I squared my shoulders and tried to act like I was not the least bit intimidated as I made my way into the house. The inside was grander than the exterior and had the makings of an 18th-century Gothic castle. The walls were painted black and there were leather black couches. I could make out three crystal chandeliers and candles lining the walls along with torches.
If I were to guess, I would have said that the house had not been remodeled or redecorated since the first Lunar built it because some of the architecture resembled that of older houses. Despite looking like it came out of a historical novel, it was beautiful. It had an air of mystery, as if the rooms held secrets that needed to be discovered and I realized that I would not mind living in a house like that. I understood why Darius decided to stay.
“Focus, Leindra,” I told myself, then I turned to face Darius who was leaning against the closed door and staring at me.
He slowly pushed himself off the door frame and I swallowed down a lump in my throat. He made his way over to me and stopped when he was a few feet away. I thought he was going to say something but he just simply stared at me.
“You should not be out this late,” he said and it took me a second for his words to hit and I scrunched my brows in confusion. “Whatever you want can wait till tomorrow.”
“No, it cannot.”
He sighed. “Go home, Leindra.”
Without another word, he sidestepped me and started walking away. I was confused for a split second and I hesitated to see if he would call out to me but he acted as if I had not just come to his house and continued what he was doing.
It took me a split second to recover my bearings but once I did, I rushed after him. “It is rude to leave a guest standing in the middle of your house like that.”
He ignored me but I knew he heard me because he paused briefly at the sound of my voice. I followed him down a hall and towards another room. The hallway was dark and eerie and I passed two knight statues that felt very lifelike. I rushed past them because I couldn’t help but feel like they were watching me and were going to reach out to grab me.
It looked similar to the other but cups and dirty plates were lining the table. I instantly knew that was where he had sat with his friends. I thought he was going to pick them up but he simply walked past them as if he didn’t see them and leaned sat in one of the armchairs.
“You can’t just ignore me like that,” I said once I had walked into the room. I stood directly in front of him and crossed my arms over my chest. “I want to have a conversation.”
“Normal people have conversations during the day, Leindra, or did you come here for something else?”
I ignored him and decided to change the subject. “You should clean up this mess.”
“I have a maid who comes in every morning.” He waved me off. “Answer my question Leindra, did you want something else?”
He leaned forward on his elbows and I took an involuntary step backward. His eyes were trained directly on me and although I was fully clothed, I could not help but feel like I had been stripped naked beneath him. I began to feel self-conscious so I cleared my throat.
“I should leave,” I began and I started to walk past him but his hand reached out and wrapped around my wrist.
“Sit down, Leindra. You’re already here so we might as well talk.”
I hesitated because his attitude was giving me whiplash. One second he didn’t want to see me and the next he was asking me to sit down. I would have walked out but I wanted to talk so I crossed the length of the room and took the seat closest to him. It was a love seat but I made sure to take the side that was furthest from him. Something about being close to him made my skin light up in a way I did not like.
“You’re the one who came to see me,” he drawled as he finally looked up at me. “What can I help you with Leindra? Is there a reason you stalked me to find my house this late at night?”
“I didn’t stalk you,” I muttered under my breath and the corner of his lips quirked up.
“That’s semantics, what do you want? Have you finally come to your senses and accepted that we are meant to be together?”
“You cannot force someone to be yours, Darius. That is not how it works here.”
He raised a brow. “Did you come here to argue about that?”
I grit my teeth and shook my head. I realized that I needed to be calm for the conversation that was coming up so I exhaled deeply. Darius was a werewolf and he probably had the power to rip me to shreds if I spoke out of turn. It should have scared me but some part of me knew that he was not going to hurt me. Regardless, I made sure I was calm before I spoke again.
“I don’t appreciate you coming over to my house to threaten my grandmother into allowing me to marry you,” I said slowly making sure I enunciated every word. “If you want to marry someone then you have to court the person. I don’t know how it works where you’re from but in this century, you have to take the person out on dates-”
“You think I threatened her?” he asked and before I could answer, he burst out laughing.
His laugh was hoarse and humorless as if he could not believe that I said that. When he was done, he wiped his eyes dramatically and turned to me with an upturned smirk and folded arms. He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe me and stood to his feet. I held my breath as he made his way over to the chair I was sitting on and squatted in between my legs so he was at eye level with me.
“Have you ever considered that maybe she decided to give you to me simply because she knew you were mine by right?” he asked in the same tone I had used when speaking to him and I bit the inside of my mouth to stop from saying something rude.
“She would never do that and I know you, Darius. You threatened her and I do not take kindly to my family being threatened. They’re not the only ones with dirt on them.”
He stiffened at my words and his eyes narrowed at me. He leaned forward on his elbows so that our noses were almost touching. There was darkness in his eyes that I could not understand but I refused to look away or cower from the intensity of his gaze.
“What could you possibly have on me?” he asked. “I have no secrets.”
“You have one, I saw you yesterday in the woods.”
There was silence as the words left my lips and Darius’ face went completely blank. He looked like a marble figure and for a split second, I was worried that I had spoken out of turn and said something I should not have. I suddenly realized how close we were and how easy it would be for him to kill me if he wanted to and no one would ever find my body. No one would also accuse him because he owns the town and I was nobody.
“I can hear your heart racing,” he drawled in an amusing tone. “For someone who speaks with such bravery, you have so much fear inside of you. There is a good reason though, I could kill you in a second.”
“You wouldn’t.” I wasn’t sure if it was true but something inside me believed it.
“You’re right, I won’t kill you,” he said after a split second and he stood to his feet. “I know you saw me in the woods. I’m a werewolf, Leindra, we have better hearing than you could ever imagine. I knew the moment your car was parked at the edge of the woods. I wanted you to see me.”
That didn’t make sense. Why would he have wanted me to see him shifting? If I were a werewolf then I would try to stop people from finding out the truth about it. I wouldn’t go around shifting where people could see me. It would defeat the entire purpose of being hidden.
“I showed you because I have nothing to hide from you. You are mine and I wanted you to know,” he said and my eyes widened.
“Can you read minds too?” I had not read anything like that in all my internet searches.
“No, but I can read you like an open book. You need a better grip on your emotions if you’re going to be with me. You will be around wolves who may not have your best interests at heart.”
I was lightheaded so I did not want to argue with him. Instead, I stood to my feet and cleared my throat. Darius watched me as I brushed off invisible dirt from my clothes.
“I should be going. I’m not marrying you Darius and whatever you have on my grandmother, stop it.”
I started to walk over to the door but he quickly blocked my way with his body. He had moved so fast that he was almost a blur and I guessed it was part of his werewolf abilities. He was now blocking the door and there was no way for me to get out except he let me. That didn’t feel as concerning as it should have. It felt- focus Leindra.
“I need to leave, Darius. It is late and I have to get home.”
“You don’t really think I’m letting you go home by yourself, do you? It is late and you never know what you might encounter on the roads. I’m taking you home.”
My mind went back to the wolf that had attacked me a few days ago. Was that another town person? Was it one of Darius’ friends? Did Darius lie to me about what happened to the wolf?
“I will let you take me home on one condition,” I began and he chuckled dryly.
“It’s funny how you think you have a choice in the matter but go on, I want to hear what you can come up with.”
“I want to know who the wolf was that attacked me and why,” his eyes darkened as the words left my lips and he let out a growl from his chest. “That’s my deal, take it or leave it.”
“Deal, now give me the fucking keys.”