His Isolated Omega Luna

Chapter Two

I woke up suddenly, blinking hard while my blurry senses returned to normal. I gradually realized dusk had settled outside which meant I must have slept most of the day away. I was flushed with perspiration and my heart was stammering an uneasy rhythm in my chest. I pushed myself up straight in bed and swept the moist hair from my face.

All I could remember was a haunting image of this Axel Harrison person crowding into me and pressing his strong body up against me. I didn’t know for sure exactly what Axel was just yet, but I had my suspicions and they definitely did not make this man feel any less threatening.

There was something wild behind his eyes when he looked at me that almost made me feel like I was trapped.

I pushed the disturbing images aside and fumbled in the gloom for the lamp. I hurriedly switched it on when the irrational panic began to rise up inside me again, angling the light so I could search all the dark corners of the room just to make sure it really had been a dream.

Part of me half-expected to see a ravenous feral alpha leaping out of the shadows, ready to fill or devour me. It took me several long minutes to be able to breathe normally again.

Once I had pacified my groundless fears, I collapsed back onto the damp pillow and breathed out a deep sigh, playing an indistinct re-run of the unexpected meeting with my mysterious green-eyed neighbor in my head.

I was mumbling to myself as the memory resurfaced. I tutted with frustration when I remembered the possessive way Axel had looked at me in that last moment just before I shut the door. Primitive, and hungry for me.

“Oh, come on,” I muttered to myself with annoyance. “He wasn’t that good-looking.”

I continued to try and convince myself the erotic details of my dream had been completely beyond my control. They were just a subconscious reaction to the anxiety Axel had released in me with his shameless suggestions. The paranoia certainly wasn't helped by the implication Axel appeared to have been coming on to me.

“Who even still uses that line anyway?” I pushed back the covers.

I was wide awake now, and so thirsty I knew I would find it impossible to go back to sleep without taking some more water. It was always a sign I was getting close. Intense dehydration was one of the first symptoms that always tortured me just before my heat set in. “Had me at hello,” I said disdainfully. “Idiot.”

I padded through to the kitchen to fill up a glass pitcher. My small-roomed apartment felt far too confining at times, but it did have some advantages. I turned on the tap and let the water run for a minute while I emptied out an ice tray and dropped a handful of cubes into the jug to save myself from having to get up again later to refill it.

Axel’s presence had pushed me to make a decision. I would pack up a few personal belongings the next day and head back to the office. The further away from Axel Harrison I was, the better.

I didn't appreciate being propositioned in a corridor, and I liked it even less when someone made assumptions about me.

Axel must have just been spit-balling. There was no way he would have been able to detect my scent from that distance. It was well-masked when I was on the right pills. I might have been close to coming into my mating cycle again, but Axel would have to possess canine superpowers to pick up on that. He was probably just some creep trying it on with the new girl from down the hall. For some reason that made me even angrier.

Who the hell was he to presume I would willingly submit to his advances and just bend over for him?

I was still cursing Axel’s well-defined jaw in my head when I climbed back into bed, setting the pitcher down carefully after I poured out another glass. The street outside was quiet.

Despite my familiar anxieties, I managed to calm down enough to lie back and get reasonably comfortable. All I could see when I closed my eyes was the perfect curve of Axel’s soft lips and it made me unbelievably thirsty again. I reached out for my glass in the dark and accidentally spilled some water over my bed because my hand was trembling so much.

I was still trying to dab it away when I noticed the light from the hallway seemed to pulse in and out of brightness for a second. There was a grey shadow just visible along the bottom of the door and my eyes grew wide with fear at the thought of someone loitering outside my apartment. I flexed my fingers in and out like I always did when I was nervous, waiting until I was certain whoever it was had started to move away down the hall.

I heard a small shuffling noise and a muffled curse when a single sheet of paper was passed through the narrow gap underneath my door.

I held my breath and stared at the line of light. I waited a few seconds before curiosity got the better of me.

I slipped out of bed and moved across the room as quietly as I could. I wanted to know just what it was exactly that was so important it had to be deposited under my door at that time of night.

I reached down slowly and pulled the piece of paper through the gap. I squinted hard and struggled to see it in the half-light. I started to unfold it, wondering who my mysterious messenger could have been, and frowned at the paper while I read it, instinctively turning it over to see if there was anything on the other side. There was only one word written across the center in black ink.

Sorry.

I pulled a face and even held it up to the lamp light to check if there was some kind of secret code written in invisible ink, but that one word was definitely all that was scrawled on it.

I shook my head wearily and examined it again. I placed both hands flat against the door so I could push myself up on my tiptoes to peer through the glass hole and see if anyone was still in the corridor.

It was too dark to really see anything, and against my better judgment, I slowly slipped back the door chain. I was still clutching the scrap of paper in my hand when I eased the apartment door open.

I could feel my heart hammering against my ribs. I knew my blood was pumping hard around my body, suddenly finding myself caught in that intangible place somewhere between overwhelming fear and the need to know who had sent me such a strange note.

I inhaled a sharp gasp when my eyes focused on something hidden in the shadows. I could just make out the shape of a broad man leaning back against the opposite wall with his arms folded across his chest.

The dim light from my apartment streamed steadily out into the hallway and lit up his face.

I couldn’t breathe.

All I could see was that crooked white smile and shining eyes.

I reached blindly for something to hold on to, desperately trying to ignore the desire to surrender that now flooded through my veins. The look set on Axel Harrison’s face while he watched me fall to pieces in front of him was nothing short of predatory.

I struggled to form the words I wanted to say and gasped for breath. All the lustful intent quickly melted from Axel's face. He pushed away from the wall and held out one strong hand to steady me.

“Can’t… breathe... water.” I managed to whisper through the tightness in my throat. Axel frowned and leaned in close. It wasn’t exactly the response I had been hoping for.

“Hey, are you alright?” Axel could see I was hyperventilating and let me lean against him. He helped me stagger back in to my apartment. “What’s the matter? Did I scare you?” Axel asked softly, encouraging me to calm down and try to take some more deep breaths.

“I’m sorry… I … get… panic attacks.” I gasped. Axel quickly closed the door behind us. He seemed to be genuinely concerned, his eyebrows pulled tightly together while he watched me struggle for air.

After a few seconds, I looked up again and seemed to suddenly realized for the first time I was alone in my apartment in the dark with a strange man. It intoxicated and terrified me all at the same time.

I could feel the sweat starting to leak out of my pores, and Axel’s nostrils twitched a little wider but he said nothing. Axel quickly backed off. There was the faint shadow of something else that darted across his eyes but it was so fleeting I missed it.

When Axel spoke again his voice was much softer and deeper. I was surprised at how much it calmed me.

“Hey, I’m sorry if I scared you. I just wanted to apologize for earlier, but it looks like I might have actually just made things worse.”

Axel’s tousled head dipped low to try and catch my gaze where I was now bent forward and resting both hands on my knees. I was still displaying some distinct signs of anxiety, but I was a little less distressed than I had done a few minutes before.

Axel dared a gentle touch of my shoulder and I immediately flinched and backed out of his reach. “I’m not gonna hurt you,” Axel said cautiously, raising both hands up in front of him as a demonstration of his promise. I continued to eye him suspiciously from a safe distance. Eventually, I was willing to relax a bit and shrugged an apology.

“Sorry. I justー ” I hesitated, searching Axel’s face for some sign I might actually be able to trust him. “I don’t like being touched.”

Both of Axel’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. It was clear he hadn’t expected that, and he wasn’t quite sure whether he found it tragic or endearing. Not being able to touch someone who looked as good as that was a capital crime.

“Okay,” Axel said quietly, watching me closely. I was curled in on myself with my hands wound tightly together. My blue gaze was fixed on the floor at Axel’s feet and I looked every bit the submissive I had spent most of my life trying to deny.

“Sorry.” I wrapped my arms around my shivering body and backed up even more, rubbing my palms nervously down the sleeves of the t-shirt I put on for bed. I felt very vulnerable with so much of my pale skin exposed and hoped Axel would have the decency not to stare.

“What do you want, Axel?” I finally asked, after a tense pause.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had been alone with someone in such a confined space and was starting to feel warm and light-headed. The sensitive area on the back of my neck was prickling, and the soft skin of my arms was itching and making me defensive and impatient. It might have been a warning, but I thought it could have been something else.

Axel Harrison was starting to have an unnaturally profound effect on my body and I was desperate to get him out of the apartment before my pills started to lose their potency.

My brother had warned me against taking too many in one day so it had been several long hours since my last dose. I hadn’t been expecting visitors of any kind that evening and certainly not one that smelled so absolutely delicious. The strange sensation that poured all the way through me let me know there was something threatening to slide between my thighs. Axel frowned again. He looked hurt.

“I told you - I came to apologize.”

I shook my head and let my hands fall from the tops of my arms. My growing need to get Axel to leave was just making me even more irritable.

“Apologize for what?”

Axel shuffled his feet. I thought I saw his cheeks color up when he stuck both hands into his pockets and forced himself to look away.

“What I said earlier. I just wanted you to know I didn’t mean anything by it.”

I thought back to their exchange in the corridor that morning and wondered exactly why Axel felt the need to apologize for that. Maybe he was just trying to be friendly after all. I was startled to feel a little ache of disappointment.

“I don’t understand. What did you mean, then?” I distinctly remembered Axel telling me he knew what I was and that alone had unleashed a new wave of terror at the thought of my secret being discovered. Axel seemed uncomfortable.

“Me and my little brother had a bet on.”

I felt my heart sink.

“A bet?” I whispered in disbelief.

“Yeah.” Axel replied, recoiling with shame at the admission.

I felt torn between a blissful surge of relief that Axel had just been trying to get a reaction out of me and being incredibly pissed at him for playing with my emotions like that. Maybe I was safe after all.

“I was just messin’ around. We hadn’t seen you in here much before and I might have mentioned to Lucas that you looked kind of interesting.” Axel hesitated slightly. I thought I was going to say something else to explain what that was supposed to mean, but Axel stopped myself. “My brother bet me ten dollars I couldn’t get you to talk to me.”

I felt sick to my stomach.

Ten dollars.

Axel could see my expression had gradually fallen from confusion to insulted resentment.

“I really am sorry.” Axel continued. He reached out for me again, but I was still just beyond his grasp. “It was just a bit of harmless fun. I never would have agreed to it if I’d known you were so - ” He quickly shut his mouth.

I glowered at him and swallowed down most of my anger. The look on my face demanded Axel to finish that sentence and I could tell he tried to reply with as much diplomacy as he could dig out at such short notice. "Sensitive.”

“Sensitive?” I mocked.

It was just a polite way of saying unstable sociopath and they both knew it.

Axel Harrison had already started to haunt my dreams and send shivers pulsing through my body and it had only taken a smoky gaze and a few words in that honeyed voice to pull me in.

I felt so stupid. So naive. I was biting back an unfamiliar emotion when I moved to my front door and opened it wide, trying to prevent myself from saying something malicious.

***

The light from the corridor washed over the girl’s face and Axel caught the sadness in those deep eyes when he walked past her and waited hopefully at the entrance.

He didn’t even know her name.

Axel knew he was the cause of that hurt and he suddenly felt very reluctant to leave. He couldn’t stop himself from leaning in and taking a deep breath, inhaling like he wanted to swallow down all the air between them.

Axel bit the inside of his cheek, fighting the consuming desire to run his hands all over her and beg for forgiveness. It might have started out as a light-hearted wager but now Axel could see the pain in her perfect face and he felt horrible.

He hadn’t noticed before, but now that she was so close, Axel could scent the faint hint of vanilla and cinnamon and it was beautiful. He was accidentally staring at her mouth.

“I don’t know what else to say,” Axel whispered. One last desperate attempt to try and secure some measure of damage control for the harm he unintentionally caused.

“Well. Congratulations, Mr. Harrison. That’s a first.” She bit out, without even looking at him. Axel had to physically tear himself away and step out into the dark corridor. He desperately wanted to stay. Axel couldn’t explain why, but he didn’t want to upset her any more than he already had.

He would just have to respect that. Axel allowed himself one last lingering gaze at her enticing lips, subconsciously running a rough tongue over the sharp points of his canines.

“Don’t forget to collect your ten dollars.”

That was the last sentence Axel heard before the apartment door was slammed in his face.

Again.