The Alpha's Daydream ✔️

Chapter 7

1777 words

I can't explain why, but I run.

I turn and run like a pathetically frightened girl who can't stand up under the gaze of such an intimidating wolf. For he as he watched me, I felt the power radiate from him and it nearly made my lungs burst for breath. His scent of toasted chestnuts was captivating, but I am cowardly and weak. I never expected this time to be any different, but perhaps I had hoped it would be. Perhaps his scent spoke to me in different ways than the icy fear that wrapped around me last time. I am unsure whether I should've felt safe with him, or scared in the way I fear dark shadows.

It is too late now to find out, as I reach my home and find my mom making lunch in the kitchen. She looks at me as I stumble inside, and immediately orders me to sit down and drink a glass of water. Maybe she can see me the way I feel, with blood drained from my face and my lips barely sucking in enough air to sustain me.

"Honey, are you okay?" she asks while brushing my hair out of my eyes.

I clutch the glass tightly, glaring at it and willing my pulse to calm down. "Yeah, sure." I don't know if it's a lie or a hope.

She leaves me to myself the rest of the day, for which I'm thankful for. She's used to my behaviour and moods that change like the seasons. I hear her whisper concerns to Dad when he gets home, but besides an extra tight hug before bed, they don't treat me any differently. They know I will bounce back from whatever is plaguing me. I always have in the past. We all go through our dark moments, and they figured out long ago that I prefer to process things on my own.

What they don't know is that I'm not alone in this, not anymore. Every night those eyes haunt my dreams. Sometimes bright and smiling with a hazy background of forest and meadow; sometimes dark and pleading as night falls around him, death clutching his shoulders and asking for his life.

Everyday I walk through the northern forests, careful of the boundary between our territories, and snatch glimpses of him lurking in the trees; or as I sit in my meadow, overlooking the valley as the golden hues of sunlight drench the land, I watch him standing on the bluff, observing me from afar.

I don't know what he wants, and he never crosses the border to tell me. I am never brave enough to get up close and see for myself why his scent infuses into my very soul and calls to my wolf. I sense a darkness in him, and it pains me. I feel for him so deeply, as if I am supposed to mean something to him, but I cannot describe what. He is just another wolf, just a wandering soul who dares not cross his border. He is a stranger, and I have knowledge of him that cannot be real.

Once at night, I caught a trace of his scent wafting through my window, but when I looked out there was no one there. There's no way he would've risked my Alpha's wrath by crossing, would he?

I try to forget about him, but my wolf grows impatient. As I'm running through my peaceful forests I feel the weight on my heart, squeezing with curiosity and an itch to know. Even Gabby and Luci say I should woman up and face whatever is bothering me head on. I haven't given them exact details, but they guessed from stolen peeks at my book that I've seen him, in my dreams and real life. I think they are more curious than me, but as I pant and place one paw in front of the other on the leafy trail, I begin to doubt that. I look up, and suddenly realise where I am.

"It's you."

The soft voice startles me, the cold stream leaving my paws wet as I splash to the other side, and I jump as his shadow looms over me.

I quickly shift as his feet advance towards me, and I'd back away if it wasn't for the overwhelming compulsion to remain in place. He is here, right in front of me, his eyes of crystal blue staring at me intently as the breeze lightly brushes his fringe across his eyebrows. The black coat he wears and equally black trousers serve only to illuminate his eyes and define his perfectly sculpted facial features. He is young, perhaps not much older than me.