The Alpha's Daydream ✔️

Chapter 55

5022 words

"Close your eyes."

"It's not another gift, is it?" Malachi raises his eyebrows in direct opposition to my command.

"No, this is just a small exercise to help you refocus." I squeeze his hands. "Now close your eyes."

"Fine," he complies after another moment of deliberating with himself whether to humour me or not.

We sit on the edge of the bed together and I hold his hands in my own. He rubs his thumbs on the back of my hands, distracting me with the small tingles that scatter over my skin. "Okay, if you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?"

"Um.."

I feel his hand movements pause as he thinks, caught off guard by my strange question.
"Anywhere. Anywhere at all," I prod. "The beach, the forest, a city with lots of little arcades, or even the mountains of IceSword Pack—"

"The jungle."

"The jungle?" It's my turn to be surprised.

"Where it's really warm. I hate the cold."

I open my eyes and watch him nod, his own eyes squeezed shut. I see the lines around them creasing and uncreasing as he strains to keep them closed. I smile at the thought that he is making an effort to do this for me. "Okay. That sounds nice. What's it look like?"

"Oh, you know. The usual. Lots of bushes and trees. I don't see the point—"

"What kind of trees? Use your imagination and tell me what's around you. I want to see it too." I close my eyes again and give his hands an encouraging squeeze. I've never done this with anyone before, but I would often disappear into my imagination when I was scared or sad or lonely. Imagining I was somewhere else, someplace I'd never been before, helped to distract me from the pain.

He takes a deep breath and releases it slowly. "I'm sitting on a path, a trail of some kind that disappears through the trees. There's lots of tall palms around me, and maybe some pines. I see vines strung between the branches and hanging down."

"Nice. So different from our forest."

"Yes, and there's a tree with wide roots spreading out from the truck, helping hold it up."

"A ceiba tree?" I ask, remembering something about these buttress roots from Savannah's plant guide that I'm reading.

"Maybe." He shrugs. "There's also lots of flowers. You'd love it in the jungle. I can see big red ones—"

"Hibiscus?"

"Yes, and smaller white ones. Hmm, frangipani? They smell amazing."

"They do. All the scents are so strong and earthy, and I think I can even smell the humidity in the air."

"There are some flowers growing in the trees, like parasites," he says excitedly, really getting into it.

"Do you mean orchids? They aren't actually parasites, but they just grow on the trees for support. They're sometimes called air plants."
I open my eyes when I hear Malachi chuckle. "What?" I glare at him.

He grins. "I think you know more about this jungle than me."

"I happen to be reading in a book about tropical plants—"

"Such a nerd," he teases, but I'm not offended. He's not making fun of me.

"Let's keep going. What can you hear in the jungle?"

He closes his eyes again and tilts his head, as if really listening. I feel glad that I've taken his mind of all the stressful things going on currently. We both need to just escape and relax, and spend time together.