The Book Keeper

Chapter Twelve

The Book Keeper

Chapter Twelve

            “Mate. My beautiful mate,” the handsome man says, looking at me. My eyes widen. I found my mate. “Leave us, please,” he tells the other two wolves. They nod in respect.

            As soon as the door closes, the man—my mate is standing in front of me, caressing my face with his rough, calloused hand. As he touches me, I feel pleasurable electrical shocks beneath my skin. It is as if the tingles follow his touch.

            He smiles down at me and I cannot help but smile back. He takes my hand and leads me to the couch. He motions for me to sit and I do. He sits beside me, still holding my hand.

            “What is your name, mate?” he asks me, kissing my hand. I blush and say, “Aaliyah. What is yours?” “What a beautiful name. I am Ashton,” he tells me. I love that name. It is unique, but not ridiculous. The sound of it makes me shiver. I feel my wolf purr.

            “Would you like something to drink, Aaliyah?” he asks. I nod my head politely. He walks out the door and my wolf whines.

            Within five seconds of him being out of the room, my common sense comes back to me. My eyes widen at my stupidity. I was just attacked by a man and here I am cuddling up to one, an alpha at that.

            I sigh and put my head in my hands. Why must I be so careless? I know he is my mate, but even JoAnna and Jayvon said not to trust anyone. Therefore, I won’t.

We have to. He’s our mate.

He may be our mate but that doesn’t mean he won’t hurt us. She growls at me, obviously disagreeing with my reason. I need to keep my distance until I know for sure. Until then, distance is preferred.

            “Talking to your wolf?” I practically jump out of my skin, when I hear his voice. I look up to see Ashton holding a steaming cup of coffee. He hands it to me, as he says, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought you knew I came in.”

            I don’t know what to say, so I slowly take a sip of the coffee. As I do, I hold back a moan. It tastes amazing. Alpha smirks at me. “Coffee is my favorite beverage. I could drink it twenty-four hours a day,” I say, quietly.

            “Mine too,” he says. I just nod. We sit there in silence. After a minute or two, I shift uncomfortably. He seems to notice and frowns. I look down. “You don’t trust me,” he says. It’s not a question, it is a statement.

            “Why?” I don’t look at him. He can’t know what I am. It would put me and the books in danger. He could be one of them. My job is to protect those books, and my job will come first, always.

            “Aaliyah. Answer me,” Alpha says, slightly angered. I refuse to answer. “Now,” he says, with a hint of his alpha tone. Luckily for me, it doesn’t work on me, because I am not a part of his pack.

Yet.

            Anger courses through me. Disrespect was uncalled for. I may have only known about mates for a short time, but I do know that using the alpha tone on your mate is not acceptable.

            I sit the mug on the table beside me, as I stand up. “Where are you going?” he asks. I ignore him, as I stalk out of the room. I will not be disrespected by my own mate.

It’s not like you’ve even accepted him fully, yet.

             I ignore her and walk to the front door. She agrees with me, but only to a certain point. She thinks I should fight with him, make him see what he did was wrong, instead of leaving him.