Chapter 23 Ice Skating
October 15th
The following morning I woke up in Leo''s arms. His bare chest was warm and smooth andfortable
and soft and ugh. He''s just too beautiful to hate.
"Morning," He said in a husky voice once he realised I had woken.
"How long have you been awake?" I asked rolling over to face him as he gently drew circles on arm
with his finger.
"Hours," He said looking up to the ceiling his lovely blue eyes.
"Why didn''t you wake me?" I asked.
"Well you looked so peaceful and I''mfy. Besides, when your sleeping is about the only time you let
me be this close to you."
"Correction: I let you be close to me when you''re not being a dick and when I''m sleeping I don''t know
that you are being a dick."
"Ouch," he muttered.
"The truth hurts."
"I was thinking we should go on a date today but if that''s how you feel-"
"A date?" I said sitting up. "Are you for real?"
"Why do you seem so surprised?" He asked furrowing his eyebrows.
"Dates just don''t seem very you," I said.
"What do you mean not very me?" he asked.
"You don''t strike me as the romantic."
"There''s a lot to me that you don''t know about yet," he said kissing my forehead.
"Where are we going then?" I asked.
"Well since the weather is getting colder they put the Ice rink up in Kellington and I figured it might be
fun," He said stroking my face.
"Are you kidding?! That would be brilliant! Ice skating?! In Kellington??! My home town?!" I squealed.
He watched my excitement with a smile, "And afterwards I thought we''d go see your friends."
My eyes widened, "Abi and Charlotte?"
He nodded.
I squealed again and lurched forward to kiss his lips.
He grinned and immediately brought his hands to my waist and kissed me back.
"Omg I can''t wait!" I said now kissing him all over his cheeks.
"OMG GURL! ME NEITHER!" He said in a ''typical high school girl'' voice.
"Can we go see Connor too?" I asked hopefully.
"Don''t push it," He replied his face suddenly straightening and his tone dropping four octaves.
Iughed and put my hands on his chest, leaning in for what I thought was another quick peck.
But he responded by cupping my face in his hands and delving deeper into the kiss. I didn''t object and
let him pull me on top of him as his hands slipped down to my thighs.
He let out a quiet groan as he touched me before he grabbed my hips and flipped us over so that he
was on top.
I looked up to the shirtless God above me as he brought two gentle fingers to the v-neck cor of my
shirt.
As they slipped underneath I felt shiver travel through me, instantly reminding me of the pleasure he
gave me in ir''s car yesterday.
His hand kept travelling further inside my shirt before he kissed me again as I felt him cup my breast.
I put my hand on top of his but my wolf couldn''t quite bring herself to let me pull away. She wanted him
so bad. Part of me did too but I couldn''t let him have me. Not yet.
I scrunched my eyes tight and turned away.
"Hey, hey," he said guiding me back to face him, "Where are you going?"
I tried to sit up but he was still straddling me.
"The bathroom," I said.
He put his thumb on my lips and looked into my eyes before pausing. At longst, he nodded and let
me up.
In the early afternoon, we made it to the icerink.
"Shoe size sir?" The young boy behind the counter asked Leo.
"Men''s 15." He replied.
"Jesus, you have big feet," I said in astonishment.
"You know what they say about men with big feet," He whispered with a smirk.
"You''re not a man. You''re a child." I said.
"And your shoe size prettydy?" The man behind the counter asked.
Leo stepped in front of me, "She''s a women''s five," he said, forcing the boy to look away from me to
him.
He nodded, looking slightly nervous at Leo''s fierce expression before he went to get our skates.
"Fucking humans," Leo grumbled, "Does he not see this?" he added gesturing to the mark on my neck.
Soon enough, we were getting on the rink.
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"Can I just quickly say, Leo. Last time I went Ice skating I had to go to the hospital," I said as I
nervously put one foot on the ice.
"What?! Why?!" He said joining me in cautiously stepping onto the rink.
"Long story short I fell over on my head and got a concussion. And that was like two years ago and I
haven''t done it since," I exined as I held Leo''s hand incredibly tightly.
"Ah well I''ve never skated," Leo admitted as we scooted along the edge of the rink clinging to the side.
Watching him wobble around on the ice made me giggle. The big bad Alpha struggling to stand on his
own two feet.
"Well the time I got a concussion I don''t really remember but all the other times were amazing," I said
as I almost fell before Leo grabbed my arm and pulled me back next to him. "Thanks," I breathed.
"Righte on. I''m meant to be Alpha of the biggest pack in the world I can''t be scared of letting go of
the side of a fucking ice rink," He said making meugh. "Ready?"
"Ha sure," I said slowly releasing my hand from the wall. To start with we slowly inched around whilst
other people whooshed past us confidently.
Leo soon picked it up pretty quick so luckily I had him to cling onto.
"How are you so good at this when you have never even done it?!" I asked.
"Must be the Alpha blood," He said as he did some kind of turn twisting me around with him as I
squealed.
We had been on the ice for about half an hour when Leo whisked us over to the side.
"We are doing this again," He said pulling me in by the waist.
"How about Christmas Eve?" I asked giggling.
"Why not?" He said before leaning in to kiss me. Mid-kiss I felt my feet vanish from underneath me and
judging by Leo''s rmed eyes, so had his. Somehow as we both fell, Leo managed to twist us so that
he was underneath me so that Inded on him instead of the ice.
"Bloody hell." He groaned as I opened my tightly shut eyes to see I hadnded on his steel hard abs
and rather than the steel-hard ice.
"What just happened?" I moaned looking at Leo.
He just threw his head back and startedughing.
I couldn''t help but smile, "Leo! What happened?!"
"Kissing on ice isn''t easy," he said, "I fell."
I rolled my eyes and kissed him again, "Easier when you''ve already fallen," I said as I pulled away.
As we tried to stand up, I wobbled and grabbed onto him.
"You good?" he asked pausing as I regained my bnce.
I nodded but the second I tried to get up again, my feet spread apart, sending me straight back down to
the hard ice. Considering my iron hold on Leo, he got the delight ofing down with me.
We copsed into fits of giggles once again. I could hardly breathe through the hysterics which only
made getting back up AGAIN even harder.
"Fucking hell," Leo eximed gripping the side for dear life as we finally made it to our feet. "I have to
say I prefer drynd."
"Meh, this is more fun though."
After we had returned out skates we took a sigh of relief. My body ached from all the falls but we both
wore wide smiles on our faces as we walked towards Abi''s house, chatting away.
He was telling me stories about his life, mostly featuring Luca and I was nearly in tearsughing.
"So we told him that for my 21st birthday we were all getting tattoos of each other''s faces on our left
ass cheeks. ir was getting Luca''s, I was getting ir''s and Luca was getting mine. Then we told him
we ''booked'' an appointment at the tattoo shop at 2 pm on a monday, well knowing that at 2 pm on
Monday''s Luca goes to a Bob Ross inspired art ss. So he had to book his own appointment earlier.
So along he went at 12pm on the monday and got his tattoo, thinking ir and I would be thereter.
Of course, we never went and now only Luca has the tattoo," he exined.
I let out an abruptugh, "Wait, so Luca has a tattoo of your face on his ass?"
"Yes, Ma''am. I''ve seen it with my own eyes," he said with a nod.
"That is fucking hrious. Cruel but..." I replied.
"Hey, let''s not forget that he willingly agreed to his own tattoo. The only difference is that ir and I
didn''t also permanently mark our bodies with each other''s faces," he replied.
"True," I said with a shrug, "Luca really is a special breed."
Just then we arrived outside Abi''s house.
"Remember," I began, "Be friendly."
He nodded, "Of course, of course. I can do friendly....sometimes."
I rang the doorbell and we waited for an answer. We''d texted Abi and Charlotte asking to meet them
tonight so a few secondster, there were squeals from within.
"She''s here!" I heard Charlotte shout from behind the door.
"AHHH OPEN IT THEN!" Abi replied. The excitement in their voices made me even more excited than I
already was. Shortly after the door flung open. Two sets of eyes: one blue, one brown, both looked at
me then then Leo. They then stayed still and stared for a short moment before the owners of the eyes
both started jumping up and down on the spot and squealing.
"ELLA!" Charlotte screamed.
"SOME RANDOM GUY !" Abi continued looking at Leo and then giving me knowing nce.
"You found him!" Charlotte said to me before they both pulled all three of us into a hug.
"Yes. Abi, Charlotte, this is Leo. My mate."
They both squealed and the hug grew tighter and more ecstatic.
"Is this is normal?!" Leo said from way above all of our heads.
"Come in,e in it''s freezing out there," Abi said.
"So..." Abi said as she jumped onto the sofa rubbing her hands in glee.
"So...?" I asked.
"Tell all, tell all," Charlotte asked. "Who are you? How''d you meet? Where''ve you had our besfriend all
week?"
Leo let out a shortugh, "I''m Leonardo," he said, "We met in the forest and we''ve been at my ce."
"Well nice to meet you Leonardo. Are you a rogue too?" Charlotte asked.
I gritted my teeth, "Not quite," I said, "This is actually also Alpha Loren of the Ste pack."
Abi swallowed and reached for her drink.
I''d told them the stories my father had told me, which exins the intense silence that followed.
"Alpha Loren," Charlotte repeated.
"I''ll go and get some more drinks," Abi announced getting up and heading into the kitchen.
Charlotte nodded and followed her.
Leo sighed and looked down at me, "Go with them," he said quietly, "Talk to them and if they aren''t
happy with me here, I''ll go and wait in the car outside until you want picking up."
I nodded and forced a smile before heading into the kitchen.
"I was d you found your mate, E," Abi said with a sigh, "But no we know who he is, I''m not so
sure."
I let out a deep breath and leant on the counter.
"It''s not ideal," I said, "And he''s certainly no angel. But he''s no threat to us. I''m his mate, he won''t hurt
me and he knows you''re my best friends. He won''t touch you either."
Charlotte raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure about that?"
I paused for nodding, "Yes. I''m sure."
The looked at each other for a second, "But what about all the terrible things he''s done?"
"They are atrocities but what''s done is done. All I can do is try and stop him from doing anything else," I
said. "I believe there''s good in him. I just haven''t found it yet. So please, give him a chance.
They nodded.
"Okay, he can stay," Abi said with a smile, "But if he gets blood on that new white carpet in the lounge,
he will be the one to tell my parents."
I rolled my eyes, "Deal."
"So...?" Charlotte said, "What''s he like?"
"A total ass," I said as I stood on the tippy toes trying to reach the sses, "But things are getting
better. The percentage of time we spend arguing is going down."
"Well...at least he''s cute," Charlotte said.
My eyes widened as Iughed, "He can hear us, you know? He''s a fucking Alpha."
She snorted as she covered her mouth, "I''m just saying what we''re all thinking," she said before
nudging me out the way of the ss cupboard, "Let me get them, shortie."
I heard Leo chuckle to himself from the other room as she easily reached the sses and got them
down.
"Sometimes I wish I could have a mate. Human rtionships suck, no matter how much a boy can say
they love you, as soon as someone betteres along that''s it. Gone. The idea of having someone
who you know will never leave you is just so great," Abi said getting Lemonade out of the fridge.
"If you''re talking about when you went out with Brad and then he left you for Witney, he''s a dick and
she''s a bitch," I said to her.
"Well, can''t say I was upset when she got expelled on Monday for sleeping with Mr Winters."
"Mr Winters! Ew! That is so gross!" I said shivering from disgust.
"But to be fair to her though...if I had to sleep with a teacher I would choose him," Charlotte said.
"Eww! He''s still like 35 and more importantly a teacher!" I said pouring the lemonade.
"Well, Leo can''t be that young," Abi whispered.
"He can still hear you and he''s 23," I chuckled.
"Oooh someone that can buy alcohol," Charlotte said with a cheeky grin.
"Yeah, I wouldn''t get your hopes up on that one," I said rolling my eyes. "He''s a major parent."
Charlotte frowned before picking up to of the sses as Abi got the other.
"Sorry, Mr 23-year-old no beer. My parents would absolutely ughter me," Abi joked, cautiously
passing Leo a ss before retreating to the sofa furthest from him.
He smiled, "Don''t worry. I''m on a detox after the other night."
He then stood silently, still by the door as I sidled next to him and rested my hand on his back.
There was quiet for a few moments before I ushered him towards the other sofa.
"The other night there was a party and somebody got a little wasted..." I muttered as we sat. I rested
my hand on Leo''s leg as he forced himself to smile.
Abi and Charlotte still eyed him cautiously and I could tell he wasn''t used to this kind of interaction. As
far as I''d seen, his friends included Luca and ir. Everybody else purely was just there to work for him
and obey his orders, which Luca and ir had to do too of course.
But now he was sat in a room with two human strangers, having to do the dreaded small talk and
forced civility that is always awkward anyway, even if you aren''t infamously evil. And he
seemed...ufortable.
"Which reminds me," he said eventually, "Have either of you seen Logan recently?"
Well, that''s small talk over then.
"No. He wasn''t in school today," Charlotte said. "Maybe he was sick."
"Hmm, maybe," Leo said.
"...Why?" Charlotte asked as she nced at me.
"If you do see him pretend you didn''t," I said and Leo clenched his jaw.
"Or send E''s phone a message immediately," Leo said in a deep tone as he shot me a look.
"What?" Abi asked, "Can someone exin."
"I''m looking for him because he touched up E," Leo said, "And he isn''t getting away with it."
"Which, because Leonardo here is a fucking nutcase, means he wants to kill him," I replied.
Abi and Charlotte stared nkly for a few seconds, their eyes wide.
"Well shit," Abi said knocking back her lemonade. "Maybe I should get some beer out."
Just then Leo''s phone began to ring.
"It''s ir, give me a second, Ells," he said standing up and heading out.
Charlotte looked at me with wide eyes and mouthed ''what the fuck''.
"I know Logan is a dick and shouldn''t have touched you but dead?" Abi whispered, "Why does he want
him dead?
"Like I said, insane," I replied, "And I haven''t even told him half the shit Logan used to do with me," I
added in the lowest whisper I could.
"E," Leo saiding back into the room, having finished his call with ir, "I have something to do."
"Any more details than that?" I asked.
"No," he said bluntly, "But I can''t leave you here alone. Abi, is it alright if my Beta and Gammae
here whilst I''m gone? They''re nearby."
Abi opened her mouth and stuttered for a second, "I guess...are they...nice? Should I be inviting them
into my home."
She had every reason to be dubious after what she had just learnt about Leo.
"They''re fine," I said, "Luca''s augh and ir won''t be any trouble."
She nodded and Leo texted ir.
A few minutester there was a ring on the doorbell. Leo answered it and a few momentster, there
were three giants stood in Abi''s front room.
Leo kissed my forehead, "I have to go. See youter," he said.
I nodded before we looked up at the others.
Charlotte was sat picking some floating thing out of her lemonade, Luca was examining his pinky finger
whilst ir and Abi both stoodpletely motionless staring at each other.
"ir?" Leo said nudging him, "You''re being creepy."
"Alpha what''s the likelihood of having a human mate?" ir asked Leo.
"Rare but not impossible..." Leo said before clocking the connection. "Oh..."
"Wait you guys are..." I began.
"Mates...?"Charlotte said suddenly looking up from her drink.
"Well ain''t this beautiful," Luca added taken a swig of someone''s lemonade as ir embraced Abi in
his arms and breathed in her scent.
"I''d love to stay and watch but I really gotta go," Leo said as ir kissed Abi''s cheek.
"Yeh...Charlotte, E, fancy a walk?" Luca asked.
"Yep!"
"Good idea!"
We quickly grabbed our jackets and shoes before hurrying out of the door and shutting it behind us
leaving them to...do whatever.
We walked down the street, Luca kicking puddles and spraying us with the dirty road water as he
"And Abi was just saying how much she''d want a mate," I said, "I''m so happy for her."
"And ir seems like a good guy," Charlotte said, "I didn''t have much time to get to know him
before...you know...but I got the vibe."
I smiled, "He is a good guy."
"He will be having sex with her right now," Luca said, "Just so that you know."
"Luca!" I shouted kicking a puddle at him.
"I''m just saying," he said putting his hands up in surrender.
"So long as she''s happy," Charlotte said, "And she certainly seemed happy from what I saw..."
"See just as I said: sex," Luca said.
With that, Iunched myself at him and jumped onto his back, "Stop saying sex!" I shouted.
"Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex," He repeated as Charlotte nearly peed herselfughing.
I eventually fell off his back, leaving him to skip and dance in freedom down the empty street.
"What''s Leo doing?" I asked suddenly.
Luca stopped performing Michael Jackson''s moonwalk and looked at me nkly.
"Just pack stuff," he said.
I raised my eyebrow.
"I can''t say, Ellsibob. Alpha''s orders," I said, "I already ignored one of his orders and gave you alcohol
the other night. I don''t dare disobey another."
I scowled.
"I''ll get it out of himter," I replied.
We walked through the park where Luca had great fun ying on the swings and shoving Charlotte
down the wet slide, drying it before he slid down before promptly getting stuck.
My sides ached fromughing by the time we had freed him, swearing and cursing as he rearranged
his clothes.
We finally left the park, Luca holding up his middle fingers behind him at the slide, and then went back
onto the road.
A few minutester, Leo''s car pulled up beside us.
"Luca walk Charlotte home," he ordered opening the door for me.
"Yes, Sir," Luca said with a salute before linking his arm into Charlotte''s and skipping down the street,
dragging Charlotte behind him.
"He''s in a good mood," Leo said.
"I wouldn''t be surprised if he''s still drunk from the party..." I said as we watched him identallyunch
Charlotte into a bush.
I let out an abruptugh as Luca dropped to his knees, frantically apologising.
Leo rolled his eyes and started the engine.
"It''s so cold tonight," I said rubbing my hands together, "Where did you go?"
"Don''t worry about it," he said with a reassuring smile before he turned up the heating in the car before
driving off, leaving Charlotte to fend for herself with Luca.