Alpha's Surrogate

8. Mistreated Miss Of Her Family

"What happened here!?"

Kiara scrambled away from Xavier in a panic over the roar he had just unleashed with his wolf. The only thing that she could think of that would cause him to be this furious was that she had entered his bedroom without permission. It was either that or he had changed his mind because of his Aunt’s need for vengeance. Kiara staggered ready to fall to the floor if she were attacked when a large hand drew her closer so that Xavier could touch her cheeks and check her over for any injuries.

“Wh…what are you doing? Kiara stammered. Dean hadn’t bothered to pull back, he had remained sharing Xavier’s concerned eyes.

"Didn't Margaret attack you? Where are you hurt? Is it under your clothes, on your back or stomach? Show me!" Xavier's fingers clutched at Kiara's tiny waist, tugging at her clothing so that he could see where she was bleeding.

"What on Earth are you doing? I’m not hurt." Kiara was barely able to break away from the Alpha’s grasp before he stripped her naked in an attempt to find an injury.

“But Jennifer said that you were hurt…” Xavier trailed off mid sentence, turning his head in search of his devious little female Beta. “Jennifer!” he barked towards the door that she was peering from behind.

“It seems that I made a mistake, Alpha. Please accept my sincerest apologies,” Jennifer smiled impishly, then shut the door behind her.

‘Did she really have to leave me alone with him?’ Kiara muttered under her breath, feeling completely trapped. Xavier’s wolf continued to stubbornly stare at her, making her fidget in discomfort.

“Can you please let go of my shirt?” Kiara found herself swallowing the lump in her throat when his fingers brushed the bare skin of her waist when he gently released her top. She quickly took a couple of steps back to create a safe distance in between them.

“What exactly did Margaret say to you?” His eyes intently scanned her for any visible injuries from head to toe. Having satisfied Dean that Kiara was indeed unharmed, his wolf finally retreated. Though it had not escaped his notice that Kiara’s gaze had dropped at his question.

“Nothing,” she lied, her voice scarcely more than a whisper, while her eyes were focused on the plush carpet beneath her feet.

Knowing that the time she would spend at the Sirius Bright Pack was limited, Kiara had no desire to create conflict between Xavier and another member of his family. On the car ride there she had accepted that she had no rights in Xavier’s eyes due to the nature of their agreement. She understood that it would be difficult to live like that, since the guilt she felt over her brother’s crimes would never diminish.

“Look at me,” Xavier urged as he took a step closer, closing the gap between them, yet Kiara’s eyes remained firmly on the floor. “Luna always holds her head high and looks other people in the eye. Others lower their gaze to her, not the other way around.” Using a finger, he lifted her chin until her gaze met his. “You can never look away from them, it’s a sign of weakness, Luna is never weak. Just stay close to me and ignore any taunts. I want these chocolate eyes on me at all times, alright. Do you understand?” Xavier subconsciously stroked his thumb along her bottom lip.

“Okay,” luckily Kiara was able to control the shiver that his touch felicitated, the racing of her heart. She was not so fortunate.

“Did you eat your dinner?” Xavier asked while his eyes remained firmly on Kiara’s moist lips.

“I’m not hungry,” she managed to get out between shallow breaths. She couldn’t understand why he was still touching her.

“Why?” he c****d a single brow in question. “Is it because of the incident with Margaret? Do I need to remind you again to not pay attention to insults? She and my uncle chose to leave the pack before I even made the decision to bring you back with me. Others would never even dare question my judgment in selecting you as my Luna. In order for you to give me a healthy pup, you must eat appropriately nutritious meals, and carry enough flesh on your bones,” he tacked on at the end.

“I’m not that thin,” she looked at him glumly. “ I’ve been able to keep myself in shape by cobbling together a workout routine. If you don’t believe me, look for yourself,” she snapped, holding her arms out in an I-told-you-so manner.

Xaviers raised his brows at the first sign that she possessed an attitude.

“Yes, I can see you have a figure,” his gaze was fixed on the mounds of her breasts that were visible through the thin fabric of her blouse. They were just the right size. Be that as it may they were insufficient evidence for his questing eyes.

“I…” she stuttered, instantly regretting her statement that gave him the invitation to openly appease her body. “It’s just that so much has happened today, that I need some time alone to regain my bearings. It’s also why I’m not really in the mood to eat anything,” she gave by way of an excuse as she pulled away from him to go to her luggage. “You never told me what room I was staying in.” She knelt down to collect her things, preparing to leave the Alpha suite.

“You’ll be staying here in the Alpha suite with me.”

“But…but..but,” she went on to argue further, then realized that members of the pack would question why Luna wasn’t staying with the Alpha. The fact still remained that staying alone with the Alpha would be a delicate situation for her.

“Do you have something to say?” Xavier raised a single brow.

“No,” Kiara decided to keep this particular wolf at bay, for now at least.

“Then I’m going to have your dinner sent up,” he announced before walking out of the room.

“But I just said that I wasn’t hungry!” She clenched her jaw when he continued to ignore her. It wasn’t like she would die from starvation if she missed a day's worth of meals. One thing was for certain that man would go to any lengths to insure that he received a healthy heir.

Xavier left his bedroom and went straight down to the living room, where the guys were lounging around waiting for him.

“So what happened?” Zander asked. He was at his cousin’s burial handling the situation all the time. “I heard Aunt Margaret did something but aunt and uncle has chosen to become lone wolf and will never return,”

“Yes. Aunt Margaret definitely cursed her out, not that she said a word about it to me,” Xavier took a seat.

“From what I can gather, she appears to be a quiet yet intelligent woman. It almost seems impossible that she’s Sawyer’s daughter,” Zander remarked off handedly. “Where is your surrogate by the way?” Xavier had already discussed surrogacy with his brother, Beta and Gamma.

“She’s in the room. It’s been an interesting day, to say the least, so I wasn’t going to push her into coming out. However, I did have food sent up to her,” Xavier answered his twin.

“Well, I guess I’ll be meeting her tomorrow. Does she know about the deal you made with her father?” Zander asked.

“What deal?” Tyler, who had been with Zander at Molly’s burial rights, pipped in.

“He had Sawyer sign legal documents before he would release the Ardara Moon Pack from his control, having chosen not to absorb their territory,” Kaiden explained. ‘ Instead he allowed Sawyer to remain in control of the Ardara Moon Pack with a few stipulations and a final warning that he would be watching all of their movements in the future.”

“That means if they so much as step a toe out of line again, Xavier can wipe the pack off of the face of the planet if he chooses,” Tyler pointed out.

“Yes, they are still our enemies. Kiara has just become the bridge between our two packs,” Zander chuckled as he looked at his brother, who nodded in agreement.

“I haven’t told her about the deal I made with her father, but I’m sure that she’ll figure it out soon enough,” Xavier tiredly leaned back against his chair.

Originally, he had planned to kill the last two Alpha males of the Ardara Moon Pack family line. He had failed to foresee how Kiara’s words and sheer desperation to save her family would f**k with his head. Her affect on him appeared to be growing with every hour that passed.

“Well Xavier, how exactly is this surrogacy going to work?” Tyler wondered aloud, completely perplexed. “Everything just isn’t quite adding up for me. If this is truly just a surrogacy agreement, then you’re going to want legally binding documentation to that fact,” he pointed out.

“What do you think?” Xavier gave him a bland look while rolling his eyes.

“There’s no f*****g way, man!” Tyler gritted out in protest.

“You’re my lawyer and Gamma, that means don’t really get much of a choice in the matter,” Xavier smiled evilly at Tyler’s outraged expression.

“You’re all such assholes! If Lena finds out that I’ve kept something like this from her, she’ll skin me alive,” Tyler grumbled as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Don’t worry Tyler, Kaiden is in the same boat as you. He’s keeping Jennifer in the dark too. If your ship goes down his will too. Then you’ll both be in the dog house together!” Zander chortled as he rested a hand on Tyler's shoulder.

"You'll understand the day you find your mate," Tyler narrowed his eyes at his fiendish friend.

“You mean some cake-faced little she-wolf that will wiggle her tiny tail and I’ll be in love?” Zander asked. “Thanks but I’ll pass.” All four men laughed at Zander’s banter.

When Xavier returned later that night, he went directly to the bathroom to shower. Kiara took that opportunity to grab her phone and ran out onto the balcony to call Adira. The problem was her battery was completely dead, so she plugged it in to charge, then settled back down on the sofa.

When Xavier stepped out of the bathroom he found her huddled on the sofa like a little bunny waiting to be hunted by a lurking predator. Kiara was more than a little alarmed when she looked up and found him in nothing but a towel. Her entire face turned to the color of a tomato out of embarrassment as she averted her eyes from his chiseled upper body. How could he be so careless as to forget that she was sharing a room with him?

“Would you like to use the shower?” Xavier offered as he used a second towel to dry his hair.

“Shower?” Kiara tilted her head, growing alert. The other she-wolves that she had gone to school with used to openly discuss their relationships and secrets with each other. She had noticed a pattern, that men preferred their women to shower before s*x so that they were clean for them. “I’m fine, I don’t need to shower,” she quickly lied. She figured this way he would stay away from her since she was dirty.

“Whatever,” he sighed. “I hope you know that you will be sleeping in this bed tonight.” He tossed his wet towel on the bathroom floor.

From there, Xavier appeared to follow his usual nightly routine as he got into bed, then checked emails on his phone.

“Uhh, good night,” Kiara murmured after she settled down to sleep on the side of the bed furthest from Xavier. She didn’t expect a reply. She wrapped a blanket that she had found on the sofa around herself like a sort of armor, then curled up on her side on the very edge of the bed.

Xavier shook his head, completely exhausted by the events that had taken place over the last twenty-four hours. One thing was for certain, Kiara’s actions just now told him precisely what was going on in her head and validated what he had assumed most of the day. He turned the lights out then laid back in bed, making sure to keep an eye on her. Dean’s eyes allowed him to see her even in the dark. This was the first time in over two years that he’d shared a bed with a woman. It left him feeling strange.

Dean’s thoughts rumbled in his mind ‘She smells so sweet. She seems nervous. We should comfort her,’ Dean suggests, groaning in need.

Xavier’s eyes had been drawn to a small area of skin that was revealed behind her neck. She had pulled her hair up to sleep exposing that soft patch of skin to gaze. He never thought that the back of a woman’s neck would be so alluring. ‘

‘Comfort her,’ Dean repeated, pushing his s****l needs onto Xavier.

“Shut up!” Xavier blocked Dean off into a corner of his mind for trying to play games with him. Dean’s idea of comforting a woman varied widely from what the common definition of the word was. Xavier decided that sleep was his best course of action, otherwise the jerk would continue to f**k with his head.

The dark circles under Kiara’s eyes were becoming more pronounced as she spent the second night in a row sleepless. She continued to mess with her hair, moving the end of her ponytail on and off her neck. The problem was that she was incredibly hot, the blanket she had grabbed from the sofa was too heavy even with the air conditioning on. No matter what she did, she just couldn’t get comfortable.

Eventually, she glanced over her shoulder at Xavier and let out a sigh of relief. He was asleep. She was absolutely desperate to take a shower after hours of feeling gritty and sweaty.

“I can do this,” she whispered to herself as she slowly climbed out of bed. She stealthily moved through the room as quietly as possible so as not to interrupt his sleep as she went to her suitcase to gather clean clothes and a towel, then moved to the bathroom.

The moment the bathroom door closed, Xavier’s eyes opened. He had only closed them in an attempt to fall asleep. Had she really expected him to fall asleep with a woman rolling around on the bed next to him like that all night? Once he heard the shower turning on, he got out of bed and went over to investigate Kiara’s open bag.

‘Why are all of her things still in her suitcase?’ Dean asked suspiciously.

Xavier quickly escaped the contents of her suitcase without having to touch a single item. He noticed that she had kept her bras and panties concealed by her four seats of well-worn clothes. The other contents were the usual toiletries, a toothbrush, sanitary pads, a pen, and some books. Bending down to get a closer look, he saw an envelope. When he looked inside he found a few thousand dollars, it must be her savings. She hadn’t packed anything else other than a pair of torn old slippers that she had left by the bathroom door.

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his pajama pants as he mulled all this information over. Kiara really came to him with nothing other than a beautiful face, a body verging on too thin, and an incorrigible mouth. “She is the mistreated miss of her family.”

Kiara left the bathroom to find Xavier still fast asleep. When she laid back down on the bed she didn’t bother to cover herself again. She felt cleansed and relaxed enough to sleep in her new situation. She turned to face Xavier’s side of the bed completely, even though she couldn’t see in the dark, yet she had a feeling he was watching her.