บท 4: Chapter Four: Seeking Truth
Kinsley’s POV
Terron looms in the doorway, his body bare like it had been in the clearing with the rogue fight, but this is different. His pale exterior is pink and red, taut with frustration and exhaustion.
He gives his friend, his Beta, a stern look that is a clear warning to us both. Lucas leaves, patting his Alpha on his shoulder as he does so.
Being left alone with an Alpha is daunting. I blink back spots in my eyes, overwhelmed with his aura that has only grown more powerful since he left for a run.
He is as lost as I am in this charade and even if I don't feel a pull with his wolf, I can admit when it looks like I've hurt him unintentionally; it wounds my broken soul.
Terron shuts the door with a look of pure disappointment crossing his furrowed features. He’s much taller than I am, easily towering over Ace in comparison, but even from down on the floor, staring up at his magnificent physique, I can only meet his eyes.
They’re intoxicatingly eccentric, so cold and deep like the furthest depths of the ocean. I want to swim in the pools of his mind, of his power, but not after what he just caught me referencing.
“Rejection?” he growls. “You just met me a few hours ago– I saved your life! You’re already talking to my Beta about rejecting me?”
“It wasn’t like that.” I held onto my throat, strained from overuse after so long of no use at all.
“Then what was it? Little wolf, you are my mate. I wouldn’t stand here otherwise and tell you this if it weren’t the truth. There is a threat of war with the biggest band of rogues in these woods and I wouldn’t rescue you from his grasp if it were just out of spite.”
He looks elsewhere, subduing a soft wince in his body.
“You would be dead,” he says softly, clearly pained at the thought.
I can accept that claim. It’s true, no matter how gruesome it is to consider.
Terron’s pack swept through the woods with such ease I didn’t know was possible. It is uncomfortable to think about their brief consideration of whether to kill me or not.
Without my bond with Terron, I would be dead.
“I’m sorry,” I breathe, bowing my head in submission.
Seeing my neck is an active sign of a deep, sincere apology. Ace always took it as a weakness, a time to strike out at me for misbehaving, but Terron doesn’t react as Ace would’ve. Ace would be breaking more things, throwing a fit like an unruly pup not getting their way. It’s all I’ve ever known as a response.
Terron kneels on the floor beside me and rests his hand over both of mine.
I meet his deep gaze again, lost as I paddle through the unknown.
“I’m sorry if I startled you,” he breathes. “From what I know through the mind link with Lucas, you can’t feel your wolf. Is that right?”
I nod, somewhat curious as to whether Lucas had left the link open for his Alpha the entire time. As his Beta, I should have assumed they would do something this clever.
I’m disappointed in my choice of words now. If I were talking to my proclaimed mate directly then I wouldn't have mentioned rejection.
I didn’t want to insult him.
“You have a beautiful voice,” he says, speaking in a hushed tone that makes my cheeks blush in harsh streaks of heat. “Why wouldn’t you talk to me before?”
“Ace would hurt me,” I admit. “I shut down my mind so long ago that I had nothing to say at first. I didn’t want to upset you, in case you were anything like–”
“I am nothing like that mutt,” he growls, cutting me short. “I’m not here to hurt you, mate. The bond we have is special. It’s a blessing from the moon goddess. We just have to find out a little more about what has happened to you and get settled.”
Settled.
As I kneel on his floor, I realize I've never been settled. It must be equated to calm, to relaxation, because that’s exactly what Terron does for me. It’s something I’ve never felt before.
He exhales a deep sigh and offers a short, staggered smile.
I glance down at his frame, still naked and dripping wet from the rain. I divert my eyes elsewhere and he mumbles a laugh before standing and moving out of view.
He returns to my side wearing a pair of denim pants. His hand is outstretched for mine. I take it willingly, wishing I could feel a spark, a physical connection of any kind that would hint that we are mates. I let him help me stand and walk, thankful for his warmth.
I wish I had a wolf now, more than ever before.
“Lucas got a bath ready for you, little wolf. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
We retreat down a narrow hall. Instead of that familiar sight of the moon overhead, there is a roof, the rain connecting to its surface in magnetic pitter-patter rhythms.
Terron edges me toward the bathtub and I slip into it reluctantly. He kneels nearby, the water making my skin red, but only because of how freezing cold my body is. It’s unfamiliar to want to be clean, to soak in water warmer than the creek. I already know that I like it.
Terron works at the remainder of my dress, tossing it aside while I bring my arms up to my chest to hide it from sight.
Considering what was my outfit when he found me and carried me in his arms the entire way back to his pack, I can safely assume that whatever I am attempting to shield from his sight has already been seen.
He takes a rag and some soap, working in circular patterns over my skin. There are marks here that can’t be washed off with soap and a rag. I watch as the water gradually grows darker in shade, time fleeting by while I hold my arms up to the light. Little bruises and cuts are scattered all over me.
He works carefully at my cheek, a fresh cut stinging where a rogue had hit me.
It was too common to consider it something terrible. It is how rogues operate. They live outside of power dynamics, making it a constant struggle of imbalances among other like-minded monsters. I suppose I have been a rogue for a long period of time, but I would never consider being as crass as those monsters were to me.
I wince at the pain they inflicted on me, the pain Ace had insisted I deserved.
“Did I hurt you?” he asks with a hint of fear in his voice. I shake my head.
“You’re beautiful, little wolf,” Terron huffs.
I meet his eyes, although I am embarrassed to the core at how filthy I am. How could he see beauty? Even with a mating pull, I don’t think his eyesight is that manipulated. I’m dirty, marked, and wounded. I’m weak. How beautiful is that?
He brings a strand of my long hair forward, squeezing the water out of its lengthy clump that he brushed out as gently as possible. When he releases my hair, the end falls into the water, at least waist deep to my surprise.
It had been so tightly knotted and matted together that it made it appear shorter and darker with the caked-in mud and grime buildup. Taking the strands of hair in my hands now, I’m caught off guard by the color of it.
“It– it’s red.”
“Yes, it is,” Terron grins. “You didn’t know your hair color?”
I shake my head in mild shame. “I had no idea. It’s very beautiful, though. I love it.”
“It suits you,” he says.
When he drains the water, he grabs a towel and wraps it around me to keep me warm. I see my legs, pale and clean, though spotted with a few cuts and bruises. Some of them are fresher than others, but the fact I am not covered in soot is alarmingly new for me.
“We’re going to have to figure out your name next,” he says, helping me to a weak and weary stand. I cling to the towel covering my body, staring up at this daunting, commanding Alpha. His aura aches my soul.
“That is if you don’t plan on rejecting me.”
I bow my head in meek submission again. “I won’t reject you. I’m sorry I even mentioned it to Lucas.”
“It’s okay, little wolf.”
He pulls at my chin, a move Ace has done in the past to force my gaze into his, to overwhelm me with his power, but when Terron does it, it’s a gentle tug. He isn’t forcing me to stare into his eyes, he is gently tilting my head. The difference is clear.
The difference is everything.
“If you refrain from wanting to reject me, I think I can help you, mate,” he says, his tone sturdy. “I’m an Alpha. I have a lot of pull with other packs. I can find your family if you’d like.”
I nod vehemently.
“It’s a deal then,” he says with a smile.
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