Alpha Alexa

Julian's POV

Itook Nicki back up to my room for bed and I was really hoping we could continue what we started on the couch downstairs I opened the door for her and walked in behind her. I would walk behind her all the time to watch her as. It was a nice a”s. “I can sleep on the couch if you have a blanket,” she said.

I walked up behind her and brushed her hair to the side and started to kiss her neck. She let a small moan escape her mout before she stepped away from me.

“Iam sorry, Alpha, but what happened on the couch is as far as we will take things. I like you. You're the first person who has made me feel anything since my mate and I don’t want to lose you as a friend, so we won't be sleeping together”

Her words had me a little stunned. I had feelings for her as well, so I was going to have to do this right.

“Please take my bed, I will sleep on the couch,’ I told her.

“No, this is your room, and I will take the couch?”

“Just go please, I want you to have it."

She nodded her head and went and crawled into bed. I went to my closet and grabbed a blanket and stopped at the bed, grabbing a pillow before heading over to the couch. I got comfy on the bed, but my mind kept going back to Nicki in my bed. I knew I was developing feelings for her, but I didn't expect her to be so honest with me.

“Don't be a fool, ask her out on a date.” Zion linked me.

“You think so?”

“Ya don't be an idiot, man. We obviously like her and she admitted to having feelings for us as well"

“Chill man, I will ask her tomorrow morning for tomorrow night. I don’t want to take her out, but I can do something here. Without knowing where Robert is, we can't take her out right now.”

“Agreed, but you had better do something good here."

“Go to sleep, I will figure something out, Zion.”

He left me alone after that and went to sleep. I lay there for several hours trying to think of different ways I could do something special in the pack house for her. I was finally dozing off when I got a mind link for Luca.

“Julian, get up, we have wolves coming in on the East border."

“Where are you?"

“About two minutes from there. One group on patrol smelled them and waited for me to get there. They said they could just smell a few and I could handle that, but they said more started to come. At least twenty of them."

“Get more people there. Leave our other patrols still monitoring. We don't want to leave other borders open.”

“Already done sit”

Ijumped up from the couch and ran out of the room, trying to stay quiet so I didn’t wake Nicki. I got out and ran out of the pack house as fast as I could and as soon as I was outside, we shifted mid-stride and saw other warriors coming out and heading in the same direction. We were all running as fast as we could. If you looked behind us you would see dirt and grass being kicked up by our paws. We were getting close, and you could hear they were already fighting. I dug in harder and pushed Zion as hard as he could go.

We didn't hesitate as we got there and jumped in the middle of the fighting, started to bite into any rouge we came across, and did not let go until they were dead. The rouges just kept coming. It was like every time one of them died, two more came.

I'sent a pack-wide link telling anyone that was able to get out here and help and those that couldn't need to get to safety. I didn't know what they were after, but I didn't want anyone left unprotected. We kept fighting these guys and I could see that some of my warriors were injured and some of the younger ones were getting tired. We needed our backup here now. I looked around and tried to see if anyone was in immediate danger when I saw a warrior that had a wolf on its back and couldn't shake it.

Iran and jumped on the wolf, knocking it off my warrior, and quickly ripped its throat out. My warrior had fallen to the ground injured, but he would have to take care of himself at the moment. I had to keep fighting. Help started to arrive, but they seemed to have a never-ending number of rouges. We kept fighting and taking them down. I could see that we had a few injured and even a few that had died, but my pack kept fighting. We finally seemed to have control over them and started to push them back, when someone stepped out of the woods.

“This isn't over yet. We will be back” Robert yelled.

His rouges retreated behind him, but I led us to push forward, and I was going to jump at him, but he shifted, and they ran away. He was too far ahead of me to catch up. I turned to my pack and shifted back. Everyone shifted back as well.

“Good work tonight everyone. Please, anyone who is injured go to the pack hospital, and those that aren't let's get this cleaned up. I saw that we had five dead warriors.’

They all got busy cleaning up and I saw a few headed to the hospital and one that was being carried as his injuries were severe. I walked over to Luca to see how he was.

“Luca, you OK?"

“Yes!

“OK, come with me while we inform the families of our warriors that didn’t make it."

We started to walk away and back to the pack house. This was the part that I always hated. It was never easy to tell a family that they had lost someone. I always tried to do everything I could for that family, including taking care of the burial.

“Go get some clothes on and meet back here in ten minutes,” I told Luca.

He knew the drill. He always went with me for extra support for the families.

Three hours later and we had made it back to the pack house and to say we were depressed would be an understatement. This was the worst when you had to deliver that news. We had to call the doctor for two of the mates. This was the worst possible news, although they could feel it through the mate bond, most wouldn't believe it until they heard the news.

I headed to my room for a shower and some sleep. I got up there and found Nicki up and dressed and watching TV.

“Good afternoon Julian,” she said.

“Hey sorry about not being here when you woke up. We were attacked and we lost a few wolves and I had to speak with thei family”

“That's horrible. Can I do something to help?”

“No, I'm going to shower.”

Igot in the shower and that's when I finally let my walls down and I cried for our lost warriors and their families. After I grieved for them, I stepped out of the shower and dried off and wrapped a towel around my waist, and walked out to my room. I went and grabbed my phone off my nightstand so I could call Colter.

I dialed his number as I went into the closet to get some clothes on.

“Hello,” Colter answered.

“Robert was back with an ungodly amount of rouges, in the middle of the night"

“Shit, is everyone OK?"

“No, I lost five warriors and have some others injured. One that's injured might not make it either”

“Damnit! What can I do to help?”

“Nothing, I just wanted to let you know. He is hanging around. I've got trackers trying to see where he is staying"

“OK, I've got to do some digging through his computer and meet with the council and then Alexa and I will come and help tn to find him."

“OK, let me know when you will be here.”

We hung up and I slipped on some shorts and went back out into my room and Nicki was still on the couch.

“I am going to lay down for a bit I told her as I climbed into bed.

She turned the TV off and walked to the other side of the bed and climbed in, but sat up with her back resting against the headboard.

“Come here” She said as she patted her lap.

Ilaid my head on her lap and she started to run her fingers through my hair and rub my scalp. It felt amazing and Zion was very happy with this action.

“Want to talk about it?” She asked.

“Not really.”

She didn't say anything else but continued to rub my head. It didn't take long for me to fall into a deep sleep.

I woke up a few hours later and found the room empty. I'm not sure where she went but I hope she didn't leave the pack house. It's not safe out there for her. I couldn't mind link her since her wolf was so weak.

“Luca, have you seen Nicki?" I mind-linked him.

“Yes, she and Lauren are in the kitchen” He replied back.

I'gotup and put on some clothes and went downstairs and found a very somber mood throughout the packhouse. Everyone was mourning the loss of our pack members. I got to the kitchen and found both Nicki and Lauren with an apron on and the were cooking.

“What are you girls doing?” I asked, startling both of them.

“Well, I'm cooking a meal for each family that was affected by today’s attack. I'm not sure what Lauren’s doing." Nicki said, laughing.

Her action had my heart swelling with pride. She would make a great Luna. Its already in her.

“Hey, I'm helping. It's not my fault I don’t know how to cook” Lauren replied back.

“What can I do to help ladies?”

“Actually, if you want to start putting the dishes into piles so we can work on delivering them.”

I got busy making five separate piles of different dishes.

“You seem to have six over here. We only lost five people.’

“We did but one for the warrior who is severely injured also. I figured his family would be too worried to cook.” Nicki said.

I didn’t think I could be any prouder of her than I already was, but when she said that my heart exploded with pride.”

“You need to mark her now. She is the perfect Luna." Zion linked me.

“We need to take this slow with her man. I wish she was my second chance mate,” I told him back.

We had everything ready to go and in different boxes for each family.

“Let's get these loaded ladies and you can come with me to deliver them.”

They both nodded and I sent Luca a mind link to go with us. When he showed up, we took off to deliver the food.

After an emotional few hours, we delivered all the food and we were all exhausted.

“How about I order some pizza for everyone?” I asked them.

“Thanks man, but I think Lauren and I are just going to turn in for the night"

“I could eat some pizza,” Nicki said.

“What's your favorite?”

“All meat! We're carnivores after alll” She said, smiling at me.

I quickly placed an order online and we headed up to my room. I really wanted to talk to her about a date.

“I want to ask you something, Nicki

“What's up?”

“Will you go on a date with me?”

She looked down and wouldn't look at me. This wasn't a good sign. I walked over to her and placed my hand under her chin and made her look at me. She had unshed tears in her eyes that she was trying not to let fall

“Please talk to me, Nicki."

“I can't”

“Why not? You said you liked me and trust me and the feeling is mutual. So I don't see the problem.”

“Because I really don't have a wolf anymore and I've got trauma and, well, I don’t want to bring that on to you."

“Baby, you've been honest with me this whole time and what you've been through has made you strong and compassionate and loving and caring. You're also sexy as hell and our chemistry is scorching hot. There's no one else we want to be with.” we

“Zion my wolf and I”

She was now crying and I hated seeing it. I pulled her into me and hugged her.

“Please just say yes."

“OK, I will go on a date with you"

My face broke out in the biggest smile ever. Zion was prancing around in my head with his chest puffed out.