Orphan Ch. 07

The hot water felt so good on his skin that he stood there stoically for almost five minutes before finally searching for soap. There was no bar of soap to be found, looking through the various bottles and tubes he found an unscented body wash. He was thankful for it too as he sure as hell didn't want to smell of summer lilacs. Alexander scrubbed his body vigorously with his hands, he had seen the soft loofah that Jenabel must use but didn't feel it right to get blood and dirt all over it. His eyes lingered on it a moment, his mind seeing Jenabel in this same shower, and the loofah gliding softly over her soft skin. Shaking off his errant thoughts he finished washing his body and shampooed his hair, once again losing himself in the heady embrace of the warm water as he rinsed.

Jenabel banging on the door broke him from his solitude.

"What are you doing in there? Hurry up, I'm hungry."

While it was true she was hungry, thoughts of Alexander behind the door under the warm spray of her shower were making it hard for Jenabel to think of anything other than throwing caution to the wind and joining him.

"Sorry, I'll be out in a minute." Alexander turned off the taps and stepped out, smiling at Jenabel's impatience. He dried quickly and dressed, leaving the socks off and his shirt open.

Opening the door he found the room empty, he was surprised to find that he was disappointed, that he had expected her to be there and on finding her gone felt her absence keenly.

Jenabel sat at the table in the kitchen trying to get her emotions under control.

'I'll have to talk with mom this evening see what I can do to keep myself under control.'

Her thoughts were tumultuous. Her wolf prowled very near the surface and was being very insistent about staying close to their mate, of completing the mating. Being around Alexander made her wolf restless and hard to control. But when he wasn't there it was worse, it left a hole in her heart that nothing but the sight of him could fill.

She smiled as Alexander came down the stairs, and then gently bit her bottom lip as he stood near her. 'How can anyone look that amazing after almost dying a few hours ago?'

The jeans she had packed for him were tight in all the right places. She could see the subtle outline of his calf and thigh muscles.

'The bastard couldn't button his shirt?' She silently cursed.

The white shirt brought out the stark contrast of his sun tanned skin, the jeans hung low on his hips highlighting the sensuous curve of the chiseled V below his abs. The shirt, even open was tight across his shoulders and arms. His damp hair hung in a haphazard tangle that brought his bangs down just enough to shade his glistening blue eyes as he watched her.

They stayed like that for a moment, both looking at the other. Then, with a lopsided grin Alexander walked to the refrigerator.

"Okay, let's see what we have to work with."

As Jenabel watched him pull things out of the fridge, place them on the island near the sink she was amazed at the focus he displayed for such a simple act.

When he was finished raiding her refrigerator, a carton of eggs, fresh basil, an onion, some mushrooms and a yellow pepper lay upon the counter. While Jenabel was not a great cook, she did like salad's and usually kept the ingredients in the house.

"You're not a vegetarian are you?" Alexander hadn't found any protein aside from the eggs.

His question had Jenabel laughing so hard that it brought tears to her eyes. She saw the grumpy look on his face but had to wait a moment, letting her laughter subside a bit before answering him.

"I'm part wolf Alexander; I don't think you'll find a vegetarian or a vegan anywhere within two hundred miles of here.

Alexander grinned sheepishly, understanding why she had found his question amusing. He still had so much to learn, so much to adapt to. He couldn't do it all now so he simply focused on making omelets.

Jenabel watched as the knife in his hand almost blurred chopping the vegetables into fine small bits only to be immediately put into a hot pan which already had butter bubbling within. The hiss died quickly and just as quickly the aroma of the searing veggies had Jenabel's stomach growling.

He cracked eggs with one hand, whisking the mixture with a little milk before pouring it into another pan. His concentration was singular; it gave Jenabel the opportunity to openly admire his skill and the care he put into to the job. Cheese sprinkled sparingly over the cooking eggs, the gentle twitch of his wrist that he used to flip the omelet effortlessly before ladling half of the veggies into the center and deftly halving it with a spatula. After a moment the perfectly cooked omelet slid to rest onto the plate which he passed to her.

Alexander smiled and looked at her with expectant eyes. She smiled and took a bite.

The texture was almost a sensual thing, the flavors mingled perfectly so that while a single flavor couldn't be picked out, the combination created something wholly new, something unique.

"It's so good." She mumbled with a full mouth.

Alexander laughed at her bad manners and appreciated that she enjoyed it. "It's the size of the cut, the smaller the pieces the better the flavors merge." She could hear the happiness in his voice as he turned and repeated the process. Jenabel was done eating before Alexander's ever hit the plate.

They sat in companionable silence as he ate, then he surprised her again by grabbing their plates and spending five minutes washing and putting away everything he had used.

When he finished he turned to her, his eyes watching her from under his unruly bangs.

"We have a few hours before going to your parent's house, would you walk with me Jenabel? Tell me of your life, your wants and dreams and hopes. I have no experience with the kind of want and need I have for you. In any one moment you make me feel alive and nervous and loved and needed. This is all so new to me. I want; I need to know you, to answer the questions I'm sure you have for me. This morning it was unimaginably hard for me to leave you. I have always been a solitary person, finding balance and direction in my solitude. I find I'm not that person anymore, this morning all I could think of was you, of how I wished you were with me, of how I wanted..."

His monolog broke off and Jenabel went to him, her hands cupping his cheeks as she looked into his eyes. She could see it all there, all of his want and need and fear. A lifetime of loneliness and the hope that his walk along the paths of life would no longer be one traveled alone.

Jenabel kissed him gently, lingering but a moment before pulling away and taking his hand. "Come, I'll tell you everything you want to know. I'm yours Alexander and I always will be. I want the same thing as you, to know you better than anyone, to simply be with you, to touch your body, mind and soul as you touch mine. This is the essence of what finding your mate is. It's becoming whole for the first time in your life in a way that makes anything before or after pale in comparison.

They walked away from Jenabel's house and into the deep shaded woods hand in hand. Their conversation flowed easily, easier than either of them had ever experienced before.

"What was it like growing up in the orphanage?" The thought of not having family, the pack around her was so alien to her that it was the first question she asked.

"It was lonely, but it wasn't bad. The sisters treated us well, most of the nuns were kind, the others just indifferent. They did their jobs and followed their calling. I didn't make trouble although I did have a bad habit of breaking out as often as I could. I didn't like the confinement, didn't like being cooped up. I wasn't really running away, I never had the intention of not going back. But many times I just needed out."

Jenabel understood.

"That would be your wolf's doing. They can't stand to be caged in any way. They have to be able to roam, to feel the sun and see the moon. The wind and the rain and the stars call to them. I'm surprised that the confining feel of the orphanage didn't bring out your wolf full force. You must have a very strong will."

Alexander thought on this, wondered about his youth and why his wolf never made itself known.

"Perhaps the true trigger is being around your own kind. Here you nurture and teach the children both their human and wolf aspects. For me, I was always just the quiet kid you didn't want to mess with." He related the story about the new kid calling him Alexandra and the result. This had her once again laughing to the point of tears.

"I would have loved to have seen the look on his face." She said as she got herself under control.

Alexander smiled and squeezed her hand.

"It had the desired effect, after that no one bothered me, which was what I wanted."

He told of his time in the military of the fear and death and peaceful perfect moments. She told him of her childhood, of growing up with Brad and Cross and the pack. She tried to convey the depth of feeling they and this place held for her.

They walked and talked for hours; the subjects ranging from the mundane of their favorite foods to the fears we all have which lurk in the dark recess of our minds rearing their heads in the deep end of night.

Alexander and Jenabel learned of each other over those hours, learned as much through the gentle touches and caresses that they both gave and received as they did through the words and thoughts they shared.

As they neared the compound proper Jenabel pulled up short and sat on a large rock that looked down at the lake a hundred yards below.

"What is it?" Alexander was surprised by Jenabel's seeming reticence to say something. He had never experienced an afternoon like the one he just shared with her. Never felt the overwhelming freedom to simply be himself, with no walls up, no barrier between the truth of who he was and the amazing woman at his side.

Jenabel bit her bottom lip as she looked into his eyes briefly then looked away toward the lake.

"What about lovers Alexander? Surely there must have been lots of women over the years that caught your fancy."

It hurt her to ask the question but she had to know, for some reason she simply needed to have the answer to this question even as it scared her to ask it. She knew he was her mate, knew that he would never leave her for another, it was unheard of. But her own lack of experience colored her emotions, making her ask the question.

Alexander looked at the ground, his own fears on this particular subject coming to the fore. However, seeing the forlorn look in her eyes as she glanced at him, feeling the question and worry that lay in her whispered tone, washed all of his own misgivings away in a wave of need to give her everything she wanted, and answer anything that she asked.

He didn't think she would be cruel in this, she hadn't been in anything before, but it was a supposed personal weakness that he had to face and share with her regardless.

Lifting her chin and brushing away the stray hairs which fell to shroud her eyes he answered her.

"Only one woman has ever caught my fancy as you put it Jenabel, there has been and will always be only...you."

Jenabel heard the words, her eyebrows dropped into a disappointed scowl.

Alexander read her emotions; she was not good at hiding them in the first place. He smiled at her, moved closer, his lips brushed over hers. It was a gentle tentative touch, giving just the briefest of physical sensations but it transmitted his emotions forcefully. She felt his body tremble almost imperceptibly as his lips came near the shell of her ear, his warm breath playing over her neck.

"You are the only one Jenabel, the only woman I have ever loved, the only one I ever shall. My heart, my soul, everything that can exist between us, I have never and will never share with anyone but you..."

The honesty of it rang clear in her mind. She felt it in his words, his touch, and his heartbeat. He was hers; she would be his first, his only.

Her hands pushed him away from her neck, her eyes blazed with unbound passion as she lost herself in the clear depthless pools of his eyes for the barest moment. And then she was kissing him, her need manifesting as she joined with him, shared and showed her consuming want of him.

Breaking the kiss she pulled him close, the pulse at his neck beating out a ragged rhythm against her own.

Her words came out broken, the emotion she felt almost too much to actually form them but she needed him to know this instant what her own truths were.

"I love you Alexander, and the same is true for me, you will be my one, my only, we will share and learn everything...together."

*

Edited by:

Mikothebaby