Chapter 49

"My turn for a question," I say, biting the edge of the lip. I'm anticipating her reaction to this one. "Could you ever see yourself as a Luna of the Desire Pack."

She takes a surprisingly short amount of time to answer. "Sometimes I think I would be a better Alpha than you."

I smirk. "You're not wrong."

"Did you really think I had a connection with Sinful? Was there a point where you were worried I would actually fall in love with him?" She question so suddenly I almost physically flinch in response.

My mind goes through careful processes before I answer that question. She knows little about my abilities to feel emotion first hand, and how the entire time we were together, I notice her interest in Sinful, and how he returned it. However, on either side, there was never any romantic feeling. In a sense, they both used each other. Still, I reply cryptically, unsure of how else to answer.

"I hoped not."

"That's not an answer," she growls playfully. She skips ahead slightly before she turns, walking backwards so we could face each other. I watch carefully behind her, hoping she doesn't slip backwards down the hill.

"It most definitely is," I say. Before I can think, I speak. "Will you give me a chance?"

She stills walks backward, but her steps falter slightly. I analyse every inch of her face, trying to catch onto what she is thinking.

"I can try," she says, almost seeming anxious. "If you will give me one."

My confusion is disrupted as she almost stumbles into the gate behind her, her feet slipping dangerously. I catch her arm in time, pressing her against me to feel her heart flutter in surprise from the potential fall. It takes a special part of me to let her go.

"We are nearly at the city," I murmur, wishing I could brush off her last comment. "I still have something to show you."

***

~Alaya

I knew where we were going before Asher could even say a word.

Walking this route everyday to work this time a few years was a task. A task I miss. Now, with the Alpha of Desire beside me, it seems almost surreal. Luckily, no one notices Asher, as he keeps those indisputably familiar eyes cast down at the ground.

"We aren't going in there," I say nervously, as Asher produces a key. "They surely sold it."

"They haven't, trust me," Asher replies.

It's my old apartment. I remember when I hardly had any money to pay for this thing. Just thinking about it makes my head spin; it feels like years ago. The moment I step inside my room, everything almost completely unchanged, even with my old couch pushed up against the wall. They never got rid of that thing? I asked the movers to trash it...

"This feels like a time capsule," I remark, relishing in the sound of the boards cracking under my feet.

This is Asher being considerate. For the first time in a long while, I feel as though maybe he does care for me. The way he looks down at me, almost as if I'm the only one to exist in this world, as foolish as that surely sounds. This may have been a sad time living here, after dad died, but it marks the beginning of the story Asher and I shared. The moment Sky received that letter.

"I was thinking maybe you would want to go see your sister as well, when you're done here," Asher says tentatively, as if somehow worried to interrupt the moment I was having in my own mind. "That is, if you-"

I couldn't really consider any other way of showing my gratitude, or how much this simple gesture means to me. Asher nearly was knocked over by the force of which I jumped at him.

The problem with having a Asher as my mate is that the moment my lips touch his, that's it. I can't consider a way of turning back from that.

Almost instantly, Asher responds, his arms coming around me, trapping against me against his bodyguards. I'm not sure I would like anything at this point. Well, more of my mate, I think, as I slowly push Asher back toward my old couch.

Hopefully he has the same idea as me, and he takes the lead, taking me by surprise as he picks me up by the back of my thighs, carrying me the rest of the way to lay me on the couch. For a moment, he pulls away, looming over me, eyes shimmering brilliantly under the dull light of the rooms one lamp.

"I'm really falling for you," he breathes, before leaning down to steal another kiss.

As he does so, guilt blooms in my stomach, because I'm beginning to do so to.

Every thought in my mind is propelled backwards into a span of nothingness.

I only really read about what happens between mates when they touch. Growing up in the Desire Pack, we grew up thinking the mate bond was a tie down. Everyone thought having a mate was no fun, and that once you found your significant other, your life would only get more boring.

But with my lips on Asher's, I know that's not true.

The moment my back touches the couch, and Asher looms over me, my mind begins to race. He has pulled away, looking down at me with a blazing golden gaze that could brand me more permanently than the mark on my neck, and a smile taunting, I feel naked already.

Maybe being in position feels so good only because Asher's an Alpha. That feels stupid to think, considering how little I've seen of him commanding his Pack. Lying here on the couch is like this because my mate is desirable. Because...he's my mate.

"You're overthinking?" he asks, bending down over me, having one arm to keep himself up, while the other remains on my hip, as if asking for permission to move anywhere.

I frown. "How do you know I over think?"

Asher chuckles, his head moving into the crest of my neck. "You ask as if it isn't obvious."

I can't help but smile at that. Asher seems to be able to read me like a book, while I'm still trying to figure him out. Slowly, I think I am getting better. Either that, or he shows his playful, lust drunk side a lot more passionately than his other emotions.

He seems to moving methodically, from the feeling of his lips on my neck, to his hand slowly sliding under my shirt to my stomach. All I can do is lie still, unsure of what to do. I hate myself for comparing him, but to Sinful, this is completely different. With Sinful, I was hardly thinking, wanting to get back at someone. I just don't know who.

In this situation, I'm completely left entranced by the mate bond.

"We probably should take this-"