Theft of the Heart Ch. 05

"Okay dear, do it your way. But I'm here if you ever want to admit that I was right," she said with a wry smile. She then stood on her toes to give Josh a peck on the cheek. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and make sure this compound is still running while our Alpha is otherwise preoccupied."

"The place would fall apart without you, Maggie."

"Don't I know it," laughed the elder as she moved to the doorway. "I'll show myself out. Oh and Joshua..."

"Yes?"

"I'm so very happy for you dear."

Josh gave her a bright smile as she left. She was right in a sense. The compound would fall apart without her. There was so much work to do. Years of misuse meant that most of the buildings had to be refurbished and new security systems had to be implemented for the safety of the pack. His betas and brother saw to most of that, but Maggie did the most important stuff. Like seeing to the comfort of the pack, making sure they were settling in and happy, things that Josh should have been doing if he weren't so busy trying to establish a truce with the local vampires. She managed to juggle being a nurse in the pack hospital and somehow managed to run the kitchens as well. The woman never slept, Josh thought as he got dressed.

Before too long he heard another knock at his door. He had just put a fresh t-shirt on to go with the black cargo shorts he was wearing. He walked over to open the door for the little omega he knew was behind it.

"Yes Nelly?" he said, a bit annoyed that he would be bothered so early in the morning, surely the rumour mill could wait a few more hours?

"Morning Alpha," the omega said with a bright cheery smile. "Lizzy said to bring this for your mate; and painkillers," she said holding up a small packet with some tablets and a glass of fresh orange juice to her Alpha.

As if right on schedule, Zan began to go squirm on the bed. She felt like throwing up and her head felt like it was filled with lead. She groaned out loud as she held her head and attempted to sit up straight. It wasn't the first time Zan woke up with a headache but it was usually from a long rough night with her friends, not from...wait why did her head hurt anyway? she thought. She couldn't remember what happened the night before. She looked around for a clue but was even more stumped.

The room she woke up in was large and bright. In the corner of her eye, she could see a large blonde man and a petite brunette just staring at her. The man's face looked familiar for some reason, but for the life of her she couldn't put her finger on it.

Josh approached his mate, noting the confused look on her face. "Morning," he said gently. "You look like you could use these," he said handing her the pills and a glass of orange juice the brunette had been holding.

Zan looked at the man suspiciously. She had no idea where she was or how she had even ended up there and now a strange, ridiculously hot guy was giving her some pills she didn't recognise. Granted her head was killing, but taking the pills would go against her better judgement.

Josh saw the apprehensive look his mate was giving the pills in his hands. His wolf was saddened by the fact that their mate didn't trust them, the man understood and tried to put her at ease. "They're painkillers. My doctor said you might need them when you woke up since you hit your head."

"Your doctor? Where am I?" she said sitting up.

"You are in my rooms, on my property. My brother and his, uhm, partner found you after you fell from a tree just a few miles to the south of my lands. They took you to the hospital but you kind of freaked out when you woke up, so I brought you here."

Zan had no recollection of anything the man said, but freaking out in a hospital definitely sounded like her. She hated hospitals. "Why was I climbing a tree?" she asked. Considering how many trees she's climbed to get to second story windows, it didn't make sense that she fell. She was an excellent climber. Her brother had always called her Kitty because she always landed on her feet, just like a cat. "And how did I fall?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that? You don't remember anything about last night at all?" Josh asked, a bit concerned for his mate.

Zan ran both her hands through the curly mess on her head as she tried to remember anything about how she ended up there, but she came out blank. Last thing she remembered was having a glass of wine with her sister on Wednesday evening, or was it Thursday evening? Her mind was all jumbled up and it hurt to think. "I don't remember a thing," she said shaking her head and the cringing when she felt a sharp pain at the top of her head. She touched it and felt the thick bandage at the top of her forehead.

Josh was concerned about his mate. He hoped the fall didn't do any permanent damage, but just to make sure, he quickly sent Nelly to call for Liz. "Tell her it's urgent," he added.

"Yes Alpha," said the little omega as she ran out of the Alpha's rooms as quick as she could. Josh hoped that his mate didn't hear Nelly call him Alpha, it would be difficult to explain.

"I really think you should take these," he said, offering her the painkillers once more. He hated seeing the pained look in his mates beautiful face. "I promise you there is nothing sinister about them."

Zan heard the sincerity in his voice. Her bright eyes locked with his warm dark brown ones and she saw honesty in them and something compelled her to trust him. She didn't know the man, but somehow she knew he would not hurt her. Her sister had always said she was too trusting. She would kill her if she saw the situation she had gotten herself into right now. She tentatively reached for the pills in the guy's hand and swallowed them with the orange juice he gave to her.

Josh smiled as his mate took the painkillers. He just hoped that they would work soon, and she would lose that pained expression marring her face.

"I'm Zavagne by the way," she said after draining the glass.

"Joshua Auris, but you can call me Josh," he said, with a smile that totally captivated Zan.

"Well I guess you can call me Zan then," she said trying to be flirty. She was a bit disappointed that she woke up in the man's bed and yet nothing happened between them considering she was fully dressed, if she were honest with herself she wouldn't mind spending the night with Josh. Something told her if she had spent a night with his cock buried in her core, it would have taken more than a little bump on her head to make her forget it.

For a few moments she totally lost her mind to the gutters; thinking about all the things she would like to do to the big man. She wondered if every part of him was as big. Probably, she thought. She had never thought she was into that kind of muscle, but looking at Josh she couldn't deny the attraction she felt towards him.

She blushed a bit when she realised how intently he was staring at her. He could probably see where her mind had led her. Little did she know how right she was, since Josh could smell her arousal. It was all he could do to convince his wolf to calm down and not mount her right where she was. He was saved from his argument with his wolf by the entrance of Liz. Her face was bright and cheery. Josh was certain his brother was not in the same kind of mood. With Liz in heat he would want to spend every possibly moment with his mate.

"Hi," she said looking at Josh, then Zan. "I see our patient is finally up. I'm Dr Elizabeth Auris," she said by way of introduction.

"Auris?"Zan asked looking back and forth between the two. "As in your wife?" The two looked nothing alike, in her mind the only other logical explain as to their relationship would be marriage. Try as she might she couldn't hide the disappointment she felt at that.

"No," Liz said giggling. "As in sister in law." It was clear that she was attracted to Josh and could obviously feel the mating pull even if she didn't understand it yet. She remembered the feeling well. From the first moment she had met her Danny she had felt possessive of him, even though she had been with someone else at the club where they had met. She could definitely sympathise with the other woman.

Josh's wolf noted the relief in Zan's eyes when Liz clarified their relationship. He was glad to see that the pull was there on her side as well. It was good to see that he had not been led astray by his wolf.

"Oh, yeah of course, that was going to be my next guess," she said blushing.

"Of course," Liz said with a knowing smile. "So how are you feeling this morning?" she asked, checking the bandage on her patient's head.

"I've been better. Feels like I drank an entire bottle of whisky then washed it down with a bottle of vodka."

"She also doesn't remember anything about last night," Josh added.

Liz's brows knitted together in contemplation. "Is that so? Can you tell me what day it is today?"

Zan thought about it for a few moments. The last thing she remembered was having dinner with her sister on Wednesday, if that was yesterday, that would make today Thursday. "I'm pretty sure I'm wrong but, is it Thursday? The last memory I have is dinner with my sister on Wednesday."

"I'm afraid you are, it's Saturday morning, 25th April 2015. Seems you have a mild case of amnesia, more than likely caused but the bump you suffered on your head. The good news is it's very likely that you will get your memory back in a few days if not the next few hours."

"And what's the bad news?" asked Josh.

"She's probably going to have a few more of those headaches, but fortunately we've got enough painkillers here in the hospital and I'll send someone over with a few as soon as I get there," she said finishing her examination.

"If they get any worse don't hesitate to let me know and I'll do some adjustments for you," she finished with a smile.

Zan decided she liked the other woman. She didn't have any love for doctors but Liz was okay for a doctor. "Thank you Liz."

"You're welcome," she said then faced her Alpha. "If that will be all?"

"Yes, thank you Lizzy," Josh said.

With a little bow of the head Liz made her way out of the room closing the door behind her.

"What's with the bow?" Zan asked, having noticed that the girl who left before had also bowed her head slightly before she left.

"Uhm, it's a long story, will have to tell you some other things before I tell you about that," he responded not really ready to tell Zan about that. What if she couldn't accept it? Despite what she told Maggie he wasn't as confident about this whole mating thing as he had made out to be. His wolf had no such fears though, she was their mate, of course she would accept them, might be a little shocked, but she would accept them.

"Summarise," she said looking up at him.

He couldn't lie to her, but he didn't know how to tell her the truth just yet. He sat on the bed next to her prepared to tell a story he wasn't ready to tell yet. As if Luna was looking down on him and took pity on his circumstances, his phone started ringing on his night stand. He breathed a sigh of relief as he grabbed the phone to answer. At least he could buy himself some time to figure out how to do it. Maybe even talk to Lizzy since she was human until just over a year ago, she might be able to give him an idea of how to approach this.

"Excuse me," he said to Zan noting that the call was from Scott. Maybe he had found something about his mate.

"Yes, Scott?"

"I've got something, I think you need to see this Alpha."

"I'll be right down." He smiled at Zan apologetically. "I'm sorry it seems I'm going to have to summarise for you a bit later, there's something I need to sort out downstairs. In the meantime you can make yourself comfortable in my rooms, I'll show you around when I get back," he said and stood up to leave. Before he did, he bowed down to give Zan a gentle kiss on her cheek. Somehow, Zan didn't find that objectionable, in fact it felt completely right.

She was almost too distracted by the kiss to notice the relief on his face when he got the called away. If it had been anyone else she would have been wary of the fact that he clearly had something to hide, but as it was she couldn't bring herself to be that worried over it. Something made her believe that whatever it was that he was keeping from her would be revealed soon enough. She smiled as she openly ogled his ass as he walked out the door. I need some quarters to bounce of that ass, she thought.

As soon as Josh walked out the door he ordered all the wolves not to change until he could tell his mate what they were and for no one who isn't authorised to keep away from his suits. He didn't want his mate overwhelmed but curious werewolves.

Josh quickly made his way to the security rooms in the basement of the large Alpha house. He was intrigued to see what Scott had found out in such a short amount of time. He walked into the rooms and found not only Scott there but his brother as well. He noted the nervous look on the younger man's face. His brother on the other hand looked tense. It bothered Josh a bit. What could they have found out that brought about such a reaction?

"Isn't it a bit too early for you to be up?" he said to his brother trying to lighten the mood.

"It is, but you stole my mate so I decided to do something useful with myself. So I came here to see what Josh could dig up."

"I see, and what have you found out about her?" he said, directing the question to Scott.

"A lot actually," he said, heading over to the printer and handing over the papers that had just finished printing to his Alpha. "It was a really long shot running her prints. I really didn't expect to find anything on her that way, but fortunately for us, she has a record, breaking and entering. It was sealed, probably because she was a minor when the incident happened, and someone went through some great deals to hide it from me, but I found it anyway," he said proudly.

Zavagne-Leigh Winters. She was the daughter of Darian and Elenor Winters. Father died when she was a year old and mother died eight years later in a tragic car crash. She and her twin sister, Verochelle were then immediately placed under the custody of the state for about four months before their nineteen year old brother won custody over them. He died when the twins were just fourteen. He was shot in an alleyway and pronounced brain dead when he got to the hospital.

"There's a time gap between when their brother died and when they were adopted again. They weren't with the state and they have no other family, so I'm not sure what happened to her and her sister between those months. But five months after their brother's death, they were adopted."

Josh looked up at Scott and saw the unease in the Theta wolf's stance. His own wolf suddenly came to attention and Josh's instincts told him there was something he wasn't going to like about who ever had adopted his mate and her twin sister. He hoped to Luna that whoever it was that adopted them hadn't hurt them in anyway, otherwise he would be liable to return the pain to them ten-fold.

He hurriedly sifted to the appropriate page seeing as his unintended growling had suddenly caused Scott to go mute.

His wolf fought to surface as he finally found out who had adopted his mate—Nicholas Ferris. Josh had to fight to contain his wolf. He wanted to rip into something. All sorts of thoughts whirled through his mind. Had Nicholas kept his mate as a pet? He knew some vampires kept humans around for feeding purposes, like livestock, a living breathing personal blood bank. Is that what Zan and her sister were to Ferris? How did that connect with Aleksander Novak? Did Zan somehow escaped from Novak? That would explain why she had the cuffs.

If the vampires had hurt his mate and her sister, he would see to it that they were adequately punished, and by punished he meant his wolf would tear them limb from limb. At the idea of finally being able to punish the two vampires, Josh's wolf finally calmed enough to give over control back to the human.

Danny handed his brother a spare pair of sweat pants he had brought down to the basement in anticipation of exactly this reaction. He knew his brother would lose it like this because he would have reacted exactly the same way had he found out his precious mate had lived with a vampire for over seven years.

"Look at it this way, maybe telling her you are a wolf won't be so hard for her to accept seeing as how she's lived with a vampire for seven years," Danny said, trying to reassure his brother.

Josh shook his head. "Vampires never expose their true nature. Not even to their feeding pets. They are more paranoid about exposure than any other supernatural beings. Even though they can eat normal food, unlike the rest of us, they would die without human blood. They would never do anything that could possibly mess with their food supply, especially not Nicholas."

"I don't think she's a pet, Alpha," Scott said. "Vampire pets don't usually have jobs outside of feeding their masters. And not only does your mate have a job, but she owns part of the security company she works at and is also co-owner of a club in town together with the vampire and her twin sister."

"So you think the relationship is purely familial?"

"It wouldn't be unheard of. There have been some vampires who adopt humans because they are not able to have children themselves. They usually turn them when they become of age, though. Zan was almost twenty two years old and she was definitely not a vampire, so what gives? What was the purpose of adopting the two humans if he wasn't using them to feed and wasn't going to change them?

"It's possible, but to be sure I think you would have to ask the vampire."

******

Zan looked around the room she was in. It wasn't real fancy or anything, but it was neat and very tastefully decorated. There was a comfortable, lived-in feeling about it that Zan liked. It definitely suited the warm nature of the man it belonged to.

As she got out of the bed with the intention to explore, the doors suddenly burst open and two of the cutest little boys tumbled in. The older one hurriedly closed the door behind them. The younger one looked uncertain and maybe a little bit scared while the older one was confident and had a mischievous look about him. They reminded her of herself and Chella when they were younger.

"Who are you?" said the older of the two boys.

"I'm Zan, who are you?"

He smiled as he confidently walked up to Zan and introduced himself. "I'm Brandon and this is AJ," he said, pointing to the younger boy.

"It short for Aiden Junior, I was named after my dad," said AJ shyly from behind Brandon.

"I was named after my father too but no one calls me BJ, my uncle says I'll thank him for that when I'm older," said Brandon with a little shrug of his shoulders.

Zan smiled at the precocious little boys, they were too cute for words. "Trust me you definitely will."

"What are you doing in the Alpha's rooms?"

"The what?" Zan asked. It was the second time she heard the word today.

"He means what are you doing in my uncle's rooms?"

"Uncle?" she said, then noticed the same warm brown eyes and bright blonde hair as Josh. "I'm waiting for him, he went down stairs for something."

"You smell funny," said little AJ.

Zan gasped at the little boy's words. Sure she couldn't remember her last bath but she didn't think she would have skipped enough days to smell funny. "So I haven't taken a shower today but I didn't think I smelled that bad," she said sniffing herself.

"You don't smell bad, just funny. I've never met anyone who smells like you before," he said walking up to Zan to get a better whiff of the stranger.

"Do you make a habit of smelling people?" Zan asked in confusion.