Page 44 of Brutal Alpha Beast
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“Ellis?”
I’m startled when I see him there, waiting outside the coven’s main entrance. Sure, it’s normal for him to be here in general since we’re allied, and he’s trusted enough to come to our headquarters when he needs to.
But what time is it?
The crickets that are humming rhythmically tell me that it’s late.
He looks up at me, and I wish for a second that he wasn’t so visible beneath the light of the moon. Every time he looks at me now, I think back to that kiss.
How would it feel to be touched by him again?
“Good news to report?” He asks.
I wish.
“Well,” I say, stepping toward him. “Not exactly. I thought Penelope might have known more than she did. But what are you doing here?”
“I’m your ride home.”
I shake my head, forcibly. “Oh, no, I’m not getting on your wolf back.”
He comes closer to me, and I feel my breath turning shaky.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he says. “I’m just escorting you back to the pack. So I know that you’re safe. I’m not big on taking chances with that right now.”
He must have been waiting out here for hours. He must have been so bored.
“You shouldn’t have,” I immediately say. “You didn’t have to wait so long; there are probably thousands of other things that need your attention.”
“It’s important to protect each other,” he says, plainly. “I know we’re not exactly best buds, and I know you’re a badass witch who can look after herself, but we can make up for what each other lacks.”
That pulls on a painful string.
I used to say those very words to myself when I thought about my feelings for Ellis. Even though they were crazy and deluded, I’d tell myself that our differences make sense.
“Okay,” I concede. “But we’re never going to be best buds.”
He chuckles. “I thought you might call me out on that word choice.”
I shake my head.Best buds. How crazy that he doesn’t know that at one point in time, that’s exactly what we were.
As we head back to the pack, I’m surprised by how strangely comfortable I feel walking into the space. For so long, it was a place that haunted my dreams—a place I had worked hard to forget.
But things feel different. Even being around Ellis feels different from how it did only a little while ago.
Once we’re back in Ellis’ cabin—ourcabin, although I still find that hard to accept, he doesn’t stop checking on how I am.
Yes, he sets me up in the spare room with everything I could need—water, tea, food—I’m surprised he doesn’t offer to run me a bath. But he still checks in; I can hear him hovering by the door.
I missed this, Ellis. The guy I remember wanted to take me to the hospital when I got a scrape on my knee.
He didn’t know I was a witch then, that I could heal myself. But he knows now, and still, he’s protective of me. It’s as though those ten years had never happened, and we’re once again who we were all that time ago.
“Hey, Ellis,” I say, smiling. “You know you don’t need to guard my door. I can cast a barrier spell around the cabin if I need to.”
“It’s either guarding the door, or I’m coming to sleep in there with you,” he says, and while I know he’s teasing me, I still blush. My stomach still flutters with nerves.
