~ The Dark Howlers pack ~
Ashton was sitting on an office chair in Violet’s room and looking around. Her room was a bit larger than his.
There was a bed, a sitting area with a sofa and two sofa chairs around a coffee table, and a workstation with a desk and an office chair where he sat. Walls were lined up with shelves filled with books, and there were two tall cabinets with pull-out drawers. On top of the cabinets were several dolls that looked worn out from being loved. He smiled while imagining little Violet playing with those.
“What do you think?” Violet asked.
Ashton visited many times, but this was the first time for him in Violet’s room. The third floor of the packhouse was always reserved for the Blake family. Just being here was a big deal.
“Why do you have so many books in here?” Ashton asked. He saw light novels, books on history, science, finances, and almost everything. It was like a library.
“This is my room,” Violet stated the fact. “I grew up with a bunch of brothers and friends who were invading every part of my life. This room was off-limits.”
“Why not store books in electronic form if you didn’t want others to take them?” Ashton asked.
“It’s not about the books. It’s about knowing that others won’t touch my things. It’s my piece of heaven.”
Ashton’s brows came together.
“What?” Violet asked.
“This packhouse is so big that I never thought…” That she would consider only this room as hers, and everything else was shared. Normally, werewolves don’t mind living in a group setting and sharing, but Alphas are different. They need to have something that’s theirs, and Ashton was determined to give her just that – something that’s theirs, Violet’s and his.
“What is your dream packhouse?” Ashton asked. 𝒪𝒱𝓵xt.𝒸𝒐𝑚
Violet was taken aback by that question. “What do you mean?”
“Since we will combine our packs, it doesn’t seem fair that we stay in this packhouse or the other one. Let’s make OUR packhouse.”
Violet gaped at him. She didn’t want to live with Luna Michelle and Alpha Cristian, yet asking Ashton to move in here didn’t sound right either. The idea of them building their own home was novel, and she liked it.
“Are you sure?”
Ashton nodded. “I want you to think about the number of rooms and their use. How many floors? I always wanted a swimming pool.”
Violet’s eyes sparkled. They had a lake nearby, but a pool sounded great. She could imagine it… a hot tub, with Ashton.
Before she could respond, there was a knock on the door.
Violet walked there to open and see the triplets, Scarlet, Page, and Robin.
“Can I help you?”
The triplets craned their necks to see behind Violet. “We came to say hi to Ashton.”
“You can greet Alpha Ashton when we join others.” Violet made sure to emphasize Ashton’s title.
Three brunettes were still trying to take a peek at Ashton when suddenly they froze.
“OK. OK,” Scarlet groaned. “We are leaving.”
“Make sure everyone knows that Ashton is my mate and their future Alpha. If anyone dares to get close or look at him for longer than a second, I will gouge their eyes out. Is that clear?”
Violet retracted her Alpha aura, and the triplets quickly took a few steps back.
Page rubbed her sweaty neck. Her face was pale like a sheet of paper. “Your power. It grew.”
And with that, the three sisters left.
Violet smirked and turned to Ashton as she closed the door. “Did you hear that? My power grew.”
Violet blinked, and in the next moment, Ashton was in front of her. The only thing that indicated he moved was the wind that whipped around her.
“You forgot to tell them that if anyone dares to look at me, I will take it as a challenge to my position as your mate and I will make them regret being alive,” Ashton said and Violet smiled in approval.
He touched the left side of her neck where his mark was. “Look at that. Beautiful.”
Violet’s mouth opened as she sucked in a breath. “You like your mark?”
“I love my mark on you, Vi. But I said that you are beautiful, not the mark.”
Violet’s smile reached her eyes. “Keep telling me that I am beautiful, and I will tell you a secret.”
“Do I need to tell my Goddess how perfect she is?”
“Sweet-talker.”
“Enough to hear the secret?”
Violet got on her toes and whispered close to his ear, “I never had a man in my room. You are my first.”
Ashton’s eyes darted to her bed. Was that why Damon was glaring at him like he might commit murder? Ashton thought it was just overprotective daddy-Damon. “Never?”
“Why does it sound like you have someone on your mind?”
Ashton shrugged while trying to conceal his uneasiness. There was someone.
“Ash?” Violet raised her eyebrows, silently telling him she was expecting an answer.
“You and Ethan were connected at the hips, so…” He didn’t finish that, but he knew Violet understood.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Ethan and I are close, but when we hung out, it was in the garden or the common room or on the training grounds. Not on the third floor and not in my room.”
Ashton felt like a knot of insecurities around his heart loosened. He always wondered about Ethan and Violet. If anyone asked Ashton during his five years of solitude if there was any man he was worried about, that would be only one – Ethan.
It was not a secret that Violet thought she and Ethan would be mates, and part of Ashton wondered how far Violet would go to test When Ashton found out that Violet was his mate, one of his concerns was if he would ever be able to be better than Ethan. that.
When Ashton found out that Violet was his mate, one of his concerns was if he would ever be able to be better than Ethan. Sure, Ashton was faster and stronger, and more skilled when compared to Ethan, but none of those changed the fact that Violet was annoyingly close with the young Alpha of the Blue River pack. Ashton imagined many times sneaking in wherever Ethan was and just killing him off. No one would know it was Ashton. He killed stealthily many rogues in their own dens without being noticed.
“What are you thinking about?” Violet asked. She could feel that Ashton’s emotions were unstable.
“I am thinking how even before I knew you were my mate, I hated how you smiled at Ethan. And I hated more the way he looked at you.”
Violet blinked. “He is like a brother to me. I would never cross the line.”
“Unless you confirmed you were mates.”
“Oh, Ash. If another female ended up being your mate, you wouldn’t be here with me. Don’t think about those things because we are mates, and there is no one else. You are my first, and you will be my last.”
It was the same for him. “Sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
“It’s the same thing that came over me when I thought about anyone other than me being on your mind. Our bond is fresh, and our wolves are strong and willful. My wolf urges me to claim you and protect what’s mine.”
Ashton was glad that she understood how he felt.