Page 277 of Alpha Mates

“… Okay,” he whispers as his hands slide around my waist, holding on tight. “Okay.”

“And then, maybe … we can try covering every base.”

Aiden shakes against me, a little jerk at first, before he’s laughing so hard it shakes me too. “Goddess, you’re the best.”

I smile into his hair and press a kiss to it. “I try.”

Chapter 56

Aiden

“Knock, knock,” Emitt calls as he pokes his head through the open doorway. The second our eyes meet, his lips stretch into a grin.

“You know, when people say that, they usually do the knocking too?” I say, straightening from my table.

“That wouldn’t make any sense,” he dismisses as he shoulders the door open so he—and the armful of rolled-up maps—can fit through. “If I did that, it’d be a quadruple knock or something. Then what’s even the point?”

Rolling my eyes, I move to meet him on the other side of the table, catching two of the maps before they hit the floor. “Were they hard to find?”

“Surprisingly not.” he admits as he drops the rest. “Julian’s got that library running like a military base.”

“Of course he does,” I mutter, shaking my head. “Still, thanks. I’ve been swamped today, so I appreciate you going.”

“Don’t even. It was nothing.” Emitt beams and helps me spread them across the table. “But are you finally going to tell me what all this is for?”

“The witch—Katerina—she said something weird,” I say, sliding the maps together until the edges line up. “Said she was drawing magic, but not from us.”

“Scary,” he mutters, hands settling on his hips.

“Yeah, but there shouldn’t be anything supernatural within a five-mile radius of our borders,” I say as I stretch across the table for my pens. “Nothing but rogues.”

Flattening out the corners, I started marking the map—red Xs for the rogues we dealt with, and black for the sightings we haven’t. A cluster formsquickly, north of the packlands, spreading towards where the Moon’s Shadow Pack resides.Thatis a problem because it means there’s more.

“I’ll make the call,” Emitt says before I can ask. His expression is pinched as he stares down at the map. “Several. I’ll make several calls.”

“There you are.”

I glance away from the outline of our packlands to find Julian crossing the rooftop with a smile. By the look in his tired eyes, he only just got home.

“Here I am.” I sit up on the couch to make space for him.

“I’ve been looking for you,” he says as he slides his slippers off and climbs into the space between my legs. He pecks my lips before he turns and leans back against me.

I hum into his hair as I wrap an arm around his waist, and he sighs heavily. “Long day?”

“You have no idea.”

Unfortunately, I do. Drained doesn’t even begin to cover it. After so long away, every hour of our attention needed to be on the pack, and we’ve been running on fumes. Still, it isn’t for nothing. We’re settling back into the natural order, and our pack’s trusting us again. Trusting in their alphas.

“What about you?” Julian asks, settling his hand on mine.

“Same as you. I have Emitt looking into rogue sightings beyond the pack,” I say, hoping it doesn’t shift the mood. “I just want to be sure we’re safe.”

“Okay,” he says, but he shifts to look at me. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Jewels,” I murmur, pressing a kiss to his temple. “You make sure that I am.”

I feel it when his heart kicks, before I watch his smile spread. He tilts his head, and I don’t hesitate to take the offering.