Page 54 of Ruthless Alpha Beast

But then she turned around, and in seconds I was gone.

I could hear her calling my name, and along with the sound of her voice came my guilt.If I can’t trust myself to be around her, I have to stay away from the house.

The thing is, I’ve been away from the house often, busy with council meetings and hunts, and haven't had time to gawk over the pretty little human living in my home.

But still, the distance hasn’t been enough, I need more.

So I’ve decided to go on even more hunts.

I’ve figured out Tara’s schedule and have made sure that I’ve been around when I know she’s away. The safe times to be in the cabin are during mid-morning and very late in the evening.

Yesterday, I was exhausted, I stumbled home and collapsed onto my couch, ready for an evening of peace.

I was pretty happy with myself, leaning back with my feet up on the coffee table, looking smug.

What should I do?I asked myself.

I can do anything I want; I’m free.

I got out a book, read a couple of pages, but the book reminded me of Tara (who loves reading), and there was something in there that I wanted to talk to her about.

Something to do with war strategies, it reminded me of a conversation we had sort of recently about whether doing ‘more’ can actually amount to doing less.

I almost went upstairs to where she was sleeping to wake her up and ask her what she thought.

Then I shook my head and kept reading.

But the silence didn’t feel peaceful anymore, just empty. No sassy comments, no huffing and puffing, no complaining about how I don’t take care of myself enough—no nothing, just silence.

It’s deranged that I’ve grown to miss her.

I even miss the arguments.

I remember our latest one, she’d read something in a book, I don’t remember what it was, but somehow it got her onto the topic of human-shifter relations.

“Why don’t you build an alliance with them?” She asked me.

“Build an alliance with humans? Are you insane?”

Tara was sitting on the couch. I came home a little earlier than usual. I knew she’d be there; I was just too exhausted to avoid home.

“Why’s that insane?”

“Humans wouldn’t be able to handle what we are. They’d make war before they made peace.”

She cleared her throat. “Well, what about me?”

I wouldn’t exactly say that Tara and I haven’t been making war, but most of that has been my fault. Not hers.

“Okay, okay,” I conceded. “But you’re one person.”

“Yes,” she said. “You could also just ally with one person, one important person. Wouldn’t it be good to work together? Think about all the things you could discover, all the things you could teach the humans.”

“That’s not how it works.”

“Well, tell me then, how does it work?”

“Humans get scared of what they don’t understand, and their first reaction is to reject what they’re scared of, and that usually looks like going to war.”