Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
“Hayden,” I repeated in a high-pitched voice that made him laugh.
He was a beautiful man in the way that runway models were. Everything about him was symmetrical and perfect. Hayden’s classic perfection of a Greek god sculpture was the opposite of Torin's rugged handsomeness.
His blond hair was short on the sides, with the longer strands spiky at the front. His eyebrows and stubble were a shade darker. When he let his beard grow, his jaw looked sharper, and he looked older than thirty.
“Did you miss me, sweetheart?” He stepped inside and wrapped himself around me.
I remembered when my bodyguard almost suffocated me in my dream realm, and a cold chill sliced down my spine.
I awkwardly held my towel and laughed nervously. I shouldn’t have been afraid of my bodyguard, yet my pulse sped at his touch. But was it fear, or was it the mate bond?
“Get inside before we wake up Lisa.”
“The old lady is still baking you cookies?”
“Yes.”
He walked past me, and I marveled at his broad back, filling in the black suit he wore. Hayden liked to dress in more formal attire than most werewolves—dress pants and a white button-up shirt, but unlike today, he usually had no suit jacket on.
When his body twisted, I swallowed hard. The last two buttons at his collar were undone, revealing smooth skin and a hint of chiseled muscles.
“But baby, if you told me you were going to greet me in your tiny towel, I would have come prepared,” he said and grinned.
I gripped the top of my towel tighter.
“I’ve forgotten how much you love teasing me, Hayden. Does it make you happy?”
“Nothing gets me happier than getting a rise out of you.”
He chuckled and dropped his black leather backpack on the couch. It had a fancy logo on it, reminding me that my worn-out leather bag was still on my bed. I had to open the book, but not in front of Hayden. Although he was always in my corner, he worked for Dad after all.
“How was your flight?” I asked while I walked to the fridge and pulled out a cold bottle of water. “Water?”
“Please.” Smiling, he took it from me when I handed it to him.
In the process, his fingers brushed over mine, and heat traveled up my shoulders. Blood rushed to my face, and I exhaled loudly. It would be a long night.
“Too long since I've waited to see you.”
My lips parted as I watched Hayden’s full lips wrap around the small opening of the water bottle.
My mouth became moist, and I swallowed hard.
I clutched the top of my towel with a death grip.
What in the world was happening to my body?
He’d accessed my dream realm, after all.
Another topic I wasn’t ready to talk about.
Bolting to my bedroom, I shouted while putting distance between us, “Let me put on something, and I’ll be right back.”
His low laughter made me smile.
I placed my bag with the book under my bed and put on my PJs. When I’d taken a shower, I took the tape off my forearm, and now I was sporting a long pink cut surrounded by purple, greenish bruises.
Hayden knocked on my bedroom door and peeked his head inside. “Are you decent?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Why look inside my bedroom before asking?”
He chuckled. “I hoped you weren’t decent.”
I snorted and shook my head. Even with Hayden in my bedroom like he’d been in the dream realm, I knew he would always protect me. He wouldn’t hurt me. I was safe, unlike when I was around Torin.
Hayden looked at my bed, smiled, and gazed at me the same way he had when I opened my eyes and met his sky-blue ones in my bed three years ago. I didn’t know how I became so horny and hormonal.
If he were my fated mate, wouldn’t I have sensed it when I met him for the first time as a teenager? But only mates could appear in another’s dream realm, and he’d appeared in mine. I knew I couldn’t avoid this conversation for too long.
The last time I spoke to him about our one night together, I told him I needed time to think about our relationship. But I still wasn’t sure I could fully mate with him. And although I trusted him with my safety, and so did the King, I didn’t trust him with my heart.
“I don’t expect you to invite me to your bed, sweetheart,” he said and came to stand in front of me. “I said I’d wait. When you’re ready.”
I only nodded. I’d made him wait for three years already, and I felt awkward around him but mostly confused because I couldn’t reconcile my feelings for him. Something held me back from fully committing myself to him, and I wanted to find out what it was.
I lowered my gaze and placed my hand over my forearm, forgetting about the injury. I flinched at my touch, and Hayden immediately lifted my arm to inspect it.
His eyes turned serious, his face resigned. “I don’t like it when you get hurt.”
I tilted my head back to gaze at his face. My gods, his piercing blue eyes carried a hint of mystery, drawing me in. It was as if they held untold stories, begging me to discover them.
Hayden’s polished allure pulled me to him as much as Torin’s rough exterior. My bodyguard was like a well-crafted piece of art…that I should appreciate from a distance.
He had a way to connect with people, making them feel heard and understood. In contrast, Torin emanated strength and authenticity. He wasn’t afraid to be different, making the rest of the Alphas wary of him. But I liked him for his courage to stand out.
Hayden brought my forearm to his lips and kissed it, leaving hot traces on my skin. I gently pulled my hand out of his grasp and hugged myself. “I’ll get you a blanket, and you can crash on the couch.”
He smiled, the tiny wrinkles around his eyes deepening. Unlike Torin, Hayden was cool-headed and more reasonable. He didn’t explode, and he thought before he acted.
How could I be given two possible fated mates who were so different? The only similarity they shared was how deadly and dangerous these men were.
I went to my closet and found a thick blanket and a pillow. I set up the couch in the living room to be as comfy as possible, but Hayden’s six feet and large build would be crammed here.
“Hayden, we have to figure out where you’ll sleep from now on. The couch won’t be comfortable for a long time.”
“About that…” he said and undid two more of his shirt buttons. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
Dazed, I watched him undress. His fingers worked fast and efficiently down his chest. The shirt fell open, and the smooth skin of his hard chest appeared, making me gulp for air.
His hands moved to his belt buckle, and that was when I finally realized I was gawking at him while he watched me under hooded eyes.
“Sweetheart?”
My face flushed, and I blinked repeatedly, ready to bolt to my bedroom.
Send him to a hotel.
“You like ogling your boyfriend?” He waggled his eyebrows in a silly way.
I exhaled too loudly, and he chuckled, but then his smile disappeared, and he gave me a heated look.
“Yes, we’re having that conversation, too. But we have time.”
My breathing hitched, and I said goodnight while walking into my bedroom.
I wasn’t ready to accept him fully yet. But I was selfish for not talking to him about us and how I felt about him. He had the right to know, and I couldn’t keep on holding on to him for selfish reasons. But he was the only one in my corner in the werewolf kingdom, and I didn’t want to lose him.
I climbed into my bed, pulling the quilt over my neck, and sighed. I drew in deep breaths. I shut my eyes. I counted sheep. Then I counted them by twos. I turned and tossed until Hayden’s voice startled me, and I snapped my eyes open.
“Honey, if you keep on tossing in your bed, I’ll lie down next to you to calm you down.”
He peeked his head into my bedroom. He gave me his charming smile, and I took the extra pillow next to me and threw it at him. He ducked and chuckled.
“Go to sleep, sweetheart. You must be exhausted with everything that’s happened to you,” he said, and my insides warmed at his concern for me.
I liked that he hadn’t marched into my apartment demanding details about my incident with the vampires.
Tomorrow, I would talk to Torin about how long he was going to stay in London. And I wasn’t sure if Hayden could sleep in my apartment for the long term. He only traveled with a backpack. Did it mean he wasn’t planning to stay here long?
I turned on my side and reached under my bed, almost falling out of it. My fingertips brushed against the rough leather of my bag. I wanted to make sure I hadn’t lost the book.
It was my only hope of finding out the secrets Hayden and Torin didn’t speak of. I knew from the depths of my soul that the information inside the book could help me somehow. I hoped it was to get out of the supernatural world for good.
I hoped the magic book was my ticket out of becoming the werewolf Queen.
I turned and lay on my stomach, hugging the soft pillow and resting my cheek on it.
When Hayden first joined the kingdom, he was nineteen, and I was fourteen. He didn’t belong to any pack, and Dad said he did an extensive background check on him with help from the pack Alphas. The King didn’t trust easily.
Hayden told the King he was an orphan, abandoned, and didn’t even know he was a werewolf until he first shifted involuntarily at seventeen. He felt he was a threat to the other kids at the orphanage and ran away to fend for himself.
After completing high school, he moved around the country without anyone explaining to him what was happening to his body.
In the kingdom, the pups who shifted for the first time were trained by Dad and the warriors, and they talked ahead of time about what to expect. The pups who felt their wolves emerging participated in an annual transformation ritual organized by my father.
Just thinking about how confused and scared young Hayden must have been made my stomach clench. At least we had this in common when we were teenagers—we both had wondered who we were and who we were supposed to become.