“I’ll be right back.” Damon quickly rushed out, following after Sarah who had ran down the hall as if she had fire on her tail. How could he not have known that she been eavesdropping on their conversation. She was standing right at the door! That’s approximately five feet or six feet away from him! Had he been THAT caught up in his conversation that he didn’t realize that her scent had drawn closer towards him? He didn’t even hear her footsteps either! What kind of werewolf does that?
Damon cursed under his breath. Sarah was now a few seconds away from reaching her room and knowing that she was probably rushing in order to shut the door before he could reach her, Damon fastened his steps and pressed his hand against the door the moment after she stepped inside. Sarah’s eyes widened when she realized that her attempt to escape went utterly in vein.
“I w-wasn’t eavesdropping on y-your conversation!” She quickly started to deny before he could even voice his accusations. “I h-heard something s-smash so I j-just went to c-check if a-anything happened.” She glanced at him briefly then turned her eyes back to the floor, her discomfort apparent.
Damon’s eye twitched. If she was present after he mistakenly knocked over the vase then she had probably heard everything that he strictly didn’t want her to hear. Now there was absolutely no need for him to command the girls not to tell her anything about it. He couldn’t help but glare at her bitterly. “So you practically heard everything?”
“Yes!… well… no.” She laced her fingers together in front of her and dropped her head like a child who had just been caught in an act. “I’m s-sorry!”
He sighed, eyeing her. “I hope you don’t think I was apologizing or anything. An Alpha never apologizes.” He informed, sticking out his chest to get his point across. But instead of agreeing with his statement to get herself free of this awkward situation, her body suddenly vibrated softly as a low laugh left her lips. Damon studied her with a scowl. What is this? A form of disrespect? The fact that she laughed was clear evidence that she thought his declaration of being an alpha was ridiculous. But how could she dare to do it in his presence?
Yet despite the fact that he knew that she was possibly belittling his authority, he couldn’t help the little puff of pride that filled his chest. He tilted his head, his eyes staring directly at her lips in silent wonder and adoration. From what he remembered, this was the first time she had smiled in front of him… or rather this was the first time that he was the actual reason for her smile. She didn’t look the least bit happy from the beginning and then after he started treating her like a prisoner, she became even worse. So seeing her laugh like that out of the blue was kinda similar to a sneak attack.
“I’ll take your a-attempt at saying ‘sorry’ a-as your apology since y-you probably won’t s-say it face to f-face… because it’s a-apparently against the code o-of an Alpha,” Sarah said after sobering up from her laughter, her eyelids pulling together a bit as a smile lingered on her lips. But despite the smile, anyone could still tell that she was uncomfortable.
She’d take that as his apology? Damon’s eyebrows furrowed as his lips parted slightly, and he suddenly found himself feeling like a weight had just been lifted off his shoulders. He didn’t exactly like the way she put it, since he himself doesn’t and will never consider that as him apologizing but it was nice to finally be able to breath and not think incessantly about how to fix their sour relationship. But did this mean that she forgave him for the way he treated her? Or was she just acknowledging that as an apology?
He looked down at her with his aloof, calculative gaze and without thinking, his eyes then uncontrollably caved in to the urge to look back down to her lips… just to take a good mental picture of her smiling. As he did so, Sarah’s gaze developed into one of utter surprise but Damon failed to notice in time that without even realizing it, his lips had twitched upwards by a bit as well, working its way into a small, almost unnoticeable smile.
“Are you… s-smiling?” Sarah blinked a few times, her eyes trying to confirm whether she was mistaken or not, but indeed, Damon was smiling… for a reason that was completely unknown to her. Was this the day for strange things to happen? Or was this an ill-omen? At first, she was the one who couldn’t even manage to hold in her laughter TWICE since today –not that she should’ve even laughed in the first place– and now, Damon had smiled, literally smiled! What could’ve possibly bewitched him?
While Sarah was stuck in her thoughts, Damon was busy staring at her lips without taking his eyes off for even a second. Because of that, it took a while to finally process that her lips had returned to normal… and it also took him a while to process the words that left her mouth. And when he did, he immediately dropped his smile from his lips, his eyes going wider than that of Sarah’s. “N-No!” He denied… a little too loudly to be convincing. He looked away from her quickly when he saw her eyes narrow suspiciously. “Who smiled? You must not have seen right.”
“But I definitely–”
“You did not see me smile!” He said, or rather declared. His nostrils were flaring and his hands were clenched at his sides. He was well aware that he did the unthinkable, and that was exactly why he was angry… not at Sarah but at himself. How could he; an alpha King smile? If he had done it for no particular reason then it wouldn’t have been so bad, but he actually smiled because she smiled. Was he finally losing his mind?
Without waiting to find himself an excuse, Damon turned on his heel and prepared to walk out of the room, but his feet suddenly halted and his jaw ticked when he heard her stifle a laugh. “Did you just laugh?” He turned his head to give her a side glare. “… again?”
Sarah’s body instantly straightened up. “N-No.”
Damon didn’t bother to argue further. He stuffed his hand into his pocket and prepared to launch his footsteps again, but just when he took one step, a hand grabbed ahold of his right arm.
“You’re n-not going out a-are you? You should p-probably fix your hair f-first. It’s looks f-funny the way it is.” Sarah mumbled, her eyes looking up at his black hair that was quite a bit too messy for the outdoors. She had split his hair into two sections when Liam was in control. The part that she had already combed was cascading down the side of his face while the other side was pulled together by a rubber band she found earlier in the room.
Damon shook his arm out of her hold and stretched it up to his hair, running his fingers through it. “What the hell did you do to my hair?”
Sarah jumped, her fingers still laced nervously. “Liam w-was the o-one who asked m-”
“Whatever.” Damon turned around in her direction, walked by her then took a seat on the edge of her bed. Sarah’s surprise was evident in the way her jaw slackened but he pretended as if he hadn’t noticed that and shifted until he was comfortable. “Just finish what you started. I have business to attend to later.” He said that with an aloof face, but in fact, he felt strangely content with how things were going. His contentment derived from two things. 1. He had successfully shifted the conversation away from his rather stupid mistake of smiling and 2. He also had the luxury of prolonging their conversation.
“I have s-something I need to do. W-Why don’t y-you let Trixie d-do it?” Sarah forced out, causing a frown to take place on his lips. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to do it. The problem was that Damon was completely unpredictable so she wasn’t sure where this would lead them. What if he complained about her pulling his hair too hard or her not doing it right? What was she to do then? And plus, the situation was already too awkward, doing that would just take it up a notch…. and she definitely didn’t want that.
“Then why’d you do it for Liam?” Damon fired, his eyes rapidly becoming infested with annoyance, then when he saw the look of surprise on her face, he quickly took haste in clarifying his words. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t care about what you and Liam do, but we are practically the same if you think about it… We deserve the same treatment.”
Sarah directed a confused look at him. She wasn’t sure if he was angry because she refused to comb his hair or because she did it for Liam and not him. The latter would mean he was jealous so Sarah quickly rooted out that thought. Damon would never be jealous… not because of her. It just wasn’t possible. Besides, Liam’s his wolf. Who’d be jealous of their wolf? But why was he being so adamant anyway? It would’ve been better if he had just left when she refused, because right now, she had absolutely nothing to say to him. And that made her all the more anxious.
“It’s not about who’s in control.” She mumbled after a while, hoping it’d put him at ease. And it seemed like it worked for a second there but anger soon infiltrated his eyes once again.
“Then prove it.”
“W-What?”
“I said prove it.” Damon repeated. He wasn’t at all sure why he was pushing this thus far, but he just went with the flow anyway. Whatever came to mind, he’d say it and whatever he wanted to do, he’d do it… no matter what it was.
“By combing your hair?”
Damon stood up from his sitting position and walked forward, stopping once he was in front of a confused Sarah. “No…” He trailed off, his hand hesitantly reaching upward in the direction of her face. He moved his hand slowly, not because he didn’t want to touch her but because he wanted her to have the option of turning away…. and knowing her, he actually expected that to happen… but Sarah surprised them both by staying still in place, her eyes looking directly into his own. “You and Liam got dirty when you weren’t in heat.” He reminded as his fingers finally brushed her soft cheeks, eliciting tingles along their skin. “… so I want you to kiss me… now.”