Chapter 5 #3
“I’ll have you know that I finished learning it last week,” he retorts, stretching his arms overhead. “If you’re good, then I’m going to bed. I’m tired as fuck. You can cook and read or whatever, just keep it quiet.”
I frown. “Don’t you need to eat too?”
“Aww, are you worried about me, Jewels?” he coos.
“I’m worried about my own life. If you die, I probably will too.” I step past him and open the fridge, scanning the fresh ingredients for something quick I can whip together. “I’ll make something, just be a good boy and sit.”
“I’m not in the mood, Julian,” he says. And for once, he sounds serious.
“Doesn’t matter if you are. Or have you forgotten our little problem?” I say while I sift through his fridge. “As long as I’m here, you can’t go that far. And I’m not leaving until I eat.”
“I fucking hate you,” he spits furiously, but when he walks away, it’s into the joint living room. “Just don’t take too long. And don’t you dare poison me.”
I smile to myself, fondly recalling the laxative incident.
“Too easy.”
“For a man who doesn’t eat meat, you make a damn good burger,” Aiden says, taking another huge bite of what he doesn’t know is a mushroom patty.
I try not to gag as I watch him chew without a shred of manners.
“And for a man who wasn’t hungry, you sure can eat a lot,” I reply, earning me a slitted glare from his side of the table.
He wipes his greasy lips with the back of his hand. “What’s in this?”
“Food.”
His right eye twitches. “You are the most infuriating person I’ve ever met.”
I smile for him. “And what do you think you are?”
Aiden shovels the last bite in, hate-eating while I wait for him to choke.
“Alright, I only got a few rules for the bedroom,” he says as he stands with his empty plate. “No snoring, no hogging the sheets, and do not touch me,” he rattles off as he dumps the plate in the sink. “You can empty a drawer if you need it, but the right side of the bed is mine.”
I force my mind away from the plate for a second. “What are you talking about? There’s a second room.”
Aiden looks at me, confusion warping to amusement. “Aw, were you planning on sleeping there? Look, I fucking wish, but I’m not about to risk suffocating in my sleep because a door slams in the middle of the night. We’re sharing.”
Dread drops into my stomach.
“This is true hell,” I whisper.
“Can’t argue with that.” Aiden shrugs. “If you don’t want the bed, you are most welcome to the floor. In fact, I encourage it.”
“I am not sleeping on the floor.”
“Up to you. Just don’t touch me, and we’ll be fine.”
“Trust me, there’s no risk of that.”
When Aiden heads for his room, I stop at the one I thought would be my respite to grab my bag before I follow.
The lights are dim, outlining the figure in the centre of the room. I step inside, ready to lay down my own rules, but then the sound of a zipper falling fills the air and I find myself running into the adjoining bathroom with my bag clutched to my chest.
“Don’t shut the door!” Aiden yells before I can do just that.
I groan as I clutch the doorframe but keep it ajar. I hear him release a breath, but I feel anything but relieved. I don’t care what we are now. I am not comfortable or in any mood to see Aiden’s … Aiden.
“I’m going to shower. Don’t come in.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Reluctantly, I leave the door open the slightest bit before I back up and let the tension drain from my body. I meet my reflection in the mirror, and the bags under my eyes have exhaustion sliding over me.
I’m more tired than I’d realised, and it weighs on my shoulders and my eyelids like dumbbells. It pulls at me as I undress and carry out my usual nightly routine, almost falling asleep beneath the shower’s coaxing spray, before dragging myself out.
By the time I’m slipping on a clean set of sweats, I can barely keep my eyes open and the full moon’s call is long gone. Yawning, I step into the bedroom to find Aiden already snoring beneath the sheets.
“So much for no snoring,” I mumble. Would stuffing a sock in his mouth cause Armageddon?
I pay the floor a perfunctory glance before accepting the only real option before me. Sighing, I switch off the remaining light and tug the blankets back, only to freeze when they reveal a near-naked Aiden underneath. He’s got on boxers and nothing else.
I stare, mouth slack, unsure if I’m feeling shock, horror, or something else. I also can’t stop looking.
Aiden’s a healthy, young werewolf. An alpha.
I shouldn’t be surprised at the sight of his large, muscled arms, powerful legs, or the rack of defined abs, but I am.
My body is, because it reacts to him. But that isn’t what keeps me staring helplessly.
It’s the ink scattered over him like an unfinished canvas.
I knew Aiden had tattoos—anyone could spot the ones on his arms, but I’d never known he had even more under the layers.
My eyes trail hungrily over the landscape of ink, wanting to map out the hinted paths and the meaning behind the sections of wording intertwined within what looks like thorns. My fingers twitch with the urge to touch when Aiden shifts onto his side.
My cheeks burn. No. No. No. Julian, no.
Filling my mind with images of my grandmother, Goddess protect her soul, I climb into the bed, pointedly ignoring the half-naked wolf beside me.
It takes an embarrassingly long time for me to calm down while today’s events play over in my head.
I’d become the alpha of my pack as planned.
I’d also met my mate.
Who is a guy.
Not just any guy. Nope—Aiden Calderon.
And, as if that wasn’t enough, apparently Goddess intended us to be together forever because we can’t be separated. Then, the icing on the rotten cake, I’d ended up in the scoundrel’s lap, sniffing him like an addict on wolfsbane.
I’d clung to him. Let him run his hands down my back and around my waist. Let him touch me.
It’s all wrong. So very, very wrong … but that doesn’t change the fact that a part of me didn’t hate it. Absolutely loved it, in fact. That horrible part of me also wants it to happen again … and again and again …
So. Fucked.