a Primal Pursuit

nineteen

My nose twitched as the doors shut, noticing the other three wolves did not join us. I assumed they would be too large to fit into such a small space. You think considering the size of the house, they could make the death trap a little bigger.

The elevator lurched, and I swallowed down the bile. Arabella squeaked from beside me, her hands darting to grip the bar, much like I did.

"Why does it feel like I am falling?" She gasped.

"We're going up four flights of stairs." I mumbled. "Fast."

It slowly came to a stop, and I braced for the stomach flip that came with it. Grimacing when it came, I eagerly moved to get out of the doors. Once on flat land, I exhaled loudly.

"One day, I will get used to that." I gulped.

"That was a unique experience." Arabella whispered. "I am not sure if I liked it."

"It's unusual, for sure." I laughed. "But saves walking."

"Come, I will show you your room." Asra interrupted, his hand falling to my lower back.

Walking beside me, I kept my attention on both Arabella behind us and which door he had chosen. It was hard to concentrate when Asra's hand was so warm and inviting on my back. It sent shockwaves of fire up my spine, the mate bond bristling with his touch.

We came to a stop at room six-oh-three, the door plain white.

Asra cleared his throat, grabbing her attention. "You can decorate it however you want. Most people here even decorate their doors."

"Thank you." She whispered.

"You will need to set up a passcode. No one has occupied it before."

"Passcode?"

"A sequence of four numbers. Instead of a key, we use codes." Asra lifted the lid to the keypad, pointing to it. "Keeps everything private that way."

"Oh." Arabella frowned.

I knew what she was thinking about. Privacy. It was such a luxury to have privacy. In the small town, in the small houses of Evermore, there seemed to be no such thing. Everyone knew everything, and everyone in your family saw everything. Anything you had, you shared, and most of the stuff were hand-me-down's.

"Choose your code and we can go inside." I yawned.

"Type it in, press yellow, then type it again, press green." Asra instructed.

Arabella nodded, hesitantly stepping before Asra to type in her numbers. I didn't even bother to look away, noting that she used her birthday; twelfth of May. How cliché Arabella.

The door softly buzzed, letting us know we could enter, and Arabella's hand wrapped around the silver handle before hesitantly pushing it open. Considering the room was unused, it did not smell stale and dusty. There was a fresh scent of linen, alerting me to the large double bed full of plump pillows and sheets. I assumed it was a brand new duvet, because it looked full of life and less of clumps and loose ends in the cover.

The bed was to the right, hiding behind a wall that held the en-suite. It was like my original room, with a soft grey rug at the opposite end that sat beneath a chrome and glass coffee table. On top was a fresh set of books that I had asked someone to bring to her room and I grinned when I saw them. The windows were blind-less, with soft grey curtains free of creases that let light flow onto the soft grey loveseat.

There was also a sideboard across the opposing wall, and on top held a tea kettle and some cups and jars. Opposite the en-suite door to the right of the entry way was a three door white wardrobe, and I peaked inside to find some feminine clothes.