Orion

Thirty-eight. Not healing

For him to have more than a few grey hairs by twenty-four, Orion must have been really stressed. Then again, killing your parents and only sibling, taking over a pack, and pursuing a degree at the same time could definitely do that.

Orion had quite a few.

They were sitting on the couch in the loft, watching TV when Mo noticed this about her mate for the first time. Orion was lying on top of her, his head on her chest with his signature hand up her shirt.

She'd been running her fingers through his dark curls when she'd noticed the silver glint that had her looking closer. Then, intrigued, Mo had gone through his whole head. He had nineteen of those thicker, silver strands and they were mostly scattered about the deeper crown of his head, closer to the back.

Orion hadn't spoken in almost a half hour, so when he did, his deep voice made Hoggie jump.

"You counting my greys?"

"I never noticed them before," His mate responded, still combing through his hair as she spoke, "There's quite a few. You must have been really stressed out."

Now, Orion lifted his head to meet her eyes, "I only had four before I went out to find a certain someone."

He didn't see the blank stare directed at. Mo rolled her eyes and completely ignored the statement.

"So you weren't stressed when you were planning your takeover?"

"Hmm. No. I was methodical. Calculated."

"Will you tell me about it?"

His hands were warm when he reached behind Mo's neck and untied her white halter top. When the fabric fell down, he wasted no time tasting her skin.

His lips started just behind her ear where he pressed two kisses before speaking, "I looked into other alphas first."

Okay.

Pleasantly surprised, Mo tried not to focus on his lips but the words leaving them so she could ask follow-up questions, but that was really, really hard to do. Especially now that he was biting and sucking along the column of her neck. The fingers that were once running through his hair now dug into his scalp as Orion groaned lowly. Mo really just wanted to close her eyes and enjoy him, but she didn't let herself.

Instead, she stared up at the ceiling and tried to focus on the scent of the outdoors that clung to her mate. He'd been on a perimeter run with Adriel before he'd popped by about an hour ago.

"W-What did you find?"

"Mmm. I found that good alphas didn't abuse their power. Didn't hurt their members, torture them for trivial slights, or.... I started researching alphas of the past. I was around fifteen by then."

"W-When? When d-did you-"

Fuck. She couldn't focus. Those lips felt too good, that tongue too tempting. All Mahogany wanted to do was drag him back up so she could taste him. But he was actually telling her things, so with the last of her faculties, Mo really, really tried to keep herself trained on that.

Orion moved down to Mahogany's shoulder, pressing open mouthed kisses across the warm naked flesh that had Mo's mind going blank. But, he understood the question she was trying to get out.

"When did I start looking initially? When I was around thirteen or fourteen. Shit seemed weird way before that, but it wasn't until I was older that I asked why we didn't have a beta or a gamma, and they got tightlipped. Warren did too and that was what tipped me off. He was a jackass but whenever I had questions about anything, he always answered- even if it was a sarcastic response that may or may not have been true."