CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE - ADRIEL

CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE - ADRIEL
I don’t return to my room. Our room, technically.

Instead, I sleep in my office. On the couch - which turns out to be more than useful when Ezekial decides to pop by unannounced. 

Apparently, they want a face-to-face meeting with the humans. And I’ll admit I’m pleased for the distraction. Focusing on ruling is far better than focusing on the shitshow that is my private life.

He of course asks after Lia, and that inadvertently confirms my suspicions about Cassandra. That she too is playing games. I make a few noncommittal comments and when he tries to discuss the potential of pups, I all but kick him out. I don’t want to have that discussion and by the feel of it, my Lycan really doesn’t.

I head down to the main hall after. It’s been a while since I’ve spent any real time with my Pack and because Lia has occupied the majority of it for a while I get lost in just being me, just being with them, almost reacquainting myself.

And then I see them, Maricela and Ryker. They’re sat at the complete other side. Ryker is cracking jokes and Maricela is laughing. Properly laughing.

I can’t help the smile that creeps across my lips because the sound of it is like the most incredible song. 

I stare, watching her, watching them. I like that she’s comfortable with him, I liked that last night she seemed to get on with all my siblings. That even my parents seemed to like her. 

She seems blissfully unaware that I’m here and for a moment I like that too, that I haven’t disturbed her. That her behaviour is unchanged. That this is who she is when I’m not around. When she’s just being her and I’m not impeding her the way I always seem to.

Ryker gets up, by the looks of it he’s going for more food and I mind-link him telling him to essentially fuck off and not come back for a bit.

He looks right at me, and I hear the threat in his reply. That if I do anything, if I cross any lines with Maricela, I’ll have to answer to him.

I guess I can’t blame him. But he also has no right to say such things, not to me. 

I don’t reply. I just walk across the hall, ignoring all the sets of eyes that snap to me and I sit down right next to her.

She gulps, looking around, with panic in her eyes. I think for a moment she might run, she might spring up and actually flee.

“It’s okay.” I murmur. “I’m not going to do anything.”

“You said that last time.” She replies. “And look how that turned out.” Her voice is so quiet, like she doesn’t want anyone to overhear us but we’re in a room surrounded by a hundred or so Wolves. Nothing we say right now would be private. 

My lips curl. I like that she pushes back, that she speaks her mind. Is that why she makes Ryker laugh so much? 

I run my eyes back over her, she’s softer looking than Lia, this Little Wolf of mine.

I reach out to take her hand and she moves it quickly out of my reach. 

“What do you want?” She asks, coldly. 

You. 

The word echoes in my head. My Lycan is all but clawing to get out, clawing to take over and make her realise it under no uncertain terms.

And then that hollowness threatens to take over, and it’s all I can do to stay in this moment, to focus on her face, on her smell, to ground myself in her presence. 

“To run,” I say honestly. “With you.”

Her eyes go so wide. “Excuse me?”

I tilt my head. “I want to meet your Wolf, my Lycan wants it too.”

She gulps, looking at me like this is all some trick. “No.” She says.

“No?” I repeat, raising my eyebrows. It’s not an absurd request. I’ve run with most of my Pack, there’s nothing intimate about it per se, although I know being with her like that will feel completely different to running with anyone else, that just letting that part of ourselves out, letting us be that free together, it’s a risk as much as it’ll have a huge reward. 

“No,” She says more firmly.

“Are you refusing me? Refusing your Alpha?”

She meets my gaze and for a second I can practically feel the fire in her eyes. “You’re not my Alpha.”

I lean in just enough so that I can get a full breath of her scent. And in truth, to try to overwhelm her with my own. “You’re part of this Pack now, Maricela, that makes me your Alpha.”

She drops her fork that somehow she’s been holding onto this whole time and folds her arms across her chest. “I’m not well. I have a headache.”

“Then the fresh air will do you good.”

“No.” She states. “I’m not running with you. You can’t make me.”

I let out a frustrated sigh. “Fine.” I say, realising that she’s not going to give in, that’s she’s just as stubborn as I feared. “No run. We’ll just have to find something else to occupy our time.”

“Excuse me?” She blinks as if she’s not sure she heard me right.

“Finish your breakfast, Maricela. And then we’ll be off.”

“Off where?” 

I smile. “You’ll see.”

She looks around again. We can both hear the murmuring. I know Lia will hear of this but right now I don’t care. I’m too focused on my Little Wolf. She thinks she outsmarted me by refusing my request, but all she’s done is turn the dial up. Now, I’m going to torture her more, force her to spend even more time with me. Oh, she thinks she can resist me? She thinks she can fight, we’ll see how well she does when she’s spent an entire day by my side. 

“I’m done.” She says almost reluctantly. 

I look at her plate. There’s still a lot of food on it. She might be gaining weight but she still has a way to go and I’m not going to let her pride get in the way of her own health. “No, you’re not.” I say.

She glares at me again.

“Eat or I will make you.” I say with enough force that she believes me. 

She clenches her fists like she’s actually preparing to start a fight and I’ll admit a part of me wants her too. I want to see what all this fire in her amounts too. 

But instead, she just seems to give in, taking a few more mouthfuls before muttering. “Are you happy now?”

I smirk. No, not yet, but I’m sure a few hours in her company might help ease whatever the hell it is going on inside me. 

I take her arm pulling her up. She gasps as our skin makes contact and I can’t ignore the feeling of my Lycan stirring.

“Where are we going?” She asks.

I don’t reply, I just lead her out, ignoring the looks, ignoring all the obvious confusion from my Pack and every thought in my head that’s screaming at me to let this girl go, to go find Lia and beg for her forgiveness.