33. Mate: Xander's Pov

Chapter Goal (for an early chapter, I have a lot of time to write since it's summer for me): 2k votes

QOTC- who's checked out my other werewolf book, Josephine's Secret?

*this chapter is kind of short, but A LOT OF YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THE BRODY ACTION IN THIS

"You should've just told me that you wanted water." I shake my head, watching as she quickly gulps down her third water bottle. "Do you want another one?"

"No thank you." she replies.

"Why didn't you just tell me that you were thirsty?" I ask. Apparently Charlotte was really thirsty and it was affecting her ability to speak, but she didn't ask me for water or anything. It wasn't until a nurse brought some in that she finally spoke up about being thirsty.

"I didn't want to be needy and make you get things for me."

"Asking for water isn't being needy!" I tell her, trying my best to hide my frustration. There's a pattern in Charlotte and I's relationship; one of us screws up or doesn't say something, the other gets mad, one of us starts crying, and then we learn something about each other. I want our relationship to not have this continuous pattern.

She just said that she didn't ask for water because she didn't want to be needy. Charlotte isn't needy, she likes to push certain things away thinking that she's asking for too much or that she doesn't need something when she actually does. All of this niceness is starting to frustrate me.

"You are my mate." I remind her. "That means that I'll do anything for you and get you the things that you need. All you have to do is ask."

"Sorry-"

"Don't apologize." I cut her off. A few seconds after I finish my sentence, I realize how much of an ass I'm being towards Charlotte. "Sorry, sweetheart."

"It's fine." she whispers, her voice no longer hoarse like it was before she drank water. "Did something bad happen when I was asleep?"

"No." I truthfully answer.

"A-Are you mad at me?"

Charlotte's Pov

"No, sweetheart, I'm not." Xander tells me, pressing his lips to the back of my hand. "I've just been really stressed without you."

"Oh." I nod, trying to clear my mind of bad thoughts and memories.

Flashback

"Your punishment is over." Alpha Jones calls out from the packhouse. I slowly try to lift myself off of the ground and limp over to him. After having to sleep outside in the cold for two weeks straight, all I want is to feel warm. The attic that I stay in doesn't have any air conditioning, but I get to feel the heater in the packhouse as I walk to my living area.

"Th-Thank you, A-Alpha." I stutter, my teeth chattering from the cold.

All of a sudden, I find myself back on the dirty ground, the bottom of my Alpha's shoe pressed into the small of my back. "What was that?" he glares at me and applies more force with his foot when I don't answer fast enough.

"Thank you, Alpha Jones." I correct my previous words. No matter how long or harsh my "punishment" is for misbehaving, I always have to recite the same four words once it's over; "Thank you, Alpha Jones."

"Get up." he orders. "I want my dinner taken up to my room in twenty minutes."

My eyes widen when I comprehend his request, I can't make a meal that he will actually accept in just twenty minutes; my injuries will slow me down and I won't be able to make that deadline. "Alpha-"

"Did I give you permission to speak?" he roughly slams me against the wall.

"No, Alpha-"

"SHUT UP!" he shouts. "I kindly let you back inside the packhouse and you're already trying to disobey me?"

"No, Alpha-"

I'm cut off by a growl. "Forget dinner. Down in the basement, now. The men and I been really stressed without you."

Flashback Over

Even though it's been a long time since I've been given a "punishment" from Alpha Jones, I'm still haunted by the memories. When people say certain things, it immediately reminds me of my old life with the Red Stone pack. I know that Xander doesn't say those things on purpose, he doesn't know any better; he wasn't there all of those times, so there's no way that he knows what triggers flashbacks for me.

"Sweetheart, do you want me to call the nurse back in here?" my mate's voice snaps me out of my thoughts. Xander holds my hand and nervously waits for my answer.

"No." I shake my head. "My head just hurts, that's all."

"I would run you a bath to relax, but we're at the hospital and you can't get up." Xander jokes. "But that just means that I get to carry you."

"You're very... lovey-dovey." I state, noticing how "extra romantic" he's being.

"Is that a bad thing?" he leans in closer and I quickly peck his lips, laughing when he goofily smiles afterwards. "It's funny how the closer I get to you," he leans in again. "The faster the heart monitor beeps."

"Did anything exciting happen when I was unconcious?" I ask, desperately wanting to change the subject. Besides the high-pitched noise that comes from the heart monitor, I hate the fact that it beeps faster when Xander and I get close to each other. It's not fair; my heart beats faster and I wildly blush because of my mate, yet he does none of those things.

"Nothing happened when you were asleep." Xander answers, smiling when he realizes that I'm trying to change the subject. "Brody worked, I worked. And the both of us no longer have any paperwork to do."

"We don't?"

"I stayed in this hospital room and did all of it while you were unconcious." he explains. "My work is done and yours is too. I've been lonely without you, sweetheart."

"You need friends."

"I have friends." I give Xander a pointed look. He's antisocial, I'm not even going to try to defend him and
say that he's not. "I have a friend, but he wouldn't hang out with me."

"Brody only hangs out with you because he has to."

"Stop saying that!" Xander stomps his foot like an immature child. "I don't force Brody to be my friend! He hangs out with me because he enjoys my company."

"Unlike some people." I mutter under my breath.

*** (tomorrow, 3pm)

Xander's Pov

"Let me carry you."

"I can walk on my own."

"You're injured."

"No I'm not."

"Just let me carry you, you're struggling to even stand up on your own right now." Ignoring my mate's protests, I bend down and pick her up bridal style in my arms. She tries to wriggle free from my arms, but she fails miserably. "Most people would make the best of this situation and just let their mate do everything for them."

"I'm not m-most people. I'm Charlotte."

"Just let me spoil you."

"You do it every single day." she sighs. "I appreciate your efforts, Xander, I really do. But I like to do things on my own, I don't need help with everything."

"I don't help you with everything." I exaggerate the last word in my sentence. "I like spoiling you because you're my mate and I want to be romantic towards you. Just accept it, sweetheart."

"I've been laying on a hospital bed for over a week. Can we at least go on a run before we go home?"

"We're already in the house. You are home."

"Can we go on a r-run before you put me on bed-arrest?" she corrects, glaring at me a little bit. I know why she's glaring though; ever since we found out that she's pregnant, I've pretty much taken over cooking in the house, cleaning, laundry, even pack-work. Charlotte has had nothing to do besides sleep and eat.

"We'll go on a run." I answer. "Then we'll come back here and hang out."

"Hang out?"

"Enjoy each other's company."

"That sounds like something an old grandpa would say."

"Let's just go on a run." I change the subject. Whenever we talk about age, she always calls me an old man. It's not that the term "old man" offends or anything like that, it's just that I can never think of a way to defend myself.

After ten minutes, Charlotte and I are both in the woods near our home in our wolf-forms. The Lycanthrope and Wolfsbane didn't effect the appearance of her wolf at all like I thought it would, it just made her eyes brighter in both human and wolf-form. 'Did the Lycanthrope make me any taller?' she asks using the mind-link.

'No.' I tell her, moving so that I'm standing directly I'm over her small wolf. With my enhanced height and her short one, I'm able to stand directly above her without even having our fur brush. The only parts of our bodies that touch when we're in this position is my chest and the back her head when she looks up.

Deciding to play around with her, I slowly sit down. 'Xander.' she says when she feels the pressure of my body pushing her down. 'I'm under you.'

'I'm aware.' I smirk, trying my best to hold in a laugh when she lets out a bark. Charlotte tries to move out from under me, but it's too late; I'm already sitting down. 'This is actually pretty comfortable.' I chuckle. She sitting down with me directly sitting over her. Since my body is larger than hers, only her head and part of her tail is visible. Everything else is tucked under my body.

'I can feel your ding-a-ling.' she uncomfortably squirms.

'Stop acting so disgusted, sweetheart. You felt it before.' I bend my head down and lick her cheek, feeling successful when she's unable to move to wipe her face.

'You're nasty.'

'But you like it.'

'NASTY!'

*** (11pm)

"I missed this so much." I sigh, wrapping my arms more securely around my mate. She snuggles against me and leans her head against my chest.

"I was only out for a week."

"A week and a half." I correct her. "And it was pure agony not being able to hear your voice or hold you. Dylan is dead, Maddie is dead, they can't mess with you anymore. We're finally at peace."

"We don't have any problems with anyone else, do we?" she sks.

"There are always going to be people who don't like us and people who want to put us out of power, but nothing major like Dylan or Maddie."

"Okay." she nods, closing her eyes. I gently caress her baby-bump and notice that it grew; a lot.

"You got bigger." I state, enjoying the feel of the sparks erupting from where our skin is touching.

"Did you just call me fat?"

"I meant your stomach, sweetheart." I shake my head. Charlotte's been acting kind of different ever since she woke up in the hospital; I'm not sure if she's trying to play around with me or if my words are actually offending her. "The pup is growing."

"I know." she smiles, looking up at me. "We're about to have a family, Xander. I still can't believe it."

*** (five days later) (sorry for so much time-lapsing)

Charlotte's Pov

Pulling my hair up into a messy-bun, I leave the bathroom and head downstairs to go find Brody. We had a sleepover last night and we both slept in his bedroom. The weird thing is that my brother got up and left the room before I did, we usually wake each other up and then eat breakfast downstairs. "Buongiorno!" I call out as walk towards the kitchen.

"Woah..." I breathe out when I actually enter the kitchen. Brody is pulling away from a guy, both of their cheeks bright pink. My brother nearly topples over when he sees me standing in the kitchen entrance, he quickly pushes the guy behind him and tries to cover up the situation. "It's not what it looks like!" he frantically shouts.

"Who's this?" I ask, waving at the unknown guy. He awkwardly waves back and glances at my brother.

"A person." Brody answers, blushing even harder.

"Who's that?" the guy asks, referring to me.

"A person." Brody repeats his answer. "This is Charlotte, she's pregnant."

Once the word "pregnant" leaves Brody's mouth, a look of hurt and betrayal takes over the other guy's face. "You two are... together?"

"Ew." I scrunch my nose, disgust evident in my tone. "Brody's gross."

"She's my sister. I told you that I'm single, Cade." Brody explains to the guy.

"I'm confused." I look up at the two men in front of me and try to figure out what's going on. I came down here for breakfast and found my brother with a guy. Were they kissing or something? I don't know for sure.

"Cade, this is Char, my sister." Brody introduces. "Char this is Cade, my mate."

Mate.

"What?" I ask, shocked.

"This is my mate." Brody hesitantly repeats. He nervously rubs the back of his neck and informs me, "He came in the morning and was leaving through the back door."

"Wait a minute..." I trail off. "Th-The only reason why you would t-tell him to go through the back door is if you wanted to hide from me."

"Char-"

"How long has it been since you two found each other?"

I see Brody tapping his foot, something he only does when he doesn't want to answer a question or if it gets too personal. "Brody." I narrow my eyes at him. "Answer me."

"Two months ago-"

"TWO MONTHS?!?" I take deeps breaths to calm myself down. "Who's else knows?"

"Evelyn, Thomas, Xander, Xander's brothers, and a couple pack members."

"So you pretty much told everyone but me?" I tears start to form in my eyes as I process all of this information. Brody didn't have to tell me right away, I was just expecting to be informed about this major event in his life sooner than two months. And he even told Xander, not me.

"I told Xander when you were asleep in the hospital. He thinks that I told you before." Brody explains, stepping away from Cade and walking over to me. "Stai bene con me non essere dritto?"

"Sono perfettamente bene con quello, Brody. Ti ho detto che sarei arrabbiato se non fossi non uno dei primi a sapere." I honestly answer. I'm ecstatic that my brother has finally found his mate and I fully accept the fact that his mate is guy. The reason why I'm flipping out right now is because he kept something so important away from me. "Perché non hai detto che hai incontrato il tuo coniuge?"

"I don't know." Brody sighs. At the time, we weren't dealing with major Red Stone or rogue problems and he can't use the excuse that I just found out that I'm pregnant either; the timing doesn't fit. The only valid excuse he has is that he didn't want me to know about his mate. We've talked about him having a male mate before, I told him every time that I wouldn't treat his mate different based on gender. His mate just had to be a good person and make my brother happy, that's all he needs to do to earn my approval.

"I'm going home." I say after a couple moments of silence. Before I head out the front door, I stop in front of Cade and ask, "Do you want to come over to make brownies?"

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"Andy's coming!"
-Toy Story

QOTC- who's checked out my other werewolf book, Josephine's Secret?

I'm really happy with the length of this chapter since SUMMER BREAK HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED FOR ME!!!!!!! I got out of school on June 1st, so I'm really happy about that. BUT SORRY FOR THE REALLY LATE AND SHORT CHAPTER!!!!!!!!

I've been trying my best to write good, lengthy chapters, but I feel like the storyline has really gotten floppy lately and that the quality of my chapters haven't been as good as they used to be. I'm going to try to merge some of the earlier chapters and edit them, so yeah....... I'm also going to try to add an "end-of-story-short" to the end of each chapter as well.

Important News:

1) I'm going to be updating Josephine's Secret soon. I want to end My Broken Luna first, but I really don't know where to end it. I'm thinking about adding at least ten more chapters and merging the

2) First I'm going to edit the chapter of My Broken Luna, then I'll merge them so that everything still makes sense. I'm thinking about adding at least ten more chapters and merging the beginning ones so that there aren't too many chapters in this book.

3) I'm going to try my best to update on Friday, but I have some plans for the week and I might be kinda busy.

4) I kind of foreshadowed the fact that Brody has a guy mate in one of the previous Adventures with Brody. It's the Adventures with Brody at the end of Chapter 18.5

*do you all miss the Adventures with Brody, Journeys with Xander, and Escapades with Charlotte?

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CHAPTER GOAL(for an early chapter): 2k votes

xoxo Priscilla