The Alpha And His Abused Mate (#Wattys2016)

Boyfriend?

River's POV:

There was a thick silence in my truck, as Ellie and I thought about the events that had recently occurred. Zander was happy and prancing around in my head, but I felt some sort of uncertain feeling radiating off of him. I knew that he was a tad bit worried that her rejection was for real and not just a spur in the moment kind of thing.

"Was your rejection for real or did you really not want to do it?" I asked, breaking the silence. I felt Ellie tense beside me but then relax.

"I didn't want to do it, but I wanted to protect you." Her voice started out small but gradually got louder. The confirmation was soothing and brought me peace.

"My job as your mate and also Alpha is to be there to protect you. I would do anything for you." I didn't want her to feel like she was just by my side, so she could carry my pups because she wasn't. I saw what my parents had, and since then I had yearned to have that love.

"I know but, I'm not one of those girls who needs their boyfriends to do everything for them." My head snapped in her direction as the word boyfriend exited her mouth.

"I'm your boyfriend now?" I questioned with a hopeful tone. There was a tint of blush on Ellie's cheek after I spoke.

"I mean.. We're meant to be together right?" I nodded and she continued.

"So I figured why not it's bound to happen sometime." I raised my eyebrows and looked over at her small figure beside me.

"How do you know? We could just get married one day out of the blue, without even dating." She scoffed, and it surprised me that such a loud sound could come out of such a little thing.

"No, no no. When we get married, it will happen after we date." A sly grin graced my face, as I grabbed something from my glove box. Tossing it to her, I explained what it was.

"That's a ring I made when I was sixteen. It's from one of the bullets they pulled from my shoulder."

"You've been shot?" I laughed. Had I been shot? Yeah.

"Yeah. At least four times, I don't really remember."

"You don't remember?" Ellie exclaimed.

"No..not really. People thought that since I was a young Alpha that they could easily take over my pack. So they tried to kill me.. often" I shrugged. It was a thing of the past. I was now respected among many of the other Alphas worldwide.

"Good Lord... Okay, so enough of storytime. What am I supposed to do with this ring?"

"Well since you said when we get married... Take this as an early engagement."

---

When we arrived at my house I ran to the passenger door and opened the door, for my favorite girl.

"Je vouis remercie." Ellie said while stepping out of my truck.

"Vous êtes les bienvenus ma dame." We walked hand in hand up the steps leading to the brick packhouse. The packhouse was truly a beautiful house. It was entirely brick, with three stories, and also black shutters next to each window. In front of it were flowers galore, not to mention the trees and bushes that surrounded the house.

"Hey, guys where have you been?" Alex questioned as soon as we entered the door.

"That's none of your business is it," Morgan replied as she too came into the foyer.

"Oh my God! Is that what I think it is?!" I covered my ears along with everyone else at Morgan's shrieks and squeals. She ran over to Ellie and jumped around with her. The fun and happy mood turned sour once she got caught of Ellie's ring. Slowly she turned to face me.

"You gave her the bullet ring?" She asked with a menacing voice.

"Yeah. Why?"

"That is just nasty. That stupid little thing was in your freaking shoulder."

"I cleaned it, I mean it's not covered in blood." We were having a staring contest when Ellie cut in.

"Morgan it's not the real engagement ring. It's an 'early engagement'". She put air quotation marks around early engagement. Morgan slapped me straight across the face and walked away. Ellie giggled and Alex well he just... I don't even know how to say what he did.

"Ha! My small five foot three mate just bitch slapped you!" By now he was rolling around on the ground still howling with laughter. Then to make it worse I heard Morgan shout, "Damn right I did!"

Alex stood up after his little incident and made his way to the kitchen as well, but as he passed by I heard him mutter, "God I love that girl.." while shaking his head. I looked over at Ellie and she gave me one of her grins, which made my heart melt.

Both of us to enter the kitchen, while I asked a question.

"Hey, guys? Where are the other Hales?" My three other siblings were nowhere to be seen.

"Colby and Parker wanted to go for a run, so Bella went with them." Colby and Parker were fourteen and identical twins. Bella was three, and my little baby, I had practically raised her and so we had grown really close.

"Rivvvveerr..." Alex dragged out my name, meaning that he wanted something, "Will you make dinner?" I nodded, knowing that if he made it we would probably all die of food poisoning.

"I can help," Ellie spoke up.

"That would be great. C'mon Alex, let's leave these two love birds alone." Morgan said as she left, with Alex in the toe.

"Can we make baked pasta?"

"Sure we can," I remarked while grabbing the ingredients from the fridge. In the corner of my eye could see Ellie, set the oven to the right temperature, and gather bowls for the salads. In about half an hour we had dinner made and we were just setting the table when a question popped into my head.

"Ellie?" Her big blue eyes snapped over to me, and I continued.

"Yeah?"

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

=========

Will she say yes? Who knows.. Oh wait I do.

French Translations:

"Je vous remercie." Thank You

"Vous êtes les bienvenus ma dame." You're welcome my lady