~Alaya
I couldn’t do anything in the wake of his gaze. I just sat there, petrified.
It was his gaze that kept me pinned, as he drags it over my entire body. This isn’t the cold Alpha I’ve dealt with before. He has a predators unwavering attention, almost animalistic, as he comes to stand in front of me, before he kneels down. Through his vivid golden eyes, he gives nothing away that he knows me. Nothing.
I’m just a stranger. A mortal. Like him, but I’m no Alpha.
“What are we going to do with you?” He questions coyly, tilting his head to the side. It’s a game. A mental game. He’s messing with me, Ben and Abby. I keep to the plan, though, seeming scared – which comes naturally – innocent and intimidated. My mind is still in a state of shock from Asher’s unspoken plan that is unfolding in front of me. That’s now unfolding right in front of me in a way I never expected.
He crouches down in front of me. I tremble slightly, as he raises his hand up to the shirt of my dress, close to my knee. He plays with the satin, toying with it. “Are runaway bride, huh? Sinful will love you.”
“You can’t take her to Sinful,” Abby insists, as if she didn’t know Ben was calling for help moments before. “He will kill her.”
“Oh don’t worry, he will do a lot more than that,” Asher replies, standing swiftly up again.
His hand comes out, offering it to me. Within his gaze, I hear a silent order. He’s hardly acknowledging me in other ways, not telling me his name, or asking for mine. It’s his way to belittle me, letting everyone in the room know that he’s the Alpha, and he makes the commands. Trying to make it seem as though I’m completely at his mercy, I take his hand, letting him help me to my feet.
“I’m going to take this girl where she belongs,” Asher says, while I keep my mouth. “Thank you for reporting her in, we will have a reward on the way for your service.”
The sound of that disgusted me. These people knew what they would get in return for reporting me. They never actually cared, nor wanted to help me in any sense. Are all immortals like this? If so, then this isn’t going to be fun.
Neither Abby nor Ben said another word. Instead, the watched silently, as Asher lead me out their front door, closing it behind him.
“Thank you for explaining the plan to me,” I snap, the moment I knew they couldn’t hear me no more. Asher kept his hand in mine, but the cold, detached feelings of his glove took away the entire feeling to it. At this point, he’s just dragging me toward a car parked on the curb, right behind their fence. The exact car I assume is going to take me to Sinful.
“It was better you didn’t know.”
How convenient. “How so?”
Asher opens the car door for me, letting me shuffle in, trying to balance myself and stuff the entirety of my dress skirt into the vehicle. He follows after, closing the door before the car pulls off onto the road straight away. The driver is concealed, but I take little notice of them. Surely they are an immortal.
“Like I said, the least you know, the better. Aspen called me manipulative? You haven’t met Sinful yet. He may not be able to fully read your thoughts, but he will get them out in his own special ways,” Asher tells me, looking directly out the window rather than at me.
“Is he like you?” I question.
Asher casts his gaze over at me fully this time. It’s straightforward and slightly irritated. “Like me?”
“Constantly on edge as if you’re sitting on a secret? Why can’t you just tell me? I’m stronger than you think, and Sinful isn’t going to get anything out of my head, so please, for my peace of mind, just tell me why you’re like… you?”
Asher’s jaw clenched, and I know I’ve hit a nerve. He seems to be refusing to talk, so I match him stubbornness, looking out the window. We have driven out of the small village, heading out toward the mountains. The road is dark, but the moon is so bright, it illuminates the road with a dull glow, and also the trees that follow is out of civilisation. The mountain creeps up on us with every metre, my hands quivering on my lap in response. He’s up there. Somewhere.
“You know what,” I say after awhile, “you need a mate.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Because out of all the people to get into your soul to find out everything about you, it’s your mate. I’m pretty sure that you haven’t found her, so instead of being such a huge dickhead, you should make an effort to find her,” I snap, before I turn my gaze from him and look back out the window.
I hear him sigh. It’s not out of irritation, this time, but something unfamiliar I can’t put my finger on.
“As far as I’m aware, you’re not my mate. We may not have touched, but let’s not jeopardize this mission in case…”
I lower my hand.
“Which mean I would prefer to not tell you everything about me. If you would like to try find out, by all means, good luck. Although I’m sure you wouldn’t want someone you don’t trust trying to find out everything about you,” Asher replies, and I draw my gaze back to him.
He leans toward me a little, right across the middle seat. It’s the first time he’s given me his direct attention like this when it wasn’t him pretending in front of immortals. His scent invaded my senses. That familiar jasmine.
“Would you like your secrets revealed? Like why you hated your work?” He questions, a fire to the edge of his gaze.
I narrow my eyes on him, but I don’t say a word.
“Or how your lost your virginity?”
I clench my jaw at him, seeing his game, but not knowing how to put a stop to it. Not when I know so little about how much he knows.
“Or how your father died?”
I nearly slapped him. I would have, if he wasn’t an Alpha is taking me to someone people describe as the devil. Instead, I cram as much hate into my state as possible, keeping my hands knitted together on my lap. I’m not giving him the satisfaction of protesting.
“You just don’t make sense to me,” I mutter.
“Believe it or not, Alaya, I’m protecting you.”
We didn’t talk for the rest of the drive. I killed over what he had said, trying to make sense of it. Protect me? Asher has done little to gain my trust, and he definitely doesn’t care about that, but to say he is protecting me by not sharing his secrets has completely perplexed me.
The drive up the mountain was step. My head ached by the time we reached the top, as we curled around it, reaching snow that dusted the entire peak. Sinful lives at the top, looking over his territory, as well as others. That’s what Asher has said to me, anyway. I listen keenly to his instructions. Even though he’s proven himself as completely untrustworthy and also a pain in the side, he knows this place well.
“You’ll need to be blindfolded. We want Sinful to see you as his prisoner at first, not an equal. That way, he will want to play,” Asher tells me, as the road turns from gravel to asphalt, that sounds smooth under the car.
On this side of the mountain, everything is shadowed. I can’t see much, aside from snow sitting pretty on the curb. Everything is still here, unmoving as if a breeze doesn’t exist up here.
“He’s definitely stuffed up,” I murmur.
“Quite. I just want to say, as a final warning, to not fall for it. Not fall for him. He may play with you, making you feel things that aren’t real. Just please, don’t fall in love with him.”
I’m taken aback by that. I heard a million times he’s manipulative, but no one has ever told me not to fall in love with. I’ve explained to Asher that I’m strong, so I decide I’ve heard enough warnings about this Sinful guy, that I want to mess around a little myself.
“What if want to? What if I want to have a little fun while I’m here, if I’m supposed to be distracting him?”
Asher’s expression instantly darkened.
“You can’t joke about that,” he says sternly, “your decisions are your own, but I don’t suggest attempting to win Sinful’s heart. You won’t get it, I’m afraid.”
I didn’t say no more. At that moment, as he takes a blindfold to wrap around my eyes, I’m sure he’s glad.
I’m lead out of the car and inside a building. Everything is extremely disorienting, hearing, feeling, but never seeing. Asher keeps a hold of my arm, dragging me along beside him, his steps so quick I stumble trying to keep up. He hasn’t told me where he is taking me, but I assume it’s straight to Sinful.
What I’ve noticed, as my heels sink into plush carpet, that this place smells distinctly of a perfumed spice, that consumes my senses. I’ll forever remember that.
I’m brought to my knees all of a sudden, Asher demanding it in my ear, but loud enough for everyone else in the room, if there are any, to hear.
“Here’s the mortal,” Asher says gruffly, finally letting me go. All my senses tingle, trying to make sense of where I might be. In front of Sinful, I assume. I hope he can’t hear how fast my heart beats. The fright Asher told me to act is completely real, as I tremble where I kneel, at both Sinful and Asher’s mercy.
Even, light steps approach, my hearing heightened without my sight. Delicate fingers are on my chin, no gloves there, as they tilt my head up.
“The blindfold,” a strange voice murmurs, “take it off the poor girl.”
It’s Sinful. There’s no doubt in my mind that I’m kneeling in front of him, hearing his voice for the first time. It’s hardly as melodic as Asher’s, but it’s attempting warmth, the accent unfamiliar as it is thick.
It’s Asher’s gloved fingers that undo the blindfold from my head. The moment it falls from my face, I look up, trying to adjust my eyes to the artificial lighting in here. It takes a moment of blinking. Luckily, he lets me adjust, seeing his face for the first time. Most importantly, his eyes.
He has the strangest eyes I’ve seen, not including Asher’s golden ones, and Destiny’s rose ones. His are lavender, like a flower picked straight from the ground. They are so light and glimmering, no sign of the devil that has been explained to me.
“A runaway bride. I apologise for what you have been through, Asher here doesn’t have many feelings,” lavender eyes tells me.
When I glance at Asher, he makes no move to correct him.
“Welcome to my residence,” he continues, holding his hand out. “I typically go by Sinful.”