The Man Behind the Alpha

~Son of a bitch, why am I sweating so much?~

I was anxiously waiting on Sienna’s doorstep, having no idea how her parents would react to me. I started knocking on the door, just in case they hadn’t heard the doorbell.

A woman’s voice from inside said, “Coming!” and an instant later, the door opened, revealing a pretty woman in her fifties.

She stared at me, her eyes wide, and I tried to keep my expression neutral. This was Melissa Mercer, Sienna’s mother, and I was the alpha who’d just marked her nineteen-year-old daughter.

~I probably shouldn’t lead with that.~

I had to tread cautiously here. I could tell Sienna was close with her parents; at the very least, she didn’t have the fucked-up relationship I had with mine.

But werewolf parents could get extremely protective when it came to anything or anyone who may cause harm to their children. And I wanted them on my side, not trying to tear out my throat.

“Good evening,” I said, trying to keep myself from growling, “I’m here for—”

“Sienna,” she finished the sentence, her eyes flashing with…was that excitement?

When she said nothing, simply staring at me as if she was drinking the sight of me in, I started to lose my patience. “May I come in?”

She seemed to snap out of her daze, and she gave me a wide smile. “Oh! Yes, yes, of course, excuse me…you caught me by surprise.” She let out a half-snort-half-giggle and stepped aside, letting me in.

I accepted her invitation and went inside, immediately looking around. The house was moderately large, and it had an air of a home well-lived in, which made me feel nostalgic, almost jealous even.

Before Aaron had passed away, before my parents couldn’t take the grief and had left to travel, our house had felt like this too.

Now the family home was rented out, too many painful memories, and I lived in my own house, which I barely frequented.

When there was no one waiting for you to come back, what was the point? I’d found that it took more than four walls and a roof to make a house a home.

Mrs. Mercer led me to the living room, where she said, “Sit, sit, I’ll make you some tea. What do you like? Earl Grey? Green?”

“Earl Grey’s fine,” I murmured before catching myself. “But I’m afraid I can’t stay. I’m here for—”

“Sienna, yes.” She nodded rapidly. “She’s out. I’ll call her right away, so until she’s back, you can wait here with a warm cup of tea. Please, Mr. Norwood”—she smiled kindly—“make yourself at home.”

Mrs. Mercer hummed cheerily in the kitchen, and I tried to make myself at home, as instructed, but I felt too agitated.

“Here you go,” Mrs. Mercer returned, handing me a cup of hot tea. She sat across from me. “Now, would you like to see some photos?”

This was my opportunity to win some points with Melissa, and I didn’t want to offend her in any way. So, I just nodded politely. “I’d love to.”

She walked to a drawer under the TV screen and opened it, taking out an album. “Here!” She plopped the album on my lap and sat down.

I opened the album and was greeted with a picture of a redheaded girl about three years old, cuddling with a man who must be her father, sleeping in his arms, content.

“She always was a daddy’s girl,” Mrs. Mercer said. “And Peter could never say no to her. Still can’t.”

“That’s so cute,” I said, giving her my most charming smile. “She may be a daddy’s girl, but her beauty clearly comes from her mother.”

Mrs. Mercer looked like she was about to faint on the spot. ~Maybe I shouldn’t lay it on so thick.~

I was actually thankful that Mr. Mercer didn’t appear to be home. I doubted he’d be as enamored with me as Melissa was.

“Thank you for the compliment, Alpha, but I’m not actually her birth—”

Sienna’s scent suddenly hit me, then the sound of the door opening. “Mom? Mom? I’m home. Where are you?”

She sounded urgent, almost afraid.

~What the hell had Mrs. Mercer told her?~

“We’re in here!” Mrs. Mercer called, smiling at me.

Taking in a deep breath, filling my lungs with her tantalizing scent, I closed the album and raised the cup of tea to my mouth when she turned the corner and saw me in the living room.

It was quite comical, to be honest; her eyes went wide with shock, and almost at the same instant, they narrowed into fiery slits.

“I thought you said it was an emergency,” she said, glaring at her mother.

My lips twitched. So Melissa Mercer was already my biggest ally without me even trying.

“What, and spoil the surprise?” Mrs. Mercer grinned widely. “I was just showing Mr. Norwood some of your baby photos. Wasn’t she adorable?”

Sienna looked so livid I couldn’t help but toy with her a bit. “Yes,” I said, completely straight-faced, and then to her mother, “even then, you could tell she’d grow up to be a strong, beautiful woman.”

I glanced back at Sienna, satisfied to see she was still in shock, and held back a smirk. “This tea is delicious, Mrs. Mercer.”

“Please, call me Melissa,” Mrs. Mercer replied with a giggle.

It seemed I’d rendered Sienna speechless, which, a hunch told me, was a ~rare~ occasion.

“How was uptown?” I asked and was rewarded with a flash of surprise in her bright-blue eyes.

“It was okay,” she replied, and her eyes suddenly roamed down my face to my body, lingering on my shirt, my pants, before going back up.

I could sense her Haze spiking, and mine, which I’d been struggling to keep down for hours now, peaked in response.

I was suddenly aware that her hair was pulled up into a ponytail, exposing the mark on her neck. ~My mark.~

Knowing she’d been out in public like that, showing off the mark, intentionally or not, made me feel oddly proud.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you with your hair up before,” I murmured, my eyes still on her neck. “It suits you, especially with that mark you have.”

And it wasn’t just the mark that suited her; she sported a messy, casual look I found oddly compelling.

Perspiration clung to her skin, probably from hurrying over at her mom’s false alarm, and her long, glistening strands were windswept. Yet it all just added to her beauty, to her wildness.

It made me want to bite her everywhere. To mark every inch of that silky skin. To thrust into her as her red strands covered the sheets of my bed…

“What are you doing here?” Her sharp, rattled voice snapped me out of my fantasy.

Right. This wasn’t what I was here for. “I’m a man on a mission,” I said, and when her eyes flashed again, I almost laughed.

She had so much fire for one person. “I want to learn more about you and your family. I realized this afternoon that we hardly know each other.”

It was the truth. I’d succumbed to my desires, acted selfishly, made rash decisions, and basically, wasn’t acting like myself.

I wasn’t the kind of man who marked a woman, mate or not, before even getting to know what her favorite song was.

I wasn’t the kind of man who couldn’t keep his hands to himself, who had to fight himself for control when a woman refused his bed.

If Aaron saw me now, he would scold me for how I’d been acting with Sienna so far. Fuck, he’d probably kick my ass.

What was even worse, though, was that I didn’t regret any of it. She was my mate, and for both man and wolf, it was reason enough for everything I’d done.

But like Chris and Jamie said, I’d only shown one side of myself to her, and that wasn’t going to cut it.

It was time I started to get to know her, to actually talk to her instead of sinking my teeth into her neck.

She folded her arms and looked at me, annoyed. “And what would that ‘task’ be?”

I rose from my seat and walked up to her, taking her hand in mine, staring deeply into her eyes. “Sienna,” I said, my voice serious, “would you care to join me for dinner this evening?”

Her cheeks flushed, and I could see the instinctual protest in her eyes dying down. And yet she still tried to fight this, albeit weakly. “I’m not dressed for the occasion.”

I couldn’t help it; I grinned. “Neither am I,” I said. “We’ll take care of that. Shall we?”

It took her ages to reply, making me wait for it, and I did because I knew what her answer would be. I saw it in her eyes.

Sure enough, she nodded and replied, “Yes.”

My wolf practically howled in excitement. Then she clarified, “This time,” as if afraid she’d given me too much.

It made me laugh.

Not wasting any time, I bid farewell to Mrs. Mercer, and we got into my car, heading toward our first date together.

Sienna was going to see more than just the alpha this time—she’d see the man underneath the rough exterior, behind the lofty title.

~She’ll finally get to see Aiden.~