The Protector (Complete)

Chapter 25

I can't thank you all enough for the wonderful comments. It's been so much fun writing the story. I'm hope y'all enjoy the new chapter.

Greta leaned her hip against the kitchen counter as she finished the last of her coffee. Although she had only been Patrick and Isabella's leader for three months, the wing of the house she was in was much too quiet with them gone. She didn't like the fact that the only sound she heard around her was the ticking of the clock.

She sighed.

Alexander had extended an offer to her to come have supper with his clan. Of course his offer came out like an order because he was a leader and rarely asked anyone to do anything.

Naturally she had declined the offer because she knew it was a bad idea to be alone with Alexander when she couldn't seem to control her responses to him. She couldn't understand how Alexander had such control over her emotions. One look at him and her legs went to mush, and her heart tried to take over her body. Her highly trained mind was the only thing that kept her from throwing herself on top of Alexander.

No, she decided as she placed her cup in the sink, it was best to stay far away from Alexander.

The knocking on the door that connected the west wing to the rest of the house stopped Greta in midstride. Hesitantly, she waited, wondering if she had just imagined the knock. Then it came again. Although her heart wished it was Alexander on the other side of the door, her mind knew by the strength of the knock that it wasn't him.

Figuring that Alexander probably wouldn't let danger waltz through his house to get to Greta, Greta opened the door after the third knock. "Cecilia," she said when she saw the beautiful woman outside her door, "is everything okay?"

"Oh, everything is fine," Cecilia answered.

"Well, come in," Greta said, moving to let Cecilia enter.

Cecilia shook her head. "While you are staying here, this part of the property has become your clan's property. Alex would not take kindly to me going to another clan. But you, on the other hand, can come over here."

Since she liked Cecilia and wouldn't mind the company, Greta shrugged and left her side of the property line. "There are so many rules to your whole culture," she said to Cecilia. "How is anyone supposed to learn them all?"

"Well, there aren't that many people who come into the Lycan world. Usually you're born into it, and you learn the rules while growing up."

"You don't seemed to have learned them very well," Ivan said as the two females moved down the hall towards them. He pushed himself off the wall and was unsurprised when Cecilia's heart skipped a beat at his voice and her blood pressure skyrocketed as he neared her. "Otherwise you would have asked for my name already."

"Beat it, Ivan," Cecilia said.

"And leave you alone with a leader who is not your own?" he asked with mock sincerity. "That would be foolish of me."

Cecilia ignored the man. "He doesn't think that you would hurt me," Cecilia assured Greta. "He just thinks if he stays next to me the entire time that somehow I'll cave and ask him for his name."

"Because you're his mate?" Greta asked.

Cecilia laughed at that. "Yeah, he is," she said as she looked over at Ivan. This time it was his body that reacted to her. She couldn't help but smile at him. "And he's not half bad for a mate."

"Hey, Greta," Ivan said, wrapping his hand around Cecilia's arm, "can you give us a second really quickly? You can head straight through those doors. Cece will be with you shortly."