Chapter 6.2 - Fighting for Control
962 Words
*Raiden – pov*
My wolf had lost his damn mind.
It started the second Elara stepped onto Rosewood Estate.
Now?
Now he whined constantly whenever she disappeared from sight for more than five minutes.
Pathetic.
“She went upstairs,” I muttered mentally while reviewing measurements for the kitchen island.
Aeron huffed.
Go after her.
No.
She needs coffee.
She had coffee.
Another dramatic whine echoed through my head. I pinched the bridge of my nose. This was exhausting.
Rafe walked past me carrying materials and paused slowly.
“You look terrible.”
“Thank you.”
“When last have slept? You need to get laid.”
I haven’t slept properly since Aeron recognised Elara as his mate.
Every time I closed my eyes, I imagined Elara. Her scent. Her mouth. I imagined what she would she would taste like. Imagined her screaming my name as I made her c*m. I was getting hard already thinking about her now.
Aeron wasn’t helping. He constantly hit my mind with vivid images of her bent over the kitchen counter or spread out on the floor in front of the fireplace.
I shoved a frustrated hand through my hair and barked another order toward the construction crew.
“Straighten that cabinet line.”
“And if I find sawdust on those marble counters again, I’ll make you clean this kitchen with toothbrushes.”
The men scattered immediately.
Rafe smirked.
“You’re riding everyone hard.”
“I want this project done.”
Rafe snorted knowingly.
“You want alone time with the hot human.”
I glared at him.
“She’s not—”
“She’s absolutely hot.”
Aeron nearly lost his mind just at Rafe mentioning she it hot.
I’ll kill him. He can’t talk like that about mate.
I barely managed to keep him under control.
Elara was a challenge. She didn’t react the way most women did around wolves.
She didn’t melt when I got close. Didn’t flirt back openly. Didn’t throw herself at me like most human women did.
If anything, the harder I pushed, the more stubborn she became.
We have to adapt. Move slow and careful.
I brought her coffee exactly the way she liked it after memorizing her order once.
I made sure meals appeared whenever she got too focused on renovations to remember eating.
Fixed things before she asked. Tried to stay close without crowding her.
Goddess help me, it worked. Tiny cracks in her walls appeared every day.
I would often catch glimpse of a small smile. She gave softer looks. We had longer conversations.
It was enough to keep me completely addicted, which was exactly the problem because my control was hanging by a thread.
Earlier that morning she’d bent over one of the lower kitchen cupboards while explaining cabinet finishes to the contractors.
One glimpse of her ass and legs in those skin tight jeans, I nearly lost all coherent thought.
My wolf immediately supplied a vivid mental image of her on the kitchen counter and her legs spread for me.
You’re not helping. I said as I shoved him to the back of mind.
I’d left the room so fast one of the workers asked if I was sick.
No.
Just trying not to spread my beautiful mate out on the unfinished cabinetry and feasting like a king.
I spent the next hour brutalizing my body in the training ring behind our packhouse.
Weights.
Combat drills.
Sparring.
I tried anything to burn the tension out. Nothing seemed to work. The cold shower barely worked either.
The scent of rain and wildflowers haunted me constantly now.
By the time I returned to Rosewood that evening, sweat still clung to my shirt and my mood had worsened significantly until I saw her.
Elara stood near the giant kitchen windows watching the sunset spill gold through the trees.
One of my shirts covered her paint-stained clothes.
Sleeves rolled to her elbows. Hair falling loose around her shoulders. She rarely wore her hair loose while working.
She was absolutely mesmerising.
My wolf immediately quieted as he too was admiring her.
The tension in my body shifted instantly into something warmer, deeper.
Dangerous in an entirely different way.
She turned when she heard me.
“You’re back.”
Her voice did something stupid to my chest.
I leaned casually against the doorway, forcing myself to stay there instead of crossing the room.
“Did you eat?”
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
“Did you seriously come here just to ask me that?”
“Yes.”
A smile tugged at her mouth despite herself.
Victory.
“You’re strangely invested in my food intake.”
If only she knew how invested I was in everything about her.
I shrugged carefully.
“Someone has to keep you alive.”
“You forget meals when you work.”
She blinked slightly at that because she realized I’d noticed.
I noticed everything.
The silence stretched.
Then she stepped closer.
Too close.
My pulse immediately kicked harder.
“Elara…”
She tilted her head slightly.
“What?”
Nothing.
Everything.
The need to touch her hit so hard it physically hurt.
My wolf pushed forward desperately.
Touch her.
I clenched my jaw hard enough to ache.
Because if I touched her right now, I wasn’t entirely sure I’d stop at just a slight brush of her cheek.
So instead, I stepped aside slowly.
“Dinner’s arriving soon.”
Her expression flickered with something that looked suspiciously like disappointment.
Then she nodded once.
“Okay.”
As she walked past me, her shoulder brushed mine lightly.
A meaningless action to her, but to me, my entire body locked instantly.
The second she disappeared upstairs, Aeron started whining again like a lovesick i***t.
- Writer
