Crown of Blood

12 | in the night

"Hey," I put my hands up in surrender. "Once again, I'm just checking. Your other half didn't really get the memo at first."

My wolf was on high alert. I could tell his actions were pleasing her, but her guard was up just enough to prevent herself from fully trusting him - in case he turned on us like Alpha Eastwood had.

"Do you ..." I bit my lip in hesitation. With a shake of my head, I cleared my throat and continued. "Do you feel the mate bond?"

His right paw shot forward in a flash, as he lifted his head up and started howling in pride.

"Quiet!" I shut him up by chucking the blanket at his face. "You're going to wake up the living and the dead!"

I slapped my hand on my forehead when I realized I had just disrespected an alpha wolf. In fact, I had almost forgotten he was an alpha at all. Something about him had put me entirely at ease, and that was a feeling I hadn't experienced in a long time.

"I am so sorry.."

After a moment of aggressively shaking his head, the blanket finally fell off and I braced myself for his anger.

But instead I was met with him putting his head in my lap.

I could feel my beast's happiness radiating from within, a small smile dancing on my lips. Alpha Eastwood I could hate, but his wolf was too kind for me to do that. My hand began stroking his fur on its own accord, and he let out a rumble in satisfaction.

A moment later, he pulled away and went over to the table, picking up the book I had been reading with his teeth. Placing it in my lap, he settled back on the ground.

"Okay," I laughed. "But I'm warning you, this story is really sad. It's about a boy named Amir from Kabul, which is in Afghanistan by the way, and ... "

I rambled on, giving him an unnecessarily detailed summary of what I had read so far, before picking up from where I had left off. He watched me intently, listening hard to every word I was saying. After about half an hour of reading the book to him, a yawn escaped my mouth.

He immediately got up and brought the blanket to me.

"Thank you," my voice was strained from reading the book aloud. "I should probably get to sleep, did you want me to let you out?"

He shook his head, letting out a low growl as an indicator that he wanted to stay.

"Okay," I agreed, too tired to argue.

Another yawn escaped my mouth as I turned off the lamp. "Next time, bring me a snack please."

 "Goodnight," I gave him a smile, to which he responded with a little bark, before laying his head back down. 

With a sigh, I snuggled into the couch, the thought of my mate's two different sides occupying my dreams.

~*~

I woke up the next morning to see he had already left.

Though I was slightly disappointed, I didn't really know what else I had expected. It wasn't as if he was about to shower me with roses now that his wolf had warmed up to me.

I chuckled internally at the thought of him waking up in my room, confused as to how he had gotten there, especially since he wanted nothing to do with me.

Padding over to the bathroom, I brushed my teeth and washed my face. With a groan, I put my brown contacts on, trying not to cringe at the burning sensation. My vision blurred slightly, but it wasn't much worse than my normal eyesight.