IGNORED
1171 Words
Mira's pov
I waited. Not with patience, not with hope. Just waited, my fingers brushing the table’s polished surface, knuckles white from gripping it too hard. Kade had left without a backward glance, as if my trembling body and the faint metallic taste that clung to my tongue had been nothing at all.
I counted the tiles beneath my chair, one, two, three, trying to measure time, trying to convince myself that he hadn’t noticed anything at dinner. That would be easier than admitting I had been exposed.
But of course, he had.
I could feel it in the way the air seemed to shift when he left. The faint press of his golden gaze against the back of my mind, like sunlight brushing cold stone.
My wolf stirred faintly, coiling inside me, restless, wanting to lash out at the dismissiveness that burned hotter than the poison still lingering in my veins. I pressed my hand to my stomach, nausea rising in slow waves, tasting iron and failure, wondering if he had seen what I had tried to hide.
Footsteps. Faint, deliberate, measured. Not his. I froze, my heartbeat spiking, and listened. The corridor was silent except for the distant hum of the house systems and the faint echo of a car horn from far below.
I tilted my head, trying to identify the direction. Nothing moved, nothing obvious, and yet the hair on my arms rose. Someone else was here. Watching. Waiting.
I told myself to breathe, to calm the coil of energy that was my wolf, trapped and restless, restrained beneath skin and bone. I wanted to curse, scream, throw the nearest object, but the words caught in my throat, ragged and thick.
I could not afford a scene. Not now. Not with Kade’s absence stretching the room into a cage, not with Seraphine likely observing from somewhere unseen.
“Focus, Mira,” I whispered to myself, tracing a finger along the edge of the marble table. The cold surface grounded me, gave a faint sense of clarity amid the chaos coursing through my body. My wolf growled softly, annoyed, impatient, a reminder that my power was not gone.
Just hidden, suppressed by something deliberate. The poison was meant to weaken me, and yet it had done more than that. It had exposed me. My power now throbbed beneath skin I could not fully control, twitching at nerves and bones, demanding release I could not grant.
Kade reappeared finally, stepping into the room with that unbending precision of his, golden eyes scanning before he allowed them to land on me.
I forced my spine straight, hiding the tremor that ran through my limbs, the weakness that still clung like a shadow to my muscles. He didn’t speak immediately, just watched, calculating, as though my every movement were a puzzle he could solve if he studied long enough.
“You are unusually quiet,” he said finally, voice flat but carrying that hint of predatory curiosity that always made my skin tighten.
“I… I’m fine,” I murmured, trying to sound casual, casual enough that he might believe it. My fingers twitched, brushing the hem of my sleeve, the wolf inside me twisting and pressing against the cage I had built around it.
“Fine?” he repeated, tilting his head slightly. He stepped closer, golden eyes narrowing, and I could feel that assessment pressing into me, measuring every breath, every flicker of emotion. The poison, the exposure, the wolf, none of it could hide from him if he chose to see.
I swallowed, the taste of copper sharp in my mouth, my body heavy, uncooperative. “Yes. Fine,” I said again, firmer this time, forcing a rhythm to my breathing. I refused to falter, refused to let him sense weakness.
But he did. I knew it.
His gaze shifted, subtle, and I felt my secrets tighten around me. Every suppressed flicker of power, every micro-reaction, every irregular heartbeat it was all laid bare under his scrutiny. I wanted to run, to disappear into the shadows of the house, but I could not. Not yet. Not when my wolf throbbed beneath skin like a live thing, restrained but aware, aware and furious.
The room changed when he moved past me without a word, his presence a deliberate brush against my mind. He didn’t touch me, didn’t acknowledge me, and yet the impact was violent. Like a blade sliding over silk. I felt the cold press of indifference, the sharp reminder that he held dominion here. That I was observed even in supposed isolation.
I clenched my fists beneath the table, nails biting into palms, tasting fear and determination at the same time. My wolf whined softly inside me, restless, restrained, a coiled tension that made my stomach churn. The poison had not dulled it, only sharpened it, and I could feel every suppressed heartbeat pounding against the cage of my body.
A shadow moved near the balcony. Just a faint shift, enough to make me tense, enough to make the hairs on my arms stand on end. Someone was here, and I could feel them watching. Every instinct I had screamed to run, but my legs would not obey, my body uncooperative, heavy with residual poison. I took a slow breath, counted in my head, forced my wolf into silence, and reminded myself that one wrong move could reveal everything.
I could hear my pulse in my ears, loud, uneven, and yet Kade remained calm, almost unnervingly so, as if he had been waiting for this moment. Waiting for me to falter, waiting for me to reveal my hand. He circled the room with steps measured, deliberate, eyes sharp, and I could feel the calculation in each movement. The predator was patient, but I was no prey without teeth.
I needed to make him believe I was just a fragile human. Not a Luna. Not a wolf. Just fragile Mira. But inside, my power throbbed, restless and dangerous, a coiled wire ready to snap. And that was the risk. That was the edge.
Then, a soft whisper carried through the room. Not words, just a faint sound that could have been air, but it wasn’t. My head snapped toward the direction, catching the faintest movement near the door. My stomach twisted with recognition, knowing instinctively that someone had entered while I was distracted.
Kade noticed too, though his expression did not change. Golden eyes flicked, a subtle shift that told me he had already calculated the presence before I had. And that was the final strike to my calm.
I pressed my hand to my stomach, tasting metal, tasting danger, tasting everything I could not control. My wolf coiled, restless, and I knew with a sinking certainty that the room was no longer mine.
Someone was here watching. Waiting. And when they chose to act, there would be no room for hesitation.
I just hoped I would survive the moment long enough to find out who it was.
- Writer
