The Alpha's Heart

chapter 16

Noah POV

A man who resists temptation is a man who has won a victory. But I'm a wolf.

Her nape glistens as water drips from her hair, moving deliciously slow down her back and under the dress. I just want to see where the drop is headed, that's all.

My fingernails bite my palm as I swallow and let my fingertips wrap around the zipper.

I take a couple of steps closer to her, as her damp skin grazes my forearm. I pull the zipper up, slowly, as my body closes the distance between us.

Her shoulders tense up as my chin rest in the crook of her neck. I finish tugging the zipper up the curve of her back.

"T-Thank you." She stutters.

"You're still playing with me, aren't you?" I whisper against her ear. She shakes her head.

My hands settle on either side of her hips as I push them back, gently towards me. I wait for her resistance but none comes.

"Eliana..." I breathe out, watching goosebumps rise across the skin of her shoulder.

"Noah, I-" She begins.

"Eliana!" She flinches from me, as her name is called, avoiding my gaze. We stand across from each other.

"Eliana!" Alyssa voice echoes through compound.

Great timing.

"I should go." She glances up at me as I lean back against the tree trunk.

"Your wolf is beautiful. I've never seen one as silver as the moon. You're beautiful." I whisper.

I wanted to tell her from the moment I saw her shift. Everything in me wanted to say these words.

She looks up at me wide-eyed, maintaining eye contact as I grin at her.

"Thank you, I have to go." She smiles at me and runs off.

I exhale as my knees give out below me.

She's dangerous. So shyly dangerous.

Eliana POV

Alyssa holds my wrist, checking my pulse.

"Your heart seems to beating really fast but I can guess why that's happening." She puts my hand back in my lap as she scribbles something else down.

He was so close and I wanted him to be. I needed him to be.

Nothing in me told my body to move from against him and a whisper on his breath still lingers on my shoulder.

You should've let him mark us.

No, everything was happening too fast.

"Did you see us?" I ask her. She chuckles shaking her head, pointing to my backside.

"With all that water you guys were playing in, how can I still smell a trace of our Alpha on your back?" She puts back down the clipboard and goes into a drawer in her counter.

My face heats up.

"Maybe you just have a really good nose." I say, looking down at my ankles.

So he really was that close.

"Yeah, yeah. You look completely fine so I think you don't need my check ups anymore." She smiles at me and helps me up from the bed I had slept in a couple days before.

"Thank you so much, Alyssa you've made being here so much easier." I say, getting up from the edge of the mattress.

"You're a sister and friend to me now Eliana. Of course." She grabs my forearms, helping me up.

A sister and a friend.

I beam at her, nodding.

"Now go change and take a shower. You're going to get sick if you don't warm up soon." She taps me on my back as I leave her office. I wave to her, closing the door behind me.

I start down the hallway.

I never thought another wolf would call me their friend, let alone sister. I smile to myself.

My heart warms at the thought of Alyssa's words again. She's so sweet. If the rest of the pack were that easy to get along with, I would've found my home.

...a distraction.

I slow down.

Noah said I was a distraction from his pack. I'm not a part of that family in his life and with the mate bond, I do see how I a distraction.

I'm supposed to be Luna though, by his side helping him with his problems regarding the pack, not taking his mind off them.

I sigh. How do I prepare for something like that?

How do I measure up to Noah's side?

"There she is." A familiar voice says.

Glancing up, the girl who threw us the clothes from before stands in the hallway against the wall with another female wolf.

I avoid eye-contact as I walk by them. They already don't like me, no need to blow the situation up.

"She's a weakling. I know she can hear me and she won't do a thing about it, bitch." She says, as the wolf beside her chuckles and shushes her.

I tense, continuing to walk by them.

Just keep your eyes down and you'll be fine.

"See." She spits, as my feet keep me going towards my room.

She's right. She's completely right.

I couldn't do anything because I've dealt with people like her before. Insults like that are better ignored, so I ignored them.

I twist open the knob of my room door.

I am a bitch.

The room stands still as it was this morning. Moping on to the bed, tears gather in my eyes.

I didn't know escaping would only be something physical.

My mind is in that basement, waking up early to cook and clean. I'm that pack slave I was last week.

A bitch.

Freedom is supposed to fix this. It's supposed to get rid of this feeling that everything is going to go wrong.

I'm in control of my actions now. I have Noah and Alyssa.

But everything is pulling me back to the past.

That girl is right to call my a weakling. As the future Luna, I'm a horrible choice.

Noah doesn't need someone so negative crowding his sunny aura.

I'm trying to try. I'm trying so hard to try but small things tear me down.

Silent tears fall out my eyes and drip along the sides of my face, onto my ear as I stare up to the ceiling.

I got out. I built up all my courage and left that reality behind, so why does it seem to keep following me around? When will I let this burden go?

And how do I warm up others with this fear?
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3,507 ~ 5/14/20

Thanks for all your support guys! It's been a month since I posted this book and I've gotten so much love for it.

Next chapter out the 16th!

Stay safe.

XO.