Chapter 31 - "I accept you ..."

LENA FELT SO DAMN CONFUSED. It was tough to imagine her loving father killing people, but something deep down inside her told her that it was true. After finding that one spell book, she went through each magical book carefully. Luckily, it was only the one book that she thought could be dangerous in the wrong hands.

What was strange, however, was the way Alaric was treating her since she gave him the book. He wasn’t friendly towards her or anything. It was as if he was fighting his own internal battle about what to think of her. The blood witch who was the daughter of the man that killed his parents … If only he would let her go, then they could both get on with their lives in peace, but that was also not going to happen.

Lena spent her days in the library with Rebecca, while Alaric clearly tried his best to avoid the two of them. Whenever they passed by pack members Lena could feel their hate radiating off them, but they no longer openly swore at her or called her names. She wondered for a moment if Alaric had told his people to behave and then she laughed at her own thoughts. There was no way he would ever tell his people to treat her like a human being!

No, they were probably just afraid because Lena no longer wore those damn cuffs that hurt her so badly and if they pushed her, nobody really knew what she was capable of. Alaric hadn’t told her not to do any magic. Not that she was able to, but none of them knew that. Thanks to Alaric, Lena was able to release her overflowing energy into the ground of her old coven territory.

It made Lena wonder why she didn’t just get rid of their entire pack and leave …

ALARIC HEARD REBECCA and Lena walked past his office and his wolf howled inside his mind. He had been avoiding her because it was becoming more difficult to keep his damn hands to himself whenever she was around. Their bond was keeping him up at night and his wolf was crying like a damn baby all damn day!

He knew he wouldn’t be able to live like this for much longer and he grabbed hold of his phone and called Argus. The man had spent weeks in their library with information the council never had, yet he still had no answers for Alaric.

“I’m sorry, son. It seems you have a choice between life and death. Lena being your life and rejecting her being your death.” The man actually sounded amused and it angered Alaric to the point where he threw the phone against the wall after ending the call. How the hell was he supposed to mate with a fucking blood witch?!

Storming out of his office, he shifted halfway down the passage and his eyes caught sight of her. A shock ran through his body and the anger that flashed in her eyes and he found he was trapped in her gaze. They looked at each other for just a moment but it felt as if they had been looking at each other for years before Alaric turned and ran out of the pack house.

Everything inside of him was screaming for her. He needed to touch her. He needed to make love to her in ways he hadn’t made love ever! His mind was flooded with images of her naked body next to his and he kept running. If he ran hard enough and long enough, he would be too damn tired to do anything! He would be too tired to think of anything! He just had to get away.

LENA FELT THE SHOCK OF SEEING his black wolf as it ran through every cell in her body. She knew. Deep down, she had always known that he was the wolf who killed her father, but it still nearly killed her each time she saw him like that. Her hatred for him, however, couldn’t do anything to the damn bond she felt and she wished that he had rather killed her when he found her.

As she said goodbye to Rebecca before walking into her room a tear ran down her cheek and she was so damn angry. Every cell in her body was screaming in both anger and lust and she felt as if she was just about to spontaneously combust. Thankfully, she went to the coven grounds just the day before and she was still without power or she might just have burned down the house! Why? Why was she meant to love the man she hated so much?

Well, it wasn’t as if he was madly in love with her, now was it? He hated her kind so much that he nearly wiped all of them off the damn map! Lena was once again filled with hope that there might still be some left out in the world where Alaric and his beasts couldn’t reach them. Lena fell asleep and in her dreams she was being chased by a black wolf with red eyes. Always running just out of his reach, but still being chased. She could feel his breath on the back of her legs, but for some reason he didn’t catch up to her.

When she woke in the morning, she was dead tired. She decided then that there was no way she would ever be Alaric’s mate. In her mind, her dream told her that they didn’t belong together. He would always be chasing her and she would never let him catch her. He would also always be a monster in her eyes, she realized as she looked at herself in the mirror in her bathroom. She needed to find a way out of here, but this time she wouldn’t run because her dream also showed her he would always chase after her.

No, she had to walk out … But how …

ALARIC FELL DOWN ON HIS BED and as he closed his eyes, his mind filled with images of Lena again and he sighed. When he told his wolf he was going to die if he didn’t get to sleep, his wolf eventually let up and Alaric fell asleep. He was up all night and his body was dead tired, but his mind and his wolf didn’t seem to want to give him the chance to rest.

By the time Max knocked on his door, he hadn’t slept a damn wink and Alaric had no other choice but to get up. The natives were getting really restless about the Lena situation and Alaric had put it off for long enough. It was clear that there was no way out. He either had to take the chance to reject her and hope and pray that he didn’t die or he had to accept her and hope and pray that his people would accept their new Luna. With the pack gathered in the dining room, Alaric cleared his throat.

“The council has researched every possible book we could find on the subject and it seems that if I reject the witch, there is a huge possibility that I will die.” The murmurs started from the side that believed he should accept her and he sighed. “If I accept her, she might not accept me.” He waved his hands through the air. “I have decided that I really don’t want to die and that I will be accepting the blood witch as my mate.” He closed his eyes for a second as the murmurs got louder.

He was the damn alpha! They had to accept his choice even if they didn’t like it. When nobody stood up and specifically took him on about his decision, he walked out of the room. He instantly realized that he felt lighter. It was as if the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. Now all he had to do was convince Lena to accept him. He couldn’t live in this state of limbo any longer. It would take them time to get used to each other, but surely there were couples out there that survived arranged marriages and eventually grew to love each other.

She would eventually grow to love him … With that thought in mind, he decided to speak to Lena. There was no reason for him to put it off any longer. As he reached her room door, he hesitated for a moment before he walked in. She wasn’t in her room and he was just about to leave again when she stepped out of the bathroom. He couldn’t help but gasp at her pure beauty. It was clear that she had just climbed out of the shower as her hair was still wet, but she was fully clothed. Thankfully!

“I, Alaric, alpha of the …” Her hand went up and she closed her eyes, silencing him.

“If you are here to give me that entire, I accept you thing, you can stop.” She sighed and he felt his heart sink to his damn shoes!