Filed To Story: Chasing the Rejected Luna's Heart (Clara & Liam) Book PDF Free
I frowned. “If it’s that easy, then why didn’t those guys who attacked me in the alley just do that?” The thought made me shudder.”Not all vampires are capable of it,” he assured me. “And not to sound arrogant, but I’m better at it than most. Like any skill, it develops with practice and age.””Good to know.” All the more reason to be wary of him, and yet, that wasn’t my initial response. “You said you suppressed…whatever that was. Do you have any idea?””I can’t say for certain,” he answered, growing thoughtful. “But given the fact that it is a full moon, I’d say it has something to do with your wolf.””That bitch,” I muttered. Not quite as under my breath as I had hoped, when I saw the way he was looking at me. “She and I aren’t exactly on speaking terms.””Alright, you’re going to have to fill me in on what that means.”
As much as I really didn’t want to get into the whole not being able to shift thing, not the least of all because it was embarrassing, I figured I owed him that.”Yeah, um. I’m not a wolf shifter.” The incredulity on his face told me I wasn’t off to a great start. “Not entirely. I’m a hybrid, which my mother conveniently neglected to tell me for my entire life.”
His eyes widened slightly, but that was his only visible reaction. “So when it came time for your first shift…””She was a no-show,” I finished. “Guess she just decided to be fashionably late, but the damage was done.”
His brows furrowed even deeper. “And the one who put those marks on you?”
I touched the one on the right side of my neck instinctively. Of course he’d noticed that. I usually wore concealer to at least try to hide them, and armbands or fingerless gloves that covered the one on my wrist while I was working, but I’d probably sweated it off at the gym if not from whatever weird fever had overcome me all of a sudden. “My mates. Intended, anyway.”
It should have gotten easier to talk about, but it clearly hadn’t. I couldn’t blame the empty feeling in the pit of my stomach on my wolf this time.”
Mates?” he echoed.
I let out a slow breath, turning back to the garden since it was hard enough to meet his gaze under regular circumstances but way too uncomfortable when we were on this subject. “They’re a bonded triad. Bonded to each other, anyway.””That’s…rare.””Incredibly,” I mumbled. “So naturally, they couldn’t afford to be saddled with a Luna who isn’t even a full-blooded wolf.””So they’re cowards, then.”
I turned back, surprised by his response. Not nearly as much as I was surprised by the disgust in his crimson depths, though. It was a reminder of the way he’d looked that night, and of how quickly his wrath could be summoned, making him look like the vampire he was rather than the collected, debonair guy I had just started to get used to.”It’s understandable,” I said with another shrug. For some reason, I felt inclined to defend them even though it was nothing more than I’d accused them of myself. Maybe it was just because he was an outsider and, for all the bad blood and pain there was between us, the guys were still pack. They were still the friends I had grown up with, the boys who’d been such a fundamental part of my youth.”It’s pathetic,” he countered. “I admit, I don’t know too much about the mating process of wolves, but I assume once the mark has begun, it’s supposed to be completed. Surely that has something to do with what you’re experiencing.””Maybe. I felt different ever since it started, but they didn’t seem to.”
They had all seemed to move on easily enough. The fact that I couldn’t just made it all so much worse.”Maybe it’s not true what they say about wolves, after all,” he said thoughtfully. When he saw the confusion on my face, he added, “Unflinching loyalty and all that.” “Maybe not. But I don’t even know what the other half of me is, so I guess I don’t have much room to talk.””Forgive me for saying so, but I’d take whatever you are over one of them any day,” Alexander said, reaching out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. I froze, allowing it. Mostly because I didn’t know what to do or say. Something in his gaze had me frozen once more, but it wasn’t the way it had felt back then when he compelled me. I wished it were that simple.”I…” I turned away while I still had the presence of mind to do so. “I should get back home. My boss will be wondering where I am.”
It was both the truth and a way to make sure he knew someone would notice if I disappeared.
He seemed to know that, but he let his hand fall away. “I think you should stay here. Until the full moon is over at least. You’re welcome to call your friend from the landline since your phone is at the bottom of a lake.”
I groaned inwardly. That wasn’t feeling like such a hot decision now. No matter how much I wanted to be wary of Alexander, though, it was only cerebral, my common sense demanding that I at least go through the motions. The truth was, I was more concerned about the fact that this man–a vampire, of all things–made me feel safer than I could remember being in a long damn time. Maybe ever.”I can’t. I have to work.”
He gave me a look. “The compulsion won’t last if we’re separated. If it happens again, you’re certainly not going to be in any condition to wait tables.”
I chewed the inside of my lip, annoyed but knowing he was right. “There’s a chance the end of the full moon won’t be enough.””That’s true,” he agreed. “In that case, I will do what I can to help you come to the truth.”
I watched him for a moment, searching his face for answers to questions I wasn’t quite sure of. “Why are you helping me?” I finally asked. “I’m sure you have better things to do.””Other things, perhaps,” he conceded, smiling faintly. “But not better.”
Something about those words affected me more than I wanted to acknowledge, even if I wasn’t quite sure how. If I had met him in another lifetime, never having been promised to the others, or knowing what it was like to feel so betrayed I was certain that if I ever opened my heart up again it would kill me, the answer would’ve been clearer.
And a lot easier to swallow.
* * *
Once I was back in my room and I’d canvassed the room for any sign of the baby vampire, I locked the door for all the good it would do me. I really needed a shower, and Sam could wait since she wouldn’t notice my absence until tomorrow at the earliest.
The bathroom attached to the suite I had woken up in was as luxurious as the rest of the place. There were stone walls and a shower with a showerhead long and wide enough to make a cascade all the way across. It felt like standing under a waterfall, and the pounding jets were soothing to my aching muscles. Weirdly, the warm water made the heat under my skin feel less noticeable.