Page 8 of Alpha's Baby Girl
Who was this man, so different from the boy who had told me three years ago that I was a fool to think he could want me? Doubt weighed in my chest. I could imagine the feel of his mouth, how it may have been ravenous and lustful, portraying the look in his eyes, of how he’d felt pressed up against me, all hard lines of muscle, flashed in my mind, making me flush both from that and the wine.
I swayed a little.
Fenrys’s hands lifted to steady me, as if he would approach and support me.
“Easy there,” he laughed. Then he frowned down at his hand, hovering between us, as if it had been all too natural to reach out for me. It reminded me of how instinctive it had been to steady me the first day we’d met.
I wanted to ask him if he remembered that day by the noticeboard—my dropped phone, and the spell we’d been under. I wanted to ask if he’d truly feltnothing.
I wouldn’t let him have control over me like that again. Straightening up, I regained my balance. He couldn’t come in here with his kisses that took my breath away, and his soft brown eyes that cut through me as if he could unpeel every thought I had, as if they could strip me bare without him ever touching me.
I cleared my throat. “Don’t you have a future Luna to return to? Behind closed doors, she’s pretty confident she’ll be the one to win.”
Fenrys slid his hands into his pockets, shrugging. “Who says I want her?” His gaze bore into me, full of intent. Orwasit? Was I seeing what I wanted to see? Or what the lovesick eighteen-year-old me from years ago ached to see.
I had to win the next trial. Ihadto get to know him more without the pressure of anyone else there. Each victor got to have a night with Fenrys after winning, and I would need that night to exact my revenge without interruption. He intrigued me; heconfusedme.
“Fenrys—”
“I’ve missed the way you say my name,” he said, his voice a deep rumble. I closed my eyes, trying to remember why I was there when I wanted nothing more than to kiss him. “You say it with such conviction. Everyone else dances around it, like they’re unsure whether to call me by my name, if they’re allowed to, because of my position in the pack. You say it like you know it belongs on your tongue.”
My cheeks warmed even as I gathered my wits. I forced my voice to be formal. He couldn’t decide when he would and wouldn’t hold me at arm’s length. “Yes, well—I respect you and would always give the same respect to anyone.”
“So, you’re saying I’m not special?” He gave me a lazy, self-satisfied grin. But a furrow between his brows gave him away. He was just as unsure of where we stood as I was.
I wanted to shove him, to tell him I gave him the chance to be special once, and he tore it up in front of me. I could almost see it: gripping the front of his jacket, showing him, exactly, who I’d become. A girl no longer—a woman who’d honed her own body to become her best asset. Training, studying, learning. I’d spent the past three years working on myself. I was smart; I knew this town inside out thanks to a college research paper I’d done on Silverlake Valley’s history. Had I genuinely wanted to be his Luna, I would have been the best damn one. Half the town knew me by name. While the townspeople who found out about Fenrys’s rejection of me, most of them pitied me. Pity had been something I’d hated at first but then I found out it made people listen a little more. It had brought me out of my shell after those first painful few months.
I took a step towards Fenrys, delighted at the darkening look in his eyes. A male wanting to rise to a challenge but tampering himself down. A manlikingthe challenge. “Perhaps it’s time for you to prove thatImight be the special one,” I said. “If you’ll excuse me,Alpha, I have a meal to enjoy and wine to drink.”
As I walked past him, he caught my wrist, stopping me. His face was so close to mine. “Call me that again.” His eyes were blown wide. I knew exactly what I’d been doing, and perhaps it was cruel to play on his title like that, but I knew it would work.
“Maybe you can ask Shiba,” I purred, stalking away.
I wondered if his kisses would taste like the richest liquor, but my own revenge on him would taste even better. I recalled that embarrassed younger me who’d hidden away, turned to Kato, and sought out something to get herself back.
Now I had that chance, and I couldn’t—wouldn’t—squander it for the sake of a kiss.
But when fingers wrapped around my wrist and yanked me back, I found myself backed up against the wall. Fenrys’s hand braced next to my head, his face serious. His pupils were still large with lust, and he leaned into me. His other hand still loosely held my wrist.
I held my breath, my eyes fluttering closed no matter how much I tried to keep my wits.
“Yes?” I breathed, slowly opening my eyes to meet his.
“Don’t walk away from me again,” he murmured.
“Give me something to stay for.”
A low snarl sounded from Fenrys’s throat and I longed to drag my thumb down the column of his neck to feel the vibration. “Do you want to test me, Thalia?” His voice was a growl, not threatening, but enticing. Heat licked between my legs and I tried to fight the effects of his nearness. I breathed in through my nose but all I could smell was him.
I almost let my head tip back against the wall until I remembered how vulnerable that would make me.
“Maybe,” I answered, breathy. God, I needed to think. I needed space. And yet the thought of him moving away made me want to buckle. “Maybe that’s all I ever wanted.”
His eyes were so dark as they flicked over my face, and then lower. He leaned in so close his nose brushed my neck, and my chest heaved with a deep inhale.
Kiss me, I wanted to beg. My nails dug into my palms as he pulled me closer, a grip on my hip. I needed to feel his muscles beneath my hands; I needed to walk away. I needed to kiss him; I needed to slap him for trying this. But he was so close, so there, and I thought: why not give into the temptation just once?
Let him get the taste he wanted.
