CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE.

(MELIORA'S POV)


The familiar path back to my secluded cabin seemed to stretch endlessly before me in the deepening twilight.

With each weary footfall, I couldn't quite shake the uncanny prickling sensation of being followed, watched from the sheltering shadows between the trees.

I paused mid-step, casting a furtive glance over one shoulder towards the heart of the village slowly dwindling behind me. Only the flickering glow of distant lantern-light greeted my wary gaze, the commons deserted and still.

Letting out a soft exhale, I shrugged, "no need to worry, it's only the darkness." I comforted myself.


Squaring my shoulders, I pressed onwards through the thickening gloom with renewed determination. The cabin was a place of refuge and haven, I reminded myself sternly. Even the spectral demons of my past were powerless to infiltrate its sheltering walls.

By the time the squat outline of my rough-hewn cabin finally materialized against the shadowy treeline, I was humming a soft melody beneath my breath – a soothing tune from my childhood that never failed to calm my rattled nerves.

Suzanne's precious letter lay safely tucked inside my satchel, and I couldn't wait to open it.

A broad smile crept unbidden across my features as I fished the folded parchment free and traced the graceful loops and swirls with one fingertip. Soon, I would reconnect with my lost companion's voice, if only through her written words for now.

The rustle of underbrush and muted thud of boots against earth caused me to start violently, my head whipping around as the soft hum died on my lips.

There, not a dozen yards away and rapidly closing the distance between us, loomed the imposing silhouette of the Alpha himself as he materialized from the shadowy woodland path.

My jaw dropped, throat constricting with a potent cocktail of surprise, wariness, and another indefinable emotion I couldn't quite place as his smoldering eyes locked brazenly onto mine.

"Evening, Liora," he rumbled in that deep, gravelly baritone that never failed to raise the hackles along my nape.

I swallowed hard, casting about for a response even as my sluggish mind began processing the implications.

My jangling nerves hadn't simply been the products of an overactive imagination after all – that uncanny sense of being followed was rooted in bald truth.

Snapping my mouth shut with an audible click, I finally managed a jerky dip of my head in deferential greeting, unable to quite find my voice beneath his piercing stare.

The alpha seemed to sense my discomfiture, the harsh planes of his features shifting as he studied me through narrowed eyes for a beat before continuing.

"No need to look so startled, little one," he rumbled in a tone of gentle remonstrance, stopping just short of encroaching on the invisible boundary around my personal space. "I've simply come to...follow up on our unfinished discussion from the other night."

My belly clenched at the casual reference to that uncomfortable encounter outside this very cabin not so long ago.

The memory of his thinly-veiled indecent proposal washed over me with visceral clarity, causing the first tendrils of anger to stir amidst my roiling anxiety.

Surely he couldn't be so brazen as to overtly proposition me again, mere weeks after my bald refusal?

I parted my lips to respond, but the alpha smoothly barreled on before I could utter the first syllables.

"It pleases me to see you've been fitting in so nicely among our ranks, and have proven yourself a most diligent pupil in your training," he continued in that same rumbling purr, his heavy-lidded gaze raking over me in an overtly intimate caress.

"You look positively radiant these days, hardly recognizable from that too-thin little wraith who first stumbled across our threshold."

I flushed hotly beneath his frankly appraising stare, cursing the flare of undeniable feminine pleasure at having my physical attributes noted so candidly. With a visible effort, I squared my shoulders and met his scrutiny head-on.

"Yes, I've been...dedicated to honing my skills as a novice warrior," I managed in a slightly raspy tone, fighting to keep any trace of emotion from coloring my words. "I'm afraid that's where my focus lies these days."

He cocked one brow as if sensing the underlying intent behind my terse reply. "Indeed, I see," he murmured silky, taking one deliberate step closer until the heat of his body radiated in palpable waves against my own.

"So tell me...does this steadfast commitment to mastering martial arts mean you've found your way back to better spirits at last, following your time of mourning?"

The careful weight behind his query was impossible to miss. My throat constricted, robbing me of speech as a million different responses – from blunt evasions to outright ultimatums against his unwanted attentions – clamored inside my mind.

Yet somehow, the only vocalization that managed to force its way past my leaden tongue was a wavering,

"You see, Alpha...I'm simply afraid that if I were to...indulge you as you seem to desire...the Luna would undoubtedly learn of our dalliance before long."

There, I'd said it because I knew the consequences would be swift and brutal, without a shred of mercy.

The Alpha was silent for a beat, merely regarding me through hooded eyes as the unspoken implications hung in a charged bubble around us. At last, he exhaled a low rumble, almost a scoff.

"And did someone directly impart such grave warnings about the Luna's potential reactions?" he asked evenly, though an edge of something darker than mere skepticism laced his tone.

I hesitated fractionally before giving a tiny shake of my head. "No...but I've heard enough tales to extrapolate what fate would likely befall me should she deem me a threat to her standing."

His gaze remained locked intensely on mine for a suspended beat. Then, as swiftly as the tension had mounted, it seemed to deflate slightly as he heaved another of those low, long-suffering sighs.

"I see," he murmured, almost to himself as he leaned back ever-so-slightly, studying me appraisingly as if seeing me from a new vantage for the first time.

When he spoke again, his tone carried an undisguised note of flintiness I couldn't quite decipher.

"It would seem your fears still outweigh your convictions, then. A pity – I had thought your recent exploits might signal the reforging of a true warrior's mettle to accompany that alluring spirit."

He shook his head slowly, muttering something too low for me to make out before pinning me with a final, inscrutable look.

"Very well, little one," the alpha stated, the faintest edge of a mocking lilt entering his rich timbre. "I shall allow you more time to hone those... combat skills of yours and overcome those crippling cowardices before pressing my suit again."

With that parting volley, he pivoted on his heel and strode off into the sheltering woodland gloom, leaving me staring numbly in his wake.

Heaving a shuddering exhalation, I slipped inside the protective cabin walls, allowing the door to swing shut and seal me in soothing dimness and solitude.