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Chapter 25
I feel so good.
My face keeps getting redder and redder with the thoughts of him and that kiss, that fir kiss that will be with me for my lifetime.
He’s like my own personal sun, warming me from the inside out. I twirl again inside my home, whose smell is almost my own.
7th excitement. I tried to call Am
My heart skips a beat just thinking about him. He might really like me. Maybe I might have a chance. Just that dim ray of hope has me giddy yesterday to see if he wanted to hang out or anything. He didn’t answer his phone, so I was forced to leave an awkward message, which made me embarrassed. I didn’t want to come off sounding too eager, but I just couldn’t help it.
I’m actually so nervous to go to work today and see him. I need to try to calm myself or else everyone will be able to smell my excitement if I let my emotions get the best of me.
Walking to work, I have to restrain myself not to skip down the road.
I look in at everyone’s yards. Neat piles of leaves dot the grass, evidence that they just couldn’t get all the yard work done in one weekend. Soon I will be smelling the whiff of frost on the earth. The trees are starting to look lonesome with the dropping of their leaver leaving behind a carpet mosaic of crimsons, oranges, and yellows.
Today, the sunrise is blood red in the sky. Such beauty in nature, all you have to do is look The days are shortening, and the nights will start to get colder. I can’t wait to light my fireplace when the snow starts to fall.
Taking a deep breath before walking in, I try to act cool. Like I always fix my hair for work and wear makeup. Looking around, I can see a light on in his office. Aurora isn’t here yet.
I knock softly on his office door, and my heart beats wildly in my chest.
“Come in.”
Lab’at’him I give him my best heart smile; it’s from my soul. It’s true and without
Chapter 25
restraint.
What greets my eyes isn’t his smile. Instead, he has fading bruises. His throat is torn up, as if another wolf was trying to tear it out.
“Rya, sit down.” I take a seat directly across from his desk, hands in my lap or else they will try to touch him. He’s not giving out any signals that he wants me to touch him.
What happened?” My heart is starting to sink.
“A disagreement.” That’s all he says before a quiet takes hold.
Sighing to himself, he seems as if he wants to say something but doesn’t know where to begin.
He’s looking into my eyes, which are full of concern.
“What happened, Dallas?” Standing, I try to touch his face, but he flinches away. My hand goes to my side before I sit back down.
I’m holding my breath for some reason, as if I’m waiting for something bad to come out of his mouth. The bottom of my stomach starts to choke. A small breath catches in my throat as I bite my bottom lip with his extended silence.
“Are you hurt?” I try looking for more than cuts and bruises.
“No!”
“I’m sorry.” For some reason, I feel the need to apologize, but I’m not sure why.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. This was my–I came to you.” His eyes close slightly, jaw twitching in tension.
“What happened?”
“Your mate doesn’t like what belongs to him being touched.” His voice is even, hands folded on his desk. His shoulders are tense. Maybe a flash of teeth is shown for just a second before he reins himself back.
Chapter 25
“He has someone else. I’m ” He stops me from saying anything else.
“He’s your mate. I thought I could fool myself, that something so good could come along, that I could be blessed again. I was wrong. You have someone for you, and I would just be your Kennedy.” He’s not looking at me. He’s holding onto his hands in a vise grip.
“What happens to me, Rya, in the end? What would happen to me? I don’t think I can take another artbreak. It would kill me.” He looks vulnerable, trying to expose feelings that Are making him hurt from the inside.
“He doesn’t want me.” I say it with certainty from all these years of being alone.
“He’s an Alpha male whose mate is being sniffed at by another male intent to take what belongs to him. He doesn’t need to love you. His nature demands that he fight for you.”
“Oh.” I let that one word hang in the air as I try to control my trembling chin. My diaphragm expands with the long intake of air. I breathe it out slowly. The pull in of breath, the push out of breath, I know this feeling…just breathe.
“I thought I could do this. I was wrong. At least it was only a kiss that we shared, nothing
too serious.” He’s looking down at his desk now. Only a kiss. He says it like it was only a kiss to him. To me, it was everything that I dreamed about.
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