New Beginnings

Chapter XVII

James' P.O.V.

Cleaning the pack grounds after the battle was devastating. All of the bodies must be identified by the families and then all the blood coating the ground. It was a complete mess.

It's been three days since the battle and nobody is allowed to leave the territory. Everyone is grieving the loss of friends and family, mates, and children. I haven't been able to leave either. As alpha, it's my job to protect the pack and I have failed to protect the people that lost their lives.

Not once in these three days have I seen my mate. She hasn't come back and I'm beginning to worry. Jack is going crazy, wanting to see his mate. He wants to see her beautiful body, her amazing lips, her delicious-looking ass. I can't say I don't want the same but unlike him, I don't rant on and on about how much I want to take her.

Thankfully, I've been too busy to have to talk to my father. I know for a fact that the moment we're alone he's going to ask questions about who that girl was. It's not that I don't want them to know who she is but I don't want to be asked questions I don't even have answers for.

"Hey, James, when are we going to take a break?" Jake whined, patting me on the back.

"Dude, look around you. We aren't going to be done for a few more days. We won't be getting any breaks any time soon," Rowan piped in, looking up from the stack of papers below him.

"But that's not fair. Everyone else gets to lay around and relax," Jake complained again.

"Yes, you're right. You should be laying down relaxing after this huge battle, Gamma," I say sarcastically, looking at him like he's insane. "Of course, you can't relax right now. You're the gamma of my pack, you're in charge of the warriors and that also includes figuring out who died in battle. So, once that's done, you can go take a nice, long nap, does that sound good?"

"Why are you so mean," Jake mumbled, getting back to the papers in front of him.

"Because I'm alpha," I smiled mischievously.

He flipped me off, before turning to Rowan, asking, "Do you hear this man? Why is this bastard our alpha?"

"At this point..." He paused, letting out a sigh. "I have no clue."

"I need better friends," I mumbled, signing off on a few papers.

"But you love us," Jake said in a baby voice.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I say, blowing him off. "We need to finish this paperwork so let's get to work. At this point, we won't finish this for a few weeks."

"James is right, we need to finish this," Rowan said, nudging Jake.

"Fine," Jake mumbled.

And with that, we got to work.

________

Hours later, half the paperwork was complete. We were all exhausted and wanted to sleep.

"It's two in the morning, can we please go to sleep now?" Jake, once again, complained about wanting to take a break.

"I actually agree with Jake on this. We need our sleep," Rowan agreed.

"Okay, fine. We can leave everything where it is and come back to it tomorrow," I mumble, rubbing my eyes with the pads of my thumbs. They nodded, getting up from their seats and walking to their room in the pack house.

As I was about to get up, there was a knock on the door. I muttered a half-hearted come-in, my head resting on my hand, eyes half closed. In walked my father, with a stern facial expression.

"What are you doing up?" I question.

"Waiting on you," He said.

"Why?" I mumble softly.

"Because it's time you answer some questions," He said, smiling slightly.

"Dad, can we wait till morning when my brain is actually functioning?" I ask hopefully.

"Nope, in the morning you're just going to make up an excuse about work and then avoid me all day, so we're talking about this now," He stated.

I let out an exasperated sigh before asking, "What are your questions for me?"

"You already know exactly what I want to know but I guess if I have to jog your memory then I will. Who was that girl out there in the battle?" He asked.

"Okay, but you might want to sit down," I say, gesturing to the seat in front of my desk. "So, the other day at school there was a new student and uh, I had to show her around. Jack started freaking out an-"

"Oh my god, she's your mate isn't she?" He asked in astonishment. I nodded my head slowly causing him a wide smile to replace his features. "So, why haven't you mated and marked her?"

"Because she's human," I said, looking up at the ceiling, rubbing my hands down the front of my face.

"Oh..." He paused, looking lost in thought. "How was she at the fight though?"

"I don't know," I say. "She was crazy out there and I don't understand why."

"She was crazy out there," He agreed, looking like he was going back to when we saw her fighting. "Well, the hard things over with," He muttered to himself.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"She knows wolves exist so she has to know what mates are," He said confidently.

"Oh, yeah, you're right about that," I mumble slowly.

"I just want to know how she can fight like that," He said, rising from his seat.

"Me too. Where are you going?" I asked, not thinking this conversation was over in the slightest.

"To tell your mother she's going to have a daughter-in-law," He smiled, making my eyes widen in horror.