Gone was the moody and brave Alpha. His eyes were full of uncertainty, and if I was not mistaken, I could see fear in them. Was he scared of something?
I shook my head as I clutched the sheets with one hand and raised my free hand to his cheek, caressing it gently against his skin.
“I’m not changing my mind, Riley. But we need to talk about it.”
He clasped a hand over mine on his cheek before he took it to his mouth, kissing every part of my hand. “Okay. Can it wait a little while? Go rest first, and I will just talk to my Beta. I’ll follow you upstairs.”
“Okay… But are you not going to put some clothes on?”
“I have shorts. It’s enough. I feel comfortable without a shirt.” He chuckled and started flexing the muscles in his chest.
Despite my heart doing a somersault and my panties dropping, oops I forgot I didn’t have one, I rolled my eyes at him and faked a scoff.
“It doesn’t look good. Put a shirt on.”
He laughed and wrapped his arms around me before lifting me off the ground, my body hanging on his hold. “There are no other females here unless my Beta is gay, but I don’t think he is. Jenny is mated. She will never swoon on me. So you are safe.”
“Who said I’m bothered when females see you naked?” I asked him, my voice muffled by the way my face slammed against his hard torso. “You look ugly without a shirt on. Trust me.”
He let go of me, a teasing grin etched on his lips. “Seriously? I had no idea. I better ask that unmated female who helps in the kitchen if she doesn’t find my body attractive.”
I smiled sarcastically at him before turning my back on him and walking in a calm manner up the stairs, even if what he said was annoying me. “Yeah, right. Go ask her, and maybe ask her too if she wants to be your Luna.”
I heard him laughing, but I didn’t turn around because he might see the annoyance in my eyes.
“I have clothes in my office. I’ll put one in. And I swear, I’m not going to ask anyone about my body, just you!”
My eyes widened at the way he said those words. He was almost shouting, and his voice was booming around the house.
I wondered how many were inside the packhouse and heard that.
This man didn’t have a single bone of shame on his body.
RILEY.
Although my heart warmed at the jealousy I saw flaring in Nadia’s eyes when I told her I would ask another female’s opinion about my body, I was still not at ease.
Why didn’t she want to have a Luna Ceremony? Was she having cold feet? Or didn’t she want to be tied up with me, knowing that the Luna Ceremony would also hold a union between us?
I watched her form disappear from the stairs before I headed to my office. My Beta was already sitting on the chair in front of my desk, waiting for me.
I closed the door and went directly to the small closet in the corner and grabbed a shirt, pulling it over my head before sitting in my chair.
“Anything new for today?”
“Nope. But these are the proposals I received a few weeks back about a renewed alliance from all these packs. Despite what you did, they still want to be with us, which I think is fantastic. What do you think? Should we go over it and decide which one we will renew alliances with?”
“Leave it for now. Give me a day or two, or a week. I don’t want to hole up here in the office reading all those shitty things they wanted. We have things to do.”
“Such as?”
“I want to be visible around the territory. Make my people see me again.”
“About fucking time!”
“And I want people to know Nadia. We were at the center today and someone called her Andrea.”
“Holy shit!” He hissed. “Did she get pissed off?”
