~Alaya
I take a step toward the door.
“Nope.”
I turn back around to the comforts of my room. This has been an ongoing process for the past twenty minutes. Not once have I managed to convince myself to step out of this room and face whatever the morning has in store for me. Both Asher and Sinful’s eyes are ones I don’t want to look into today.
I’m mortified. Painfully, blatantly mortified. So much so, I’ve contemplated crawling back into my bed to spend the rest of the day wallowing in my own self pity.
How could I kiss him? How could I let Asher see?
Taking a deep breath, I mutter, “get it together Alaya, you have a job to do.”
This time my hand actually touches the door before I stumble back away from it, cursing myself. After last night, I wandered straight back into my room, fell face first into my pillow, and screamed. Never have I ever kissed someone who I probably shouldn’t, only to be caught by the one person who will hold against me.
It takes me another couple minutes to convince myself out the door. The moment I swing it open, Asher is standing right there, arms cross over his chest, finger tapping impatiently against his bicep.
“Are you done yet?” he questions flatly, that bored look on his face having taken up permanent residence.
I’ve decided I hate that one more than I hate the blank look.
“What are you doing outside my bedroom?” I growl lowly, looking down the hallway to see if anyone was listening. Asher has proven he likes to loiter around people’s personal spaces waiting for the perfect moment to jump in. I want to bring it up, but I decide I want to keep it to myself, to divert away from the subject of last night.
“I want waiting for you,” he informs me, “we have something important to do today. It involves leaving this estate, so I suggest changing-”
I slam the door in his face, not even requiring an answer. I’m sure I’ll get one eventually.
And if I can get away from Sinful for a day, I’m all for it.
***
Sinful had been told we were heading out to the perimeter of his territory, where Asher would be giving me a tour. At this point, I’m convinced that is what we are going to do, as Asher hasn’t uttered a word to me about what is really happening. Instead, we sit in a car, everyone silent, including the driver.
Asher can’t seriously think I’m not about to question him, as we drive steadily along a road sloping the mountain.
“What have you been doing these past few days, while I’ve been around Sinful?” I question, trying to make it sound as innocent as possible with the driver in the front seat. This entire plan will be ruined if he so much as hears a word about it, and sends the information back to Sinful.
Asher sighs deeply. “I’ve been busy.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I’ve been busy with things that will hardly interest you, or quite frankly, are any of your business,” he says smoothly, not looking at me once.
My eyes narrow on him. The moonlit glow across his face makes him look all the more serious, and all the more refined. It’s such a shame that his natural beauty has to be wasted, since all he seems to care about is making sure everything with this plan is perfect. Sure, it’s important, but sometimes I wish he would lose the tension in his shoulders for a moment.
“What like?” I press.
He doesn’t answer, which call for a statement that will surely get a reaction out of him. Something to keep my entertained during this car ride.
“Is a female taking up all your time?” I ask coyly.
“Is a male taking up all your time, Alaya?” He replies back shortly. I’m taken aback by that. As calm as his expression may be, there’s a storm in those golden eyes, like an icy cold blizzard that shows no signs of letting up.
It’s impossible to tell whether he teasing me, or he’s genuinely angry.
“I’m doing what I must,” I tell him, choosing my words wisely considering the driver in the front seat.
“It’s only been a few days. Is his tricks working on you already?” Asher replies. How can he express so little emotion in his voice? It’s starting to get on my nerves how he presents his words in such a way where I have no idea what they mean, or how he feels about them. One of these days I’m going to slap the truth out of him.
“Him and I have a clear connection, Alpha. I apologise if you don’t understand-”
His head turns sharply toward me at that moment.
“You are playing a dark and dangerous game. Sinful is not like anyone else you will ever be with, might I warn you. He will take your heart, worship it, before he completely destroys it, leaving you with nothing,” Asher tells me, and for the first time, real emotion. A mild mixture of distress, or regret.
I exhale slowly, attempting to not make a big deal out it. For an unknown reason, I relish in those flicker of emotions he likes to keep hidden from me.
“I’m just doing what I have been told to do,” I growl, completely disregarding the driver.
“Perhaps not in such a way as to kiss him so passionately in the middle of his room like that,” Asher snaps, all so suddenly, knocking the wind out of me. “If you would like any kind of gratification, Alaya, then by all means, I’m open to your advances.”
My mouth falls open without my consent.
He the golden eyed Alpha stares directly at this point. There is no hint of a smile, or sarcasm. Nothing to make sense of the words he just said. When I consider them further, I begin to get mad.
“You’re trying to tell me that I should trust you in that way over Sinful?” I question in disbelief.
“You sound angry. All I’m doing is trying to protect your heart, is that such a terrible thing?” He asks, his eyebrow quirking up slightly. “You have been keeping him distracted, and we have gotten a lot of work done over these past few days, and I thank you for that. I’m saying it would best to at least keep space in that department, for your own safety.”
Once again, Asher has managed to destroy any semblance of understanding, leaving me utterly confused. One moment he is the cold Alpha, and the next, he’s trying to help me? It hardly makes sense.
“I’m going to make is clear that I would never come to you for… those reasons. How am I supposed to get pleasure from someone who is essentially as cold as ice?’ I say, trying to make my words have more weight to them than they currently do.
“You would be surprised,” he replies.
Rolling my eyes, I lean back against my seat, and attempt to think. At this point, I don’t know what to think about Asher. For now, I’m going to ignore him until something make sense in my mind.
“Come on, kiss me.”
Slowly, I turn my head back to him, wondering if I heard him right. Did he seriously just tell me to kiss him, or am I having a terrible hallucination?
I blink a few times. “What did you say?”
“I said kiss me,” he repeats, making me flinch back a little. With the little emotion he likes to express, I have no idea whether he is being serious or not. He won’t laugh, he won’t smile at all, so I’m left gaping at him while I wait for an explanation to this.
He seems to notice my hesitation. “What’s the difference between Sinful and I?”
“Is that what this is about. What, are you jealous?” I question, a little bit of anger flaring in my voice. Honestly, I can’t imagine why he would have reason to be. He spent three years luring me to be killed, resurrected, then sent to do a job that I’m clearly failing at. “Or do you just hate me?”
“It’s not hate that I feel,” is all he says. Typical, short answer, not letting me know what he is feeling at all.
Before I could properly express what I’m feeling, the car veers to pull over on the side of the road. At that moment, I realise Asher had made a hand movement. Looking out the window for a reason why, I see we have reached the end of Sinful’s territory. The reason I know this, is because the road cuts to an end, like Asher had warned me it would do earlier.
In the roads place, is a wall of thick pine trees, that loom ominously over the car.
“Everyone out,” Asher mutters. I follow his instructions, which the driver does too. The night around us is cooler around the edge of the territory, now that we are away from any possible force of magic.
I watch Asher speak lowly to the driver in the headlights of the car. What are they speaking about? I assume it has to do with what he inevitably overheard.
Just as I was about to turn my gaze away, I witness Asher’s hands come up to swiftly snap the neck of our driver.
I scream.
As the body slumps against the bonnet, then to the ground, Asher looks over at me, placing his finger against his lips. In utter disbelief, I only watch him, as he walks toward me.
“Beyond that line of trees is Time’s territory, another immortal. The lands have been unoccupied for the thousands of years he has been missing. It will give us the perfect place to speak alone,” Asher say calmly, as if he hadn’t just ended someone’s life right in front of me.
Without another word, he walks toward the forest, leaving me with no other choice but to follow.