"This was the pack I had heard only stories about in my younger years. The pack of wild wolves blessed by the Gods, that embraced their savagery, that were born to hunt and install fear into the hearts of all those weaker than them."
***
The Colora...
It was when I had lost count of how many laps I had done and I was very nearly about to drown from exhaustion that I realised I'd lost sight of him completely. The sun had long been set by now, the water far too dark to see beneath it. But I couldn't scent him. He was under there, somewhere, he had to be, holding his breath for far longer than I thought was possible.
Treading water, I finally stopped swimming, twisting from side to side, my eyes locked on the water straining to find him.
A sharp yelp filled the night air as my legs were tugged and I was pulled down. Just as quick as my head went under, I was back up again, Alpha Harris' arms wrapped tightly around my thighs as he held me up and out of the water while I caught my breath back.
He was laughing at me, at the scowl on my face as I glared down at him. My hands pressed down on his shoulders. His expression had melted from his usual stern expression into a wry amusement, and just like before I was transfixed.
"You've got to be more vigilant," he teased, releasing me just enough so that I slid down across his front and back into the water as he moved us closer to the edge of the pool. I nearly shuddered at the contact. Then his arms were gone, but he was still so close. His laughter had subdued, a soft smile on his face that slowly faded as again he was staring at me, watching me, waiting for something. Only I didn't know what.
We were no physically closer to each other than any other training session, no more exposed to the others gaze. But there was something intimate about this moment, under the watchful eye of the moon, basking in the cool water of the natural pool.
"Alpha Harris," I breathed out, a small voice inside my head screaming at me to move away while I stayed frozen in the shallow of the pool. The water came to the hollow of my throat, my toes barely resting on the rock beneath. I should have stepped back, moved closer to the natural sloping shore, away from Alpha Harris.
I was trapped in another staring contest, unable to look away and submit to the man before me as a good, obedient wolf would. But there was no challenge in the Alpha's eyes, eyes that had once appeared black and I now realised to have the faintest flecks of warm caramel, a feature that shouldn't be close enough for me to notice.
"Thane." The Alpha muttered, barely above a whisper. But the deep timbre of his voice echoed endlessly in my ears, amidst the repetitive pulse of blood rushing through them like white noise.
"What?" I was able to mumble back, too distracted to register even my own words.
"My name. Call me Thane."
"Thane," I repeated, his name breathless on my lips. His eyes closed, a soft exhale parting his lips at the sound.
Thane stepped closer, his arm winding around my waist and pulling my chest to press against his scorching skin - a sharp contrast to the icy water. I didn't object. I felt his nose graze the length of my neck, heard him inhale, knew he was breathing in my scent. I still couldn't move, I didn't want to move away from him. Not as a dangerous throbbing in my core had me melting into his embrace, not as my pulse raced and I too allowed myself to grow drunk on his scent. A scent I knew I would never forget.
But then I felt the caress of his lips on my skin and knew how wrong this all was.
Palms flat against his chest I pushed him away gently, and he allowed me to. Immediately Thane's arms had released me, his touch nothing more than a memory on my skin, and I felt a cold wash of reality bathe my entirety.
This was oh so wrong. I was a fool; a fool for allowing this to happen, for allowing my attraction for the powerful man before me to burn at all. Especially as I realised for the first time that he too may share an attraction for me.
"Emily." My name caressed his lips softer than I thought any word could, his voice rough.
"We should go back." My tone flat and cold, I didn't miss the way his jaw clenched and his eye hardened.
I turned pulled myself from the water, feeling it drip down my back as I pulled myself up onto the rock ledge, not allowing myself to watch as Alpha Harris did the same.
He didn't respond to my abrupt tone or the sudden stiffness to my body as I snatched my discarded clothes from the ground. I didn't bother to put them on, or my shoes. I was wet through and we had no towels, and I really didn't feel like washing my freshly cleaned clothes so soon.
Not waiting for him to follow, I was already stalking back through the trees, eager to get back to the safety of the pack house where I knew Alpha Harris would keep his distance. I needed that, so I could think clearly and assess what the hell had just happened.
My body felt drained from the swimming, but more so over the ache in my chest that wouldn't dissipate.
By the time I was back in my room, unable to stop myself from looking out of my window at the line of trees where I knew Harris would emerge, I caught his stern figure's slow approach across the field. His body looked tense, the muscles tightly coiled within him, begging to be unbound. But he didn't storm towards the main house, didn't express any fury in his face, only centred his gaze on what I was certain was my window. He watched me, watching him, as he came closer. His bare feet pressing into the grass, a slight sheen to his body as the moonlight reflected from the water that hadn't fully dried, he was still only in his shorts, the damp black fabric clinging to his muscular thighs, seeming unbothered by how exposed he was to my gaze.
It was too much, he was too much. He wasn't just a man, wasn't just a wolf. He wasn't just an Alpha.
If I wasn't careful, if I let him, this male could ruin me.
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This has definitely been my favourite chapter to write so far, what do you guys think?
