Page 10 of Alpha's Baby Girl
I shook my head. “It’s not personal to you. The pressure of the Games is perhaps getting to me. I’m not at… my top form.” I struggled to find the words. I couldn’t say that all I could think about was another contestant. Wars between she-wolves could be just as catty as male wolves’ fighting was violent. I didn’t want to start that.
“Am I eliminated?” She sounded devastated.
“No, not at all. I just prefer my connections to people to be more genuine than forced.” Maybe I was too painfully honest, but I needed to say what I could to get her to leave. I’d already rejected and humiliated one she-wolf in this hotel; I didn’t need to cause embarrassment for any other. I sighed. “Once again, please find your way back to your room tonight.”
“I can be more—”
“Shiba, please.” I gave her a kind smile, closing my hands over her wrists before she could touch me and bring me back to her. Annoyance shifted in her gaze. She stood up, stalking over to where her dress pooled on the floor, and snatched the length of fabric up. “You have full freedom to explain if any of the other she-wolves notice you returning.”
I could grant her control of the narrative, at least.
“Fine. I just hope the winner of the next trial knows what to expect. Goodnight, Fenrys.”
Then she walked out, slamming the door behind her. I fell back onto my bed, annoyed and frustrated with myself, and with Thalia for even entering the Games and stopping me from fulfilling my duty. Too overwhelmed by Shiba’s floral perfume's lingering scent, I went to the hotel gardens outside. The storm had let up some hours ago, leaving only the scent of rain in the air and dewy grass.
There was a lone bench in a white pergola at the furthest corner of the garden. Steps led down to another space with a fountain and patio area for outdoor events, but this one was quieter, grassier, less interrupted. It was more of a private terrace than anything.
But there was someone already on the bench, beating me to the top spot for some solitude. The hotel lights cast shadows over her face as she looked skyward, her eyes closed.
Thalia’s face was slack in quiet peace. No matter how much my wolf demanded we approach, I didn't want to interrupt her. I took a step back. The stone-littered path crunched beneath my foot, and her eyes flew open, finding me in the darkness. The only illumination was the hotel lights behind us. The memory of her wrist clasped in my fingers flashed through my mind, the desire that had made her eyelashes flutter. She had wanted me.
“Fenrys?” she asked.
“I didn’t want to intrude,” I said. “I was about to go back inside.”
“Shouldn’t you be with—”
“Yeah,” I said, cutting her off. “But I dismissed her. I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t
feeling like making her the experiment of Graham’s Games.”
“I thought the Games were for your benefit,” she muttered. When I said nothing, she turned to look at me. So, at the end of the Games will you find ways to privately humiliate every she-wolf here? You’ve already got me on that list, now Shiba.”
“You hold no liking for her; don’t pretend you'll feel sorry for her. Every she-wolf knew what she was signing up for when she agreed to the Mating Games. Rejection, in a more casual sense, is inevitable.”
“I feel sorry for any woman you push away if you do it as unkindly as you did to
me.” Bitterness coated her tone.
I paused at that. I glanced at the empty bench space beside her. “Can I sit?”
“Isn’t this your hotel? You can be wherever you please.”
“Actually, no, I don’t own it. This is owned by the town council. Nobody’s bought them out yet.”
“Huh,” she said. “Places in Silverlake Valley always seem to be in some rich asshole’s back pocket.”
“Not this rich asshole,” I answered, aiming for a light joking tone but she just huffed a laugh at me.
“Why did you want to kiss me?” she asked quietly after silence settled on us for a few moments. “Twice. Was it… I don’t know, a wolf thing?”
I wasn’t expecting her to be so open and ask that straight away.
“No, it was a Fenrys thing,” I told her. “I wanted to.” It was a combination of both things, really. I’d gone to apologize and thinking of kissing her was the next thing I’d done. I hesitated and glanced at her. “Why didn’t you want to kiss me? Isn’t the point of entering these Games to get closer to me?” I laughed at myself. “God, that sounds entitled, doesn’t it?”
Her eyes shone with a defiant fire in the dark, the golden burn in them bright. “Not every woman thinks about kissing you every second of the day.”
“No, but you did in the hallway,” I said. “If we hadn’t been interrupted…”
