Higher

Chapter 1

I guess I should have realized it sooner. It was pretty obvious. The way he always searched frantically at pack meetings before seeing me and quickly relaxing. The way he always checked up on me when I was getting settled with the Wilson's. The way he seemed to want to say so much to me but never got around to it.

The one thing I didn't understand was the two year wait. Did he think I wouldn't believe him? Honestly, if he had told me when I was sixteen it would explain a lot of things. The way I wanted to be close to him. The way I loved when he said my name.

Theo was a complicated man though and seven years observing him did not explain much.

However, as I saw him enter the Wilson's and walk painfully slowly towards me I knew I was about to learn a lot about him.

Every cell in my body screamed "Mate" and the shock passed as soon as it came. Like I said, it made a lot of sense.

His face softened which was usual when he was speaking to me. It made feel special that I was the only one who got that reaction from him.

Though he was no tyrant like his father, he still was an intimidating man and the expressionless added to the fear he witnessed.  The pack was scared of him to an extent. Mostly that he would turn out like his father.

It was heartbreaking to watch as the pack obeyed him but isolated him to a point of comfortable safety. Theo was utterly alone. His mother passed before I arrived and I was well aware of what happened to his father. He had no other family and the only one who wasn't on edge with him around was the beta, Mason.

And me.

Carefully, Theo raised a hand and though the people in the house flinched I knew what his true intentions were. He rested his palm on the side of my face and used his other hand to pull me closer. When he searched my eyes for any resistance and saw none, he drew me into a tight hug.

The Wilson's gasped as they saw the intimidating Alpha hug the outsider.

"You waited two years?" I whispered, burying my face into his shoulder and breathing him in, not caring about the people surrounding me. They were always nice and hospitable but there was a line. A line between this pack and me. I was and always will be an outsider. Though I couldn't complain, they haven't had anyone join the pack in many years. It was a new experience to them.

He didn't answer, he just held me even tighter.

"Uh, Happy Birthday?" Mrs. Wilson said obviously uncomfortable that my mate turned out the be the Alpha.

It was my eighteenth birthday and on a wolf's eighteenth, they are able to identify their mate. Sure, people normally had an inkling or knew before but just on the eighteenth was it confirmed.

I remembered Mrs. Wilson talking to me yesterday about mates and how I shouldn't be sad if I didn't find him on the exact day.

I smirked and looked up at her.

She smiled brightly back. Though she was baffled she was happy for me. The woman had become my mom over the last seven years. She may needed a lot of push to see me as one of her own but these days she was as close as anyone could be to me.

Theo apparently realized that he had stopped my small birthday party because he awkwardly shuffled out of my grasp and stood beside me, observing the people staring at him.

Though, there wasn't much observing it was more like a hard glare and a "don't fuck with me" type of attitude.

"Alright well, Theo, want to join us for some cake?"