Date Night

Austin

My wolf has been antsy since we left Andrew last night; worrying that he might harm himself or reject us, I imagine. I have been trying to concentrate on the border shuffle updates on my desk but I don't think I have made any headway. Elijah enters my small office just off of his to see what I am up to and he immediately notices that I look tired and withdrawn.

"What is wrong, Austin?"

"Well I didn't want to say anything because I want to give him time but I found my second chance mate last night." I note that Elijah does not look shocked at all, which seems odd.

"Oh, and who is he, you did say 'him', correct?"

"Why don't you look surprised at all? What aren't you telling me, Elijah?"

"Okay, so I am going to assume that your mate is Andrew Phillips, correct? I suspected it might be him years ago and have had a guard protecting him for me, and you, in hopes that it was him. Remember that theory we found about the Moon Goddess assigning a relative in error as a mate and you dismissed it? Well I kept looking into it and the more I looked the more I thought your true mate was meant to be Andrew. I have been keeping tabs on him and ensuring he is safe since he entered high school with one of our junior guards from Gunther's squad. Honestly I was very nervous because you never sensed him but the elders that believe the theory kept encouraging me that he was most likely your true mate. They don't call them second chance mates in a case like yours but a true mate. If you had had a happy life with Xavier and then found Andrew it would have been different but you didn't. Andrew is your true mate through and through. It is a rare and very special mating to break all the known rules like this so I am very hopeful. Why isn't he with you? Where is he?"

"I told him I would not pressure him and to take his time to think this all through. I don't want to lose another mate, I don't think I would survive it again. I wish you had told me. I honestly thought he was a recent widow and new to the pack when I met him because I had no idea who he was. I could see the resemblance to Xavier but other than that I had no idea."

"I didn't want to tell you in case it wasn't true. But didn't you ever wonder why I never pushed you to get out there and sow your oats, as they say? I never shied away from sexual encounters and I never pushed you at all. In fact I encouraged you to stick to your plan to save yourself. I only suggested you set up dates after Andrew turned 18 and Judith reported back that she didn't think he sensed a mate. A few hours later she messaged he had a scent but refused to think it was you. By that time you had already set up a date with one of Machie's friends so I just left it alone."

My phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number so I opened it to see what it was about. The message read:

This is Andrew. We met last night, in case you forgot. Judith, the person Alpha Elijah had stalk me the last 4 years, gave me your number. You interested in meeting up for supper tonight?

I smiled down at my phone then frowned up at Elijah. "You had him STALKED for 4 years? "

"I wouldn't call it stalking...Judith says they are really good friends and she hopes they will stay friends after this. She says he is amazing and would hate to lose him. After about a year she wanted to drop out of this because she was tired of lying to him but I convinced her to stay by reminding her that he needed her protection."

I growled at Elijah and smiled back down at my phone before replying: I should be done here at around 5pm. How about I pick you up at your house around 6pm?

He replied rather quickly with: My parents don't know yet so how about we meet at Angelo's at 6pm?

It's a date. See you there.

The rest of the day almost flew by as I was giddy with excitement. My wolf kept trying to peek through so I'm guessing he was also excited. At 5pm I headed to my rooms in the pack house to shower and change before heading to Angelo's. Quite a few pack members live in our large pack house with a few of the lower ranking members as well as some of the guards living in houses around the small town at the centre of our territory. I have a small section on the second floor to myself that acts almost like an apartment that can be completely boxed to make it a more private apartment once I have a family. We never boxed it in as some of my extra rooms are used for guests at this time as I do not have a use for them being as I am currently alone. Hopefully that will end soon now that I have found my mate. I shake my thoughts away and head out to the restaurant on foot as it is not very far away. Now that I have met him I can smell my mate ever so lightly lingering in the air. His smell gets stronger as I get closer to him.

When I enter Angelo's it only takes a moment to locate my mate as my nose, and my wolf, lead me right to him. Now that I can clearly see him in the lights of the restaurant I see that his honey coloured eyes have gold flecks in them and are outlined in a black ring. His brown hair has a slight red tone to it and his fair but sun kissed skin is impossibly smooth. He is wearing tight black jeans and a loose dark blue t-shirt with an open short sleeved dress shirt over top. His hair is brushed but appears to have no product in it as it lightly floats at the smallest hint of a breeze in the air from the restaurant's AC unit. When I walk in he stands and I note his adorable compact size again. He stands at roughly 5'6" and is very small in size. I can tell by his tight jeans that he does have muscle tone, at least in his thighs, so he must train or do sports of some kind. He weirdly reaches his hand out to shake mine but I take it anyways and sparks start shooting through my hand from where his skin comes in contact with mine. He does not break the handshake and firmly squeezes in a show of confidence.

"Thank you for meeting me here Beta Austin. I apologize for the short notice. I have a few things I would like to discuss with you but let's order some food first."

The fact that he expertly takes control of the meeting immediately makes me confident that he is my perfect mate and will be an excellent second Beta. He shows no fear despite my clearly more dominant exterior and my 8 year seniority on him. I am allowed to think that he is sexy, adorable, and cute all at once, right, because I fucking do right now?! We order our food when the waitress comes around and sit in relative silence while it is being prepared for us. I am nervous sitting here in silence but since he has called us here I patiently sit there and once the food is served he begins talking while we eat.

"First I want you to know I have no plans to reject you. I hope you will not reject me but given my grossly lacking stature and life experience I would understand if you would want to. If you do wish to reject me I would propose a weak bond where we both live our lives separately instead so that I have a chance to ACTUALLY live as we both know being such a low ranking wolf would result in my pretty much immediate death. Second I am gay but I am aware that you are not meaning I understand that this may be a bit uncomfortable for you and different from your intimate experiences in the past so if you are patient with me I will be patient with you. Now to the actual point of this meeting, if you will. As you may remember, my family has screwed up and backwards feelings about homosexuality. One good thing to come out of the incident 8 years ago is that my parents have relaxed ever so slightly. I am 'allowed' to be gay as long as it is through my mate bond and no other way. I have no idea how I am going to convince my parents we are bonded and not just marked or whatever. There are a few other things I would like to discuss but that is at the top of my list."

Again I find his thought process for why I might not want him to be jarring as he is absolutely amazing but I digest what he has said and start thinking of a solution for his parents. I mindlink to Elijah to ask if he knows of a way to prove two wolves are mated to outside sources and he tells me he will get back to me.

"I just asked Elijah to ask his elder contacts if there is a way to prove the mate bond to outside sources. Now I want you to stop thinking you are not good enough for me because I have to tell you I find you stunning. I have never been sexually attracted to a man before. I found Xavier beautiful and my wolf wanted him but I have to tell you that even without the bond I would find it hard to resist you. You are perfect just the way you are." I took note of the amazing deep red blush working up his face from his neck and smiled a toothy grin.

I have never wanted to ravage someone so much before in my life.