Mate on His Front Door

Gabe lived outside of the city by choice. He had a very huge house that he had inherited from his parents before they died and he became the Alpha. Gabe had been working all his life in his father's company, the one that was now his, and he had started from the ground up. He had the tallest building on main street, and he was popular with women,  as they always want something from him. 

He was a hard worker even though he had been born with a silver and gold spoon in his mouth, and he had always been unable to sit down without doing anything for a long time. Now, he was sitting here and waiting for the man Cara had told him about. 

Cara was Dean's younger sister and had always been closer to him than she was to her own brother. The only reason for that was because Cara had always had a crush on him for the most part of her teenage life until she didn’t, and she had followed him around until they became close. Now she was dating one of the pack's men, her mate. 

He approved. Tim was a good man and a good wolf as well. He would always do what was in the best interest of Cara and that was good. 

It wasn’t as if Gabe didn’t have his own siblings, but they were all scattered around the world. He had two other brothers and they lived in Paris and London, while he stayed here in the United States. 

Aching with inactivity, he stood up from the couch that was in front of his huge house and paced up and down. He was sure that his workers would be surprised as to why he was sitting around or even pacing now. 

This was supposed to be a favor to Cara, because he really doesn’t have any position he needed a person to fill, but it wasn’t all that bad. 

Gabe and his pack members might be truly werewolves, but they lived a life of simplicity and among humans. Only about a little number of humans knew about them, but they had accepted them and vice versa, so there was no problem between the two creatures. They lived normal lives, working together, some getting married. 

As a wolf, sometimes, they might not get to have a mate, and that was the time they would be free to marry whoever they wanted. It might be true that it was better to have a mate than not, but it was also still good when one can find the woman or man one wanted themselves. 

God, he hated waiting around, but here he was. He could have been going something right now, if only he agreed to something yesterday.

This time yesterday, he remembered that the television company had asked if they could use some part of his house to shoot a movie but he had respectfully declined. One thing he loved other than his company and his pack was his privacy. It might be true that he had workers on his property, but only a couple of them stayed on the estate with him, and they had the guest house that was at the back of the house to themselves while he alone stayed in the main house. 

Cara had told him to accept, but he had declined because he wanted his privacy. That was why he had agreed to give the man coming to a job, to make up for not doing what she had said. He hated it when she made a fuzz. That woman might not be his real sister, but she was a real family to him. He was sure that she would be less angry at him that way, and thankfully, she had only shrugged and said that it was his decision to make. 

She had told him that the only reason he had told him to “consider” it was because it would make him seem more human and friendly or pleasant.

She was thinking that the publicity would help give the bed and breakfasts he intend to start some kind of awareness, and he had agreed, but they had messed up when they said they had to interview him first. He couldn’t stand to sit in his house in front of the glare of camera lights, while some person, human or wolf,  snapped a clapperboard in his face like he had seen people do to their interviewee. 

He looked to the gate at the far end of his property and seeing as nothing seemed to be going on there, even though he couldn’t fully see the surroundings of the gate and fence because of the trees, he whispered. “That’s it.” He shook his head. “I will not be waiting around as if it is I that is in need of the job.”

Behind him, the front door opened, and Max walked out. “Sir, you’ve been sitting outside for a long time. Is anything wrong?” He asked. 

Gabe shook his head. He wasn’t about to admit to one of his workers; the gardener that he had been waiting for some guy to show up for work as promised to Cara. 

“But sir, you don’t sit around. I could have sworn you said you would be in your office.” He said. 

Gabe nodded. “That was what I said. I’ll be in soon.” He said, and reluctantly, Max turned and walked back inside. He must still be tending to the flowers on the back porch near the kitchen window. 

He brought out his phone to call Cara. This wasn’t acceptable, he thought as the phone was held to his ear. “Hey, Gabe.” She called cheerfully when she picked up the call. 

“Don’t “hey, Gabe” me, Cara. Your human isn’t here.” He said. “And you know how much I hate waiting, right?” 

Clearly, Cara could tell that he was annoyed, so she said. “I’m sorry about that, Alpha.” 

She thought that using his title might soften him, but Gabe decided that she would fail. He rolled his eyes at the gimmicks she wanted to use.

“You haven’t waited that long, now, have you?” she asked, pausing for dramatic effect “I’m sure the human would be there soon.” She said. 

“If that means having to sit or stand around, then I won’t be doing that.” He said, his eyes gleaming in anger. 

‘’No one else would turn up to work for you, Gabe, so you have to be patient.” 

Gabe scoffed. At what Cara had said, one would think that he wasn’t the one doing her and her human a favor. She had said that no one would turn up for the position as if he had the position sitting idle before or that he didn’t have any workers before. 

He walked to the recliner and sat down on it. “You know that isn’t true, and if care isn’t taken, I’ll take the position away, so don’t push me, you brat.” He knew calling her that would shut her up because she hated being called what she truly was. He adjusted the recliner to push it back a bit, before leaning his back. “Just so you know, I’m busy, so it’s either you call the human and tell him to get his ass here or something, or you can tell him to go back home.” He said. 

Cara didn’t bother to correct Gabe, because she knew that he was very angry about having to wait. She would have to call “her human” and see what was keeping her. She was going to also have to go pick her up herself if need be, and she hoped that what she had told her about the last time, wasn’t happening. 

“I'm sorry. I’ll sort it soon.” She said and ended the call. 

Gabe cursed, and he stood up to walk into the house. The front hall was deserted of his workers, as they must be working on their various stations. He had a gardener, a cleaner, and a driver. Two of them stayed in the guest house while the cleaner; an elderly woman in her fifties came in thrice a week, with her two sons. 

He hadn’t taken two steps when he heard a knock on the door. 

He wondered who was at the door, and thought that it might be one of his workers. But why would any of them be knocking? He asked himself. 

“Yes?” He flung the door wide only to be forced to adjust his eyes downward to where a small woman stood on his doorstep wearing some type of white dress that reached her knee but had an attachment at the back flowing to the floor. The tip of the cloth was dirty, and he could tell by her barefoot legs that she had been running. 

“Huh, do you think maybe I can come in?” she asked him, looking up at him.

She wasn’t a tall woman, but not too short, with the height that made her barely reach his shoulder. She seemed to have been crying as she had something black run down her face in a tear line. She had a cut on her upper lip, and her left wrist had a dark purple bruise forming there. 

With a frown, he took her appearance in at a glance, and something stirred inside of him, something that he had never once in his thirty five years felt before. He could feel his sleeping wolf stir and he shook his head, mentally, putting a press on whatever he felt, plus a reminder that appearances could be deceptive. 

He wondered what she was doing there on his doorstep, and why she was asking if she could come in. 

The woman looked so young with honey-colored eyes, with her dark hair hanging in drenched lines around a sweet shaped face. She was wearing some kind of scarf around her hair, and her head tilted at a tricky angle, and her clothes were ruined, the clothes that appeared to be a bridal gown. The back of it was all ripped and streaked with mud. 

He could see that she had not only been crying, but there was grief in her eyes and something he couldn’t discern, yet. He wasn’t sure what it was so he didn’t dwell on it.

There was one thing he did know, and that was the fact that she wasn’t entering his house. 

“Who are you?” he asked frowning. “What do you want, and what is this about?” he asked suspiciously.