Chapter 18 Kael's POV
Watching her appreciate the foodI cook filled a void in my heart.
I wants to keep her.
Even though I preferred to leave and avoid all interactions with other wolves and the council, i knew I could manage it all for her
I forced all those thoughts to the back of my mind.
I couldn’t be that selfish. I couldn't impose myself on her. That would make me as bad, if not worse, than the other man.
“So… what do you do for work?” she asked, folding the laundry alongside me.
“I work in construction,” I answered, and she beamed.
“Finally, I get to talk to a blue-collar worker like myself and not cooperate asshole who thinks he built the sun.” She looked happy.
I froze.
I was a blue-collar worker, but I also was a cooperate asshole.
I did work in construction, but it was more to keep myself busy and not because I needed the money.
I kept the thought to myself selfishly again.
I wanted more in common with her, and I did work in construction, so I wasn't lying.
“No wonder he has all that muscle. He must work hard,” she whispered to herself, but I heard it and swallowed.
“So what do you do for work?” I asked, trying to distract myself from my very obvious attraction.
“I am a tattoo artist. I have my own tattoo parlor,” she grinned proudly, looking up at me.
“Wow. I hope one day, when you’re free, I maybe will get a tattoo from you.”
I was impressed. Smitten, under spells.
Whatever definition you wanted to give to it.
“Sure. I’d love to work on your body. You’re a perfect canvas,” she grinned back at me.
“I’d love to be your canvas.” I sounded dumb, but when it came to her, I somehow forgot all my charm.
I haven’t used my charm in years.
“What do you do during the weekends?” I asked as we finished up folding the laundry.
“Well, I clean my house and then watch TV,” she said, and we both looked around at the already cleaned house.
“Well, since you’ve already done it, we’ll just have to sit back and relax. We can do anything you want,” I grinned, and she grinned back.
We spent the rest of the morning talking and laughing until later in the afternoon when I heard her stomach grumble and stood up to make her lunch.
I sensed someone watching her apartment, and my wolf went on high alert.
It was that man from the night before.
What was he doing here, and did she know about it?
Just how much danger was she in and hadn’t realized yet?
“Hey,” I called to her as I was prepping the meat.
“Yeah?” She looked up at me from her phone where she was answering work emails and booking appointments.
“The shifter world is dangerous. I need you to be careful,” I advised her, and she smiled at me with a nod.
“Trust me, I know. I was attacked twice by wolves, and I almost lost my life. I know how dangerous it is,” she smiled.
What did she mean by twice?
I thought her being attacked this once was a coincidence.
I thought it was me who brought the rogues with me. Sometimes rogues stalked lone wolves and tried to attack them, so I thought this was one of those situations and she had been caught in the crossfire.
This meant a whole other thing.
“What do you mean by twice? Was last night the second time something of this sort happened?” I asked, and she nodded.
“Yeah. I got into an accident like a month ago, and I got attacked by multiple rogues too, like yesterday,” she explained, and I looked at her, worry and concern filling me.
“How did you escape that situation?” I asked, and she sighed.
“I got saved by some asshole dude. He’s the worst,” she said, and my thoughts went back to the man in the bar.
Was he the one?
Was he blackmailing her with the fact he saved her?
“Was it the man you were drinking with?” I asked, and she perked.
“Lucien? You saw him? No… he’s my friend. He works for the asshole, though. An alpha named Ronan. He’s been trying to force me to join his pack, even though I’m obviously not a shifter,” she said, and multiple questions popped up in my head.
Ronan. I heard of him from the grapevine. He was the Alpha in charge of this city. His pack was located on the outskirts.
“Why does he want you to join his pack?” I asked, even more concerned.
“He’s got it in his mind somehow that I have wolf blood and I have something important to the wolves. The lunar key or something, and he wants me to join before the council finds out about me. Apparently they’ll destroy me if they do,” she said this whole line so casually, like she wasn’t in danger.
Ronan was a powerful alpha. He was also fair, at least from the rumors I heard about him, but you never trust rumors.
The lunar key was a myth to a lot of shifters.
Night shifters, or shifters that drew power from the moon, all knew how powerful the lunar key was.
But it was a myth.
If Ronan thought she had something to do with it, then that meant others did too, and it was only a matter of time before the council found out, and that was if she didn’t get killed before then.
“Your life is in danger,” I said, looking at her, and she shrugged.
“Yeah, I know that. I mean… what do I do?”
“Why isn’t Ronan protecting you? If he thinks you have connections with the lunar key, then he should do more to protect you.”
“Oh, he has Lucien protecting me,” she answered.
The guy from last night.
I didn’t trust him. I found him very suspicious, but she seemed to trust him so much I kept my opinion to myself.
I wasn’t sure yet whether he was working under Ronan’s orders.
“He isn’t doing that good of a job then,” I stated, and she grinned.
“Well, thank God I have you,” she winked, and I smiled at her and turned back to cooking.
I thought I would stay a few days and then leave because I thought I was protecting her, but this changed everything.
Her life was in danger, and I wasn’t going to leave her unprotected at the mercy of people that wanted to either kill or use her.
I was going to stay.
All my plans were canceled, and from now on, I was permanently settling down here until she was safe.
The presence of the man was gone. He had left, but I wasn’t sure he hadn’t sensed me.
Although I hid myself well, there was a chance he might have sensed me before I got the chance to do that.
If that was true, then we’d probably have company soon.
I better finish up lunch so she cn eat before we have to deal with those guys.
\---