My Possessive Alpha Mate

Chapter 3

Derek's POV- 

My own mate just ran away from me. I'd waited my whole life for her. I'd worked out so that I was strong enough to protect her. I'd become the fastest in my pack so that I could watch over her. I ate healthy so I could live a long life with her and we could have pups. I didn't sleep around too much so as not to embarrass her. Every decision in my entire life, I had paused to think of what my mate would think, how it would make her feel, would she be proud of me. My whole existence thus far, had been with her in mind. Now that I meet her, she runs away from me? What was I supposed to do with that? 

Go after her! Growled my wolf. He was furious that I wasn't following our mate but I didn't want to smother her. She needed her false sense of security to keep her calm. It wasn't like she was going to get very far. She was clearly exhausted and obviously was going to stay at a hotel so technically I knew where she was. There was only one hotel in town. It happened to belong to my Beta's family. I immediately got him on the phone and began scheming.

Arabella's POV 

I found the hotel in record time thanks to the map I'd bought at the gas station. It was about 9:00 pm by the time I had finished eating at the local diner and I hoped there were still rooms left. Considering it was such a small town I figured visitors were in short supply.

I unbuckled Alexa's car seat and just held her for a second, feeling her calm me down. Derek was too sexy and mysterious for his own good. I smiled just thinking about him. What was wrong with me? He was clearly crazy. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. I needed to forget him. With any luck he'd be expanding his criminal enterprise into other areas, and leave this small town entirely. To hell with Derek.  

I walked around to the back of the car and pulled the big black duffel bag out of the trunk, putting the long strap around my shoulder. then I went to the front passenger's seat to grab my purse. Suddenly like a bat out of hell, a big muscular guy was right next to me.  

"Here, let me help you with that." He said politely concerned, gesturing toward my bags.  

"Do you work here?" I eyed him suspiciously. His clothes didn't look like any kind of uniform. He wore a button up collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow and the first few buttons undone. His jeans had mud on the hems, but his shoes were clean. He had most likely been out in the large expanse of woods we'd driven by on our way into town. I made a mental note to ask him about it later, hiking was always how I cleared my head. He had kind chocolate brown eyes and matching messy chocolate brown hair. He was almost as tall as Derek but not as muscular. He was more lean. 

"Yeah, I'm Jason. My family owns this hotel." He explained. I nodded and handed him my bags. Alexa was still asleep in my arms and would probably sleep all throughout the night since the timezone had changed for us in the move.

"I'm Arabella and this is my niece, Alexa." I said, introducing myself. I figured it was the nice thing to do since he didn't have to carry my bags.

Walking in silence through the parking lot was awkward and I couldn't seem to get Derek out of my head. I noticed I had even compared Jason to him. Normally I would just appreciate Jason for how cute he was on his own, why did I have to think in my head 'he's cute but not as hot as Derek'? I sighed. 

"Do you know Derek Redwood?" I found myself asking Jason. He seemed amused but took a second to answer. 

"Kind of. What do you want to know about him?" He asked, with a small knowing smile on his lips. 

"Is he always such a freak or is it just me?" He broke out laughing and just shook his head.

"You know what, Arabella? I think I like you." He chuckled. I rolled my eyes.