Running With Wolves [On Hold]

Chapter 34, Orson

"Stay with me, don't go, please."

I drop the cloak I wear on a daily basis to hide my feelings and lay it in the open to tell Eleanor how I truly feel, and how I feel is... devastated, truly lost, and stuck when she's not speaking, looking, or around me, it feels like my world is crushing in on me and I don't know how to stop it from swallowing me whole.

"I'm not perfect Eleanor, I never claimed to be. I didn't bring you here to use you against your grandfather, I brought you here because I couldn't just let you die, I wanted the chance to get to know you." I exhale out. "And once I got to know you... even in this short time, I can't bear the thought of you leaving, I know it might not seem like it to you but I would drop everything to ensure your safety, I'd sacrifice my very life to ensure yours is safe, do you know what I'm saying?"

Her big beautiful eyes look up at me, with her long eyelashes, her cute small nose, the freckles on her cheeks and the lost red tilt on her lips, along with the blush on her cheeks, it's all too fucking perfect to ignore, she's gorgeous, and my heart stops every time she looks at me like this.

When she opens her mouth to speak, she closes it in deep thought, with a wrinkle in between her eyebrows, and when she doesn't speak, I can't stop myself from pulling her into my chest and wrapping my arms around her small waist.

"O-Orson, w-wha-"

"I love you, and I'm so fucking greedy Eleanor when it concerns you, I know you deserve better than this but I'm selfish, I've ignored you, kept you here for my sake and I've confused the situation beyond control, still I can't help myself, I love you."

She pulls back slightly and I catch the tears in her eyes before they fall from her eyes with my thumb to wipe them away. "I'm sorry, I-"

She shakes her head. "No." Her voice says softly, with a crack. "It's just y-you're crushing me." She says weakly with a small smile.

OH.

I release her as fast as I could as if almost like her touch burned me. "I'm sorry, I forget you're human and I'm much stronger." I say dumbly, whilst looking over her for injury. "Are you hurt?"

She blushes and moves a loose strand of hair behind her ears with a shake of her head. 

A familiar smell hits my nose and I instantly move Eleanor behind me and as I'm moving to stand in front of her I see movements in the trees in front of the restaurant we're inside, then I see a flash, only for a second, it shines in the trees long enough for me to see.

Almost suddenly, the glass breaks around us, shattering all the windows of the restaurant, I try my best to cover Eleanor with my larger body from the shards of glass in hopes to protect her from being cut from the sharpness of the glass.

I mindlink for Adan and Sena to get over her as soon as possible, knowing they aren't far from us, so I can pursue our stupid assassin and rip his fucking limbs from their body and string them up outside the gates of the capital for whatever reason they decided to attempt something so stupid.

A loud growl comes out of me when I get a whiff of the person- or thing that tried to attack us, and my wolf wants to come out to kill whoever or whatever it is for putting our mate in harm's way, and I don't object as I move away from Eleanor as she holds her head in her hands as she cowers on the floor where I left her.

"Stay here, don't come outside until Adan gets here." I say roughly to Eleanor as the transformation takes effect.

I begin to shift as I watch her panic expression on her face twist in pain as she listens to me shift into my wolf, and as much as I want to stay and comfort her from the close call on her life, I can't let the assassin go.