Chapter 41: Violet

Was this really happening? Was the Alpha really standing on my back porch with a giant gift basket? He stood at the back door, the one with my deck. His body almost completely covered the doorway. I swung the glass door open and looked at him. Before I could respond he spoke.

“Hi,” he said with a smile. His golden eyes lit up. My stomach did a flip as I stared at him. He looked too good to be true. His sweater was tight around the arms I could see, his pants were holding on for dear life against his massive thighs. The strong scent of forest and bonfire invaded my nostrils. His bicep bulged from holding the large basket in one arm.

“Hi?” I finally stammered out. “Can I help you?”

He continued to look at me smiling but didn’t say anything. I broke our gaze to look at myself in the reflection of the mirror that hung over the fireplace. Did I spill something on me? No, I wore my pajama shorts and oversized sweater. I looked normal. I looked back at him. He had a weird look in his eyes, like he had an inside joke I wasn’t a part of.

I waved my hand in front of his face, I tried to get his attention. “Can I help you?”

“Oh!” He cleared his throat. “Um, yeah. Hi, I’m Simon. The Alpha of the wolf pack you visited yesterday.” His velvet voice washed over me; his voice was deeper than I thought it would be. It suited him, like the deep purr of a huge car.

Was he alone? I glanced behind him to see if there was a team of other wolves lurking in the forest. I could feel he was alone. Why was he looking at me like he was in the middle of pulling a prank?

I leaned against the door frame. “I remember.” I could feel my eyebrows pulling together, confused about why he was here.

“Well, yeah, of course you do.” He gave a quick laugh and turned slightly to look behind him. I could vaguely hear him say “Stupid.” He cleared his throat again.

“Are you ok?” I didn’t know what else to say. I just stared at him, dealing with whatever demons he struggled with.

“Yes, great.” he said quickly and smiled. We looked at each other for a few moments, he seemed to be lost in thought as he stared at me.

“What can I do for you?” I didn’t know what else to say. Unless he was going to attack, I have no idea why he would be here, alone, and looked hot as hell.

“Sorry.” He laughed again and rubbed his neck with his free hand. “Uh, this is for you.” He lifted the basket toward me with both hands, like an offering.

I stared at this giant basket full of wine, meat, and cheese. I looked up at him, he was grinning at me. “May I ask why?”

His grin faltered slightly. “This is my formal apology.” He grinned again. “You were one hundred percent right saying that I was being selfish when I left my Nana to go to the store by herself. I had no intention of having her take that trip alone. If I knew it was so important to her, I would have had an escort take her, since I couldn’t. I asked her if we could push it to the next day, since my beta and I were doing a mass hire of workers for the less fortunate surrounding packs. I know I should have just taken a break, but I didn’t, and I failed her.” He paused, he looked serious. “You were completely right saying that as the Alpha I should be setting an example for my pack. And my actions toward my nana did not. So, I wanted to apologize to you for my poor behavior and say thank you for taking care of her.”

He stopped talking and just stared at me expectantly. He looked sincere; he held that basket up as an offering. I started to laugh; relief washed over me. He wasn’t going to attack me and try to take me out for embarrassing him. His grin started to slip away from his face, and he slowly lowered the basket. A look of embarrassment started to wash over his face.

“Oh my gosh, no. It’s not you.” I continued to laugh. “It’s me. I convinced myself you were going to come over here and slaughter me and put my head on a post.” I continued to laugh at my foolishness.

He started to join in laughing. “You thought I was going to kill you because you yelled at me?” He bent over slightly as he continued to laugh.

“You see why seeing you standing her with a gift basket is a little humorous.” I laughed so hard a tear came to my eye.

“Yeah, I can definitely see why that would be funny.”

I looked at the gift basket, there was no way I would be able to carry that in myself. “Would you mind putting that on the table?” I said and pointed to the table that sat next to the kitchen. “I’m Violet, by the way.”

“Of course.” His smile brightened. “Nice to meet you, Violet.” My heart fluttered when he said my name. It has never sounded so good coming from someone’s mouth. He turned his body and walked through the door; he sat the gift basket on the table. He turned to me and clapped his hands together; he looked around the cabin.

The silence covered the cabin, I looked at him still unsure if this was really happening. The hot Alpha from the pack across the lake stood in my tiny cabin. “Can I offer you a glass?” I gestured to the wine that was in the basket.

“I would love some.” He smiled; he looked as if he didn’t know what to do with his hands.

“Have a seat.” I said awkwardly. He sat on the sofa facing me. I started to disassemble the gift basket. I took the meat and cheese and placed them in the fridge. “Can I confirm something with you?”

“Yes, what’s up?”

“You do realize that this is a ridiculously large gift basket, right?” I glanced over my shoulder at him as I tried to contain my smile.

He laughed. “I didn’t know what you would like so I just added a bunch of stuff in the hopes you would like something in there.”

“To be honest, I think I will love everything in this basket.” I said and laughed again as I sat the wines on the table next to the basket. “You chose all of this?”

Simon let out a breath, as if he held it the entire time. “Yes, I did.”

“Wow, great taste.” I looked at the other items in the basket, coffee, crackers, everything that a person would want in a gift basket. “Do you prefer red or white?”

“Whatever you are having?” He smiled. I could feel him watch my every move.

“I like both, so it’s really dealer’s choice.” I turned and leaned against the table staring at him.

“Let’s do red.”

“Coming right up.” I grabbed the bottle of red that had the most interesting label and dug through my cabinets trying to find a wine opener but came up with nothing.

“What’s wrong?” He said and stood up, he looked concerned.

“I just realize I don’t have a wine opener.”

He took a step toward me. “Do you have a hammer and a nail?”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “You are not going to break this bottle.” I laughed at him.

“No, no. I was going to hammer the nail into the cork and pull it out with the hammer.” He stood next to me. The heat radiated off of him, it took everything in my power not to lean into his heat. My stomach tightened. What was wrong with me?

“I can open it, my way.” I said and pulled the foil from the top. “But you have to promise you won’t freak out, ok?”

“Why would I freak out?” He said, leaned in even closer, and looked at my face.

“Not saying that you will. But my way of opening the bottle is a little unorthodox.” I laughed.

“Knock yourself out, Violet.”

“I’ll try not to.” I sat the bottle on the table and put my hand over the cork. I concentrated on pulling it out with magic. It slowly started to squeak its way out of the bottle.

“Holy shit.” He said as he watched the cork come free form the bottle.

“See, I told you unorthodox.” I smiled at him and tossed the cork to him. I went to the cabinet and pulled out two coffee mugs. “Sorry, I don’t have wine glasses.” I held the mugs toward him.

“As long as we can drink out of them, we are good.”

I poured the red liquid into each mug and handed him one. “Since we are going to be neighbors, we might as well get to know each other.” I tilted my head toward the sofa, I sat on one end.

“What would you like to know?” Simon said as he sat on the sofa next to me. He was so close his knee was almost touching mine. A jolt of electricity jumped from me to him. What was that?