Chapter 136: Resistance

My lips curled into a smirk and I could not resist taunting, "Hope it is not my presence that is scaring Calista off."

Leah's face went pale pink as she looked up at me, a soft smile on her lips. "You always have a way of teasing, Althea," she whispered softly and endearingly.

Calista, not wanting to maintain the austere mentor persona for much longer, merely head-shook and smiled before she departed. "I'll leave you two to discuss things," she inserted, with a teasing, before she'd vanished from view, leaving Leah and me alone.

The moment the door closed behind us, I turned around to Leah, my voice no more than a whisper of apology and questioning. "Sorry I've not been able to show up for training," I said to her, moving in closer. "The past few days have been really hectic for me."

Leah's expression relaxed into a gentle smile, her eyes warm.

"It is alright, Luna. I realize that you have much to bear. I also felt the strange presence that lingered around the pack house these past few days. I've not been alone, Calista comes to see me daily, and that is sufficient." Her sentences were simple, but they were filled with a comforting warmth that dispersed the worry searing me.

We sat for a while, talking about nothing in particular at first, the weather, a book she was reading, but, gradually, one by one, it became a conversation about my powers. Leah's voice was serious as she told me about the magic I was just beginning to learn. "Your power is a river," she spoke softly, "with calm current and furious rapids." You need to practice to subdue it, to shape it to your command. I was frozen rigid with focus, stunned with shock in my mind. "How do I master it?" I breathed on an outbreath. Leah's face softened and she took my hand. "I will make potions and spells to chase away the strange spirits and powers that have been lingering around the pack house. We'll put the potions and I'll cast spells around the pack house, a protection that will let you master your energy without any further distraction."

I clasped my hand tightly over hers, thanking her. "Thank you, Leah. I really don't know what I'd do without you."

Leah smiled graciously. "It is my pleasure, Luna. Remember that having great powers means more workload, but you are strong, and you will be able to handle it."

I departed Leah's room with a high head full of information and a lighter heart thanks to Leah's encouragement.

I returned to the hallways, my resolve strengthened.

I knew I would be undergoing a miraculous change, a process stressful on all of the cells of my body but one that would create a better tomorrow.

It wasn't until much later that evening, however, after questions and training had finally worn me out for the day, that I made my way to Grayson's office. The muted buzz of conversation and muted clinking of spoons on plates had all stopped hours ago back in the pack house, and in the stillness of his office, I found a cozy refuge. The groan of the door swung open to find Grayson smiling at me with a breathtaking instant. His eyes lit up with joy as if my existence was the only stabilizing influence in his otherwise shattered life. "Althea, you're here," he said, with the golden quiver of pleasure in his voice. I stepped into the office, and shut the door behind me. The office, with its golden sheen of lamp light and the gentle waltz of some candles, felt like a sanctuary, a cocoon of intimacy and quiet power. I slumped into the overstuffed chair across from him, my heart pounding. "My day was so long and stressful ," I panted, some of my own fatigue compounded by the adrenaline aftereffect of my findings. "I missed you ."

Grayson's smile broadened, and he leaned forward across the desk to take my hand in his.

"I'm glad you're here," he said huskily.

"You're a relief from everything that's black." His eyes, his lovely eyes brimming with passion and repressed love, broke through me, and my heart overflowed with a feeling too powerful to express.

I told Grayson every little detail about my day and he listened patiently, his presence a balm and a surety that I was never alone. In the still depths of silence between us, his hand would occasionally skim over mine, his eyes conveying all that they had to convey in a promise of protection and unshakable devotion. And then, as if conversation later had set a fire alight within him, Grayson's eyes softened and his hand wandered idly from my wrist to caress my cheek. "Althea," he breathed, his voice hoarse with hunger, "I have to make you know how much I love you." His lips descended before I could protest, claiming mine in a gentle kiss that trembled with increasing passion.

It was as if all fear, all portentous whispers, dissolved in the fire of his kiss.

I closed my eyes and sank into the sensation, the warmth of his breath, the softness of his mouth, and the stroking contact of his hand on my face. During the still, intimate moment, everything outside of this did not concern me and what was left was him and I. The kiss became more wild, hotter, as his hand moved from my cheek to the exposed skin of my throat. I shivered, a small gasp materializing on my lips as his kisses became harder, more passionate.

The atmosphere around us sparked with tension as his soft touches sent waves of desire coursing through my veins.

Every touch was a promise, every soft-spoken promise a commitment of love ringing deep within the innermost corners of my soul. I could sense the flame of our common passion burning hotter, a dizzying tension that stole my breath and sharpened my senses. Grayson's eyes blazed with passion and love, his eyes battering me like a lover as if he was searing every feature of my face into his mind. "I want you, Althea," he whispered against my lips, his voice husky and dominant. His fingers tracked the curve of my jaw and down once more to ride along the tender flesh of my collarbone, trailing a shiver of pleasure that left me trembling in its wake. For a gasping, breathless moment, we forgot ourselves in one another, our kisses lingering, our caresses unhurried and studied, our hearts pounding out a choreographed rhythm of desire and love. There in that paradise, I existed everywhere; every fiber of my being hummed with the irreparable knowledge that, together, we were stronger than any darkness which had ever tried to devour us.

By nightfall, our hot passion had been reduced to gentle, healing intimacy.

We sat perched on the edge of Grayson's desk, fingers intertwined, words spoken in soft sounds that wove our aspirations and hopes into the calming beat of our heartbeats in tandem. His eyes, those same loving eyes, conveyed everything, informing me that regardless of how hard things were going to get in the world we were about to enter, I would never be alone to have to endure them. I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes and breathed in the heat of his arms like a pall. At that frozen instant, the tortures and nightmares of those final days, the emptiness, the whispers in darkness, the veiled prophecies did not beset my mind, for it was crowded with the bitter, raw picture of our love.

But even while I allowed myself to be overwhelmed in this sentimental elation, a warning part of my mind was filled with unasked mysteries and the oppressive weight of destiny.

I reflected on the ominous portents, the flash of shadowy silhouettes, and the mysterious, unaccountable power that coursed in my blood. I had known that someday there would be issues, forces beyond our control that could just as easily destroy all that we loved so dearly in the future. But at that breathtaking, golden moment with Grayson, I wanted to believe that our love could be a beacon, a light to shine on any black days to come. As the gloom of twilight gradually vanished, we embraced in uncertainty. I left Grayson in the office and returned to our room with my heart full of unspoken promises, my mind full of complete determination.