She scoffs, grinding her teeth as she musters up all her irritation through her lips. “You should have told me about the vision! I don’t even believe that it happened!”
Taken aback, I’m forced to pause momentarily as I regain my thoughts from the distraction of my wolf’s attraction to her aura. My brows furrow as I become aware that she isn’t as grateful as I thought she’d be when she crosses her arms and glares at me with a ferocity I didn’t even know she possessed.
“You don’t believe me?” I throw back with an unamused chuckle, crossing my arms and matching the furious energy she emits now. “After what I witnessed at that cave, you think it’s impossible that you would have blacked out and proceeded to have a premonition?”
Aurora pulls a face and grumbles, “Then you could have told me about it before bringing me here and using me to appease your people!”
“What good would it have been?” I ask, vexed as I throw my arms up defeatedly. “You were trying to run away, Aurora! Bringing you back was the only way I could protect you from the demon. I saved your life, remember?!”
Aurora mutters something unintelligible under her breath before snapping, “All you’re doing is using me to buy yourself time!”
“Is that what you think this is?!” I roar, taking a critical step forward when my mind screams that it’s the wrong move. Towering over her, I’m able to hear her heartbeat as if it’s my own, my eyes flicking to her heart-shaped lips that are curled with disdain.
My pulse races, my mind spinning with the recollection of what those lips felt like, what they tasted like when I had her under me. She must feel it, too—that awareness that causes her pulse to quicken as she heaves unsteady breaths and her lips part slightly.
I should just push her up against the wall and claim her lips again, to remind her what it felt like to be possessed by my domineering wolf. But her accusing voice rings out, one particular statement sticking out and blurring the tension in the air.
“All you’re doing is using me.”
Those words cut through my daze and jolt me back to reality.
She has no idea who she is to me, and she’s clearly unaware of her powers, or she would have realized that she is fated to my wolf.
I catch myself quickly, taking a cautious step back that allows me to breathe air that isn’t intoxicating. Because of everything that’s going on, her words fill me with guilt.
She thinks so little of me…
“You need to get some rest, Aurora,” I mutter as I turn my face away in shame. She must think that all of this is about the demon.
She has no idea…
“I’ll be in my room if you need me,” I say as I turn away and march down the passage until I’m in the confines of my bedroom.
Omega Aurora Sinclair believes that I’m using her to appease my pack when it couldn’t be further from the truth. Until she realizes her own powers, she’ll never recognize me as her fated mate. That’s what this is. That’s why she won’t let me in.
I’ll have to work harder. My inner wolf depends on it, restless until I have the acceptance of my fated mate.
Chapter 10 - Aurora
Waking up with a start, I lug in a few deep breaths and wipe the sweat beading my forehead with the back of my hand. Sighing when I realize that I was just dreaming, I’m not sure if I should be relieved or irritated.
Of course, I can’t control my dreams unless I learn of a hidden power that allows me to dream consciously. It isn’t my fault that the dream consisted of Elias McGruff, my body tingling in reality as if his dreamy lips and fantasy touches were as real as the chilly air outside his house.
Hishouse.
A sudden urge to pinch myself is bemusing when I remember that I’m in Alpha Elias McGruff’s home. Once, long ago, when I entertained the idea that Elias was a sweet, kind soul who would open up to my love, I fancied myself being brought to his home as his luna.
It was the craziest fantasy, and it was shattered when he rejected me on the mountains when the failure of my inner wolf had already knocked me down. I’d been torn to shreds, my dreams broken into tiny fragments strewn across that mountain.
Now that the dream is a reality again, the circumstances aren’t what I hoped they would be. Even still, my hand goes up to my lips where I absentmindedly stroke the bottom bud, imagining his kisses all over again.
I could have sworn that he was going to kiss me this morning when he showed me to the guest bedroom. Even though we’d been arguing, he’d taken an imposing step forward, and his eyes flitted to my lips.
There was just something about the way his hazel eyes glinted with a hunger so raw and primal that it sprang me back to the motel room where he’d taken my virginity.
My mind wanders to the passion we shared last night, prompting me to throw my legs over the bed and find the floor beneath my feet. As the nighttime snowfall whooshes against the building and squeals through the tiny cracks around the window, I suddenly feel brave enough to leave the bedroom.
Perhaps I’m enchanted by the memories of the things he did to my body, how he made me feel things I could only dream about. Feeling his hands groping my curves and loving every inch while he was buried deep inside me, far surpassed my wildest expectations of what passion with the alpha could be like.
