My Female Alpha

THIRTY

emery

Lenora is much more calm when she opens the door and spreads her arm inside. I meet her eyes briefly, finding them much softer and lighter than earlier. She shuts the door behind us. My gaze flickers between the bed and the door to the bathroom. Anticipation for what is to come knots in my belly.

"I need you to understand that what happened today can never happen again," she speaks in a soft, gravelly voice behind me. "You don't know how worried I was."

Funny way of showing it, I think with an eye roll, keeping my back toward her.

"You should know how dangerous rogues are now, Emery. We are in a very tense time as a pack right now, and you are my biggest weakness. My enemies will target you. I don't have words to describe how I would be if something happened to you."

My eyes are burning again but now it's so much harder to be mad at her. I pull my chin up to lessen the urge to cry.

Lenora sighs. "Emery, look at me."

When I don't budge or utter a sound, she walks around me. A single, fat, traitorous tear rolls down my cheek. I want to wipe it but I know it'll make me look even more vulnerable than I feel.

"Don't cry," she says, reaching for me.

I step back. "Don't."

Hurt flashes across her face. She's devastatingly gorgeous, even like this. I can't hate her even if I want to.

"Don't shut me out," she says.

That's all I know how to do when I'm in pain, I think. I run away. I hide. I avoid. Until I just forget.

Confessing this would be too much for me. I could never humble myself enough to show her how fragile I am. Besides, she is what she said: an Alpha. All she knows is how to be tough and strong. Where she takes everything head-on, I slink around in the shadows until my problems lose interest. And yet I'll be damned if I can't shake this raven-haired, blue-eyed huntress.

Lenora comes closer and I don't have the heart to pull away again. Her thumb dries the trail of moisture from the tear. She studies me carefully. I have no choice but to breathe in her distinctly feminine, distinctly dominant smell.

"So what is my punishment?" I grumble, averting my eyes.

She leans back and clears her throat. "I have some ideas. What do you suggest?"

"Nothing, obviously."

"Don't be so dismissive. You need to take this seriously."

"You need to take me seriously," I retort much more forcefully than I intended, my eyes darting to hers as fire pours into my face.

"I wouldn't have been so worried about you if I didn't take you seriously. You're my other half, Emery. I know that's a lot for you to take in as a human—"

I cut her off. "You treat me like a weakness, not your other half. You've tracked me, forced me to be here, and chased after me when I left. You want to own me, not love me."

She takes a long, deep breath. Her hand reaches for mine and I let her take it.

"You're right. I have been trying to control you," she admits. "I'm just so afraid of losing you. You're the best part of my life now. I'm going to guard and protect you with everything in me."