Chapter 53
Adrian.
I wipe down the mirror in Poppy’s bathroom from the moisture it gathered from our heated shower. I press my hands down on her bathroom sink and stare into my reflection. A calming sensation flows through me when all my thoughts are nothing but Poppy. I never imagined that the girl who could complete me in so many ways would come in such a small yet feisty package. She’s the answer to all my fears and dreams all at once, and I can’t see my life ever being without her.
I need to get to the meadow so that I can propose to her the right way. She deserves to be treated like the queen that she will be once she accepts my proposal and stands by my side.
I know the pack will not be happy about this mating at first, but I will show them that Poppy is exactly who we need to keep our pack strong and make our pack whole again. She’s the missing link; I know she is. Life of an Alpha is always putting the needs of the pack before the needs of the Alpha, but if I don’t put my needs first for once, I will end up losing the pack, and I don’t want the pack to end up in the wrong hands. I need to be selfish about this for once in my life.
I open the bathroom door and welcome the delicious smell of food into my senses. I follow the savory scent into the kitchen and find my beautiful girl standing next to the stove. I take a minute to take in her features, her small yet slender legs that extend out from beneath the oversized t-shirt she is wearing to cover the rest of her body. Her dark hair is swept up in a messy bun, and already dirty thoughts are going through my mind about how badly I want to wrap my hand in her hair and yank her head back to run my tongue down her neck. I can’t wait for the time that I will be able to mark her and claim her as mine.
My wolf lets out a small howl when he hears me call our girl mine. She is mine, and I will do everything I can to keep her with me here at the pack.
My possessive side begins to grow when the thought of Gabriel creeps into my thoughts. That man is delusional if he thinks he can take what belongs to me. I will have his head before I let that happen. Poppy needs to stay here with me and our pack. We need to do our bonding ceremony so I can bond with her and the pack lands, gain power as Alpha from my father and protect our pack and the land from anyone else trying to steal what belongs to me.
“Mmm, it smells good in here,” I tell her as I walk further into the kitchen to let her know I am here. I’m not sure if she can sense me or not, but it’s driving me insane that I can’t smell my own mate from a distance. I hope she will tell me soon that she’s figured out a way to break this nasty curse that’s on us so that we can have a more normal mate life.
She turns to look at me, and I notice that anything she was thinking about before has escaped her. Her eyes travel the length of my body, and I see that I’m only wearing a pair of pants and nothing else.
A smirk creeps across my face as I move through the kitchen toward her, wrap my arms around her, and press my nose against her hair to get a whiff of any scent I can to remind me of her.
My smile falls when Poppy pulls herself out of my arms and moves away from me.
I frown.
“What’s wrong?”
Poppy shakes her head.
“It’s nothing.”
“No, it’s not nothing. You seem upset about something. Tell me what’s wrong.”
She continues to shake her head.
“No, I don’t want to spoil the mood,” she admits to me.
My brows furrow as I stare at her, trying to understand what’s going on in that little head of hers, and then it hits me.
“You’re thinking about the curse.”
She shrugs her shoulders.
“Can you blame me?”
No, I can’t because I have been thinking about the very same thing. But she looks so sad, and I can’t help but want to help her not feel this way.
“No, I can’t, but it doesn’t have to be something we think or talk about right now. Can’t we just enjoy what’s going on between us right now without everything having to be so serious?”
Poppy looks up at me as she presses her lips into a thin line. Her silver eyes stare up at me with so much confusion on how to take in everything that’s been happening. At the same time, trying to take a moment and cherish the fact that we’ve finally found each other and attempting to establish a connection that the curse is blocking us from forming in order for us to be together.
“I’m sorry, I just have a lot of things on my mind and it automatically goes into checklist mode of things to worry and freak out about.”
I need to prove to her that I’m not just a man who handles everything with his fists to get results. She needs to know that I’m here for her just as much as she’s here for me. I can already sense that this list of hers isn’t going to be an easy one to go through. But I need to know all her thoughts and fears that are stuck in her head if I’m going to succeed in keeping her here with me and showing her she can choose me.
I move to the other side of the island in the center of the kitchen, placing my hands on the counter in front of me. I lean down, look her square in the eye, and say, “Alright, then, let’s knock out this checklist together.”