Chapter 299

Chapter 0299 There’s a lot for us to emotionally unpack in our first conversation.

When her 30 minutes are up, she comes to collect the dishes from my table before going behind the counter and disappearing into the back. | perk up my ears, ensuring that she doesn’t plan to sneak out the back. I’m pleasantly surprised when she returns, with a purse hanging across her neck and chest, and sits down across from me.

She stares at me a moment. “Well? You wanted to talk? Talk.”

“Not here, I'll walk you home.”

“| don’t think so. | have no intention of letting you know where | live.”

| lean forward. “You know what | am, so you know that | can track you. | don’t think you want your human friend to hear our conversation, do you?”

She looks past me and realizes that he’s watching us and trying to listen in on our conversation.

She stands. “Goodnight Benny.”

her out.

She says and waits for me to stand up and follow Before we walk out the door, Benny calls out to her. “Call me and let me know you're okay Gracie.”

She nods and we step outside. | have so many questions, but as jealousy flares in my gut, Louis thrashing around in my head, the first one that comes out of my mouth has nothing to do with anything I’d been thinking about. “What is he to you? Benny. He’s old enough to be your father.”

“Old enough to be my grandfather, and he’s most likely the reason that I didn’t end up in the human foster care system. And you're not exactly one to talk about being old. What are you, forty?”

| scoff at her comment about my age. | want to know more about Benny, but that will do for now. “My name is Eli, I’m 32, and does that mean that your are dead?”

“My mother is dead, | have no idea about my father, nor do | care.”

“But you're an Alpha.

She turns, looking at me startled. “How do you know that?”

parents “Uh, because you commanded me back there to sit down and | felt your Alpha ©+15 BONOS aura pushing over me.” | watch as surprise crosses her features and | raise an eyebrow. “You didn’t realize you were commanding me?”

She shakes her head. “No, | didn’t mean to. | just didn’t want you hurting Benny.” “What is your wolf's name?” | shift the conversation.

“Maia.”

“And I’m correct that you just got Maia since | saw you a week ago and you didn’t have a wolf then?”

“Yes, she awakened on my 18th birthday.”

“Happy belated birthday.” | make a note to get her a birthday present, although | have no idea what.

She shrugs. “I don’t particularly care for my birthday. | have too many negative memories surrounding it. Getting Maia actually made this one worth celebrating.”

| don’t push on that, but | plan to learn more about why her birthdays haven’t been good. I’m getting a bad feeling about her being an Alpha, not caring about her father, losing her mother and not getting her wolf until she was 18. It's quite possible that her father banished her, thinking she was a wolfless wolf. It wouldn’t be the first time I'd heard of Alpha children being banished or abused because they ‘disappointed’ their parents by not getting a wolf.

“Maia.” | address her wolf. “Do you know what you are?”

| watch her golden eyes come forward, Louis pushing forward as well to see his mate. “Yes, | am a Guardian.”

“And do you understand what that means?”

“As our mate, our destiny is to protect you.”

Okay, that wasn’t what | was expecting. “Protect me from what?” | ask her..

“Anyone or anything that may threaten you.”

| blink a couple of times, clearing my head. “Okay, we'll come back to that. But, | don’t need your protection. However, | do believe that you need mine. Do you understand that if any Alpha finds you, they will try to force you into a mate bond with them.

You are a powerful wolf and they will want you in their pack permanently.”

She stops and turns to look at me. “And what about you?”

“What about me?”

+15 BONOS “Do you want me because I’m a powerful wolf?”

“| want you because the Moon Goddess fated us to be together. That means that you are the other half of my soul.”

“| don't believe in the mate bond.” That came from Grace.