The Alphas of South Forest

LEILANI

“Mouse?” A gruff voice sounds out and my eyes snap open.

I look up to see Dane has woken up and reflexively looked at the empty stool. I smile with amusement as he looks down and his face lights up as he realizes I’m in the bed next to him.

He puts his arm around my shoulders and cuddles me into his chest. I’m wary of the scrapes but when I inspect his chest, it’s fully healed.

“You stayed,” he mumbles huskily and kisses my forehead.

“You asked me to,” I reply, and he chuckles.

The sun has risen, indicating it’s now morning. Jarren should be waking up soon.

“Jarren is going to be okay, they got all the bullets out,” I tell Dane, and he smirks.

“Of course he is, he’s an Alpha, he’s not going anywhere,” Dane retorts.

I resist rolling my eyes. Alphas always think they’re invincible.

I sit up and slide off the bed. I stretch my arms above my head until I hear a satisfying pop.

“Who said you could leave the bed?” Dane pouts grumpily, and I laugh at him.

“Sorry, Alpha, but I need to go freshen up.”

The mention of a bathroom seems to make Dane realize he needs the toilet. I’m not surprised, he’s been out for ages. We both use the bathroom. I clean my teeth and wash my face.

Aside from a slight limp, Dane can put weight on his leg now. He changes into the clean clothes Akamai brought him and emerges from the bathroom looking almost like his old self.

He sits on the bed and glances over at Jarren. I know he acts tough, but deep down he’s worried and wants his brother to wake up.

As if sensing his twin’s thoughts, Jarren blinks a few times and slowly turns to look at us. His yellow eyes darken when they land on me.

“How are you feeling?” I ask him softly.

He reaches out his hand to me and I eagerly slip my hand into his. “Good actually, when can I get out of here?” he asks, and surprises me by pulling himself up to a sitting position.

“Hold on,” I tell them, and they both look alarmed when I leave the room.

The look goes away when I return with the doctor, who quickly checks them over.

“Dane, you can go, you’ll be healed fully by tomorrow,” the doctor states briskly.

“Jarren, you will be fine to leave tomorrow, but you need to stay in bed for today to make sure those wounds don’t open.”

Jarren is not happy with bed rest and growls his displeasure, making me laugh. I stay with him while Dane returns to the house to shower.

“The second I’m allowed out of this damn bed, we’re taking you back to our territory,” Jarren growls irritably.

I resist laughing at him, knowing it’ll annoy him further. Dane returns and the three of us spend some time together.

Jarren can’t go anywhere and there’s an unspoken agreement that it means Dane and I aren’t going anywhere either.

I don’t know when it happened, but it seems the three of us come as a package deal now.

We talk about anything and everything to keep Jarren distracted from being stuck in a bed.

Finding out he has a catheter in does nothing for his dignity, and for a horrifying moment I worry that he’ll attack the nurse.

We eat together and when night falls again, Dane and I get into his bed, much to Jarren’s displeasure.

“When this is over, you’re staying in my bed to make up for this,” Jarren growls while glaring at the two of us from his bed.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I argue, and he growls louder.

“I’m fine,” he snaps.

“Do you two have separate rooms?” I ask Dane, ignoring a seething Jarren behind me.

“Yes, we do. We share everything but we still like our space.” He looks over to Jarren for confirmation and then adds, “When we get back, the three of us will move into one big room.

“You may have already noticed, but the bond has strengthened to the point where the three of us won’t want to be apart.”

That explains it.

I already feel so much more for them than I did before they left. Our close proximity has caused our bond to strengthen. We are now very much a little triangle.

***

Dane and I wake up after Jarren the next morning. When I open my eyes, he is out of the bed, standing up, and having his bandages removed by the nurse.

They reveal perfectly healed, if slightly scarred, skin. The scars are hot, but they’ll fade over time. They mix quite nicely with his tattoos.

Dane uses the bathroom and I stretch, sliding off the bed.

“There you go, Alpha. You can leave whenever you’d like to,” the nurse informs him and leaves the room.

Jarren’s yellow eyes settle on me and narrow. He grabs my waist and pulls me against his chest.

“I’m back to full strength now, little mouse,” he whispers, his voice full of dangerous promise. “Now, give me a real kiss.”

He leans in toward me, but I quickly put my hand over my mouth, so his lips press against the back of my hand. He growls with irritation and pulls back.

“I haven’t cleaned my teeth!” I blurt in protest.

He glares down at me. “What? I don’t care.”

We’re both distracted by Dane entering the room again, freshly showered with wet hair. I take the opportunity to wriggle out of Jarren’s grip and rush out of the room.

“Lei!” Jarren shouts, but I ignore him and run back to the main house.

I run upstairs and into my room. I grab my things and go to the guest bathroom, where I freshen up and shower.

My hair is air-drying down my back as I pull on some leggings and a pretty top. I apply some makeup and then look around my room.

I guess it’s time to pack.

Halfway through filling my holiday suitcases with my stuff, Mum comes into the room with happy tears in her eyes. She helps me finish while we reminisce on our best family moments.

“You know I’m going to come back and visit, right?” I tell her, and she smiles sadly.

We drag my bags down the stairs, my essentials shoved into four enormous suitcases.

I’ve left lots of things in my room, stuff that I don’t need to bring to my new home but will be nice to me to come back to. Things like old toys, trophies, general crap I’ve collected over the years.

I step outside and a cool breeze wraps round me. My mates are back in their traditional wear, trousers and shoes, but no tops, black bands around their left upper arms.

They look completely sinful and delicious, even though Jarren’s torso is dotted with scars from the bullets.

Feeling my eyes on them, they both turn to face me at the same time and suddenly I feel nervous.

I turn my attention back to my parents and I say goodbye to them. My eyes well up as I hug my brother and Damon.

“We’ll come visit you, next week maybe?” Dad offers, and I laugh but happily accept.

I don’t even know how far away their pack is, the South is large, and it could be anything from two hours to eight hours.

Two hands appear on both of my shoulders, I tense up under my mates’ dual touches.

“We’d love that, Alpha Hoku,” Jarren states.

“Let’s get going, mouse,” Dane whispers in my ear, and I resist a shiver.

Jarren opens one of the back passenger doors for me and I’m shocked when Dane leans in to clip my seatbelt on for me.

Do they think I’m completely inept in looking after myself?

Jarren gets behind the wheel and Dane gets in the passenger seat.

“It’ll be three hours, little mouse, I suggest you take a nap,” Dane tells me, and despite being irritated with his actions, I decide to take his advice.

I try to get comfy against the window, but it vibrates with the car’s movement. My eyes land on a hoodie that is sitting on Dane’s lap.

“Um, Dane? May I please have your hoodie?”

He hands it over to me and I fold it up, I lay it down on the seat as a pillow. I pull on my seatbelt to get some slack and lie down across the seats.

The smell of my mate emanates from the hoodie, sending me to sleep.

***

I wake to the gentle shake of my shoulder. I blink a few times, my mind trying to catch up as my seatbelt is unbuckled and I’m jostled into someone’s arms.

I rub my eyes and look around. I’m in Jarren’s arms, facing a beautiful, two-story house.

“Welcome home, mate,” he smirks. “You are on our territory now.”

Oddly, his words seem more of a warning than a greeting. He sets me down and begins unloading my suitcases out of the car.

I notice how warm the air is here, much warmer than my old pack.

Dane grabs my hand and leads me inside. He gives me a tour around the huge house. It’s designed to be modern and minimalistic, and it’s gorgeous.

He shows me his and Jarren’s rooms, followed by a huge master bedroom.

“We were saving this for when we met our mate,” he states.

My eyes widen at the gigantic bed. It looks like two king beds put together, more than enough room for three people.

I’m speechless, but luckily Jarren saves me from answering because he brings my bags up at that moment.

“Why don’t you unpack and get yourself settled, while Dane and I go check on the pack?” Jarren suggests, and I nod.

“We’ll be back in an hour or so,” Dane adds.

They both kiss my forehead and then they’re gone. I explore the room, finding the walk-in wardrobe and en suite. I put my phone on the speaker dock and play some music while I unpack.

An hour later, everything is neat and tidy, but the room looks more like mine. I hope they don’t mind. I turn off the music, text my parents that I’ve arrived, and head downstairs.

I wander around the house some more, taking it in more slowly now that I’m not on a tour.

Eventually, I get bored and open the front door. A stone path leads past the garage, away from the house.

Curious, I walk along it. The trees clear, revealing an enormous mansion that can only be the pack house. A building to its left with a cross symbol must be the clinic.

I approach the pack house, smiling at anyone who walks past me. Everyone eyes me with curiosity, but most smile back, which is nice.

I’m approaching the stairs that lead up to the main entrance when the door swings open. Dane and Jarren exit the pack house; their eyes land on me and I suddenly get the feeling I’ve done something.

“What are you doing?” Dane asks, and I frown at his tone.

“I came to find you, I’m done unpacking,” I reply, confused as to why they’re annoyed.

“We told you we’d come back, you should have waited for us,” Jarren chastises me.

“I don’t get what the big deal is…” I trail off, and they both have a hard look in their eyes that I don’t like.

“When we ask you to do something, mouse, we expect you to do it,” Dane says, and it pisses me off.

“I’m not a lap dog that follows your every command,” I retort, sarcasm dripping from my voice. My tone seems to irritate them further.

“You follow our orders, mouse, we’re the Alphas here,” Jarren states, and I roll my eyes.

“Yeah, and I’m your mate, you don’t get to order me around,” I snap, and in my peripherals, I can see we have caught the attention of people walking by.

“Hey! What are you—” My protests are cut off as they grab an arm each and the two of them begin quite literally strong-arming me toward their house.

“You disrespected us in front of our pack, mouse,” Jarren snarls.

I scoff, so what if his pride has been hurt? “No I didn’t, I defended myself,” I argue back and try, with no success, to pull my arms from their vice-like grips.

They give me the silent treatment and drag me into the house. I begin to get nervous when they take me up to the master bedroom.

They push me into the room, and I spin around to face them, my expression furious. They both watch me with dark eyes.

This is not going to go well.