Chapter 79
LEAH
I sleep.
I’m not sure how long or even what time it is when I wake up.
I just know that I’m groggy. I check my phone for maybe the thousandth time. No messages. No calls.
I’m not sure what I’m expecting.
I told Aaron to leave. I let him go with ‘peace’ – who even talks like that!?! I told him I did not want to be with him. That he could not stay with me.
It’s just habit, I tell myself.
Habit and loneliness, because I’ve known him and have been with him for so many years, that of course it feels weird to be alone somewhere else.
Back hom-at Aaron’s pack, we always slept in the same house each night. Maybe not always the same bed, but the nights we did spend apart were ones he was on guard along the perimeter, out running with his pack, or holed up in the library working. And those library nights, I usually fell asleep in a chair beside him. I’d always wake up in my bed though, so I know he carried me up all those flights of stairs and tucked me in.
Bad habits.
Yes, that’s what I’m feeling now. I’m not sad or lonely. I’m just learning to live by myself after a decade of co-dependence.
The sooner I get used to things, the better it’ll be for me.
There’s a brisk knock on the door right before it opens.
I locked it. I know I did. Before I went to sleep.
“Hi!” It’s Marla.
I hold up my hand. “Hey, please don’t do that. I don’t make a habit of barging in on others, so I don’t expect that to be done to
me.”
1
Her pretty eyes go so wide her lashes stretch past her eyebrows. “I’m so sorry, Alpha.” She holds up the tray in her hands. “I just wanted to bring you dinner. You slept through breakfast and lunch.”
Of what day, I wonder.
But I don’t say that.
“You can set it on the desk,” I tell her.
Marla has a peppy step that makes bits of her bounce as she walks. I bet in her true form she’s a prancer. Jessica is like that too. Her wolf is always leaping and bounding.
Marla places the food where I told her and she steps back. “Oh, here.” She pulls out the chair. “Come on over. Have something to eat.”
It does smell good. Savory.
There are roasted yams and carmelized onions. A piece of steak grilled just right and sliced neatly.
My stomach rumbles.
She smiles. “See. You were hungry.”
I slide out of bed and approach her. Only when I sit down and my mo uth waters, I find her watching me a tad too expectantly. It brings to mind the situation in the library where Aaron forced Liam to taste-test my food.
Technically, I don’t know this female.
And, while I appreciate the gesture, I’m not sure I want to take the risk.
She frowns. “Is something wrong?”
My phone rings and I’ve never been more grateful for a distraction. I lurch back toward the bed. “You should bring that back downstairs,” I tell her. “It smells delicious and I appreciate it. Truly. But I’m just not sure I’m up to it.” I point to the phone. “And I might be on for a while.”
She grabs a piece of potato and chews appreciatively as she walks out the door. “Suit yourself.”
Before I can answer the phone, it stops ringing.
Marla’s gone though. So I suppose it worked well enough.
I swipe my passcode into the screen.
Aaron.
I gulp.
Seeing his name.
It dredges up all sorts of feelings.
I toss the phone aside like it might burn.
That lasts about a minute. There’s another beep, this one indicating that a text has come through.
Curiosity tugs at me like a noose.
