Page 16

SERAPHINA

O ver the next few weeks, I lose whatever suspicions I might have had that Soren knew more than he let on. We fall into an easy kind of relationship that seemed surreal at first but comfortable as time passed by.

He is rather difficult to 'not like', and I figured placing him in the friend zone would easily resolve the problem of my growing attraction to him. Not that it worked.

It began creeping on me slowly, when he took me on a morning run and laughed at me when I sat on the grass helplessly because I was seconds away from passing out.

When he somehow always had a bottle of water in hand and held my hair up while I puked.

When he lingered during the tutoring sessions he could attend when he wasn't away for his Head Alpha duties, annoying the shit out of me with his stern inputs and handing me a bowl of ice cream afterwards as an apology.

When he trained me personally and forced me even a step further every day, by getting on my nerves until I could land a hit and more, then rewarded me with the weirdest heart warming gifts.

Like baby socks.

And soon, I couldn't tell when I began laughing more freely, or looking forward to having dreams or nightmares, so I could have an excuse to slip into my bedroom and fall asleep beside him while he worked.

Acknowledging that he was my comfort would make it real, and so, I called him a friend. Baby steps, I think.

The weeks blurred into months. My belly grew rounder.

My body grew stronger. I ran miles longer every day with and without Soren.

I attended pack meetings and my voice slowly began to hold relevance in rooms of people who once thought themselves better than me.

I hosted revelries. Soren was right. Everyone seemed to come to heel when they thought I was carrying his child. But that was only part of it.

I learned the right words to speak and how to be heard. I learned to walk into a room and command respect. I learned politics, taught by the best tutors and Soren himself. I mediated, negotiated, oversaw.

Quickly, relationships developed. Eric and I.

..we have a bitter sweet relationship. He's become like the sibling you constantly think of strangling.

Sometimes, he is friendly and sweet. Other times, he is an asshole who fights me on everything and I hate him most when he has to fill in for Soren and train me. He's a damned sadist.

His newest love interest and girlfriend, on the other hand, Lilia, is a dear and has quickly become a friend. I have others, wives of Betas and Alphas, but I don't trust them as far as I can throw them, so I keep them at arm's length. Mostly.

"And Axel? Has Liv given any inkling that he might be joining the strays?" Soren asks, matching my pace as we clear the sixth mile, heading towards the wilds.

I wipe cold sweat off my forehead. "You know Liv. She speaks of everyone else but her family. I couldn't get it out of her."

Alpha Axel has been absent from most gatherings, even the mandatory summons from Soren for the council. One might think he took Soren's threats to heart. And there's the message from Soren's spies that says he's been meeting with the Southern Head Alpha a lot lately.

I duck under a branch. "Where are we going? My back is killing me—oh." I freeze at the 'thump' on the right side of my belly.

Soren is instantly in front of me, eyes scanning me with worry. But I start grinning. "He kicked."

An odd excitement flickers across his face and he places both hands on my belly. Around. Under. Concentrating hard enough to pop a vein. "Where? I don't feel anything."

I swat his hands away. "Maybe because he's scared of you."

Soren scowls, his full mouth drooping into a frown. "Why? Except you're whispering terrible things to her at night. You know pups can hear you speak, even before they are born."

"It's a boy," I argue, heading down the path more carefully. My abdomen feels heavier and I think I might need to pee again. "Soren?—"

"We're almost there," he promises.

Five minutes later, we halt before a massive tree with branches that seem to be reaching out into the skies.

Beyond it is a clearing of land so vast, I can barely see where it ends.

I stand straighter, lips parting in surprise as I note canopy after canopy, shrouding it from the sun and snow so that it remains green and untouched. "Where are we?"

Soren's voice comes from beside me. "My favorite place in the world." And in one smooth movement, he takes off his shirt.

My mouth dries as my eyes devour him. Broad, thick shoulders, massive arms large enough to crush my skull, a well-defined torso.

My fingers itch to separate the lines between each peck.

And goddess, that v that disappears into his spandex.

His nipples are a dark pink and the wildest thought pops into my head.

Would he groan if I dragged my tongue along them?

His fingers move to the waistband of his pants and when he begins to push it down, I turn around sharply. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Undressing," he deadpans.

"I know. I mean why?!"

His shirt and pants land on a tree branch and his briefs join them a second later. When he speaks again, I have a funny feeling it's inside my head. "Turn around, Sera."

"What? No! You're butt-naked!"

An irritated growl comes from behind me this time and I decide I'll look in his eyes and nowhere else.

Only, when I turn, Soren isn't standing there.

It's the biggest wolf I have ever seen in my life, nearly as tall as I am and twice as large.

Maws snap inches away from my face and I scream, falling back on my ass.

Soren's laughter slips into my mind, making me scream again. "Get out of my head! How can you even do that?!"

The eyes of the wolf are a piercing gold with a rim of green so deep, it appears black. It blinks twice, regarding me and it suddenly takes a step forward, causing my heart to jump. It—He nuzzles my neck and licks my face. Twice.

"Gross," I complain and it kicks me the third time.

"Get on," Soren speaks into my head, managing to still surprise me. Has he always been able to do that? "I have somewhere I want you to see."

I stand, wincing at the sudden pressure in my bladder, but it is gone as quickly as it came.

I walk around Soren awkwardly, trying to figure out how to sit on him.

"I've never heard of using a wolf as a ride before.

" I sit on his furry back and swing my leg to the other side like one would with a horse.

The pain in my back lessens significantly enough that I sigh.

"Hold the pelt. Tightly. I won't have you falling off."

I scowl, but do as he tells me. His fur is soft and it is difficult to keep a hold on it, but I grip tightly. Soren lurches forward and my knees dig into his side as he runs through the wilds in a blur.

I've never been able to tap into the animalistic side to me before, never been able to run with the wolves.

Sitting on Soren's back with the wind whipping my hair back and forth, the air clean and cool as I breathe in, I admit that it would have been nice to be born as something other than an Omega.

This is beyond exhilarating. Freeing. We pass by a few wolves also running through the wilds but none of them go as far as we do.

I let go of his pelt only to feel the wind with my fingers and lean low enough to run my hands through the high crops, raise my hands up to try to touch the trees whose branches join to reach the canopies. My smile is wide enough to hurt my cheeks.

We come to a stop at the edge of a cliff and I gasp at the view.

The world stretches out before me, raw and untouched, bathed in golden hues of the rising sun.

The cliff towers over a valley carved by time, where a river of molten silver winds through lush emerald fields, speckled with wildflowers in every shade of gold and crimson.

Mist and snow cling to distant peaks that touch the stormy skies that seem closer to the earth here.

It feels like standing at the edge of the world. Infinite. And if I reached higher, perhaps I could feel the clouds on my fingers.

I get off Soren, spinning around in a circle. "It's beautiful."

"It is."

I turn left and instantly wish I didn't. Soren's...well, he's not in his wolf form anymore. Gloriously naked. Beautiful. I try to keep my eyes from traveling lower but my curiosity gets the best of me. They stray for a second and linger too long on his lower half before I jerk them up forcefully.

But it's too late.

It takes me more tries than I'll ever admit to get my speech right and even then, my brain is mush. His eyes are dark as tar, intense as he watches me watch him. Since that night on the couch, we have avoided toeing this line—whatever this is.

Glances are often exchanged over breakfast and dinner, our fingers might accidentally brush against each other's as we try to pass the salt, or reach for something else, and I let him tuck me in every night, while he lets me sleep on his shoulder. But it's never been more than that.

No kisses. No suggestive touches. Nothing.

It was like going from flying to crawling, but I was grateful for it, because I wasn't sure I was ready to face any of it, ready to understand why my entire world seemed to gravitate towards him and yearn for him to disrespect my wishes and kiss me one more time.

And it is so much harder because I can never tell what he's thinking, neither do I know if he feels the way I do.

Soren's gaze shimmers with a sharp spike of heat and the only reason I do not take a step back when he moves is because we're on the very edge of the cliff. "I don't know what to do when you look at me like that, Sera."

His pupils seem dilated. His high cheekbones slightly flushed.

He's so beautiful, so perfectly, horribly, inhumanly beautiful that I can barely breathe as he wraps a long, big arm around my waist and pulls me closer, away from the danger of falling.

"Do you bring every woman you're with here, hold her over a cliff with the choice of jumping off or kissing you? "

He laughs, eyes crinkling softly. "No, but it's an interesting idea." He tucks my hair behind my ear and traces my jawline with his thumb, stopping on my chin.

I hold my breath, heart racing as his thumb rises, brushing against my bottom lip. "And what would you have picked?"

"Jumping off," I lie.

He loosens a breath, tilting slightly, just the perfect angle as he leans in, obliterating whatever distance there is between us. I start to shut my eyes when I suddenly...it's like my bladder loosens.

I look down, watching my sweats turn a darker red as it turns wet. Wide-eyed, I drag my gaze back to Soren. "I think my water just broke."