I looked mournfully at my reflection in the mirror, poking at the mark on my neck. “I think it’s darker this morning.”

Jaxon glanced over as he walked past me to go to the closet. “I like it.”

“Of course you do. You’re not the one who has to walk around all day with it on your skin.” I eyed him in the mirror. “Maybe I should put a mark like this on you as well.”

He stopped before entering the closet and turned to face me, holding his arms out in invitation. “Go ahead.”

I rolled my eyes and joined him at the closet. “It’s not fun if it doesn’t bother you,” I complained.

            He shook his head as he got dressed. “I’ll never understand women,” he muttered under his breath.

            “You’re not supposed to. It’s part of the mystery of life.” I grabbed some clothes and got dressed as well. When we were both ready, we went downstairs and into the kitchen. Tyson was the last one to stumble in after us, so he got elected to do the dishes that night. “That reminds me; we’re going grocery shopping tonight so if there’s anything specific you want write it down and give it to me before the end of the school day,” I told them all as I took my seat.

            Jaxon sat down next to me. “That means you’re all on your own for dinner tonight, since we’re heading into the city. And you all need to be here when we get home to help with the food.”

            “It’s not like we have anywhere else to go,” Tyson pointed out. “We haven’t made any friends here yet, and there’s not a lot to do in the town.”

            “Good point,” Jaxon said. “Still, make sure you’re ready when we get back.”

            There were general sounds of agreement and everyone finished eating. Jaxon and I left first, arriving at the school a few minutes before Chris and Marissa. The rest of the guys got there at different times as well, making it less conspicuous than yesterday had been.

            First period passed quickly and then it was time for Gym. The girls in the change rooms stopped talking again when I walked in, but today one of the braver ones stepped forward. “You’re the new girl, right?”

            I eyed her warily. “Yeah.”

            “And you’re dating that Jaxon guy?”

            “Yeah,” I repeated.

            “Cool. I’m Tasha.”

            “Mia,” I replied. She didn’t say anything else, so I finished getting changed quickly. I left the change room and went to Jaxon’s side, sliding under his arm just like yesterday. I noticed that he was glaring at some boys across the gym, and when I turned to see why, he shifted so that my view of them was blocked. I frowned and looked up at him. “What’s going on?”

            “Nothing,” he replied. When I just continued to look at him, he sighed. “I’ll tell you later, okay?”

            “Okay. Is everything alright?”

            “Yeah, there are just some morons in this school, that’s all.”

            “There’re morons in every school. It’s part of being in a building full of teenagers,” I replied.

            He grinned and tapped the end of my nose with his finger. “This is why I keep you around.”

            I raised an eyebrow. “Because I point out the facts?”

            “No, because you can make me smile even when I’m pissed off about something.”

            “Well that’s because I’m awesome.”

            He leaned down to kiss me. “You really are.”

            Mark made a gagging sound. “Gross, get a room.”

            Jaxon raised his head and glared at him. “Bite me.”

            Mark grinned. “Sorry dude, you’re not my type.”

            I rolled my eyes and took a step back. “Sometimes I’m embarrassed to admit that I know you guys,” I informed them.

            Trey threw his arm around my shoulders and yanked me into his side, placing a smacking kiss on my hair. “Aww, do we embarrass you pumpkin?”

            I struggled to get away from him, but he held me tight. “Damn it Trey, get your nasty paws off of me. I don’t know where they’ve been.”

            He wiggled his eyebrows. “Wouldn’t you like to know who I’ve had them on?”

            Jaxon stepped forward. “I know where they will be if you don’t let her go.” His tone was light, but his eyes were flashing with black.

            Trey released me immediately and raised his hands in defense. “Sorry.”

            I stuck my tongue out at him as I went back to Jaxon’s side. “That’s what you get for messing with this awesomeness,” I said smugly.

            The teacher blew the whistle then, preventing us from continuing our bantering. We were playing basketball today, which was one of the sports I wasn’t so good at. My reflexes might have been good, but my hand and eye coordination kind of sucked. Jaxon helped keep me from getting hit by any of the balls, but he couldn’t do anything to improve my skills.

            I was relieved when we were told we could go and get changed back into our normal clothes. I changed quickly and smiled briefly at Tasha before going to find Jaxon and the other boys. We went to the quad again for lunch, settling down much the same as we had yesterday.

            “Did you notice anything about the wolf in your first period class?” Jaxon asked Tyson after we’d all eaten.

            Tyson shook his head. “He wasn’t there today, but I saw him in the hall when I was heading out here. He was pretty agitated and avoided me as soon as he saw me.”

            Jaxon frowned. “What the hell is going on with these wolves? First there’s an aggressive female and then there’s a male who is trying to avoid us. I think I’m going to have to hunt one of the two males down and have a chat with them.”

            “I’ll let you know what happens with the male in our class,” Chris said. “I’ll make sure to pay more attention this time.”

            I lifted an eyebrow. “You realize that means you’ll have to keep your mind off of Marissa, right?” I looked pointedly at his hands, which were currently resting on her stomach underneath her shirt.

            Chris grinned and nuzzled his mate’s neck. “I can multitask,” he stated.

            “You’re a guy. Multitasking is an impossibility,” I retorted.

            Jaxon nipped my ear lightly. “I’m good at multitasking,” he murmured in my ear.

            I couldn’t prevent the shiver that rippled through my body. “Sex doesn’t count,” I replied.

            “Says who?”

            I rolled my eyes and turned my head so I could look at him. “Says me.”

            “And you’re the boss of things like that?”

            “Of course. I’m a woman, which automatically makes me right.”

            This time he rolled his eyes. “I want to argue with that, but the bell is about to ring and I don’t have time to get into a debate with you.”

            I kissed his cheek. “That means I win.” When he opened his mouth to argue, I shook my head. “I’ll concede that you are definitely good at multitasking in bed. Good enough?”

            He grinned cockily. “Damn right.”

            When we headed to third period, Jaxon became more and more agitated as we walked. I wrapped both my arms around one of his and leaned my head on his shoulder. He looked down and offered me a tight smile, which I knew wasn’t easy for him to do in this situation. Something was going to have to be done about the she-wolf in the class, and it would have to be done quickly to avoid a mess.

            We entered the classroom and Jaxon had me take the desk in the very back corner. He took the seat beside me and had Max, Seth and Trey sit in front of us, forming a sort of wall to shield me. Part of me wanted to roll my eyes at the protection, but I knew it was the only way Jaxon would be able to handle being in the room.

            The girl entered and looked over at us, but before she could make a sound or give me a dirty look, Jaxon let out a low warning growl. It was infused with Alpha authority, making the three guys in front of us bow their heads slightly even though it wasn’t directed at them. Even I felt the effects of it, but it didn’t do anything to me since Jaxon was my mate and unable to use the Alpha influence on me.

            The effect that it had on the girl was clearly visible, however. She paled and her steps faltered, causing her to nearly stumble. Her shoulders hunched as she shuffled to her desk without looking at us again. Even though Jaxon wasn’t her Alpha, it would be nearly impossible to ignore a warning like that, unless it was overridden by her Alpha. She sat down at her desk and didn’t turn around once during the whole class.

            Jaxon was notably more relaxed now that he’d put her in her place, even if it was only temporary. He remained watchful of her throughout the class, but he wasn’t nearly as tense afterwards as he had been yesterday. As a result, we got to our foods class a lot quicker since we didn’t make a pit stop in an empty classroom.

            The teacher had us make cookies today, which proved to be more difficult than it should have been because Jaxon kept on stealing all the cookie dough as I tried to put it on the baking sheets. I flicked his hand and glared at him. “These are supposed to actually be baked so we can get a grade on them,” I snapped.

            He grinned charmingly. “But it tastes so good like this.”

            I put some more dough on one of the sheets and smacked his hand with a spatula when he tried to steal it. “Stop it or you’ll be sleeping alone tonight,” I growled.

            He considered that for a moment. “I could just find you after you fell asleep,” he mused. When he saw that I wasn’t going to respond to that, he sighed. “Fine, you can bake these,” he grumbled.

            “I’ll make you a batch of cookie dough this weekend and you can eat it all,” I promised him.

            That had him grinning again. “Awesome.”

            I rolled my eyes at his childishness, but secretly I was pleased. Since Jaxon was going to be Alpha of a very large pack in a couple of years, he had a lot of responsibilities. It was my job as his mate to help him balance those responsibilities with fun, and to help him relax whenever I could. I had other duties as well, but those were two of the most important ones.

            After school, Jaxon and I went home to ditch our bags and grab the truck instead of his car. Then we made the hour and a half drive to the city. The town we were living in was a decent size, but when we went grocery shopping we almost always went to a wholesale store so we could buy in bulk. The city was the closest place that had one, so that’s why we had to go there.

            We had an early dinner at a restaurant, and I relished the time alone with him. Living in a house with nine other people meant that being alone was something of a novelty, so I cherished these moments when they happened. Jaxon was more relaxed and happy as well, making it that much more enjoyable. He had complained about going grocery shopping, but in truth I knew he liked going with me for the time we spent together.

            We reached the wholesale store and I grabbed a cart. Jaxon took it from me and pushed it down the aisles while I filled it. I stocked up on all the essentials, making sure we would have enough for a couple of weeks. I didn’t really want to have to come back before then if I didn’t have to.

            On our way back home, I remembered the minor incident that had happened in Gym. “So what was the deal with those guys in Gym class?”

            He scowled out the windshield. “They saw the tattoo on my chest,” he replied.

            I frowned. “The one that says my name?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Let me guess; they made some comment about you being whipped, right?”

            He raised his eyebrows and glanced over at me. “How’d you know?”

            I shrugged. “They’re guys, so it’s natural that they’d say something like that. Why’d it bother you so much?”

            “One of them said other stuff as well,” he growled.

            “Like what?”

            His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I don’t want to tell you.”

            It didn’t take me long to figure it out. “Ah, he said something about my performance in bed, didn’t he? Probably figures you got the tattoo because I’m such a good lay.”

            His body shuddered violently once. “Something like that.”

            I realized he was close to losing control, so I reached over and put my hand on his thigh, squeezing it lightly. “Easy Jax. It would really suck if you lost control right now and crashed. We’d have to go do all that shopping again.”

            He took one hand off the wheel and covered mine as his body visibly relaxed. “How do you always know how to calm me down?” he asked.

            “It’s a gift,” I replied.

            He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. “I know I don’t say this very often, but I love you.”

            My heart skipped a beat at the words like they always did. “I love you too.”

            He kept hold of my hand for the rest of the trip home, only releasing it when we had to get out of the vehicle. We went into the house and rounded up the troops to help unload all the groceries. With everyone helping, it didn’t take all that long. When everything was put away, Jaxon disappeared upstairs after telling me he’d be back down shortly. I sat and chatted with Marissa while I waited for him, telling her about the trip to the city. When Jaxon came back downstairs, he took my hand and led me upstairs and into the bathroom that was attached to our room.

            A little bewildered, I followed him and my jaw dropped when I saw that he had drawn a bubble bath and lit some candles. “What’s all this for?”

            He shrugged and looked a little embarrassed. “We both know that I’m not the greatest at being romantic and stuff, but I realized today that I don’t show you how much I appreciate you often enough.” He waved at the scene in front of me. “This doesn’t do that great of a job, but it was the only thing I could think of right now.”

            Everything inside me melted at his words. “Oh Jaxon, you’re better at this than you think.” I slid my arms around him and hugged him tightly. “Thank you.”

            He wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled my hair. “I do love you Mia. More than you could possibly imagine.”

            I stayed in his arms for another minute and then pulled back with a smile. “Okay, that’s enough of the mushy stuff now. I’m going to start thinking that you’ve done all this because you’re guilty about something.”

            He lifted a brow. “I did all this to get you naked,” he replied.

            I laughed and kissed him soundly. “There’s the mate that I know and love. Are you going to join me in the tub?”

            “Of course. What’s the point in getting you naked if I don’t join you?”

            “Good point.” We both got undressed and into the tub. Jaxon sat behind me, cradling me between his legs. I leaned back against him with a contented sigh. “This is nice.”

            He hummed in agreement. “I’ll be glad when I’m the Alpha and we have our own place.”

            “I’m sure your dad will be glad too. When we had dinner with your parents last week he couldn’t stop talking about all the traveling he wanted to do when you take over.”

            Jaxon snorted. “I give it three weeks before he goes crazy and wants to be back home.”

            I laughed. “Your mom will make him stay away for longer than that. She showed me all the plans she’s been making and there’s no way she’ll let him change any of it.”

            “You’re probably right. Are you going to want to travel once our duties to the pack are over?”

            “I haven’t really thought about it yet. I mean, you haven’t taken over as Alpha yet, and then we still need to have kids before we can think about our… retirement.”

            He nuzzled the side of my neck. “I like the idea of having kids with you.” He laughed when I froze in surprise. “Don’t worry; I’m not suggesting we have them anytime soon. But it’s nice to think about for in the future.”

            I let out a long breath. “I haven’t given it much thought,” I admitted. “I know we’ll have kids eventually, but it’s not something that’s really been at the front of my mind.”

            “Maybe it’s the fact that I’m close to taking over for my father, but I’ve been thinking about it a little more.” He ran a hand over my stomach. “I admit that I am looking forward to the day that you’re growing big with our first baby?”

            “First? How many do you think we’re going to have?” My voice was becoming panicky, which apparently amused my mate.

            “Relax, Mia. I think two is a good number, just like my parents have.”

            I sighed in relief. “If you’d said anything besides that, I might have thought about getting you neutered,” I muttered.

            He flinched. “Ouch, that was mean. I think you may have just caused my little friend to shrivel up.”

            I wiggled my butt a little and grinned when I felt his arousal stir slightly. “Look at that, I cured him.”

            In a quick move, he had me spun around and pressed against the side of the tub. “We may not be ready for kids now, but you know what they say.” He leaned in and kissed me passionately. “Practice makes perfect.”

*******************************************************************

I really like Jaxon and Mia as a couple. They're so much fun to write about and they make me laugh a lot. What do you guys think of them so far?