Alpha Tristan

"This is your last training session."

I glanced up at Tristan from where I was sitting on the bench. The smile made its way onto my face and I stood up. "Do you think I'm ready?"

He nodded. "I do."

It had been two months since we destroyed Carew's letter and ever since then, I had been dedicated to learning how to fight. It was a slightly brutal process as Tristan didn't go easy on me and we often trained for hours. It took me three weeks to finally train with the rest of the pack, and I had been able to pick up a few things from everyone I sparred with. 

I found that I actually learned things when people weren't afraid to hit me back. With Tristan, it was harder to see what a move would actually feel like since we would never hit each other, training or otherwise. But now, I felt stronger and like I could actually defend myself.

There was something liberating about knowing I could protect myself better but also the pack. I still felt slightly uneasy about the fight, especially because of who my opponent would be. 

Mindy. 

She was the best female fighter and it made sense to fight her seeing as there were no new pack members to face. A large part of me was happy because I knew I had to make it clear that she couldn't have feelings for Tristan, at least not so obvious to the point it made me uncomfortable. 

"Come on, Kara." Tristan pulled his sweater off and set it on the pull-up bar. "We're going over chokeholds again."

I walked over to the mat and kicked off my shoes. He was close behind me when I laid down, bringing his legs on either side of my h.i.p.s as his hand closed around my neck. As I stared up into his crystal blue eyes, the smirk pulled at my lips and I made no effort to move.

We had the same problem the first time he taught me how to escape chokeholds. It was too reminiscent of the passionate times when I revelled in the pressure he would apply around my neck. Feeling his body heat didn't make it any easier, and with every passing day, I felt more and more attracted to him. 

"Focus." He demanded seriously, placing more of his body weight on top of me as he lightly squeezed my neck. 

Gritting my teeth, I wrapped my fingers around his wrist in a monkey grip and grabbed his bicep to trap his arm. Locking my foot with his and bringing my other leg up between his, I raised my h.i.p.s and applied some force to flip him onto his back. He hit the mat with a light thud and made a move to sit up. 

Placing my hands on his c.h.e.s.t, I pushed him back down and straddled his h.i.p.s. "My turn."

He smirked slowly. "Are we trying something new?"

I gave him a pointed look. "If I have to focus so do you, Tristan." Shifting my weight carefully, I wrapped my hand round his neck and applied a bit more pressure. "Stop staring and—"

Within seconds, I was pressed tightly against the mat and I felt like the wind had slightly been knocked out of me. Tristan leaned down and chuckled. "What did I say about always being on your guard. You weren't focusing properly there."

I frowned and growled quietly in frustration. "It's not my fault your eyes are so bloody blue. I told you to stop staring at me!"

He laughed louder. "Kara, if eyes are all it takes to get you off-guard, you'd be better off fighting with a blindfold." He held himself up with his knees and gripped my chin gently between his fingers. He seemed a lot more serious when he brought my gaze back to his. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

I sighed and shook my head. "No—just my ego."

He smiled as he dipped his head to press his lips to mine. It was a soft and brief kiss. "You're a good fighter, αγάπημου. You pick things up quickly."

Digging my fingers into his hair to bring him closer, I opened my eyes as the tips of our noses touched. His hands rested on either side of my head before he lowered his body onto mine and hitched my legs around his waist. "Aren't we meant to be focusing?" I lightly teased. 

Tristan didn't say anything as he moved to gently kiss my jaw. He applied pressure on me with his h.i.p.s. "I am focusing—on you." His lips dipped to my neck and when they brushed across my mark, the m.o.a.n caught in my throat. His kisses were tame at first but when he pushed against me with a slow roll of his h.i.p.s, my eyes fluttered closed. 

"Tristan…not here." I tugged at the silky strands of his hair and pressed myself into the mat. "Someone could walk in at any time."

He followed me with his body and just when I thought he was giving me a much-needed reprieve, he moved to the other side of my neck and ran the tip of his nose against my jaw. "I just want to feel you." He sat up on his knees and slowly ran his heavy hands down my t.h.i.g.hs. He repeated his movements until I relaxed against the mat, keeping my gaze on his as his hands slid up to press against the small of my back. 

Tristan lifted my h.i.p.s and I shivered when his hardening length pressed against me through his joggers. He was hot, in more ways than one and I tightened the grip of my legs around his h.i.p.s. He stared down at me with blue eyes that were darkening with every passing second. 

I lifted my hands to rest under his shirt and I suddenly wanted to feel more of his skin against me. "You're insatiable, Tristan…" the image of him gripping onto my hair as he thrust deep into me flooded my mind, and I couldn't hold back my m.o.a.n. 

He leaned down and passionately kissed up the column of my neck before murmuring lowly in my ear. "I'm insatiable because when you m.o.a.n my name like that." He s.u.c.k.e.d softly on my earlobe. "I need to be deep inside you. I can't breathe until you've come undone and the only thing that's on your tongue is me…my name."

My hands curled against his stomach and an arrow of overwhelming l.u.s.t shot through me. I felt his too and it was strong and powerful. The scents of our arousal were heavy in the air and I noticed it smelled like one of my favourite flowers, primrose. His h.i.p.s were flush against mine as he latched his lips onto my mark, s.u.c.k.i.n.g lightly. My eyes almost fluttered closed when they drifted towards the door. A green gaze met mine for a lingering moment until she turned around quickly. 

Her gasp sounded through the air at the same time as mine and I had to force myself to move away from his kisses. He seemed in a l.u.s.tful daze because he growled lowly. "Kara…"

"Tristan, st-stop." He sensed the panic in my voice and pulled back instantly, his dark gaze quickly flitting towards the door. He tensed on top of me and pressed his nose into the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply before he reluctantly pulled away. I felt cold when his body was no longer on mine but he pulled me up with him as he stood. 

We both noticed Mindy still standing there with her back to us. 

"What do you need, Mindy?" his voice was deeper than normal, and given that he already had a deep voice naturally, it was hard to hide the fact that Tristan and I were seconds away from ripping each other's clothes off. 

"My-my bag." She turned around slowly and her cheeks matched the flaming red of her hair as she avoided eye contact. Her gaze zeroed in on her bag in the far corner of the room. 

Tristan tilted his head slightly and she took that as the green light to retrieve her bag. When she walked passed us, Tristan wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me closer until he was pressed tightly against me. I stared up at him in warning, feeling the embarrassment flood through me as he laid a fleeting kiss on my lips. 

I pushed into his mind with a shaky voice. 'She's right there—stop.'

His eyes were no longer blue and instead, black irises stared back at me. I had to force my gaze away from him when Mindy crouched down and began rummaging around in her bag. It looked like she was interrupting on purpose and I didn't miss the way her lips curled in a mix of jealousy and irritation when her eyes met mine briefly. Envy was a green-eyed monster and it was reflected in the forest-green of her eyes. She looked like she hated me.

Tristan followed my gaze until we were both looking at her. She instantly put on a mask of indifference yet continued searching for something in her bag. The embarrassment quickly faded away and in its place bloomed territorial pride. Tristan was mine and she couldn't change that, no matter how in love with him she seemed. 

"Mindy, can you give us a minute? We'll leave if you want to train indoors." Tristan's grip tightened around my body and I watched as Mindy finally looked up at him. I couldn't miss the tinge of painful discomfort in her eyes. 

"Don't leave on my account." Her voice was sickly sweet and she forced a smile on her face despite the awkwardness of the situation. "You can still train here if you want."

I stared at her blankly and replied curtly. "We don't." I watched as her smile stiffened and then fell slightly as she forced her gaze away from Tristan. She stared at me and silence settled in the room before she pushed herself up to her full height. I could feel his gaze on me and Mindy's stony eyes flickered between us before a false and wounded expression crossed her face.

She bowed her head and stared at the ground. "I'm sorry for interrupting. I'll just train outside, it's okay, Luna."

Without another word, she lifted her bag and hurried out of the room. Tristan watched her leave and turned back to me with a frown.

"That wasn't nice, Kara. You didn't need to say it like that."

I glanced up at him and tried to ignore the disappointed tone in his voice. "I'm sure it didn't hurt her feelings. She's more affected by what we were doing." I leaned back slightly when a look of confusion crossed his face.

"What are you talking about?" 

He had no clue that I wasn't the only woman in love with him, and the other one who was acted like I hurt her feelings so I seemed overreactive. What was overreactive was her irrational hatred towards me. "You don't see it, do you?" I frowned slightly. "She's in love with you, Tristan."

A sigh fell from his lips and he broke our eye contact. "She's not in love with me, Kara."

I pulled myself from his embrace with an exasperated roll of my eyes. "Everyone sees it but you. She looks at you like I look at you. And you can't tell me that I'm not in love with you."

He tried to pull me back in but my l.u.s.tful daze had been cleared and I was no longer in the mood.

"She's in our pack, Kara. She wouldn't be in love with me because I'm her alpha. Stop."

The last thing I wanted was to argue with him so I decided to keep quiet, stepping away from him completely.

"Don't be like that, Kara." He stepped towards me and I couldn't bring myself to move away again but my hands settled against his c.h.e.s.t to maintain some distance between us. 

"I'm not being like anything, Tristan."

"You're being petty and jealous. I don't like it." He sounded even more disappointed and my gaze snapped up to his. "You're meant to be her Luna. So act like it." The slight harshness to his tone hurt my feelings and I felt it surge through my c.h.e.s.t. I felt slightly angry but I had to reign in my emotions. I had a right to be jealous and I knew that he would be too if the roles were reversed. 

When we had first met, he seemed consumed by anger at the thought I was loyal to another man. 

I fought the frown that wanted to pull at my lips and gently pushed his arms away from my body. I definitely didn't want to argue and hurt his feelings in return so I knew I had to get some space between us. "I'm acting like any mate would if—" I stopped myself from saying anymore and avoided his gaze. "You know what…never mind. I'll see you later."

"Kara…" he tried to grab onto my hand and I turned around, biting my tongue as I sighed. 

"I need to not be here right now." My jaw clenched and I pulled my shoes on before retrieving my jacket. I could tell he wanted to say something but stopped himself to respect what I wanted at that moment. 

Stepping out into the snow, I zipped up my jacket as I mind-linked my mother, asking if I could see her and Matthijs. She answered in the affirmative and I set out towards their house. Over the past two months, their relationship had gotten incredibly strong. 

My mother, at first, had a bit of difficult truly letting go of Samuel Carew but it wasn't long before she was deeply in love with Matthijs and knew that what she had experienced before wasn't true love. She had explained how Carew made her depend on him for everything so when he left, she wouldn't know what to do. She was heartbroken and never really stopped hoping he would return to her.

Of course, Matthijs had shown her exactly how she deserved to be treated and seeing my mother happy warmed my heart. In turn, she had become kinder to Tristan and he was beginning to feel comfortable around her. 

The sense of attachment that came with the mate pull hit me like a truck but I forced it down when I remembered what had happened. It didn't matter that I always wanted to be with him. He hadn't spoken to me with that time of voice ever and a sense of discomfort surged through me as I realised maybe that was what Mindy wanted. To get under my skin and between Tristan and me. 

I pushed it out of my mind when I knocked lightly on the front door and seconds later, came face to face with my glowing mother. Her eyes shone with happiness and she had the vibrancy of newly bloomed flowers on her face. 

"Kara! It's so good to see you!" she grinned at me and embraced me warmly. 

Matthijs emerged from the kitchen and offered me a charming smile. He opened his arms to me once I stepped away from my mother and I hugged him tightly, taking in the heavy scent of apples on his clothes. 

"We're making apple crumble, your favourite. You came just in time, kiddo."

I grinned at that and stepped back from him, glancing at my mum who slowly closed the door. 

"Where's your mate today?" she asked, leading us towards the kitchen and reaching for the oven gloves. She pulled out the tin of apple crumble and set it on a cooling rack. 

I leaned against the tabletop and mustered up a smile. "He's busy."

The silence didn't fill the air for very long as Matthijs began asking about training and told me of the time where he had to fight a new pack member. It wasn't as scary as it seemed and was more relaxed than I expected it to be. No one would hurt each other severely but would just try to get them on the floor. 

I wasn't worried because I knew that my status as Luna meant it would be easy to make Mindy submit. She was an exceptional fighter but I had something that gave me an advantage. The thought of her slowly began to annoy me. I knew I wasn't being irrational since I wasn't the only one who saw it. 

If it had been like that even before I came then it was no wonder that Tristan didn't see it. He didn't care for all of that. I did, however, and with every passing day, I cared for it more and more. I loved Tristan with everything in me and I wouldn't have put it past Mindy to not try and ruin that, especially if her feelings for him ran deep too.

I knew better to not start an argument. We had had enough of those in the beginning and I didn't want to go back to the person who angered or upset him. I promised I would never hurt him again and if my temper got the better of me, I would have said something I didn't mean. 

The mate pull heightened the possessiveness I felt towards Tristan, and I didn't want anyone looking at him like I looked at him. It was different for me. He had my heart because he was always meant to be my mate. No one else had the right to think that they could have his heart.

Knowing I was too distracted thinking about Tristan, I decided to cut my visit short after an hour and a half. The apple crumble was delicious and I hugged them both as a thank you. My mum placed a hearty slice in a container and pushed it into my hands.

"Take some for him." She smiled slightly and I brought her into another hug.

"Thank you. He's going to love it." I left them with a departing smile and slowly walked back to our house. 

He wasn't there when I arrived so I set the container on the counter and pulled my outerwear off. It was just the evening but I decided to get a head start on dinner and began cooking our favourite meal. I could feel the longing he felt and sighed before mind-linking him to tell him I had cooled off. 

Tristan came half an hour later when I had just gotten into the shower. I heard him as I turned the water on and stepped under the stream. He quickly made his way upstairs and I glanced at him as he tugged his shirt up over his head. Once n.a.k.e.d, he pulled open the doors and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pressing his nose into my neck. 

"We're never going to argue because of something like that, okay?" he spoke gently against my skin and tightened his embrace around me. "I only care about us, and what I should've said earlier was that it doesn't matter if Mindy's in love with me. I'm in love with you and that's never going to change."

I turned around and stared up at him, grimacing him slightly. "Maybe I shouldn't have spoken to her like that as a Luna. But as your mate, I just couldn't control my feelings."

He raised a hand to gently c.a.r.e.s.s my face. "You have nothing to be jealous of, αγάπη μου. I don't care about her feelings towards me if they're romantic. I'm her alpha and that's it."

Sighing, I stepped further into his embrace and rested my forehead against his c.h.e.s.t. "Can we just restart this entire day?"

His c.h.e.s.t vibrated with a quiet laugh. "Maybe not the entire day." He pulled back and smirked down at me. "I quite liked what we were doing in the gym."

The steam caused the glass to fog up and I stared up at him with a blooming smile. "I'm not sure I remember."

His hand cupped the back of my head and he brought his lips down to mine. "Then let me remind you." When he backed me up against the tiled wall, I shuddered as the water soaked his hair. He kissed me deeply and I smiled against his mouth when he gripped onto my hand and placed it around his manhood. 

I gasped lightly. 

"Do you remember now?" he uttered breathily, resting his forehead on mine as he peered down at my hand. 

The l.u.s.t took me at a stronghold and a shaky breath fell from my lips. "Yes…" I closed all the distance between us and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. I couldn't stop myself from lightly kissing his mark. He shuddered against me when I slowly began to move my hand. "I remember what you wanted—I want it too."

He was mine.

His fingers dug into my hair and he roughly tugged my head back. I gasped as he pressed his lips against my ear, growling promisingly. "Turn around."