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Carrying the two hot cups, he approached, handing one to me. “Some Alphas see their packmates as family. A lifestyle. My dad and I, on the other hand, only considered those closest to us as family. The rest of them were acquaintances.”
He stared at the wafting steam tendrils rising from his cup as he spoke and took a seat beside me on the cot once again.
“My father regarded Blade Rock more of an occupation than a social stance and I thought it a good outlook to live by. It certainly made difficult decisions easier for him. For me too. I’m sure you’d know what I mean.”
I nodded. I did know. Being the leader of a pack was hard, the title often thankless. People blamed you for everything, and more often than not, you were forced to make decisions that would make you unpopular among certain groups. Sometimes, it included the people closest to you.
“It was me and him against the world back then.” Sadness clouded Mat’s features.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and meant it. I’d assumed his parents had passed when he told me the pack was his.
He drank from his mug, dark curls falling over his brow.
“He was a great Alpha.” Mat finally said, lowering his cup to his lap, some of the sadness evaporating. “His people loved him. They didn’t care that he spent more time on his own or with me than with his pack. When they needed him, he was there. Anytime, day or night. They respected him and didn’t try to change him into something he wasn’t.”
“Your father was an introvert?”
Mat chuckled. “Well, I suppose that’s one way of putting it. Large groups of people certainly drained him. The people of Blade Rock called him a Sigma wolf.”
“A lone wolf?”
Mat nodded.
“Are you one too?”
He shrugged, taking another sip of coffee. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“But you’re alone all the time?”
Mat smirked, a roguish wicked grin. “Not all the time.”
I raised a brow. “Oh?”
He waved me off. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Straightening, I said. “Try me.” A challenge.
Mat’s green eyes danced with mischief. “I have friends in the forest,” he looked me over, eyes pausing on the large bruise covering my temple, “but I doubt you’ll want to meet them.”
The forest? The nurse had told me about Marillia and what dwelled within it. I wouldn’t deny that his answer shocked me.
“See,” he said, tapping two fingers to his chest right where his heart should be, “you’re not ready for that.”
My heart beat so fast, hammering in my chest, I wasn’t surprised he’d heard it.
“They’re not all bad, you know,” he said, sliding off the cot and taking my empty cup from me, placing both our cups in the sink. “What happened to you was unfortunate and to be honest, quite bizarre.” His hands paused on the cups for a moment before he turned and made his way back to the bed. Instead of climbing back on, he took a stance at the rear, gripping the metal bar there with both hands.
“Ready?”
I managed a nod and he pushed. The cot began to move.
“You should get some rest,” he said, manoeuvring the cot through the open door and into the hallway. “Axel will be here in less than two days. Maybe we could have you completely healed by then.”
