Why won’t he just leave me alone?! I think irritably. Isn’t it enough that he rejected me in the past? Is this his way of reiterating that he’s the powerful Alpha of the Snehvolk Pack, and he can do whatever he wants? It isn’t fair!
Chapter 11 - Elias
Witnessing Aurora flee through the back door gives me dreadful flashbacks of the other night when she tried to run from me and escape the motel room.
I shake my head in disbelief, unsure of what goes on in her mind and what prompts her to escape at every turn.
In hindsight, the night I went to her cabin to speak to her would have probably ended in my discovering that she was my fated mate, no matter what she did. The moment I knew that, I would have decided on the spot that she wouldn’t become the offering to the demon as a sacrifice in exchange for the pack’s safety.
Still, her escape that night was justified, and I understand that she probably heard the whisperings of the others through the grapevine that left a bitter taste on her tongue. She had every right to run away when she suspected that she would become the sacrifice.
But her fleeing every time she should be using her voice is unbelievable. The only time she ever speaks to me is if she’s being defensive, even arrogant enough to wrongfully accuse me of things I’m not guilty of. Like that night when I saved her, or when I was about to kiss her the next morning after bringing her back home.
All my efforts seem to be in vain, and I’m still in the dark about what goes on in her mind. For years, she stayed out of my sight, only visiting my dreams as an apparition of my fated mate who never showed her face to me.
Was it all because of that night in the mountains?
I guess I’ll never know. Not when she refuses to speak to me and flees every chance she gets.
Huffing my frustration, another effort goes down the drain when I toss the pan and ladle into the kitchen sink and rush out after Aurora. She steps out onto the blanket of snow, hugging her chest with both arms as if she’s cold and staring out ahead of her as if deliberating her next move.
“Aurora…where are you going?” I call out, my stern voice cutting through the snowfall as I follow her.
When she doesn’t immediately reply, I take longer strides through the garden that appears diamond-encrusted with the snow caught on every leaf and petal and reach out to touch her shoulder, startling her into a fearful gasp as she spins around to face me.
“Are you running away again?!” I snap, every syllable cutting through her like icicles that make her quiver. “Where will you go, huh? Don’t you know it’s dangerous out there?!”
Aurora lifts her doe eyes at me, tender and fearful as her whole body trembles.
“I—I wasn’t…” Her modest voice tapers off as she hugs herself tighter, then glances at the house. “I just needed some fresh air.”
“Fresh air?!” I bleat, a scoff following my question like the very air in my lungs. I stare down at her through a narrowed glare, my chest heaving with uncontrollable, disbelieving breaths. “I just made breakfast for you, Aurora. I don’t—”
“Did I ask you to do that?!” she throws back accusingly, lifting a defiant chin that sets my pulse alight.
“Will you shut up and listen to me for once?! Instead of running off every chance you get?!”
Aurora presses her lips into a firm line of resistance despite the twinkle in her eyes.
Grunting under my breath, it’s when I take a step forward that I see a flash of something purely vulnerable in her eyes.
“I didn’t make breakfast for you because I wanted anything from you,” I sigh, the look in her eyes so soft and innocent that it calls out to my inner wolf. Despite my anger, I’m forced to tread carefully when I realize that she’s probably overthinking everything, and that’s why she believes I’d want something in return for an ordinary act of kindness.
I have to get to the bottom of this and find out what’s going through her head. She won’t let me in, clinging to walls that won’t even allow her wolf to recognize me as its mate.
“I just thought I’d do something nice for you,” I continue, lowering my voice so I don’t scare her. The air between us is as dense as the thick snowfall on the ground, causing an unsettling shiver to cross my spine despite my natural ability to combat the cold conditions. “I don’t want anything from you, Aurora. Why won’t you let me care for you?”
Aurora stares at me, her eyelids fluttering fervently as she blinks before twirling and giving me her back. There’s a brief moment in which I marvel at her graceful movement, but that moment of awe is lost when she scoffs.
“Care?” she scoffs again. “No one has ever cared about me…”
Shaking my head slowly, I reach out toward her, my inner wolf wanting nothing more than to console her. But I retract my hand. Her vulnerability is fragile, and I can’t risk frightening her again lest she doesn’t speak. And I need to know why she holds up this wall between us.
“That can’t be true, Aurora. You must have many who care about you in this pack,” I press gently.
She shakes her head tentatively, refusing to look my way. I catch the small sniffle she makes, and I’m not sure if it’s because she’s emotional or if she’s cold. The latter may be true. Unlike the other werewolves, Aurora’s wolf is weaker; that’s why she’s the lowest in the pack’s hierarchy. And I have yet to see her become vulnerable; she has always been fighting to defend herself ever since I rescued her in the forest.
“No one has ever cared about me since Grandmother died…” Her voice is lower than I’ve ever heard it, unguarded and so meek that my inner wolf feels a pang of sadness that makes me yearn to reach out and fold her into my warm embrace that will soothe the cold from her bones and the pain in her voice.
