November 11th

I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard Leo's deep, soft voice. A sigh of relief that was soon interrupted when I also heard Xander's thick Russian accent.

Well that was unexpected. How can they both be stood so close yet so civilised?

Shortly afterwards they both came into the living room looking like scruffy school boys with their shirts half untucked, their ties loose around their necks and their hair going in every which direction.

Xander had a black eye and a bit of blood at his nose whilst Leo had a slightly swollen bleeding lip and the opposite black eye.

"Disagreement over," Leo said calmly.

"Oh for goodness sake boys. Look at you both," Rosa said as I went to greet Leo. He pulled me into a hug and kissed the top of my forehead. "Why must you fight?"

"I'm Alpha Xander," Xander said to Rosa and Antonio. "Your daughter's mate."

Antonio shook his hand whilst Rosa eyed him suspiciously and I glared at him for what he had done to Leo.

"Xander has agreed to stay here until Bella is happy to back with him to Russia. And I will need to be here for the first night at least just as a precaution if that's okay with you Mom?" Leo asked.

"As long as you promise not to beat any of my other sons up," Rosa said to Xander who smiled.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Xander said his eyes on Bella. She stood up and gingerly approached Xander. He opened his arms out but didn't forcefully pull her towards her.

I don't know what had gone on during that half an hour Xander and Leo were together, but something had certainly changed.

Bella allowed Xander to hug her before showing him to her room. Beta Josef had gone back to Russia to run the pack whilst Xander was away, Rosa went out to the grocery store to buy extra food for her extra three guests including two Alphas, whilst Antonio went back to his office to do something or other and Leo's four brothers slowly filtered upstairs along with Lisa and Lia when they got home from the mall. Blair went home to Abi leaving just Leo, Luca and me in the kitchen.

"Where the fuck are Elena and Maria?" Leo said looking at his watch. "It's getting late."

"I'm sure they're fine, Alpha," Luca said as he sat slumped on the sofa.

"They shouldn't be out this late alone," he continued.

"Leo for Christ's sake!" I exclaimed. "Maria is 21 years old. And both of them can certainly handle themselves."

"I'll go and call them," he concluded after a few moments.

I rolled my eyes and exchanged looks with Luca as Leo marched into the office to the phone.

"He can't help it," Luca said. "He's a total control freak."

I looked over to Luca again to see him staring straight ahead. I'm not sure I'd ever seen him this miserable and it took me a few moments to clock why.

"This is about Bella, isn't it?" I asked.

"What is?" he questioned.

"You. Being glum," I said sitting beside him. "I know you had a lil crush on her."

He blushed and smiled.

"And now she has a mate. And a dick of a mate too," he replied. "I know I was never going to be with her but I wanted her to be with someone...at least nice."

"Oh Luca," I said. "Alpha Xander doesn't seem so bad."

"So we're just going to pretend he didn't go on a rant about beating women earlier?" Luca asked.

"Okay but Leo put him straight," I replied. "He has punched up my mate and I don't exactly like him either but surely you can see he is not completely terrible? Not as bad as Haden anyway..."

Luca sighed and shrugged.

"You know I made out with her once," Luca said in a hushed tone.

"What?!" I asked excitedly. "When?!"

"Mateo's shifting party two years ago," he replied. "I was 16 and she was 15 and we went into the woods together."

"Jesus Christ," I said. "You better not let Alpha Xander know about that.copy right hot novel pub