Chapter 46
**Justin’s POV**
I watched as Gael’s facial expressions changed. He was confused, shocked, but then it changed to happiness.
‘Why didn’t you tell me, man?’ he exclaimed.
‘Kataleya and I do not want the entire pack to know right now, so it has been kept to just our immediate families.’
‘Congrats, man! I know you have been waiting for your fated since you turned 17.’ He paused for a second as if debating something. ‘Wait! Why haven’t you two marked and mated yet? You cannot tell me that you two just found out you were fated. She has been 17 for nearly a year now and you have been constantly near her for training.’
Before I could respond, Caleb interrupted our silent conversation. “Gael, did you not just complain about Kataleya and Oliver having a private conversation, while we sat there and watched them link back and forth? Now are you doing it with them?”
“Caleb, mind your business. We are having a very important conversation, bro. When you need to know what we are talking about, we will tell you,” Gael said to him quietly.
Kataleya went to stand up and I quickly followed her. “Are you done eating?”
She nodded her head and went to throw her food away before she came back to the table. She looked at Oliver, Michael and I before telling us that she was going to go to the training center to do a little workout.
I decided to follow her and Gael came with us. He waited until we were on the training grounds, making sure that there was no one on the training grounds, before he spoke again. “Justin, I am waiting for you to finish answering my question.”
“If you two are going to be here with me, then I want one of you to train with me. I prefer Gael to fight with me though,” Kataleya told us before I could respond to Gael’s inquiries.
Gael lines up in front of her and takes his position so that he can spar with her.
“Yes, we are mates, Gael. Neither one of us is ready for the entire pack to know. We want to take things slow and we want this to happen because we want it too, not because we feel pressure from everyone in the pack.”
Gael grunts as Kat’s kick hits him in the ribs. “How long have you known she was your fated?”
Of course, he keeps coming back to this question. “We have known that we are fated since Kataleya’s birthday.”
He stops his incoming attack on Kat and freezes, looking between the two of us. “You knew before the challenge?! How in the world were you able to fight her? If I recall, you left several bruises on her, not to mention the marks that the rest of the challengers left on her! Goddess, no wonder you nearly bit my head off when I was going to pounce on her.”
As soon as he finished his sentence, Kataleya went for the attack and punched him in the throat. He choked slightly before he went back into his stance to spar with her.
“Her Alpha challenge was hard as fuck. I was waging an inner battle with myself during the entire challenge. At one point, I was terrified of her getting hurt by one of us, but on the other hand, I knew she would be pissed off if any of us went easy on her. After all, we were not called the best of the best when it came to the warriors for a reason. When I saw you stalking towards her, I nearly lost it. It is kind of a shock that no one knew during that challenge that she was my mate. I couldn’t bear the thought of her getting hurt. Don’t get me wrong, I never underestimated Kataleya’s skills, on or off the battlefield, but when it is your mate out there, all you want to do is protect them and say fuck it when it comes to everything and everyone else. Even now, watching your two spar is kind of hard. I know that neither one of you is intending to hurt the other, but it is still bothering me just to watch her spar with you. Honestly, I am surprised the Alpha is still allowing me to attend her training sessions because there have been a few times that I have nearly attacked the person she was sparring with. There was one time he demanded I leave because Garrison was too handsy, nearly chopped off his hands. I would have enjoyed doing it too,” I finished as I shrugged my shoulders.
He really would have deserved it. Even if Kat was not my mate, he should know better than trying to get handsy with the Alpha’s daughter, even Michael was pretty pissed off that day. The Alpha made both of us go take a walk or, as he put it, “blow off some steam.” After that day, I got Garrison pretty fucking good during the training for warriors. I told Gamma Sean that Garrison was going to be my partner and I put the boy in the hospital “by accident.” It probably was not fair of me to do that since he did not even know what he technically did wrong. None of them know that she is my mate, but Goddess did it feel fucking good. It, also, caused a set back with Kat.
According to the Alpha, after Michael and I left, he “accidentally” groped her boob and she lost it. She shut down on herself and wouldn’t do anything. The Alpha linked me to come back immediately because he could not get near her. It was like she had shut down after it had happened and she would only let me, subconsciously, close enough to touch her. It was like her mind shut down and the only then she was able to recognize were the sparks. The Alpha did get onto Garrison, even though he was swearing that it was an accident and he did receive punishment, but it was not enough for me. I will never forget that day as I tried to calm her down and get her to ground herself and realize that she was safe and that I had her. That day was about two months ago. Ever since then, the Alpha has not asked Garrison to attend her Alpha training to spar with her. It is now always Gael, Aziel, Jessica, or me.
Now that I think about it, with the way that we have been acting, it is a shocker that the pack still does not know that we are fated mates. We always try to hide it in public, since Kat says that she still is not ready for everyone to know, which I respect, but fuck it is hard. I don’t touch her, even when my body is screaming at me to grab her hand or to give her a hug. Our conversation is civil. I keep out any pet names like love or baby.
I hate having to hide what she is to me. I am only able to be myself with her when we are in her room at the pack house or at one of our parents’ houses. I refuse to push her though. Last month was the first time she started initiating kisses between us and even then, it is few and far between.
I am hoping that if she continues meeting with Luna Everleigh, then it will help her to be ready for me to mark her. Ares has been relentless too. He thinks that if she were marked, then he would be able to calm down about her being in the presence of other males, especially during training. He has been nagging me about it and gives me fucking headaches over the shit. He does not want to force it, but he feels that we have waited long enough. I struggle with letting him forward when she is near, worried that he will accidentally forcibly take charge and hurt her unintentionally.
I realized that I had been zoned out for too long and Kataleya had been trying to get my attention.
“Sorry…I got lost in my own head. What’s wrong?”
“We are finished training. Gael is a big baby. I guess he doesn’t like his ass being kicked by a woman.”
I laughed. Of course. Gael was still salty about the Alpha challenge. He did not like the fact that she took him down, especially since some of the other warriors had been joking with him about how a girl beat him. I tried to jump in and defend him, stating that technically it was a female Alpha and Alpha’s are stronger than the normal everyday warrior, but they would not hear it. They continued to give him hell about it.
“Sure. He always has been a sore loser.” I walked to my locker and pulled out a bottle of water and a banana, tossing both to Kataleya. “Eat up, love. Don’t give me that look either. You just trained. You need to bring back up your energy.” She gave me a glare, but opened the banana and took a bite.
“Happy now?”
I smirked at her, “Nope, not just happy, I am overjoyed!”
She laughed and finished her banana and drank half the water. Goddess, I love her laugh. I could spend all day listening to it if she would let me.
We made our way back to the packhouse and Gael left us, so that he could take his patrol shift.
“What do you want to do for the rest of the night?” I asked her.
“Hmmm…I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
“Do you want to go for a walk? Maybe in human territory, so we don’t have to hide anything.”
She laughed, “That sounds fun. I am going to shower and change first though. I am a sweaty mess.”
I laughed at her as she bounded up the stairs, making her way to her room to shower.
