Becoming An Alpha's Mate (BAAM) - editing

BAAM (9)

Morning came too soon, but I was once again the first one up. Grabbing a slice of cold, leftover pizza, and a low-fat chocolate shake, you know the kind that people drink when their on diets, like slimfast, I headed out to the back deck again to watch the morning scene. I was only out there for a few minutes when I felt a presence behind me. Turning around, I was not surprised on who I found.

He clearly had just gotten out of bed, if his messy hair was any indication. He was wearing a pair of slightly worn grey sweats, slung low on his hips and was bare foot. Overall, he looked down right sexy, it had to be illegal for just one guy to be that fine. Tearing my eyes away, I looked back to the lake.

Marcus sat in the chair next to me. "Leslie's pregnant, huh?"

Whipping my head to look at him I asked, "How did you know that?"

He shrugged, "Heard you two talking last night. Plus, I kind of suspected."

My eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?" I demanded.

"Sometimes, you can just tell, you know?" He was obviously hiding something from me, but I wasn't going to press for it. "So who's daddy dearest?"

"You wouldn't know him, he's from New York."

"So?"

I sighed. "His names Randal, he's always been bad news."

He kept looking at me, like he was expecting more from me. "....And?"

"And, what?"

"I can tell there's more to it than that."

I didn't answer for a while. "How much did you hear exactly?"

He put on an innocent face. I knew better. "You mean, besides all of it?"

"You heard what she wants to do with the baby." It wasn't a question and he didn't treat it like one either.

"I agree with you," he replied. "You're too young, especially when it's not yours. She should step up and take care of it herself, or at least find a family that wants children, but can't have any of their own, or something like that. It's not right of her to ask that of you."

I had the feeling Marcus was angry about something, but I'm not sure what that was exactly. He didn't show any sign of being angry, but there was a nagging feeling in me, telling me he was angry about something. Was it because of Leslie, because of what she wanted me to do? I couldn't shake the feeling off, but I never addressed it.

"Let's talk about something else, please."

The smirk was back. "So you want to talk to me, huh?" Playfully shoving my shoulder a little, he stood up. "C'mon." He gently grabbed my hand, making me stand as well.

"What? Where are we going?"

"We're going to get our swimming gear and we are going to go swimming." He made it sound like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"But, it's early. The water will be cold." Nonetheless, I went inside with him.

"It's not that cold in the morning, besides, lake water tends to be more warm than pool water. Now go to your room and put on your most sexiest, tiniest bikini, and I'll meet you at the lake." With that he headed to his room.

Sexiest, tiniest bikini my ass. I didn't trust Marcus as far as I could throw him, which I couldn't do, I couldn't even lift him up on his toes if I tried. There was no way I was going to wear a bikini in front of him. Quickly going through my bathing suits I picked my Victoria's Secret Carmen Marc Valvo ruched one-piece, in shell pink Grabbing a pair of white fill flops and sunglasses and my aqua beach towel, I headed back down stairs, only to run into a hard back. Before my bottom could greet the floor I was grabbed at the arms. My rescuer was none other than Marcus.

"Hello to you, too." He gently set me on my feet and "casually" looked me over. When I started to walk towards the door he said, "Don't I get a reward for saving you?"

"All right," I turned around to face him, "thank you."

He walked up to me. "What, no kiss?" He started to pout, his lower lip jetting out a little more than the top.

It was my turn to look him over. If I thought he looked good in a towel, there were no words for how he looked in his swimming trunks.Ugh, why did he have to be so good looking?! "Nope." I gave him a smile and turned around to head off to the lake. I could hear him chuckling behind me, as if he knew what I was thinking.

When we got to the lake Marcus jumped right in, making a big splash, sending ripples every which way. Me? I hung back a little. I walked to the edge of the dock, sitting down and putting my feet in the water to test it. It wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be, but it wasn't warm like Marcus claimed it would. I sat there for only a minute before something grabbed my attention. There was something by my feet. When it brushed against my right foot, I squealed and was quickly pulling my feet out of the water. I wasn't quick enough. Suddenly, two arms wrapped around me, pulling me into the water.

When I was released I immediately came up for air. Marcus was floating there, a big grin on his face.

"You took too long."

That was his excuse?! I sent him a glare, and splashed him. Bad idea. Somehow that revengeful splash was the start of an all out splash war. Sometime or other my angry splashes turned into ones of fun. We were laughing and started to dunk each other and having contests of who could hold their breath under water the longest. I may have cheated a few times, but that was only because I knew for a fact that he was cheating first. I had to admit that it was fun. We must have been in the water for hours before we got out and laid on our towels to dry off.

We ended up playing twenty questions after a short, comfortable silence.

"Favorite band?"

"Mudvayne," I quickly replied.

"What? You do not listen to Mudvayne," he accused, leaning on his elbow.

"Yes, I do. I love their music. 'Happy', I think is my favorite," I defended

"You look too preppy to be into that kind of music."

"What kind of music do you expect preppy girls to listen to?" I asked him, I wonder if he knew he looked like the kind of guy that would listen to Usher or something.

"I don't know, The Pussycat Dolls, or Taylor Swift, or something along that."

"Well, I do listen to them," I looked at him, "but their not my favorite." There was a pause. "Okay, my turn. Why are you friends with so many people? I mean, I only keep a few friends, never as much as you do. You have like a whole gang."

Marcus was a bit hesitant to answer. "We all grew up together. Our parents were all friends, not to mention that this is a small town. Everybody knows everybody, it's not good to make enemies." He set his jaw, like he was thinking of something that made him angry from his statement.

Enemies. I wonder if he was referring to Hunter and Layla. I was still in the dark about their beef with eachother. I'm going to find out what it is, I won't ask Marcus now, but soon.

The twenty questions continued and we learned a lot about eachother. Marcus wasn't so bad, besides his constant teasing, he was actually good company. Not too bad to look at either.

We were heading back inside to eat when there was a loud howl. It sounded pretty close, just behind a few trees. Marcus tensed and told me to go inside and that he'd be back in a short while. Wasn't he going to come in? That howl could have been some rabid dog, or worse. I watched him shut the door and run off to the woods, still in his swimming trunks.