Chapter 66
Chapter 66
Chapter 66
Rhea
It’s past midnight when he comes to me. Nearly two hours.
“I’ve been waiting,” I say, seated over the couch by the window.
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“I can tell,” He’s amused as he takes his first steps into my room. And when he does, there are no further words spoken from my part. “There were some sightings of Ezra near the Greshire lands. It’s west from here. He will try crossing their territory for sure in the days to come by and when he does, he’ll be caught.” Aron tells me what I’ve already heard.
“What about Catelyn?”
He shrugs as he sits beside me, the distance between us minimal. “Well, she isn’t dead. My men at the pack house were able to confirm it. There is suspicion that she might be with Ezra-”
I cut him off, “No, he thought she was dead.”
Aron gives it thought for a few minutes before speaking. “Yes. Well, that could be possible. Maybe she’s still there, hiding somewhere.”
“Okay.” I nod, knowing enough.
He tilts his head, “Do you want to know anything more? Perhaps something I have missed out so I wouldn’t have your ear listening to my conversations anymore?” The sarcasm doesn’t miss.
“No, nothing,” There’s no other reason why I’d eavesdropped on that conversation other than Ezra or anything related to him. And now that Aron’s given me what I’ve wanted, I have nothing else to say. “You can just tell me this and I won’t have my ear on the door.”
“You shouldn’t have it either way.”
I look at him and he’s looking back, “I know, but I don’t follow the rules very much now, I don’t have to. It’s liberating, actually.” It really is.
He blinks, “What is?”
“Not being bound to an alpha.”
“I never had you bound to me.”
He didn’t. That’s true.
“But you would’ve. Eventually. Right? Considering that my pack was taken under you and that would make you my Alpha, too. You would make me abide by the rules.” I tell him. “And that would mean following every order. But now, I don’t need to do any of that.”
He chuckles at that before shaking his head. “Oh, you still do need to. You might not be a werewolf anymore. But I did save your life, if you haven’t forgotten. And I did pay a very hefty price for it, too.”
“The hefty price you did get back.” I point out.
It comes out before I can think. The land.
He appears a little surprised, but he doesn’t show much of that on his face. There’s stillness to his posture as he watches me
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Chapter 66
before moving back a bit, resting himself on the backrest of the couch, and then pressing his palm against the nape of his neck.
“You heard that as well.” It’s not even a question. More of an acknowledgement.
“I did.”
“And do you know the significance of what you’ve heard?”
That’s a question. One that I should’ve been expecting to be honest.
“No,” And when I look over to see him, I find that his gaze is already on mine. He’s watching me with something that I cannot explain or put a name to it, the expression too unreadable on his face. So, I ask him instead of bothering myself trying to read him. “What is?”
“You shouldn’t really listen to conversations that you don’t understand.”
I shrug, “Can’t really do that when it comes to you. I have this urge inside to know more. And you don’t exactly tell me that many things about yourself either, so it only leaves to listening.”
“Is that so?” I see the amusement in his eyes as they slightly crinkle. “Then, I’m going to have to make sure to watch my back, won’t I?”
“Of course, it’ll help if that’s the way you go.” The smile that comes on my face is unintentional, but I don’t bother hiding it either.
The look on his face is one of perplexion as his mouth sets in a thin line and his eyes look at me a certain way that makes my breath stutter for a mere second. Then, his gaze falls to the way my fingers fidget with each other and it doesn’t leave from them. Not for a minute.
He suddenly rises
up
from the chair. “I’ll leave now.”
And at first I want to let him, but something stops me. Something in my chest makes my hand move, and they reach out for the cuff of his shirt, tugging at it, “Wait.”
He doesn’t
any longer after I
say it.
a
long time. Even though there is nothing but silence in the room for several minutes. Nothing but
And neither do I. Not for
that.
“Please. Don’t.” I speak softly, the words just barely a whisper. And I am not sure what I’m pleading with him for. I just don’t want him to go. “Can’t you just stay here with me tonight? Like that day.” I whisper.
The day that he did. When my wolf passed. The night he held me against his chest.
And for the longest time, I see him staring down at me with an unreadable look in his eye, his face so void of emotions that it frightens me for just a moment. Frightens me that he will just walk away.
“Okay. But I’ll have to change,” he concedes after what feels like hours and yet still feels so much like only a minute or so has past, and he moves his eyes away from me and onto the room, towards the door. “I won’t take long.” He assures me.
After that, he steps outside the door and disappears behind it.
When he returns a while later, he has shed the heavy clothing that had been hanging off him before. Now there is just a cotton shirt on him. The first buttons were opened, revealing just a slight part of his bare chest, the skin darker and more tanned. I can see him breathe. The muscles moving under his clothes.
My own voice of reason was fading.
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I feel a shudder go through me.
The door shuts, closing, and I flinch at the noise.
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When he holds me, it makes me feel something that I can’t put into words. It’s an odd feeling. It makes my insides turn, it makes me nervous and yet I’ve been craving to be like this, in the confines of his embrace. To feel his warmth against mine.
It makes me feel a little better about this reality of losing a part of me.
“Sleep.” He says when he pulls the covers over us both as I lay with him. And it only takes a moment or two after he does that for his arms to circle me, pulling me against his chest. I breathe out, content and relaxed.
I want to thank him for it. For this.
But the words seem to get lodged in my throat, so I just keep quiet. I can’t seem to be able to form a single word at this moment. My tongue feels glued down to the bottom of my mouth.
I press myself even closer to him. It feels right.
He moves his head down towards mine so he can whisper in my ear. His breath makes my hair flutter, and I can smell him, smell everything that he has touched in these hours. He is not so much an Alpha in my eyes at this moment, he’s just a man, the man that’s holding me, that I’m allowing to touch me, that I’m trusting to protect me when my whole world has come apart at the edges.
“I can’t sleep,” I tell him. My breaths are soft. Shaky.
He tightens his arms around my waist. “Try to, Rhea.” His lips touch against the back of my head, his nose buried in my hair.
but try.” “You’re tired and have a lot on your mind. It’s not going to be easy,
“What about you?”
“Me?”
“Aren’t you tired as well?”
He pauses. A silent lull between us both. Then, “I am.”
“But you’re not sleeping.”
“Because you keep talking.”
“That’s because I can’t sleep,” I quickly say.
He shifts a little, and so does the arm around me. Now, he’s looking down at me. “Close your mouth, and you’ll sleep faster.” His lips tug at the corner.
“I would’ve done that already if that helped in any way, but since it doesn’t, I think you should give a better alternative,” The annoyance slips through in my words. “Maybe you can tell me a story that’ll bore me-”
Before I can even finish, he grabs my face with one of his hands, cupping my jaws, pulls me up, and kisses
my
mouth.
It is the most urgent thing I’ve ever felt in my life and the way it shuts me up, it leaves me speechless. It steals away my voice. It doesn’t only surprise me; it startles me.
I gasp.
My lips part.
I taste him for a moment, his breath on mine, the flavor, but he pulls back quickly.
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Chapter 66
My breath is shallow and fast, and it’s loud. Really loud.
“That’ll work, won’t it?”
“I don’t-”
“Or maybe not.”
