Chapter 56

Cheyenne's POV

I've been back home for a week now, and so far everything seems to be going good. The lycans have been adjusting to life outside the mountain, and the wolves have been very welcoming to them. Some have even found their mates already. In those cases, the lycan's went to live with their mates in their respective packs. I promised Jax that we would find a solution and it was a rather easy one to come by.

Ben and Chelsea have been locked in their room since we returned home for the most part. I've been joking about being an auntie in 9 weeks and how excited I was. Ben was actually the one that would blush before Chelsea did. Chelsea had also learned a few tricks from her Grandma on witchcraft that she couldn't wait to show me.

She had taken some of the vases full of flowers from the living room in the pack house and I followed her outside. Next thing I knew, all the flowers were floating around us in the air. After the initial shock wore off, it was actually quite beautiful. It almost looked like some fantasy world. Her concentration was broken and all the flowers dropped to the ground when one of the pack's pups came running out to us.

"Do it again Luna!" He begged pulling on her shirt.

"Maverick, I'm not Luna yet, but I can do it again. You have to stand back though." Chelsea said softly with a smile.

Maverick ran towards me and jumped in my arms. I gladly picked him up, he was giggling, and I put my index finger to my lips to quiet him down. He mimicked my motion and then covered his mouth to muffle another giggle. I watched his face as Chelsea made the flowers float in mid-air again, there was nothing but pure joy and fascination in his eyes.

To say that seeing everyone accept each other regardless of species warmed my heart, would be a major understatement. I can't put into words how proud I am of everyone. Now granted there's always going to be the "bad apples" but there's nothing you can do about it till they do something anyways, so why stress over it?

That night at dinner Gunner and I sat with Jax. I hadn't talked to him much since we've been home and I wanted to check in on him. As we walked up to the table I noticed he had a blank look on his face.

"Jax, you ok?" I asked sitting down across from him.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm good." He said faking a smile.

I gave him that "I know you're lying" look and he placed his fork down on his plate and then wiped his face with a napkin before talking.

"I think I found my second chance mate." He said softly for only us to hear.

"What!? Seriously? Jax that's awesome! Congratulations!" I cheered as I reached over to hug him. Even Gunner gave him a big smile and shook his hand.

"I'm not sure Alida. Either this is going to be the best thing that's ever happened to me or it's going to break me." He said looking back down at his plate.

"Wha…what do you mean?" I stumbled out.

"She's a…she's a…" Jax paused and looked around to see if anyone was listening before continuing on, "Dragon."

"Dragon? Do those exist? Wow! That's amazing Jax." I was truly amazed. I have never heard of dragons before, but then again I had never heard of a lot of this stuff before I was abducted.

"I don't know about any of it. All I know about dragons are that they are high maintenance and well, Alida you know me. That's not how I roll." Jax said with a serious look on his face.

"You are mates for a reason Jax. You said it yourself that second chance mate for lycans is unheard of. Also, don't judge her before you get to know her. You gave me a chance without knowing me. Do the same for her." I pleaded.

Jax is such a good guy, and it broke my heart to see him all alone. He definitely deserved to be happy and I was glad that the Moon Goddess gave him that chance. Why she pulled a damn dragon out of her hat though, I will never know.

After thinking about it for a few minutes, a small smile tugged at Jax's mouth and he finally agreed.

"Finish your dinner and then go to her." I said.

"Is that an order?" He asked with a smirk still on his face.

"Do I need to make it one?" I smirked back.

"Dude, haven't you learned not to test her yet?" Gunner piped in causing all of us to laugh.

"Apparently not." Jax chuckled.

We finished eating and then I started making my way through the dining room towards Alpha Nik. I wanted to check in with him to see how things were going with the other packs so far, and we still needed to set up a meeting to get all the alphas together to come up with the chain of command more or less.

"Alpha Nik. How are you doing?" I greeted him with a small and shook his hand.

"I'm absolutely fantastic Cheyenne. How about yourself?" He asked.

"I still haven't gone down to see my mother. I got half of these people calling me one name and the other half calling me another. I don't know what name to go by anymore." I shrugged my shoulders and laughed.

"Well that is a decision only you can make my dear. One that might be a little easier to make if you go talk to your mother first." He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, I know. It's just learning the truth about my own past and the fact that she more or less lied about it, it's just a hard pill to swallow." I said looking down and playing with the tablecloth.

"Although I can't pretend to know what you're going through, I do feel for you. You have so much on your plate for such a young woman, but I know you will handle it accordingly." He smiled.

"Speaking of which, have you checked in with the other alphas around the country? When can we all get together?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"So far everything is going fine. Some have had to banish a couple people from their packs for mistreating the lycans, but it's been nothing major." Alpha Nik shrugged. "As far as a meeting date, most of them can make it this coming Monday, and the others who cannot make it can video call in."

"I didn't even think of online meetings. Good thinking! I will make sure I am available on Monday then. Thank you Alpha Nik for helping me with this." I offered him a soft smile.

"Please call me Nik. You do outrank me now." He chuckled.

"Oh don't even think about it!" I gave him a serious look. I knew what he was playing at. Alpha Nik just started laughing along with Beta Derek.

"Speaking of Beta's, since you wanted to laugh too, should we have the Beta's in on this meeting as well, or should we bring them in on the second meeting?" I asked.

"Hmmm…" Alpha Nik and Beta Derek looked at each other. "I think for this first meeting, just have the Alphas, then bring in the betas later." Alpha Nik said.

"Ok. Works for me. I better get back to Gunner, he's been staring holes in the back of my head since I walked away." All of us laughed for a moment before I left them.

As I was walking back towards Gunner, he got up and met me about halfway. He intertwined his fingers with mine and lead me out of the dining room. I thought we were going back up to our room but he turned away from the stairs and headed towards the back door of the pack house.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"You'll see. It's a surprise." He smiled

"Ugh I hate surprises!" I groaned.

Before he would open the back door he made me put on a blind fold. After he made sure that I wasn't peaking, he opened the door and I felt the cool crisp night air rush across my exposed skin. He grabbed my hand again and started leading me outside. I tried to figure out at least which direction I was heading but he had turned me left and right so many times that I was completely lost. I knew we were in some type of woods because I could hear leaves and twigs crunching.

After what felt like forever, he finally stopped me and then turned me to my right and then told me to take the blindfold off. When I took it off, I was in complete shock. He had brought me to a clearing that he must have spent hours on decorating for me. There were lights strung threw all the trees all around us, flowers everywhere, even a blanket in the middle for us to sit on.

"This is beautiful Gunner." I said still looking around in amazement.

"I thought you might like it." He smirked while grabbing my hand again and leading us towards the blanket.

He laid down on it and then patted his chest wanting me to lay next to him and cuddle. It was just too cute and my heart just melted. I gladly laid down next to him and rested my head on his chest listening to the sound of his heartbeat. Everything was simply perfect.

After laying there for a little while and star gazing, something popped in my head. We haven't completed the mate bond process yet and neither of us have marked each other. We hadn't even talked about it. Most wolves are marked and mated the same night they find their mates, granted our story was different from the typical mate story, but even being back home now, he's still never brought it up.

"Gunner, can I ask you something?" I asked tracing circles with my fingers on his stomach.

"Yeah babe. You can ask me anything." He said rubbing my upper arm and placing a soft kiss on top my head.

"Why haven't you asked about marking me or mating?" I asked as I sat up to look at him.

"I was wondering when this was going to come up." He said. "It's not that I don't want to babe. Trust me I really do. It's been so hard not to jump you and just mark you. I just figured that you still have a lot going on and I didn't want to pressure you into it if you weren't ready, and I sure as hell ain't trying to push you away because of it. I just thought that when you were ready you would tell me." He shrugged. I could tell he was telling the truth. He really didn't want to pressure me into doing something that I didn't want to do.

The whole thing just made my heart melt even more. I jumped towards him, wrapping my arms around his neck, and crashing my lips into his. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me down on top of him and returned the kiss. It grew more passionate the longer it went on and his hands started roaming. Our make out session was so intense that I think I forgot my name for a minute.

Suddenly Gunner rolled us over and then backed off and stared at me. That's when I saw Maddox's yellow eyes instead of Gunner's brown eyes. I didn't freak out, instead I just smiled and pulled him back down towards me and continued making out. Things started getting heated and one thing lead to another.

We had made intense love right there on the blanket in the clearing of the forest. He was such a gentleman about the whole thing and I couldn't have been happier. I knew I was going to be sore tomorrow but right now, I didn't care. As we laid necked next to each other I lifted my head to look at him in the eyes.

"I want you to mark me." I said.

"Really? Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yes I'm sure. I'm ready." I softly nodded my head.

"Will you mark me too?" He asked while running his fingers threw my hair.

"Only if you want me too. Just remember I don't know how it's going to effect you with my royal bloodline and all." I warned.

"I don't care babe. I'll do anything for you." He smiled.

That's all it took for me to crush my lips against his once more. He started trailing his kisses down my jaw line to my neck and along my shoulder until he found that sensitive spot at the base of my neck. I leaned my head the side to give him easier access and I felt his canines against my skin. I relaxed just in time as his sunk them into my flesh. I let out a whimper of pain before I felt the mate bond really snap into place. I was hit with a wall of emotions that were not my own. They were all his, love, happiness, pride, all the feel-good ones.

When I felt his tongue lapping up the small trickles of blood to seal the wound, I made my way to his neck and started looking for his spot. Once I found it I did the same thing he did to me. I felt his body tense for a minute at first before it finally relaxed and his grip on my waist tightened. When I was done, he softly grabbed my face and put our foreheads together and softly kissed the tip of my nose.

"We might not have been able to spend much time together but believe me when I say this. I love you runt. You are mine now and forever." He softly whispered with a smile.

"Runt? Really?" I chuckled.

"You still haven't picked a name so I did. That's what I've called you since the day I met you." He shrugged.

How could I be mad at him at a moment like this. He was just too cute and my heart was full of love right now. "I love you too." I whispered back before licking his nose causing him to pull back and give me a weird look before wiping it off. We ended up spending the night on that blanket in the clearing, and there may or may not have been more rounds of love making that night.