his mind at that thought.

‘f**k you, Volt.’ he shot right back at his wolf.

His damned wolf still missed Clova, whined about it annoyingly some days. She was lost to Volt forever. Jo-anne had killed her.

Even with this knowledge, his damned wolf still not only liked the damned woman, but missed her. It ticked West off more than anything else. He knew where she was. He knew what degrees she’d gotten, he even knew what marks she’d scored. A perfect damned student; no real surprise there, she always did get good grades, even in high school.

He kicked a piece of already broken chair clear across the room and leaned on the door, and closed his eyes. How could he even look at her? He didn’t want to. She had been completely hollowed out the last time he’d seen her. Nothing left on the inside, had rejected him. Not that he blamed her for that, she had been right to. They were not happy, had never been.

‘You were an asshole.’ Volt shot at him.

‘Shut-up, Volt.’ West knew his wolf blamed him for the loss of his Mate, not Jo-anne, and never ceased to let him forget it.

He and his wolf arguing; what else was new? Had been like this for more than 10 years, 12 in fact. Volt loved Clova, and West could not allow himself to love Jo-anne. Volt just couldn’t understand it. ‘You will not touch her when she comes, or I will shoot myself up with wolf-bane, to punish you.’

‘Hurt yourself only.’ his wolf snorted back, and stalked off to the back of his mind.

Where was Miranda? He needed a distraction. Stalked out of the room to go and find her, the woman always enjoyed a good f**k. Found her, grabbed her hand and took her to their bedroom. “I’m in the mood. You want to?” he asked, already pulling his shirt off.

She smiled all bright-eyed at him. “Sure.”

“On your knees.” he stated, as he took his pants off.

She knelt; liked being told what to do. He stepped over to her, grabbed her head and pulled it to him. “Suck.” he’d stated, and she had, just like that. Always did, it was good, but he’d had better, he thought absently. Pulled her off him a few minutes later and bent her over the couch, ripped her underwear off, kicked her legs apart and pounded the hell out of her, till he was done. She was gasping and moaning the whole time. He looked down at her afterwards.

“Oh West,” she sighed, “your so good.”

“Mm.” he headed for the shower and just stood there under it, he might need to pound her again later, he thought, as the hot water fell over him. His mind drifted...he probably would.

She’d been sitting on the couch when he’d come out of the bathroom, and smiled right up at him, seemed happy enough, he thought. “I might want to do that again later.” he told her and heard her giggle. The girl liked it rough, and that’s how he did it. It’s why she’d been in his bed for the past two years.

West knew everyone was expecting him to Mark and Mate her once he took over, including her father and his. She was alpha-blooded and their pups would be strong, he supposed. But she was not his Fated Mate, though she did seem to really like him.

She was always smiling at him, always good to go a few rounds in the sack, never said no to him when he wanted it. Though still not his Mate, and he’d had better s*x before; a lot better in fact. Though he could give it to Miranda multiple times a night if he so chose to. He’d once had a girl who he just couldn’t stop f*****g, sometimes endless hours of her moaning and crying out his name in pleasure. He shook his head to clear it; that had been ruined.

He stalked out of their room and left Miranda there. He was certain she’d had better as well. It never seemed to take her long to recover from s*x, a minute, maybe two, and the scent of her arousal was gone the minute they stopped. It would be different if he marked the woman; he knew that.

West had been Mated to another before, not his Goddess-Gifted Mate either, and the s*x there had been more than good, but look at what that had done.

No, there would be no Marking and Mating of her or any woman, she-wolf or any creature that was not his Goddess-Gifted Mate. Miranda could leave anytime that she wanted to, and he’d told her as much, on more than one occasion. Every time she brought up being his Luna, in fact. She was not going to be it. It was that simple.

West watched as T.J., his best friend, and Beta, lit up completely. They were in his father's office and only one person in the entire world could make T.J. look so freaking happy and excited. Jo-anne was here. He watched as T.J. left the office to go and greet her, heard his father yell after him, to bring her right here to the office.

West’s heart was suddenly beating furiously inside his chest, he was going to have to see her, look right at the woman. Not something he had ever thought he’d have to do again. He would have continued with her contracts but would have let T.J. do it all, never have brought her in. He didn’t want to look at her. Not ever. To many bloody memories he had of her.

‘Relax.’ It was his father, Damien’s voice inside his head. He had picked up on West’s heart rate ‘She is fine now son, I assure you.’

West didn’t answer, he did not want to see her. She’d left him, and for very good reasons, she'd laid them all out for him, in fact, right before she left. Just to remind him of his actions and feelings towards her. But still he didn’t want to see her.

Watched her as she walked right into his father's office, smiling and happy, so full of life now. Being away from him had been really good for her, it appeared. Pain pulled at his chest.

She was wearing a white dress with tiny blue flowers on the bottom half of the skirt, and a blue unbuttoned sweater, blue heels and light make-up. That dress fit her perfectly, he noted, cinched in to her waist and the skirt flared out as she walked. Her cinnamon brown hair was a lot longer; it had been shoulder-length before, and was now all the way down her back.

Those pale grey eyes of hers, when she turned them on him; and he had not been expecting her to look right at him. She had stopped looking at him long before their relationship ended. He knew why. It was his fault.

Had not expected her to look at him, let alone smile up at him like that, like she was truly happy to see him, a genuine smile that reached her eyes. He couldn’t speak, was barely holding himself together with her in the room. He had no idea what to say to the woman, had never imagined he’d ever come face-to-face with her again.

She had left this pack, left him, 10 years ago and never came back. He'd never thought that she would ever come back.

Jo-anne tried to hand him a birthday present, and even told him happy birthday. He couldn’t understand. How could she just walk in here, look right up at him, like that, and be all happy? Like nothing had ever happened. Had she simply forgotten it all? He felt Volt push forward to look right at her, as she smiled up at him; she had gotten taller.

He realized she was maybe five-foot ten now, not that much shorter than his six-foot six. Her eyes were defined by black eyeliner and mascara. It suited her. Volt was very happy, he noted looking down at her. Was wagging his tail inside West’s mind.

‘Clova.’ his wolf practically purred inside his mind.

‘Gone remember.’ West reminded his wolf. There had been no Clova for the last three months of their Mate Bond, no Clova the day Jo-anne had rejected him. She had basically been human by then, something else he had to deal with.

‘Clova’s back, I can sense her.’ Volt told him, and seemed quite excited about it. Likely his wolf was not wrong, she did smell different. Though when he breathed in; smelled her. She did not like smell like she used to, he thought, differently to when they had been mated. That was odd. His eyes moved right to her neck, as she turned and put his gift down, perhaps marked by another, but no just his old mark, scarred her neck. But still she smelled very different. Something was different about her.

To his complete surprise, she turned and introduced herself willingly to Miranda, and then congratulated him on finding his Mate. He did not correct her, neither did Miranda, for that matter. She thought they looked good together. West was listening to her every word. She really did mean it.

Then offered to take their picture, professionally. He knew she could, and was good with a camera; part of her Bachelor of Arts degree. Damned woman had many talents for the pack to use. Miranda thought this was a good idea. He did not, at some point, the girl would leave him. Likely find her Mate and leave, so he did not need pictures of her.

T.J. took her to her room, on the first floor, where there was no damned balcony. He’d made sure of that. He was not going to see a repeat of that day. Not ever. If there had been a room on the ground floor, that is where she would be.

West heard her tone and that it was completely teasingly, and fun. Implied she thought T.J. was going to put her in his bed. Bloody unlikely. He saw T.J. look right at him ‘Not going to happen West.'

‘f*****g right it won’t.’ West had shot back more than angry.

West knew the two of them had always been close, even as the girl had grown up T.J. had always been right there. It was weird, to say the least. He just always knew when she was in trouble or pain. The two were connected on a deeper level. The time she broke her arm in high school, in gym class. T.J. had shot up and out of his chair, tearing out of the classroom.

Scared the hell out of damned near the whole class, including the teacher. He’d even known exactly where she was. West had gone after him that day, thinking something had been terribly wrong with T.J.’s father, mother or sisters, but no.

They had both been 17 at the time and Jo-anne just 13, and he’d torn through the school, barged right into the gym and shoved people out of the way, uncaring of whose children they were, in order to get to her. She had been sitting on the gym floor crying, holding her arm. West had watched as T.J. had scooped her up and told her everything was going to be okay.

West had driven them in his car to the pack's hospital and T.J. had sat in the back seat holding her the entire way. She’d stopped crying the minute he’d picked her up, his presence had comforted her instantly. It was really weird, has always been that way.

West had seen it before, too. The girl couldn’t seem to stub her toe without T.J. knowing about it. If she wasn’t four years younger than T.J., and had been the same age as him, it could have passed for a twin bond. Werewolf twins were as connected as what he saw in T.J. and Jo-anne. It was just plain weird.

T.J. had saved her life once, from West himself. He stopped that thought right in its tracks; not going there.

Though when she had gone missing at 16, T.J. had not been able to find her at all. The man had been completely frantic, shot out of his chair, breathing hard, clutching at his chest. West had thought he’d been having a heart attack. Then he’d stumbled about, his eyes closed, “Jo-Jo.” had come out of his mouth.

West recalled asking him what was wrong.

“Can’t... Gone.” he’d gasped, pain etched in his voice.

“Gone?”

“Can’t... I can’t feel her.” he’d managed to finally say.

Feel her? That explained a lot, he could feel her like she was a part of him.

They’d gone looking for her. Well, T.J. had gone running around the pack looking for her, and West had trailed him. No-one, it seemed, had known where she was.

Then her parents had come in and reported her missing that very night. Just a few hours later, T.J. had not been wrong.

West honestly had thought at the time, hell his whole life. That Jo-anne was going to be T.J.’s Mate, his Beta’s Mate. Till that fateful day, he’d woken up in that hotel room, Marked and Mated to her. With no memories of how it happened, still to this day had no memory of how he’d gotten there, or of their marking and mating. Just what she had looked like before he had fled the room away from her.

Jo-anne was finally out of the office and out of his sight, clearly happy to be with T.J., nothing at all had changed between them, it seemed. She had left them both standing at the pack gates just six hours before she turned 18. Her birthday would have fallen on a full moon that year, she had left them both. Neither he nor T.J. knew if she was his Mate. Deep down inside, West still did suspect it. T.J. was un-mated, as was West.

He supposed the next full moon would tell him all he needed to know. Didn’t want to think about it to be honest. He had no idea how he would feel about it; react to it for that matter. She had been his Mate for two years, give or take a few days, he only knew he was not looking forward to it. It was only a few days away, in fact.

He pulled Miranda out of the office and back to their bedroom. She’d raised an eyebrow at him “I want to, do you?” he’d stated flatly.

“Sure, not like you…”

“Just get naked already.” he’d cut her off, pulling his clothes off the minute he’d walked into their room. Pulled her onto the bed. “You, on top. Go for it.” he’d told her.

Miranda had smiled right at him “Sweet.”

It wasn’t often she was on top, his hands rested on her thighs while she bounced up and down on him, getting herself off. He lay and watched, but then his mind wondered else where. When it came back, she was lying on him, and he realized she was all done. He hadn’t even gotten close.

“What’s wrong West?” she asked him.

“Nothing.” he’d sighed and rolled her off of him.

“You want me to turn over?”

“No, it’s fine.” he got out of bed and headed for the shower. She was not going to be able to sort him out, it was that simple. Only one thing was, and he would do it himself. Hated himself for it, but did it anyway.