Alpha Zander
Chapter 20

Grandma’s place wasn’t as bad as I had thought, the outside was overgrown with flower bushes, vines, and scattered trees all over, and the inside was just a little dusty and stuffy. I opened up all the doors and windows to try and get the air flowing through and look somewhat decent for when Ashleigh arrives.

Walking through the front door there is a living room to the left with a medium 3 seater lounge in the middle separating from the kitchen, a wooden coffee table with an old box TV under the window next to the door, and off to the right is a long dark staircase leading upstairs, and straight ahead is dark wood and white kitchen the same color as outside blending through to the inside.

I haven’t been here in years, This cottage belonged to my mother’s mother. She was one of the last people in her pack, they had all passed away or moved on to new packs. Mum’s family were the leaders of a small country pack, we had a few of those around the country, if people didn’t want to move to the city or join bigger packs they had to meet the correct requirements to name their own pack. I guess they let my grandmother be where she wanted for her final days.

I remember a few people in our pack who used to belong to my mother’s small pack, she was the Alpha’s only child and already leading the pack, when she found out she was mated to Dad, she chose to be with him and merge the two packs.

I tried to bring up the heritage over the years but dad didn’t ever want to talk about it. I only remember snippets that mum told me when I was younger. I wish I remembered what Grandma was like, I guess like all things related to Mum I buried that long ago.

I wandered around the house trying to get a sense of where everything was before Ashleigh arrived, I still had about two hours hopefully she wouldn’t be early.

I flicked the light switch on and off to see if we had any electricity, I was only half expecting to, I’d doubt anyone would be paying the bills to run this place considering how overgrown outside was.

As expected nothing worked so looked around to see if there were any candles to light for the evening, if not I would have to make a list and head to the shops quickly to grab some things.

Thankfully I found a few candles with a lamp so they can be placed in the living room where the coffee table was and I’ll light the small fire stove in the kitchen to warm the place up and provide some more light.

Since we are wolves, we don’t need the light or warmth but it is still nice to have the ambiance. I know we won’t be able to go on many dates outside so this would have to be the way to do things at the moment.

I want to make things special for her, to make her see I’m worth it.

F**k, I don’t have any matches. I g*****d and shook my head. I guess I was going to the store anyways.

The local store wasn’t far from here, just another thing I wanted to avoid, more people knowing I’m out here.

I made a list in my head, there wasn’t much around the kitchen either so I’ll have to grab some cups, plates, knives, and forks.

I was about 20 minutes in and out of the shops, I had to try and think of something simple to cook on the fire stove rather than using the oven or Gas cooktops. I needed to get the electricity sorted out so this isn’t harder later on and we can be comfortable there if this is going to be our regular meeting spot.

After an hour of walking around the cottage, I tried to make the place look nice enough with the fire lit and candles burning in the holders. God, I hope she doesn’t give me s**t about this. I at least hope she knows I’m trying.

Jace was chuckling in the back of my mind, snickering about what I had put together.

“What, would you rather I go all a-sshole mode and do nothing? Then she really will reject us’ I mumbled.

He grumbled and rolled his eyes at that comment.

“I didn’t think so’.

Tap.. tap. tap.

The knocking at the front door pulled me out of the argument I was having with Jace, as I moved closer to the door the stronger I could sense her.

Jace perched up buzzing around in excitement that she actually came.

I stood at the door for about a second and breathed in her mouthwatering scent, I know she wants to take things slowly but f**k this was going to be hard.

l opened the door and took in her beautiful figure. I stood there for about a minute, Hoping she didn’t mind me admiring her f*****g s3xy body, Ashleigh wore simple tonight, simple but s3xy, she had on tight skinny jeans, a light blue top the v line made its way down to expose some of her b00bs which I appreciated.

I just wanted to pick her up and devour those pink pouty lips and lick and suck on those beautiful t**s of hers.

Just thinking about it gave me a semi-hard on already.

Her wolf is a spicy one, no wonder Jace likes her, I guess I have to keep my promise to her and go for a run later on.

I led her through the cottage asking about her day and how she has been going, I stop behind her suddenly when I see something glittering in her hair.

“you wore it,” I said half surprised.

She frowned c*****g her head and looking back at me confused. “wearing what?”

“The heirloom.” I nodded to her hair.

“Ohh, of course. I hope that’s alright, I wasn’t exactly sure where I can and can’t wear it but I thought if it was just going to be the two of us tonight would be a good start.”

I smiled and nodded and moved closer to her to k!ss her on the lips but instead, she gasped and moved away from me a little as I moved quickly towards her. She didn’t flinch away but was just a little bit uncertain of what I was planning.

It was kind of cute, intimidating her considering she was the Beta, although I guess since being my mate I have a different effect on her than others.

I chuckled and moved past her heading for the stove I had put on earlier. I guess she wasn’t ready for some things just yet.

“Unfortunately I was only able to get some soup and bread for dinner tonight, we are only able to use the fire stove because the gas stove and electricity aren’t working at the moment. I’ll look into it this weekend sometime and hopefully have something set up for our next visits.” I told her.

She nodded and said, “that’s ok, thanks for getting something I forgot to have food before coming here.”

I had put on the soup beforehand knowing it was going to take some time to warm up, I walked over to the fireplace and looked in the pot, it was slowly simmering away almost to the boiling point.

“probably a couple more minutes and should be good to eat” I mumbled looking back towards where Ashleigh was standing in the living room.

“This is a cute place, how’d you replace it?” She asked.

I sighed internally, I suppose she was going to know about my family one way or another, I sort of hoped it would have been a bit later.” just take it slow and explain to her the situation, you don’t have to go into the big details tonight but you can share things you are comfortable with now’ Jace encouraged.