Page 275 of Alpha Mates

“I’m everything,” I correct, smiling against him.

“Everything,” he agrees, before he steps back and gets to work.

Without a word, he starts my hair-care routine as if it were his own, starting with my leave-in conditioner and working it in from the ends to the roots. He goes section by section, exactly as I do, leaving me to do nothing but stare at him, half in awe.

“I pay attention,” he says, answering my silent question as he lathers his hands with more. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice.”

I duck my head. I didn’t.

I watch Aiden through it, relearning every little facet of his face while he concentrates on his task with intense focus, but he still smirks every time he looks at me and finds me already watching him.

“So,” he starts with an exhale, “I’m just going to ask now.”

I frown. “Ask what?”

“What did your dad want?” I groan, and he sighs again. “I know, I’m sorry. In my defence, I kept the good vibes going as long as I could.”

My lips twitch. “Yes, I guess,” I mumble, then sigh. “In a nutshell, we need kids.”

Aiden either chokes on air or the sudden bullet to his cranium, I’m not sure, but he coughs and almost drops my treasured leave-in.

“I’m sorry, what?” he sputters.

“Kids,” I repeat, sighing as the topic resettles itself at the forefront of my mind. “According to my father, some wolves in the pack are already asking what we plan to do about it. But I’m pretty sure that’s code formy parents are thinking about it,and if they are, they’re assuming others are.”

Aiden’s frown deepens as he sets his hands down and listens, shock being his primary reaction.

“We’re men, but we’re also the leaders of this pack,” I continue, echoing my father’s words. “We’ll need kids, and according to my father, the sooner we sort outhowwe’re going to do that, the better.”

Aiden stares dumbly at me. All jabs, flirtations, and future pursuits of becoming my personal hair stylist forgotten.

“We …” he rasps, blinking wildly. “We only just mated a few months ago. Isn’t this too soon?”

I can’t help but laugh, because yeah, it is, but—

“We both know it’s not.” I wish it were. I wish I could say this was more of my parents being crazy, but they weren’t wrong. This is our norm.

Werewolves paired up and procreated quickly; alphas and lunas, even faster. The only difference was that there was no luna between us. And after everything, it still felt like we were only just starting out.

“Do you even want children?” Aiden asks, and the question stuns me.

I wasn’t expecting that.

“I never thought about it as ‘if I wanted them’,” I admit as I try to untangle my thoughts. “I’m an alpha. I have to.”

That makes Aiden frown deeper.

“Don’t tell me it’s our choice, because it’s really not. The pack expects certain things, and I—we—need to provide them. A child, their next alpha, is part of the deal.”

He studies me, his expression thoughtful, if not slightly mournful. He knows I’m right, but that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it.

“Honestly though,” I mumble as I look at him. “I’m not the best with kids.”

“Oh, I know,” he says with a cackle. “I watched you spend most of our childhood as a loner, and I’ve also seen how you react when kids in the pack try to talk to you. You look at them like they’re parasites.”

“That’s because they are!” I defend. “Pooping themselves, peeing their beds, and babies cry all the damn time! And they always want to play. Why can’t they just relax?”

“Because they’re kids,” Aiden says, eyes tracking mine with amusement. “You were one of them, ya know.”