Page 38 of Brutal Alpha Beast
I want to see the person who’s in the lake, more than I’m seeing them now, and I’m judging myself for that thought.
So I say. “I’ll just stay and watch for now, you enjoy!”
I pretend the water’s too cold, but there’s nothing I want more than to get in. I keep turning my head to find the person, but every time I do, they disappear, just out of my sightline. I see trees, the ledge that I’m on, the water, the moon—it’s as if their spirit is still here, but physically they’re gone.
When I wake up, I’m more tired than I was when I went to sleep. The night was filled with strange, frustrating dreams that felt like memories, and my desire for Danielle, which in no way had worn off.
How could it when she lay so close to me? Her glossy curls spread across the floor, her perfectly curved hips only inches away from the side of my torso.
She slept in the same space I put her in before we kissed, with her head at the same level as mine.
It seems risky, but I wouldn’t have kissed her if I didn’t know, as an undeniable fact, that she wanted me to.
But she wasn’t ready for the intensity of it, and I respect that. Hell, I’m not ready for the consequences of my attractionto her either; I just know that it’s there, and I’m a wolf. I’m not accustomed to pushing those things down.
Danielle is already up, standing with her back to me as she gazes out at the forest.
I can see myself wrapping my arms around her from behind, letting her perky little ass rest against my groin...
“You’re up,” she says without turning around.
I stretch out my arms as I slowly sit up. This has to be the worst sleep I’ve ever gotten on the forest floor. Usually, I like it. It resonates with a deep part of my wolf, and I feel soothed by the connection to nature.
Something went wrong.
“Barely,” I mutter, looking around. “But at least we made it through the night.”
She stays silent, but I notice the slightest twitch in her back. I was talking about the shadow monsters, but perhaps she thought I was talking about something else.
Something she’s not ready to discuss.
I’m not in the business of pushing people, though. I regret how we’ve bickered—I’m sure Danielle has discovered things about our pack by being observant. I think she’s good at that.
“We should probably get going,” she says, turning to face me.
Those eyes.
I consider wrapping my arms around her again.
“We don’t know that something won’t find us, and I can only imagine how worried people must be at the pack.”
Note to self: always bring your phone with you.
I usually don’t like carrying it around too much; I feel like the electromagnetic waves are somehow blocking my wolf. I don’t know. Sawyer laughed at me when I said it. Aaron says that I’m old-fashioned and that the pack needs to embrace technology for survival.
I see his point. Maybe if I had been able to text or call him, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Danielle and I start walking again. It’s a peaceful morning; the birds' chirping sounds are melodic, the sun streams through the canopy of green branches, and there are deer visible in the distance through the trees.
But there’s a tension that hangs over us.
She keeps her distance—if she didn’t, it feels as though we could very easily slip into each other’s arms and kiss again.
“Do you recognize anything?” She asks.
My main superpower when it comes to finding things, as with any wolf, is my sense of smell. When an area of forestland looks the same as any other, that’s all I have to decipher where we’re going.
All I smell now is the wildlife, the drying forest from yesterday’s rain, and, unfortunately, Danielle.
