The Alphas Assassin (Complete)

Reunited

*Ariella*

I paused at the door to his room as I took in a deep, calming breath. Trying to steel my nerves as best I could before I pushed through the unlocked door. My chest hurt, my body ached, my lungs never felt like they could take in a deep enough breath until I pushed through the barrier that separated me from my mate.

As soon as the fresh scent of sandalwood and lavender hit my nose, it felt like my sinuses had finally cleared. My airways relaxed as I breathed in the sweet smell that radiated off of him. I could smell sweat in the room. The smell was mouth watering to me, mixed with his pheromones, it made my body feel like it was going back into heat again. I now realize perhaps some of my reactions to him weren’t always from my estrus, but could very well have been enticed by his own pheromones as my mate.

I wanted nothing but to run to him. Throw myself into bed and wrap myself up with his body and bury myself away in his presence for as long as I possibly could. But I took the scanner from my pocket and tiptoed slowly around the room. Being as quiet as I possibly could, hoping his sense of hearing had been affected just as mine had. I scanned through his book case, into his bathroom, the lamp, the plants, decorations, paintings, in the curtains of his windows and over the contents of his nightstand. Thanking Goddess the device hadn’t gone off.

My dampened senses came back to me the longer I spent in his presence. The more relaxed my body became, the more the over-alert feelings of anxiety faded. I could see in the dark light that beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. He had still been sleeping just as restlessly as he was a few nights ago. He shivered as if he were cold, but I could feel the heat radiate off of him as I grew closer after pocketing my scanner. He was pale, bags under his eyes, he was running a fever.

It seemed the rejection had been hurting him more now than it was me…

I caught myself once again pausing in place, staring in a longing way before I willed my body forward another few steps and stripped my clothing off of myself. I stood before him, naked, quietly pondering his handsome face that seemed so much weaker each time I’d seen him in the past week. Cursing myself for hurting him so badly out of my own fear. Wondering if he’d ever take me back once all the information was laid out for him to view.

I was on the verge of crying. I hugged my arms around my chest and swallowed the sick feeling down in my throat as tears threatened at the corners of my eyes.

“Ar-i…” His voice came out as a crackling whisper. I’d looked down and hadn’t caught his eyes fluttering open just enough to see me in the dark, like an apparition in the night.

“Sh…” I whispered back softly as I grabbed the edge of his comforter and pulled it up. He was naked beneath, he seemed to shiver as the cool breeze of the room hit him. Despite seeming completely dazed and disoriented, he opened one arm to me, his hand gripping my arm as he pulled me into him beneath the covers. He tightened that arm around my body, his nails dug into the muscles beneath my shoulder blade and he buried his face into my chest as I fell into him.

“Gabe I-…”

“Just… hold me…” he begged, his deep voice cracking with sorrow. I wrapped my arm around his side and hooked my hand onto his shoulder, tightening myself against him. “I won’t move… I promise…”

“Gabe…”

“Promise me you’re real…” he whispered into my chest after a few minutes of holding one another in silence. “Tell me you aren’t… my imagination playing tricks on me…”

“I’m real…” I whispered back, and to prove it I dropped my lips onto his head, kissing him gently. He sighed in relief and nuzzled his face into my breasts.

“Don’t leave me again, Princess… please…”

His pleading voice broke my heart almost more than the rejection had. The ache radiated between us as those words hung over me.

“I won’t…” I whispered back with a stammer in my voice, kissing his forehead once again. I hoped with all my heart that I could keep my word. “I won’t leave.”

He fell asleep almost immediately after those words, as if he had been staying awake to make sure I wouldn’t leave him in his sleep again. His quiet snore was soft, his laboured breathing finally coming back to a somewhat normal rhythm and sound as his body relaxed against mine. He’d occasionally squeeze his arms, as if trying to double check that I was still in fact with him.

I was going to tell him when I had gotten there and woken him up, but as he fell asleep my own aches and pains in my body subsided with him. The constant headache and continuous chest pains died down and I was finally able to rest without the palpating of my heart keeping me awake. I decided that instead of breaking any horrible news to him tonight, that I would let him sleep for a while.

The EBD had been hurting both of us. I could tell the once strong Alpha, who I had met as a dominant, pompous powerhouse of a man, had dwindled down with the sickness that rejection caused. He was now a weak, empty husk of himself.

His voice was shaky, his skin seemed pale, his face was sunken in and his bright hazel eyes had dulled. He looked sickly, as if he were close to death. And I finally realized what people meant when they said a rejection could bring down even the strongest of men. I had never believed the stories people had told of rejection, because I’d seen many people reject their mates and move on happily. Some cried, some fought it, but no one I had ever known had been thrown to their knees in pain. Nor had the symptoms lasted for so long afterwards.

But then again, I suppose not many I had ever met formed bonds so deeply with their mates before they severed the mate bond. A few members of the Farm had found mates in their days. They explained it as a minor pin prick of pain. But some of the older wolves at the Farm told stories of seeing some exceptionally brutal rejections in their days. They were especially hard for teens who had grown up as friends and had already formed some sort of bond…

Now thinking back on it, the pain made sense. Had my dreams been true, then it would mean Gabriel and I had known each other well before meeting a month ago. If we had been friends, then our bond had already formed in some way. Add in the wild few weeks of intense interactions, our bond was surely stronger than most who wanted to reject their mate…

For now, I’d hold Gabriel as tightly as I could, and let him sleep as long as he needed in my arms before I told him about everything… At least this way, if I was tried for treason, my last memories of him would be of being wrapped up, arm in arm, with one another in his bedroom.