My Innocent Mate

XXXI

"What?"

"Go on a date with me," he repeated. "We were supposed to but never did."

"Oh, yeah. We planned it after you put me in jail."

"I said I was sorry," he pouted, grabbing my hand and swinging it.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, swatting his large man's hand away and sighing. "Fine. A deal's a deal. What did you want to do."

"Well, you were going to go back home soon right? Are there any places there that we could have our date at?"

I forgot about my pack until Asher brought it up just now. He interrupted me with the poison accusation before I could tell him that I wanted to stay here for a little longer. But perhaps, this was for the best.

"Uh, yeah. We can go to this ramen place I go to sometimes. How does that sound?" 

"Sounds like a plan. When were you thinking of leaving? Are you staying with your family when school starts or?" Asher asked.

I bit my lip, realizing that I hadn't planned anything out. We had our first day of school next week and I also had the secret meeting with the other alphas that Asher has no idea about. It would be better to stay with Asher rather than go back and forth. But at the same time, Alpha Steven, Luciel, and my mom needed me.

Luciel never responded to my call and I didn't know whether Alpha Steven recovered fully yet. In this situation, I think the best plan would be to stay at Asher's place but visit back home to check up on everything.

"Is it alright if I stay with you and just check up on things back home while we're on our date?" I asked, struggling to get out the last word from the bitterness I still felt having lost to my mate.

Asher looked at me with a surprised face. "You want to stay here with me?"

I nodded slowly. "I feel like it would be easier that way."

Asher frowned slightly. "So you're not staying here for me."

"That's not I meant!" I retorted with a flushed face. "What I meant was-"

Asher let out a deep chuckle. "I know, I know. I was teasing you."

I huffed and looked behind me to see Claire, Ryan, and Riley trying to restrain their laughter. Who's side were they on?

"So when do you plan to go back and visit?" Asher asked.

"Well, it's getting pretty late now. So tomorrow morning. Claire, Ryan, and Riley can go back right now and I'll see them when I get back tomorrow."

"Alpha Asher," Riley interrupted. "If it's alright with you, may I stay here. You see, I met my mate here and I want to stay here with him a little longer."

"Oh, that's right. You're Will's mate right?" Asher asked.

Riley nodded timidly, avoiding eye contact. "Yes, sir."

Asher smiled. "Of course, of course! Stay as long as you want. We have plenty of guest rooms... unless you want to stay in Will's room?"

"Asher!" I exclaimed.

Riley's face became even redder.

"I'm just teasing!" Asher replied with hands up in surrender.

"Whatever works for you Alpha Asher," Riley replied, politely.

"Will!" Asher shouted.

Without further notice, Will appeared right next to Asher. "Yes, Alpha Asher?"

Riley's face grew from surprised into a deeper flushed one. 

"Would you like Riley to stay with you in your room or should he have a guest room?" Asher asked, smirking.

I smacked his broad shoulder. "You're already embarrassing him enough!"

"What?" Asher said, attempting to act innocent.

Will let out a slight laugh. "What would you like Riley?"

"I'll just stay in a guest room if that's okay with you," he replied sheepishly.

"I would prefer if you stayed with me but, I'll respect your wishes," Will winked. "Anything else Alpha Asher?"

"Yes, could you escort Claire and Ryan out? They're going back to the Moon River Pack."

Will nodded and began to guide them out of the room until Riley interrupted.

"Claire, wait," he said.

She turned around and tilted her head curiously.

"We're okay now, right?" Riley asked with fidgeting hands.

There was a moment of silence and then Claire replied in a soft voice with a slight smile. "Everything will be okay."

And with that, she turned around and followed Ryan out the door. I debated whether or not to call out to Ryan as well. Most of the time, we just played games in order to forget about whatever fight we had, which were rare instances anyway. But in this case, I felt as if that wasn't enough.

But with all my debating, it seemed too late already and so, I let Ryan go.

"You okay?" Asher asked from behind me.

I gave him a small smile and nodded reassuringly. "Yeah."

"So, what do we do now?" Asher asked.

"You have a lot of work to do, right? You should probably finish it," I suggested.

My mate gave me an exhausted sigh. "Yeah, I should. What will you be doing?"

"I'm going to explore this place a bit more if that's alright with you."

Asher crossed his arms and began to ponder. "Do you want Will to be with you? I've already instructed my pack to keep their hands off of you and I trust them, but you don't know the ins and outs of this place."

"That's what will make it a little more fun," I replied.

After that was decided, I walked Asher to his office and made sure he was doing his work before going off to explore the mansion.

Surprisingly, I didn't see anyone in any of the rooms I peeked in. There were too many halls and doors, I began to lose track of where I was.

In this moment of confusion, my leg bumped into something and peering down, I could see that it was Kila, Asher's little brother.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" I said, kneeling down to help the little guy up from his fall. "Are you alright?"

Kila nodded shyly making my heart gush from how adorable he was.

"Do you remember me?" I asked.

He nodded again before quietly replying, "You're the pretty lady that my brother likes."

I blushed at the rare compliment. "Well, thank you for thinking I'm pretty. Now, what are you doing here?"

"I'm playing hide and seek with Lucy and Jane, but I can't find them," he pouted.

"Well, can I help you look for them?" I offered.

Kila scrunched his eyebrows as if he was thinking about it before his eyes lit up. "Yes, yes!"

I took Kila's hand and we began our venture to find the twins.