The wolf is so preoccupied in its own misery that it doesn't even notice my presence.
My lip quivers as a desperate, grieving pain takes hold.
I scamper over the shattered glass strewn across the tile, dropping to the floor when I reach him. I throw myself over his back and shoulder like a blanket, clinging onto him as if my life depends on it. Glass shards dig into my knees, but I don't even feel them. The pressure is there, though the pain is a ghost.
"I'm so sorry," I breathe out, my face buried in his silky pelt. I'm beyond sorry. Sorry doesn't even begin to graze the surface of what I am.
His muscles ripple beneath me as he shifts, the cracking and popping of bones filling my ears. Instead of soft fur, my cheek is pressed against smooth, hot skin.
Within seconds he's turned around and sitting up, pulling me into his lap with ferocious force. He doesn't seem to care that I'm sopping wet with hair plastered against my face. His arms lock around me, pressing me flush against him. Like clockwork, my legs go on either side of his torso and my arms wrap around his neck tightly, hugging his head against my collarbone.
"I shouldn't have left you," I murmur against his shoulder. My fingers drag across his skin as they curl into fists, holding onto him for dear life.
He inhales fervently, taking in my scent.
His wolf was making his life hell because he was fighting it. I knew that, yet I still left him alone to deal with the anguish himself.
I'm an idiot. A fucking moron.
"Riot... Say something. Please," I beg. His silence has always been frustrating, but I'm not frustrated anymore. I'm terrified. Terrified of what I might have done.
He tightens his arms around me, squeezing me. Even if I wanted to, the possibility of breaking away now is fictional.
"Why?" He croaks out against the junction of my neck and shoulder. His hot breath makes goosebumps rise on my back.
"Why?" I repeat. Why what?
He pulls back, his hands moving to grip my sides as he looks at me. Something flashes in his obsidian eyes. Something I can't even begin to understand the meaning of.
"Why did you go with them?" His voice is jaded. I can't tell if he's broken inside or building a fire.
"I had to-"
"I come back and you're just gone. Strange scents were everywhere," his growl lowers to an even deadlier level, "Mixed with yours." His fingers are digging into my sides and the growth of his claws isn't exactly subtle. Nonetheless, I hold back the wince.
"You don't know how badly I wanted to track them down and rip them limb from limb," his eyes darken as he talks, as well as his tone until the point that I see canines flashing behind his lips. "Just because their scents were on yours."
Before I can even state my claim, another foreboding growl leaves his throat. "And you let them."
He suddenly lifts me off of him, sitting me carelessly on the floor beside him. He gets up in a hurry, walking out of the kitchen before I even have the chance to blink.
YOU ARE READING
The Exiled Alpha | ✓
Werewolf"It's like he's a different breed of werewolf. Something... beyond us." • • • Adrienne Gage has spent her entire life being shunned and punished for her mouthy attitude, and being loyal to a pack which doesn't deserve her loyalty. It's been a year...
