*Danika*
Slow and steady we swirled to the slow music with my head nestled on his left wide shoulder while feeling the resounding beat of his heart against my body. This feels so good to be true, I wish this moment never comes to an end. I was getting carried away and it wasn’t good for my mental health. This is all false and soon it would come crashing down on me. Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to move away. I just wanted to be his pillar after what he shared with him. If only he knows how much that milestone meant to me.
“You are doing well for someone I didn’t envision could move a limp,” he murmured, and my eyes that had been closed gradually opened, but I didn’t swerve.
“I try,” I cooed back to him. “Back in my former pack, I used to practice secretly in my room. During the festivals, I imagined someone might want to ask this poor girl for a dance so I prepared on time so I don’t flop in that area,” I confided in him, for the first feeling free to share my worst fears with him.
Unlike before, he didn’t cringe away or act like my memory reminded him of who I truly was. Instead, his hand tightened around me, only rending away a little to lay a slight kiss on my shoulder. The act caused ripples of blood to shoot through my spine. I flattened against him, not allowing him any space.
“Don’t worry, you are safe now,” he assured me, still in a tranquil voice.
“Am I?” I couldn’t help but ask. This is all a moment thing, very soon we would go back to our realities, a reminder that this wasn’t a movie and then I would be left alone in my bed, waiting in grave anticipation for the Luna ceremony which was drawing near with each passing day. I have been managing to escape its planning but that doesn’t mean that every day, I won’t have to stand and endure watching him accept Paisley as the woman to be by his side, and later that night, I will still endure another round of pain while he marks her as his.
The thought twisted my guts and without meaning to, I took a step back from him, looking down at our feet. This is wrong. Maybe I am the one complicating issues by allowing him to lead me on. The bond is bound to drag us close, but as a person, I have to fight to keep him at bay if by any means I want to remain sane.
“Are you okay?” he questioned, his index finger finding my chin and lifting it to meet his perplexed eyes.
I nodded, sniffing back tears that had piled up. “I am just thinki–thinking how you are going to leave me for her. By Gad, I’m striving so hard to believe I can take it but every day I come to comprehend that I don’t think I can. It’s too much for me to bear, especially, when you are this close to me.” A tear managed to fight its way out and fell through.
He huffed and took my hand, leading me back to the couch. I shook my head, annoyed at myself for bringing an end to such a fantastic moment with my pathetic behavior. It’s not often I get to see this side of him and now that I have, I couldn’t make it last. “Don’t mind my behavior, let’s keep dancing…” I protested, tugging my hand free from his.
“It’s fine. I was getting tired of dancing anyway. Come here.” He tugged me slightly and I fell back on his lap. I blushed and made to stand but he held me down, his blazing blues looking up to meet my watery ones. To add to my mortification, he lifted his hand and wiped the tears from my eyes. “You are too beautiful to shed a tear,” he whispered.
I snickered and looked away shyly. “It’s weird coming from you,” I deadpanned, meaning it. I think I preferred the cold and distant Alonso to this gentle one. I was getting used to that one, unlike the way I am feeling presently with this one.
“What? You think I’m not capable of emotions?” he asked in a cheeky way, eliciting more giggles from me. I ducked my head back when he reached to tug my hair free.
“What did you do that for?” I quizzed with a narrowed eye at him.
“I like it when your hair is free and cascading down your body like this… it reminds me of the very day I met you,” he confessed, my laughter ceasing as I recollected the very day. It was supposed to be my death day. I was so ready for it. Ready to bring an end to all my suffering, my dejection, and failures. Then he came and saved me.
“I remember too,” I told him, feeling emotional once more. “You saved me.”
“Maybe. Or maybe not.”
I crooked my brow. “What do you mean by maybe not?”
He bobbed his head, looking down at the table, his face going back to a grimace. “I don’t know, honestly. Maybe time would tell. All I know is that things might not work out between us, but believe me when I say you mean a lot to me and I will do everything to make you comfortable.”
His words broke my heart, something unfamiliar gnawing inside me that he was trying to tell me something. I couldn’t force it out of him yet I didn’t want to be drowned in another yard of endless curiosity so I asked. “What’s the color of your wolf?”
He snapped his face to mine in bewilderment. “My wolf?”
“Mmm…” I sniffed and wiped away the tears that stained my cheeks with a smile. “I want to know the color of your wolf or maybe even see you in your wolf form. I have imagined it several times in my head and it won’t go away.”
“Okay. I have a black wolf with piercing emerald green eyes. I mostly transform in the night when everyone is deep in sleep or very early in the morning before anyone is awake.”
“Wow,” I muttered, enthused with my findings, at the same time realizing he and Alfred have the same color of wolves.
“I see you most times when you get back from your training.”
I bucked back, my hand to his shoulders in awe. “That’s a lie… You!” with a wide eye.
“Mmm…” he hummed, his lips pulled aside in a rugged smirk. “I just didn’t want to intrude.”
“What other things do you know about me?” I asked, still in a daze.
“I know several things about you. I know that you sneak off to the woods with my brother. Though he caught the last guard I asked to follow you… and before you bite me it’s for your safety.”
“You are a clown, do you know that?! You are stalking me?” I squealed, batting his shoulders which he dodged, my hands swapping a part of him.
“I’m not stalking you, just making sure my mate is safe. I know he came to the hospital today and left in anger. What I don’t know is what you must have said to make him so angry.”
My countenance fell, my thought going to Alfred. I wonder what he was doing now. He hasn’t called or linked me. I will have to try to talk to him when I get home.
“You want to talk to him,” he told me, apparently having read my thoughts. “Why are you bothered about him?” he asked, his tone flat which means he isn’t angry, simply inquiring.
“Alfred is my friend. You don’t have to worry about me and him. I asked him a question which might have bothered him even though I don’t know why it did.” I finished with a huff, “Now I’m reminded he might still be angry with me.”
“Whatever it is between you, I hope you stay careful around him. I have my reasons for telling you,” he intoned, silently massaging my forearm.
“That is the problem. I need answers, not more puzzles… Okay, the thing is I have been worried lately about discovering my other powers. I desire to know who I am so I can know what I’m capable of. I hate being in the dark.” I eyed him, thinking if I should tell him what I had asked Alfred. I exhaled and went on. Who knows, he might give me answers. “I asked him what his other power was and-and he got pissed. I don’t know why. I had asked him because as my friend I felt he would share his experience of what to expect and how it feels. Not expecting him to get angry…” I trailed off, relaxing back into him.
He cradled me like a baby, lowering his head to mine. “That’s strange. The truth is that neither of us knows what we are, and didn’t bother asking. I will advise you not to ask him again. When the time comes for you to discover your powers, you surely will. It comes naturally.”
“Really? Does it feel like the first time we transform into our wolf?” My interest was piqued.
He exhaled further and looked away, his visage stained, his lip pulsing in a straight line just the way Alfred did when I asked him earlier today.
“Why don’t we do something else to distract you from your curiosity, huh?” he asserted and before I would protest, his lips came crashing on mine, dissolving away every objection and nulling my brains.
…