Alpha Zander
Chapter 37

My knuckles still sting after the assault I gave to Lachlan.

What a d!ckhead for trying to pull something like that in front of everyone, on my territory, and in front of my mate.

I could see Zander tense and Jace flash through his eyes as he registered what happened. I’ll say props to him for keeping his cool. Honestly, I was surprised he didn’t finish him off after.

‘Because he knows we can look after ourselves, we just proved that to him,’Kia snorted.

‘I suppose,’ I mumbled back and started heading towards the bar where Zander and his friends were currently posted.

Everyone had started talking, and the music started back up again, forgetting the incident that had just happened 5 minutes ago.

I nodded to Lui, who was looking after the bar. “What can l get you, Beta?”

“Shots, it’s been a long night” I don’t mind drinking, and tonight was one of those nights where I needed something a bit stronger than the average drink.

Zander leaned into Dani and said something before the three boys scampered off to mingle.

He moved closer to me as Lui handed over two shots of dark amber liquor before disappearing over the other end of the table to serve others.

“Wanna do a’shot with me?” I asked, pushing one closer towards him.

He raised a questioning eyebrow and shrugged,

“Sure, I’m no stranger to whisky shots.”

I grabbed the other shot, raised it to him, downed it quickly, and slapped it back on the table. A sweet burn moves down my throat quickly as I shake my head, trying to get used to the taste.

“Are you ok?” Zander asks.

“Hmm, I’m a lot better now your here,” I responded, giving him a sweet smile. I’ve been drinking for a few hours now, and that shot just gave me back the buzz I lost when Lachlan showed up.

Zander moved a little closer to where he was nearly touching my arm. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife, his scent all around us, drawing me in and making Kia go crazy. After this morning and last night, it frustrated me that l couldn’t claim him as mine just yet. I was so nervous about him coming here tonight, nervous about us being around other people that wasn’t in a school setting.

Zander smirks and lifts his hand to touch my arm as if he could feel the nerves rolling off me. Tingles danced on my skin in the area he held, I saw his eyes go dark, and a gold rim formed as Jace pushed forward. I felt Kia moving forward in response to her mate.

Jace leaned in and growled, “You have no idea how much I wanted to rip that fuckers head off when | realized what he did. If you didn’t tell him to piss off or punched the s**t out of him, I would have killed the little s**t for touching’what is mine.”

Kia was purring with happiness as Jace claimed us as his. I saw the struggle between him and Zander, trying to regain control.

Kia didn’t help much by pushing forward to respond to him, bringing our hand up to his cheek to calm him down.

“We can take care of ourselves, my mate. You don’t need to worry about us,” she purred.

I jumped a little as someone squealed in the background with a loud splash as they were thrown into the pool.

“Pool Party!” someone yelled while others around him cheered and ran towards the pool.

I looked around to see a few guys from my pack taking off their shirts and pants before jumping into the pool. I wonder if they realized how cold it was. I chuckled and shook my head when a few squealed, and someone yelled it was f*****g freezing and moved to try to get back out.

I smiled back at Zander, who was watching me curiously. He had regained control. There was still a light rim of Jace in his eyes, just as I’m sure Kia was still present in mine.

“You look great, by the way, really great,” he said, raking his eyes over my body, letting them linger on my b00bs and the hem of my dress.

“Ash!” Someone called out to me just as I was about to respond. J looked over to see Ollie marching toward me with a pissed-off look on his face. Now, this could be because of one or two things. One because l’m here talking to Zander. Or two because he found out about what happened with Lachlan, or maybe a third, Why Zander’s pack was invited and is here in the first place.

“What’s up?” I asked….

“Care to explain why Lachlan King just left with a bloodied nose ?”

Next to me, Zander snorted and said, “No one told you yet?”

Ollie narrowed his eyes and looked over to Zander, “I wasn’t asking you,” He growled.

Zander crossed his arms over his chest in defense.

Jace flashed through. I could feel his aura pulsing through. Not wanting any more bad b***d between the two, I quickly jump into my explanation. “He slapped my a-ss when I left the conversation I was having with Samantha, which he so rudely interrupted in the first place, so l turned around and punched the d!ckhead.”

Ollie relaxed a little when he understood the disrespect that Lachlan showed.

“You’re seriously questioning your Beta. How the f**k do you know she even did anything in the first place.

“Zander growled.

While it was sweet and all for Zander to be pissed off at Ollie’s questions, I understood why, plus Zander shouldn’t really be questioning him. This is his land and territory, after all.

“Watch it. You are on my territory. I have a right to know what the f**k is going on, especially if someone just attacked an Alpha Heir that could lead to a war or any issues we will have with their pack. You have dealt with Westfield yourself. You know what an a-sshole they can be like.” Ollie snarled back.

‘Stop them before this escalates. Oliver doesn’t know Zander is our mate. This doesn’t need to go further,’Kia mumbles.

“Guys, it’s fine, Lachlan was in the wrong anyway, and if anything happens, we will deal with it then.” Both of their eyes snapped back to me, relaxing a little bit.

“Get a drink, Ollie. It’ll be ok,” I encouraged him.

Ollie watched Zander side-stepped around him to move next to me on the other side as he went up to the bar. I felt Zander’s hands move next to me, itching to hold me. I knew he was on edge, and I couldn’t comfort him. He moved a finger across the hem of my dress around my thy. A shiver went through me even at the slightest of his touch. I could feel his eyes lingering on me as I looked around, trying not to get myself so worked up around Oliver. Was he crazy trying something like this as much as I wanted him, now was not the best time for teasing.

While I scanned the crowd, I saw a girl and her friend making a b-line directly for us.

Grace.

Hurt pinned in my chest, my eyes snapped up to Zander. Did he really bring her here too? I relaxed a bit when I saw confusion in his eyes as he watched Grace.

She wasn’t wearing her usual skimpy outfits. Tonight she wore skinny jeans and a low-cut top just covering her b00bs.

“Baby, you hâven’t been answering my calls or texts when I try to reach you!” She half shrieked and seemed slightly pissed off as she approached us.

“Firstly, I am not your baby. It’s Alpha to you.

Secondly, I have nothing else to say, or I would have said it.”

“Well, I need to talk to you,” she huffed, folding her arms across her chest and pushing out her boobs to make them look bigger.

“Talk here. I’m not going anywhere with you,” He shrugged, grabbed his beer behind him, and started to drink it.

Her eyes landed on me next to Zander, “Do you mind giving us some privacy?”

Kia snarled in my mind.’ lam not leaving this b***h with our mate’ l’m sure my eyes flashed, making her known. Zander spoke again before l could answer. “Beta Ashleigh does not need to leave. If you want to talk, Grace, talk.”

“Fine, have it your way; I’m Pregnant.”

I felt the b***d drain from my face, numb. All l felt was numb. An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach.

Zander’s body stiffened beside me, coughing up the beer he was drinking. Ollie chuckled next to me, hearing the predicament that Zander was in.

I looked up at Zander to see his face had paled.

What does this mean for us? My mind spun with so many unanswered questions that I was afraid to know the answer. For once, Kia remained silent. No smart-a-ss comment, no pushing forward to claim Zander as hers.

This time there was silence, only silence; it worried me that if she was silent, this was bad.

“What?” he mumbled, slowly processing what Grace had said.

“Pregnant, Zander, Pregnant, it happens when two people f**k, which we did nearly every day. I tried to calI you and get a hold of you for the last few days, but you haven’t returned any of my calls or texts, and you were avoiding me at school.” She said, waving her hands around dramatically.

My mind was spinning. I felt like I was going to be sick. My heart ached. I thought we had moved past all of his exes and these problems. I understood everyone had a history. I didn’t want to hate him for that. Instead, I focused on something we could build together, now that felt like it would never happen.

It was probably a good thing we didn’t tell anyone we were mates, I already feel humiliated enough right now, and no one knows.

I didn’t want to leave him at this moment, but I have to, I have to get out of here. It was all just too much. It wasn’t late, only about 11.00 pm, but I can’t be here right now. I need to process this myself and figure out what to do. I don’t even know the rules on all of this regarding mates.

So I moved between him and Grace and walked away without saying a word.

I felt his eyes bore into me. I couldn’t look back. I didn’t want to look back and let him see the hurt he had caused me once again.