9. Mystery Man

**Narrator’s POV.**

Desiree walked into the clearing with three shopping bags in her hand, it was her fourth time of meeting with Harrison and she had established that he was seriously lacking clothes, the other day, he had worn only boxers and a wife beater. She knew that he was poor but she did not let it bother her- she liked him the way he was.

“Hey”, he greeted once he saw her approach him, he had been waiting for almost thirty minutes, eager to see her. His eyes darted down to the shopping bags and he scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion, “What is that?”,

She did not answer him until she dropped them at his feet, “Clothes”,

“For?”,

“You, silly”, she smiled at him and picked the bags up, realizing how rude it was to drop them the way she had done, “And I am not taking no for an answer”, she grabbed his hand and placed the bags in them by the handle.

Out of curiosity, he looked into the bag and almost lost his eyes when he saw a diamond rimmed wristwatch, “No, this is too much”, he shook his head at her and tried to give her back the bags, but she was adamant on not collecting it back,

“It is not, you need this”, she demanded. Her voice was raised an octave higher as she urged him to receive the clothes,

“I am not a charity case, Desiree”, he folded his arms over his chest, the bags dangling from his wrists, “I am not one of the many people you need to take care of”,

“I did not say you were Harry”, she had found a way to shorten his name, the nickname she had given him was shorter and easier to say unlike his actual name, “I did this because I like you”, she admitted,

“You do?”,

“Of course, I do, you moron”, she rolled her eyes at him and took a step closer to him, they were only an inch away from each other and she seriously contemplated closing the slight gap between them, what did she have to lose? After all, she had already admitted to him that she liked him.

She waited for him to say it back but he didn’t, he just stared at her like she had sprouted an extra head. He probably did not feel the same way about her, karma really was a bitch. She looked away from him and bit her lip nervously- nervousness was never in the same area code as her until now, this guy- this unknown creature was driving her nuts.

She was not expecting it, she was not expecting his lips to capture hers, proclaiming his feelings towards her. She kissed him back immediately, not holding back from the kiss, she had wanted this since the day she had met him in the woods.

The shopping bags fell to the ground and his large arms went to her hips, holding her in place, afraid that she might get frightened by the sudden move and leave him, but she was not going anywhere. Her arms went to his neck, pulling him closer to her, she bit his lower lip and once he parted his lips, her tongue found his in a fight for dominance which she was clearly winning, the alpha side of her coming alive.

Finally, they pulled away for air and just stared at each other as they panted heavily, their harsh breathes tangling together as one. His hand trailed up from her hips to her cheek, almost taking half her face. His thumb then went to her parted lips and trailed over it. Her purple eyes darted up to his light silver ones at the action,

“I like you”, he finally said to her, “A lot”, a large grin found its way to her face along with a blush. He let out a sigh and picked up the bags that had fallen to the floor, “I would accept these”, he said to her with slight hesitation,

“But?”, her grin faltered and she crossed her arms over his chest,

“My clan would wonder where I got them from”, he let out another strained sigh as he pushed his stray hair back with his fingers.

“Tell them you found it”, she shrugged,

“Where? How do I explain me finding brand new expensive clothes in the forest when I was hunting for food? Tell me how, Desiree”, his defensive font had been turned on once again,

“I really did not think about it, okay?”, her hands went through her hair in frustration, “But, you do not want to know the struggle I had to go through to get these”, it was true, shopping for male outfits was hard to do and shopping was not even the hard part, lying about who it was for was the major issue. She had to concoct a lie to those who asked her why she was shopping for male clothes, shoes and accessories instead of female- she had skillfully told them that it was for Alec as his birthday was coming up very soon.

Alec might probably be expecting a huge birthday present from her since rumors spread like a wild fire in the most secured household on earth but he was bound to be disappointed- she had picked out running shoes for him since he enjoyed the sport a lot.

“Fine”, he huffed, “I will collect them”,

“And wear them”, she added sternly, he could receive them and throw almost five thousand dollars into a ditch on his way home, “Plus, if you don’t collect them, they would go to waste”, she pointed out,

“Don’t you have a brother?”, a loud laugh left her lips as he said these awfully absurd words,

“Honey, I don’t think these clothes would fit my brother by the hand”, she hit his chest gently but not his fragile body still felt the impact of the hit from the alpha werewolf. It did not take a biologist to tell that she was stronger than him physically and this fact just made her mind wander deeper. Werewolves, vampires and witches were physically strong, his kind was not, he did not even have a smell that could be told. Wait, was he a…? No! It was not possible, they have been extinct for centuries, it was impossible.

“What are you thinking of?”, he asked her while taking her hand in his,

“Nothing”, she said quickly with a fake smile. She was not going to let her curiosity get the best of her, she was not going to ruin the moment by asking him what he was, he would tell her when he was ready to tell her- he had made that clear so, why destroy the moment with unwanted questions? “Oh yeah”, she said as she dug her hand through her jacket pocket. She pulled out a small device and pointed it to him,

“A phone?”, he recognized the device immediately she showed it to him, after all, he had just learnt how to operate one a few days ago.

“Yes, it’s a burner. I won’t be able to call you, but you can call me, I have kept my number inside it”, she told him as she handed it over to him.

“Damn, Desiree, this is too much”, he said as he assessed the somewhat tiny mobile device in his hands, it looked nothing like her gigantic smartphone but it was still something, “Thank you”, he smiled at her,

“You’re welcome”, she smiled back, “And just so you know, nothing is too much”, she moved away from him and went to sit on the boulder, “Now, how about you do a mini fashion parade for me?”,

“As you wish, princess”, he smirked and walked behind a tree to change into the new clothes that even he could not deny the fact that they were way better than his hand me downs given to him by his father who received it from his grandfather who had gotten it from his own father. The clothes he had on were generational and it was time for a wardrobe change, he decided not to wear the clothes a lot so they would not be worn out when it was time for him to give his first son- by that time, the luna princess would have realized that she was better than him and he was not good enough for her status and power.

He dreaded that day.