“I hear Hazel might be well enough to return home,”
Dee said, glancing at me sideways. “Which means your mother will be relieved of her duties there soon.”
“Knowing my mom, she will probably stick around a little longer once she’s sure they no longer need her,”
I chuckled. “That’s something she’d do.”
Dee chuckled.
“I don’t doubt that,”
she said in return. “I have faith that pretty soon you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that all these bad guys who have been out to get you are locked away and out of reach.”
“I hope so,”
I murmured as I continued to chop the veggies. “I guess I’m just a little worried about who sent Xander to me. There has to be some kind of big boss that put him up to this. Maybe someone Paul was working with… or working for.”
The thought left me unsettled; I thought Paul was the one we had to be worried about but now it seems like there’s another.
“Enzo isn’t going to let anything happen to you. Especially now that he’s back at that school. He’s going to be keeping a watchful eye on you.”
“How did you know he was returning to school?”
I asked, raising my brows. We had only just spoken about this yesterday and I didn’t realize Enzo had the chance to talk to many others.
“I saw him earlier before he went downstairs to speak to our guest,”
Dee said, a grim look on her face as she said the word “guest.”
“I see,”
I said; I was becoming lost in thought again as I continued to wonder who sent Xander and what exactly they were looking for.
“Try not to overthink things dears,”
she said gently. “Things have a funny way of working out.”
I nodded and smiled.
Dinner was ready within the hour and by the time we were placing everything in the dining hall, my stomach was angrily growling. Dee sent a mindlink to the pack telling them that dinner was ready and soon the entire dining hall was flooded with pack members.
I grabbed a plate for myself and helped myself to some food before joining Dee in the kitchen where it was a bit quieter. I sat at the counter and ate my food slowly; she ate her food as well and we continued to have a light conversation about nothing in particular. It was nice to feel casual and not be pressured into talking about the things that had happened.
It wasn’t something I wanted to think about right now.
Soon, Enzo and my father joined us in the kitchen with their plates of food.
“Dinner smells delicious, Dee,”
Enzo said, sitting down beside me and giving me a gentle kiss. I knew he had just showered from the calm and soapy smell of his body.
He did the same thing this morning too before he joined me in bed and took a couple-hour nap considering we were awake all night. I wondered if he showered because he was covered in Xander’s blood, and he didn’t want me to see it.
“Lila helped,”
Dee said with a proud smile as she winked at me.
“She gets her cooking skills from her mother,”
my father said, also giving me a proud smile “Great job, sweetie.”
I smiled my thanks to him.
The four of us talked for a bit longer while we ate and then we all fell silent as we finished eating. By the time dinner was over, I helped Dee clear the plates in the dining hall and clean all the dishes. She had staff to help her as well, but I really wanted to give her my helping hand considering I was going to be the pack’s luna eventually.
When everything was all clean, Enzo and I said our goodbyes and we left for the academy.
“Keep trying to get answers out of him,”
Enzo instructed my father who nodded in agreement. “Keep me updated as well. I’ll be back this weekend.”
“Sounds good,”
my father said, shaking his hand.
When we got back to the school, it was just before curfew, and I was relieved that I wasn’t going to get in trouble again. I hadn’t even told Enzo that I got in trouble the last time he dropped me off late and how Alpha Johnathan was the one who basically saved me from that.
Enzo parked the car and turned off his headlights as he looked at me.
“Things have to be a bit different this time around,”
he said, and I saw the seriousness on his face.
I nodded to him, knowing exactly what he meant.
“We have to be careful,”
I said, trying to keep the worry out of my voice.
“And we will be,”
he said, touching the side of my face gently.
By instinct, I leaned into his touch. I felt the electric current from his fingertips, causing my flesh to tingle with excitement. I bit onto my bottom lip to keep from making any ridiculous sounds, but his touch was just so amazing.
His very presence made my heart quickly I must be stupid if I thought this was going to be easy.
He could read that very emotion on my face too because he was soon leaning in and kissing me gently on the lips. At first, the kiss was gentle, but then it deepened, and his tongue glided into my mouth, swirling around my tongue. He kissed me with such hunger and passion it took my entire breath away.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling myself close to him until he took the initiative and pulled me onto his lap.
He bit my bottom lip, hungrily drawing it into his mouth and sucking on it gently before devouring my lips. I chuckled against him as I continued to kiss him and run my fingers through his dark hair. He broke the kiss from my lips and trialed his mouth down the nape of my neck. He kissed the sweet spot he had marked, and it sent goosebumps to attack my skin.
He ran his fingers down the side of my neck, brushing my long hair out of the way as he continued to kiss down my shoulders and across my chest.
I grinded my hips against him, feeling him grow hard within his jeans and it only made my flesh burn with desire. His eyes darkened as my body warmed. A growl escaped from his throat, and I swear I saw the eyes of his wolf shining through, itching to be released.
I kissed him deeply, exploring his mouth with my tongue curiously and tasting everything, he had to offer.
It was he who pulled away too soon, leaving me breathless and irritated.
“They gave me back my faculty house,”
he breathed as I trailed my lips down the side of my neck.
“Okay?”
I murmured against him, feeling his body through his shirt with my hands.
“We should go there together…”
he said, causing me to freeze as I looked at him with wide eyes. I saw the desires twinkling in his eyes. “If we are going to be more careful and not get caught, we probably shouldn’t do this in the car in the parking lot in front of the dorms,”
he went on to explain.
I was suddenly feeling warm for a whole different reason as I started to pull off him.
But he kept his hands firmly on my waist keeping me in place as he kissed the side of my mouth slowly.
“I also want to rip your clothes off,”
he whispered. “I’d like to do that in bed…”
Lila’s POV
Enzo shut the door behind us as we entered his small house just outside the student campus. The faculty lived in a separate neighborhood where all the houses basically touched one another. Enzo got the house in the farthest corner, closer to the forest, so he was more hidden.
I had snuck here a couple of times last year, but I never went inside his house. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I didn’t think it would look so modern. Stepping into the house, I was immediately inside his living room, which consisted of a long couch where the ends reclined, and they had nice decorative pillows. In front of the couch was a glass coffee table with a couple of books lying on top. There was a flatscreen TV hanging on the wall with a couple of pictures of what looked like the goddess.
I’ve come to know from being at this school that there will be pictures of the goddess in random places. Nobody really knows for sure what she looks like, so most of these pictures are what people think she would look like.
Attached to the living room was a small kitchen with updated appliances and a small table in the corner, big enough to only fit two.
There was a door on the far side of the living room that assumed was either a bathroom or a closet.
Without saying anything, Enzo took my hand and led me down a narrow hallway where I noticed even more doors. There were about 3 other doors, one of which was opened a crack and I saw the large wooden desk with a desktop computer and a laptop sitting beside it. There were rows of bookshelves occupying the walls and behind the desk I noticed a large window overlooking the beautiful forest.
I’m assuming the other closed door beside his obvious at-home office was the guest bedroom.