Dark Times

Chapter Twenty-Four

When I woke up, I turned it all off like one would a switch. If you could turn the heating up and down in a fancy, rich pack house, why couldn't you do that with emotions?

The sparks were stronger than they'd been before I'd gone to sleep. Relentless. But it wouldn't change anything. Today, we were going to what could've been a home to me if I chose to define it so. I didn't. But I had a reputation to uphold. A reputation these bastards could easily ruin.

I stared down at the sleeping Alpha with a mixture of emotions, not knowing what to feel.

Obviously, I trusted him to some extents. My body and wolf both knew what he was to me now—but that didn't really mean anything. Wrong place, wrong time.

He looked peaceful in his sleep. That usually angry frown was gone, the wrinkles in his forehead vanished. His lips opened and closed with each of his breaths. I brushed a finger over one of them, innately wondering what it'd be like to kiss him there.

I didn't do kissing. It wasn't a necessity. It was a lust.

Naturally, the only person I'd ever lusted after was an Alpha, no less my mate. Had he not been selected for me by some stupid, intangible bond, the world might've been different.

But it wasn't.

I pushed him aside, rolling out from beneath his arm. When he patted the space beside him, I pushed a backpack closer towards him. His arm curled around it.

Outside, Trish was already up doing push ups. Why she'd willingly choose to do that to her body was a mystery I'd never know the answer to. She stopped when she saw me, sweat coating her brow.

"What are you doing up so early? I thought you'd want to sleep in with your Alpha."

Damnit, I did. I didn't want to leave that crappy bed on the floor with his arm slung across me. It was comfortable. Comfort wasn't a familiarity to me. The more time I spent with him, the more drugging it got to be. Would there be withdrawal symptoms?

"He's not my Alpha."

She snorted. "You're still going with that excuse then."

"I'm not a pack wolf. Therefore, I don't have an Alpha."

She sighed, wiping a cloth down her face. Some way off, Peter and Igor were still sleeping. Oh to be so lucky.

We kept our voices down, uninterrupted. As much as I loathed Trish, I did have to admit talking to her beat talking to the others. Igor was all about forced nobility- you know the righteous bullshit and sacrifices. And Peter... Well, he wasn't interested in conversation that didn't revolve around the basis of food.

"You're a real dumb bitch, you know that- right?" Each of us sat down on a dry log before a burnt out fire. "When we call him your Alpha, we mean he's yours. You know, like the whole 'hands off of my man' shit."

I rolled my eyes. "I know that."

"What- you know that he's yours or...?"

"Don't put words in my mouth."

She sighed, staring forwards. Parts of me- the parts that were changing in ways I didn't like- felt sorry for Trish. I knew she was investing into this imaginary relationship the Alpha and I had going on. Whilst I was determined to see this mate bond fail to prove a point, she was determined to see it work to prove another point.

Sometimes, I felt she could've done with a less Council-y mate. Maybe then she would've- you know... I didn't want to say it. It was sappy and disgusting.

She might be the H word. The one that coincidentally rhymes with sappy.

"What are you planning, Lorrie?" She spared a glance my way. "I've told you this already, but I'm going to say it again. Your mate isn't going to give up on you. If you push him, he'll push you back. Don't do anything you can't take back."