ALPHA: Heir Of The Four

Chapter Six | Part II

     'You had one job, buddy,' I told to my wolf. He didn't stir in the slightest and I knew his silence wasn't because he was being reprimanded, but because he, too, carried the overwhelming weight of that memory. I ran my hands over my face and—because I was a glutton for punishment—allowed myself a couple more seconds of being smothered by the memory before forcing the green to bury it back inside the grave it had resurrected out of. When it was done, I sat up and shifted my focus onto the one person that would keep me anchored in the present.

     Ava-Rain.

     Tearing away from the living room couch proved a lot easier to do than tearing away from Ava-Rain last night. As I headed for the bedroom, I couldn't help but smile as the memory of my mouth fighting hard to claim every inch of her skin replayed over and over in my head. When Ava-Rain had admitted that she wanted me, I saw and felt nothing but the red. Not only had I been consumed by my own desire but by Ava-Rain's, as well. There was no doubt in my mind that I would never forget the taste of her; never forget the feel of her mouth as it moved against mine, nor deny that she truly was the missing half to my whole. That she was mine. But she was not mine to have just yet,  not in the way that both my wolf and I wanted her, which was why I had forced myself to sleep on the couch.

     After a ten minute shower, I walked out of the bathroom. A pair of fitted jeans covered my lower half while my upper body remained exposed. As I ran a towel through my wet hair, I noticed that Ava-Rain, who had been dead to the world when I first entered the room, was now wide awake. She was sitting up with her back against the headboard and the bed sheets carelessly draped over her lower half. Her hair was all over the place and I fought the urge to walk over to the bed and run my fingers through the ebony curls. We held eye contact for only a brief moment before her gaze drifted downwards. Of course, she quickly tried to recover her slip by immediately returning her gaze back up to find mine, but the look of embarrassment on her face was more than enough for me proof that she had definitely just checked me out.

     "Good morning," I said, hardly trying to hide my smirk.

     She cleared her throat and looked away entirely before replying with the same greeting. I headed over to my closet and pulled out a shirt. As much as I enjoyed being on display for Ava-Rain's viewing, I knew it would only be a matter of time before my wolf and I decided to even out the playing field.

     Don't get me wrong, self-control was an attribute I prided myself in having and maintaining. But, little by little, Ava-Rain was proving to be the ultimate test of that self-control. I wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed and relish in the comfort that holding her in my arms relentlessly provided. But if I did, if I allowed the red and blue to take the reins, then I ran the risk of pushing her away. And that, especially now, was not an option. Ava-Rain was not ready for that side of me, and in all honesty, I don't believe that she was ready for that side of herself.

     "Join me for breakfast?" I continued to run the towel through my hair as I walked over to the foot of the bed.

     "I'm not really hungry."

     She continued to avoid my gaze and I knew why. She was embarrassed. It was obvious that the intimate moments we shared last night were taunting her just as much as they were taunting me. Last night, Ava-Rain had taken a step out of her comfort zone and—if her refusal to look at me was any indication—liked it. She allowed herself to feel things that she had never felt and opened herself up to vulnerability despite her need for control. She had been given a mere taste of the unknown and it scared her. But I had gotten a taste of her, and fear was the last thing that I felt. Ava-Rain could dish out as many implausible excuses she wanted, but there was no denying the fact that she burned for me.