Luna’s Soul

Irresistible

On the car ride back to his house, Gabriel was having a hard time controlling himself.

Everything Lily did was pissing him off. If he asked her to put her seatbelt on, she refused. If he told her not to sit on her legs in the car, she would do it anyway.

Did she not realize he was doing this for her safety?

And what made it worse, was that her little white sundress kept riding up when she sat cross legged in the seat, and the straps would fall down off her shoulders.

His wolf wanted her.

His wolf was demanding he take her right there. And he could had a million images of what her body would look like running through his head.

What her breasts would look like when he pulled those thin white straps down and they popped out of her dress. How it would feel to pull her into his lap, lift up her dress, and feel the spot between her legs that would be his..

But he knew he didn’t deserve to think about her that way. Not yet.

“Will you please stop sitting on your legs? It’s not safe.” He grunted.

“I actually want to.. ask you for something,” she muttered, wringing her hands together.

Oh, he realized. She’s fidgeting because she’s nervous. He really knew nothing about how to read her signals yet.

Curious, he eyed her. “Oh? What can I do for you?”

“You probably didn’t notice,” she sighed. “But I have a lot of paintings in my apartment. My paintings. And they.. they mean a lot to me. If my rent doesn’t get paid this month when I don’t go home, my landlord will throw them out..”

Ah, Gabriel realized. She wants something of home here. Make her ask you, he told himself. Communication is key.

When he didn’t speak, she sighed. “And I was wondering if you could.. send someone to go get them, or something. I don’t.. I don’t want to lose them.”

Gabriel didn’t hesitate. He simply opened his phone and dialed a number.

“Yes, Alpha?” Tobias answered immediately.

“Tobias. I’d like you to send someone to Luna Lily’s apartment to fetch some of her belongings for me. Could you pick a few guards to go?”

“Of course, Alpha.”

Gabriel maintained eye contact with Lily. “I’ll send you a description of what she needs, and the address. Thank you, Beta.”

“Yes, Sir.”

The line disconnected then, and Lily was quiet for several moments.

“Thank you.” She murmured.

“I think you misunderstand me, Lily. I want you to be happy here. I know the situation isn’t ideal, but if there’s ever anything I can do to make it a little less trying for you, please ask me, or ask any of my people, and I will do my best to make it happen.”

“I want to go home.”

Gabriel sighed. “If I were a normal man, I’d let you. But I can’t do that. I can’t risk you getting killed or.. or worse.”

When Lily didn’t speak for a while, Gabriel did. “You paint?”

She gazed out the window at the sky above her. “Always have.”

Interesting, Gabriel thought. Maybe he could set up a place at the house for her to paint. Maybe it would bring her some peace.

She looked over at him. “You told me I could call Andy.”

With a sigh, Gabriel reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew her cell phone.

She started bouncing in her seat. “Can I call him now?”

“When we get back.” He corrected her. “I’m just showing you I have it, as a gesture of good faith. I will let you call him, Lily. On speaker, like we agreed.”

She sighed. “Well, can I ask questions about what we just went to go do, then?”

Confusion flashed across his face. “The council? Sure. Why not?”

“Why did you present me to three old dudes like a prized pig at the county fair?”

Gabriel was taken aback. He hadn’t realized she would see it that way. He’d done his best to shield her from prying eyes while they were there.

“Meeting the elders is customary, considering you are to be mated to the Alpha.”

“And what was all that talk about my eyes?” She asked.

He hadn’t realized she’d picked up on that. He examined the white irises in her face, and he sighed.

“It was one of the first things I noticed about you, Lily. Your eyes.. tell me you’ve never been told they were unusual.”

She looked down, her brow burrowing in thought. “All the time. Every optometrist I’ve ever been to was fascinated by them. But I just chalked it up to a family gene somewhere.”

“Your eyes are a legend among my kind. We see photos of similar coloring in our history books. Eyes like yours are moon-blessed. It means the goddess put her hands on you, and marked you as one of her own.”

Lily stared at her hands, her nails digging so hard into her palms Gabriel was worried she might break the skin.

She sucked in a deep breath. “Look,” she began. “I’ve wanted to believe in magic and fairy tales and happy endings my entire life. But they just don’t happen. They don’t. When I was fifteen, I would have prayed for someone like you to come and sweep me away from the chaos that my life has always been.”

She looked over at him, fixating her white eyes on his face. “But fairy tales aren’t real, magic is bullshit, and no one ever came to save me. So you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t believe your mythology about mates and bonds and whatever.”

“I’m here because you are making me be here,” she sighed. “That’s all.”

Gabriel stared at her, saddened by her confession. He wanted to know what had happened to this poor girl that had made her give up on happiness so early in life.

But he knew it would be a long road before she shared that with him.

“You don’t have to like me now,” he shrugged. “We can work towards that. My automatic connection to you is because I am a wolf, and you are my mate. I do understand that it could be a different feeling for you.”

“But you will be protected and treated as Luna here; and that is non-negotiable. You will get the respect you deserve from my pack, even if you don’t want it.”

Remy parked the car outside of Gabriel’s luxurious home, next to a sign that Lily noted out front of the beautifully landscaped lawn that said “Alpha’s Manor”. To anyone else, they’d see it as breathtaking— Lily felt imprisoned in it.

A bunch of men stood outside her car door and Gabriel’s, huge men— towering over her in both weight and stature, and she found herself cowering away from the window, her knees slightly shaking.

“Just my guards, Lily,” Gabriel told her gently. His eyes glazed over for a moment, and suddenly, the guards had dispersed from beside her window.

She looked around in confusion. “Where did they go?”

Gabriel got out and came over to open her door for her, reaching a hand out to help her out, which she ignored. He sighed heavily.

“I told them to give you some space. I don’t want you to feel afraid here.”

Gabriel’s eyes never left Lily’s face, and she felt very crowded by the car door. He was only six inches away from her, and she felt a heat creep up her spine at his eyes on her. Goosebumps spread across her skin.

His eyes flashed down to the chill bumps on her arms, and he shrugged out of his jacket, draping it gently across her shoulders. It hung down to just above her knees, but Lily clutched it around her.

“Delta,” Gabriel barked, his eyes never leaving her face.

One of the huge men from earlier came prowling over to them, his face stoic and menacing.

“Yes, Alpha?” He asked.

Lily shivered. The way they all just fell in line beneath him.. it was intimidating.

“Escort Miss Dawson inside,” he ordered. “I have a few things to tend to before I settle for the night.”

Gabriel leaned forward, his eyes pained, and planted a small kiss on her forehead that seemed to sear her skin. She jumped back slightly.

He put his hand on the small of her back, watching as the huge man guided her inside the house, before he got back into the car.