Page 40 of Violet Moon
Just the thought sounded exhausting.Her bones ached and all she wanted to do was sleep before heading home.Sera shook her head.“Thanks, but I’ll pass.”
“Have a good rest, then,” Wilma offered as she walked past.
“I’ll try.”
She could do this.It would be even more strange to share a room with someone else, no matter how much she loved her pack.This was nothing.She’d done it every month for years.
Sera huffed out a breath, opened the door, and stepped inside.She felt like a coiled up spring.
Parisa slid her arm off her face.“I thought that was you,” she said with a yawn.
Sera melted.She was so cute when she smiled.
Parisa scooted over, making more room for her.“I promise not to try and hog it all like last time,” she added with a chuckle.She yawned again and started rolling over onto her side, her back towards Sera.“I’m exhausted.How about you?”
“About the same.”
“These full moon nights are taking more out of me than they used to.Remember what it used to be like?”
Sera took several hesitant steps towards the bed.“Yeah, when we could run for two nights, come back, and spend the day with a bottle of whiskey and our Crooked Creek friends?”
“Clyde could really drink back then.So could we.”Parisa peeked over her shoulder.“Are you going to sleep or stand?”
“Sleep.”Sera inched towards the bed and finally sat down on the edge.She glanced at Parisa beside her, her thick, brown hair spilling across her pillow, her shoulder rising and falling with every breath.
Exhaustion tugged at Sera’s eyelids.Her head dipped as her neck relaxed on its own.With her arms and legs as stiff as boards, she lay down on the bed, hanging onto the edge.Behind her, she heard sheets rustling and felt the bed dip.
Parisa poked her between her shoulders.Startled, Sera nearly fell off the bed.
“Do you ever feel like you blink and ten years go by?”
“Sometimes,” Sera squeaked.Her back tingled where Parisa had touched her, her skin radiating warmth with her so near.
“Some humans long for these lengthened lifetimes, and yet, here I am with mine, spending it doing the same things every day.”
Sera couldn’t think of anything to say, but as the silence stretched on, she needed to fill it, if only to distract from the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears.“Routines can be a good thing.”
“Don’t you ever want to do something more daring?”
“Like what?”
Sera tensed as Parisa’s fingertips skimmed along her arm, and then her hand was gone.“Like nothing I can share out loud.”
The bed dipped behind her again as Parisa moved, then she felt her Alpha’s back along her own.“Rest well,azizam.”
“You, too, Pari,” Sera managed to say.
She shut her eyes and focused on calming her own heartbeat, knowing Parisa could sense it.The only thing that helped was the sound of Parisa’s steady breaths behind her.The more she listened to the sound, the easier it was to calm her breathing and slow her racing heart.As Parisa drifted off to sleep, Sera matched her breathing to hers and soon the exhaustion she felt in her muscles won and she fell asleep.
When Sera woke up, it was dark outside and she was on her back with a heavy weight on her arm.Panic gripped her in the darkness as she wondered what was holding her down, but as her rational mind awoke, too, she realized it was just Parisa.
Then, another type of panic settled in.Sera clenched the hand that wasn’t currently wrapped around Parisa’s shoulder, digging her fingernails into her palm.Parisa smelled like the forest and, somehow, like the rose water she used in the bakery.She was too close for Sera to handle, but also not close enough.
Sera longed for more.She wanted to nuzzle into Parisa’s soft hair and press a kiss to the top of her head.She wanted to curl her arm around her and pull her closer.She wanted to kiss her.She pictured it so clearly in her mind.They’d start out innocently enough, but it would melt into more as Parisa relaxed against her in the darkness.
She stopped herself.She’d promised not to let those feelings overtake her.She thought of anything else — the pack, the forest, favorite customers at the bakery — until she’d buried those thoughts like everything else she didn’t want to deal with.It worked well enough for Sera to function again.
She weighed her options.She could continue to lay here until Parisa woke up or she could carefully pull her arm away and slip back out of the room.There was a clear correct choice, given the fact that her feelings for her Alpha were threatening to take hold again.She needed to leave.
