Manuscript Monday: The Alpha Comes Home

More from Trent, the last Alpha's Reign book! I'm slowly editing it because I've been busy moving and going on a short trip (that feels a whole lot longer than it is). It is almost ready and it's up for pre-order on Amazon right now.

Also, I guess Gravitation is my theme for this book, so here's some more Yuki and Shuichi. ^_^

Here's the sneak peek. I guess it has spoilers, but we all know I'm not gonna kill Trent, right? Obvs. 

Note: this is still being edited so it might have typos and what not. Enjoy!

Cole didn’t remember drifting off, but when he woke he found a pair of golden eyes watching him.

His heart jumped, and he licked his lips. “You—”

Trent nodded and put a finger on Cole’s lip. He nodded toward the hallway, and Cole climbed out of bed. Akito needed his rest, and even if their alpha had been gone all this time, he probably saw it too.

Trent limped after him into the kitchen (after a brief stop in the bathroom), and slumped into a stool.

Cole pulled out the food before he thought to ask. Of course their alpha was hungry. And Trent didn’t look in any shape to cook for himself.

“We missed you. I missed you. Akito nearly went crazy missing you,” he said and put the leftover pork from that morning in the pan.

Trent reached for the bottle of sake and pulled out a cigarette from the half full pack on the counter. “And why didn’t you nearly go crazy?”

A match flared and lit the end.

The scent of tobacco filled Cole’s nose. “I was trying to run our pack and find you.”

“And handle Aki?” Trent asked and sucked on the cigarette.

Cole nodded. “I’m surprised he didn’t run off on his own to find you. I was afraid he would and Boss Yagami would catch him too.”

Trent took a swig of sake straight from the bottle and flinched, either at the taste or his wounds, Cole wasn’t sure which. “But he didn’t. He wouldn’t with you here. You ground him, Cole. You ground both of us.”

He slid the bottle across the counter, and Cole felt his ears heat as he took a sip. The alcohol burned his tongue. It’d been a long time since he had a drink, and he’d always been afraid that it would remind him of the old days when he did nothing but drink and take X until he passed out.

This didn’t.

Cole turned the meat. “And you both gave me something to live for.”

Trent’s lips quirked into a pained smile, not his usual smirk, and he licked his lips. “Good. We won.”

Cole nodded. “We did. You did.”

The alpha shook his head and took another long drag. The smoke curled toward the ceiling and circled around the lamp that hung there, the exposed bulb flickered. “We all did. I don’t even fully understand what your plan was, but it worked.”

Cole dished the grilled pork onto a plate and slid it to his mate.

Trent sucked in a breath and took a bite.

He hadn’t said anything about the last two weeks—what he’d done in captivity, but he was thinner than Cole had ever seen him. And that beard on his cheeks was thick and patchy as Cole’s own.

“What happened in there?”

Trent chewed slowly, and Cole handed him a glass of water. “Not much. He tried to break me, but it didn’t work. Then you all arrived.”

That couldn’t be the whole truth, but Cole bit his lip and nodded. If his alpha didn’t want to talk about it—“That’s not good enough. Not now. Did you want us to save you or not?”

Trent stopped and rubbed his cheeks. “Why would you think that?”

“Raj.”

Trent nodded and went back to eating. He didn’t say another word until he’d finished the last bite, but Cole wasn’t going to force him to speak. He wasn’t Akito.

He did, however, slink around the counter and lean gently against Trent’s back.

In the distance, the sun rose, lighting up the sky with orange and pink, and it was still too hot to touch like that.

Cole didn’t care.

His mate was home.