His Isolated Omega Luna

Chapter Four

I could feel the warm glow of Axel’s touch spread into my skin like a rush of fire. Something wonderful definitely moved between us when we touched like that for the first time.

I truly believed if I hadn’t pulled my hand away when I did, I probably would never have got my arm back.

“Cassandra.” Axel echoed softly. He made my name sound like it was something sacred and worshipful, tasting the word on his tongue. He nodded his approval.

I stepped back to try and put some distance between them, surprised at just how close I got to Axel without even realizing it. As soon as conscious thought kicked in, the barriers went back up and I could feel the familiar wave of nausea that always preceded a forceful swell of panic.

“I like it. It’s a beautiful name.” Axel whispered.

My chest was heaving with fractured breaths, still trying to recover from the emotions that had flooded my senses with that one simple touch.

“Thank you,” I replied distractedly, starting to back away towards the stairs and a viable escape route. “Sorry. I… really… I only came down for a drink. I think I might be sickening for something. I seem to be so thirsty lately.”

I immediately closed my mouth and put an end to that line of conversation. I didn’t want to give Axel any more information than was necessary.

Axel might not have been particularly perceptive, but he wasn’t stupid, and I wasn't going to wait around for him to pick up on all the signs and put two and two together.

“You always in such a rush?” Axel frowned, trying to move in on me again. My apparent reluctance to communicate with Axel for more than a minute and a half was really starting to scratch at Axel. It seemed that Alex was trying very hard not to take it personally. I shook my head.

“Not really. I just don’t like the rain.”

***

Axel felt an unexpected surge of compassion while he watched Cassandra try to fight away her restlessness. She looked so vulnerable, so desperate for someone just to smother him with affection and comfort and take all her pain away.

Empathy wasn't something Axel experienced often and it hadn’t gone unnoticed that all these new emotions that were stirring in his heart always seemed to be associated with Cassandra. His latent instincts to protect a potential mate were rising up inside him like an unstoppable force of nature.

“At least let me walk you back to your apartment.”

Cassandra exhaled a long breath, her soft gaze finally drawn away from Axel’s face to the ground.

“That’s really not necessary.”

“It’s no trouble, honestly,” Axel replied, holding out his hand to suggest he would also happily carry her drink back upstairs for her.

“Axel.” Cassandra forced out. “I appreciate the offer, but I am quite capable of scaling a flight of stairs. I've managed to make it through the last thirty-two years without you. I think I can survive another five minutes.”

“Hey… don’t be like that,” Axel said in surprise. His voice sounded like it was on the edge of defeat again and he could see Cassandra hesitated. “I’m trying to be nice here.”

***

I started to chew the inside of my cheek in a nervous gesture of indecision. I really wanted to agree, but I knew I couldn’t let Axel get too close.

We were just two people who lived in the same apartment block - end of the story.

“I know you are.” I conceded, with a sigh. I couldn’t look into those green eyes for long. Not right now. “It’s not you, Axel.”

I started to climb the stairs alone. My hands were curled tightly around my little can of iced tea, and my pace suggested I was now touched by a weariness that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside me.

Axel made a move and he sprinted forward until he was standing on the step above me with his arms folded across his chest in an intuitive token of dominance.

“Axel... please let me pass.” I tried gently. I didn’t handle confrontation well and was hoping a polite request would be enough to persuade Axel to get out of my way.

“Cas,” Axel stated firmly. He stretched out one hand and tilted my chin up with the tip of his finger. “Please look at me.”

My blue eyes snapped up in response and much to Axel’s amazement, this time I didn’t flinch. Axel had managed to make everything seem so much more intimate just by the use of a pet name.

It captured my full attention and I didn’t even attempt to correct him.

***

“Please,” Axel begged again. Something else he didn’t do very often. He was totally oblivious to the enigmatic thread of power Cassandra had started to wind through him, even though it had been completely unintentional. “Let me walk you back to your apartment.”

There was a silky and persuasive tone to the request that gave Cassandra no choice but to submit. She finally allowed herself to meet Axel’s gaze and something untamed ravaged right through that gaze and it made him shiver.

He could probably get Cassandra to agree to almost anything with those eyes. He knew he was staring but just couldn’t seem to pull away and responded with a single whispered “’kay”.

***

Axel’s broad smile curved up one side of his mouth in delight and now I had no doubt about what I imagined I had seen earlier.

Even in the dim light of the stairwell, I could see that Axel’s perfect white teeth were made for claiming. Large, sharp canines flashed under the curve of his lips.

I swallowed a gasp and deliberately forced myself not to think about it until I was safely back in my room.

The logical corner of my mind was screaming for me to run away and never look back. If Axel really was an alpha, I would let him take me back upstairs, and then that would be the end of it. It would be too dangerous to see him again. Sooner or later Axel would realize what I was and then all my years of suffering and loneliness would have been for nothing.

My emotions were still clouded by doubt. I might well have been on suppressants and soaked in denial, but it was unlikely Axel would try and hide what he was. He had nothing to be ashamed of, and certainly no one to fear.

I would surely have been able to smell him and sense his intentions at their first meeting, but I hadn’t. I was very confused by the time we reached the fourth floor and wondered if maybe I had made a mistake. My heart felt heavier with every step and there was a hateful pull inside me at the thought of never being able to see Axel again.

“Cas, I don’t want you to get the idea I’m just doing this to make it up to you either.” Axel offered with sincerity. I feel that Axel had no concept of what was going on inside my head as we approached my apartment.

Both of us stopped just outside of room 65 first and I reached deep into my pocket for the key and forced a smile. Axel cautiously reached out to rest one hand on my arm and turned me around so we were facing each other again. “I just didn’t want you to think I was a dick.”

“Axel.” I began slowly, pulling away so I could slide my key into the lock. “It’s fine, I don’t.”

The relief was evident on Axel’s face.

It was obvious he wanted to say something more before he left. I was about to go back inside and Axel was stalling. He didn’t want to leave me.

“Cas?”

“Yes?.”

Axel leaned in towards me and I thought for one moment he was going to try and kiss me. I held a tense breath.

I didn’t know if I would be able to stop myself from letting Axel press his mouth against me.

A door opened away down the hall with a dull click and the moment was broken. Axel blinked and pulled back, running one hand through his hair when he looked away.

***

“Well, goodnight, Cas. I’ll see you around.” Axel muttered and walked away.

He started to hurry to his own apartment without looking back. The crushing temptation to capture Cassandra’s lips with his own had left him unnaturally flustered.

He had never felt so completely drawn in by a beta female before. Cassandra certainly was different, but Axel had already dismissed the hope she could possibly be that one treasured being he had been searching for since his first mating instinct took over at seventeen.

The family had kept it reasonably quiet at first because he was the only alpha to present for three generations and they didn’t really know what to do with him.

He had been prone to sudden violent outbursts and inexplicable rages that always meant they had to move on and leave his sullied past behind them. Lucas had always tried to empathize, but it was never the same for him and Axel couldn't seem to be able to make him understand just how different he felt. How alone.

It was in his nature to be mated, and he was so tired of fighting it. The unsuccessful pursuit of locating a female omega to claim as his own had left him bitter and hopeless.

Over the years his scent had diminished, his base desires dampened by the constant failure to find that one true bond that would make him complete. Cassandra saw something in him that no one else did and it fed Axel’s desperation to be wanted and needed like a drug.

Lucas was waiting for him when he got back.

“Where the hell have you been?” He demanded, the look on his face suggesting he had taken Axel’s absence as a personal slight.

Axel closed the door behind him without bothering to reply.

“I was in the middle of a conversation with you and when I came back you'd disappeared.” His hands were resting on his hips and he was clearly waiting for an acceptable explanation but Axel was so mystified by his searing attraction to Cassandra, he couldn’t even find it in him to pretend anymore.

“I went to see Cas.” He admitted quietly and Lucas’s expression changed. He immediately forgot he was offended and pounced on the fact Axel had apparently made strides in learning that much at least.

“Progress - a name.” Lucas grinned. “Why don’t you ask her to come over? I can make myself scarce.”

Axel seemed withdrawn and pensive, and it wasn’t like him. Lucas wondered if Cassandra realized just how much influence her presence was having on his brother.

“Just leave it. She’s not like that.” Axel murmured, staring out thoughtfully in to a dark sky.

The storm seemed to be getting closer and heavy droplets lashed against the open window. Lucas could feel a cold breeze playing with his hair so he went over to shut it.

“She doesn’t like the rain.” Axel added.

“Huh?”

“Cassandra. Doesn’t like the storm. Maybe I should go back and see if she’s alright.”

Lucas rolled his eyes and inhaled a sigh so deep, it filled his entire chest with air.

“Axel. For the love of God, will you just tell her?”

“No,” Axel replied, without any hesitation. “I’m not gonna put that s**t on her, Lucas. f**k me, she’s only just stopped jumping like a cat on hot bricks when I speak to her. Can you imagine what it would do to her if I told her I was an alpha?”

Lucas nodded thoughtfully. He had to agree. Cassandra did seem to be extremely sensitive.

“Is she not at work tonight?” Lucas asked casually. Axel’s distracted senses were immediately drawn back to the present.

“How do you know she works nights?” Axel asked possessively. Lucas just laughed and slapped one hand to his face.

“Axel, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out whenever she comes back here, it’s always at the same time in the morning and she always looks shattered.”

Axel’s frown deepened. He thought he had paid very careful attention to Cassandra when he saw her in the hallway, but that had never occurred to him.

“You might have been more inclined to notice that if your eyes hadn’t been constantly oozing heart emoji,” Lucas concluded. Axel couldn’t really argue the point. It was a perfectly valid observation. "Axel, if you're that worried, why don't you go back and check on her?"

"I can't keep bothering her, Lucas." Axel looked up hopefully. "Can I?"

The expression on his brother's face was the only response he needed.

***

I finished my drink in record time. My thirst was getting worse and it hadn't been helped by the intensity of the last few minutes. All I could think about was that man who possessed the most hypnotically beautiful green eyes I could ever have imagined.

I was scared.

Not only did I now suspect this man may be more of a threat than I first thought, but I also knew if Axel had decided to take that kiss from me outside the apartment, I might well have been powerless to prevent it.

I had to let that go for now. I had every intention of staying away for another day or two and then maybe Axel would quickly lose interest in me and move on.

I lay down on my back on the bed and picked up the book I had been reading the last time I stayed in the apartment. I forced myself to focus on the text and ignore the sound of the advancing storm outside.

It didn’t seem to make any difference. No matter how I twisted and turned, I just couldn’t get comfortable and every thought had to be consciously filtered through the constant interference of Axel Harrison.

The storm was almost directly overhead now. An ominous roll of thunder rattled the glass of the windows and made my heart stutter in my chest. A sudden splinter of blue light shot across the sky and illuminated my face.

I could feel the panic starting to intensify.

I dropped the book and covered my ears with my hands as if that made it less frightening somehow.

I always kept my eyes open.

If I closed them, I was haunted by dark images of that terrible night when I was stumbling through muddy ditches with nothing to keep me warm and nobody to care.

All I could hear was Gabriel’s voice in my head calling after me as I ran away from my home forever.

“Don’t let them get you, Cassandra. Never let them get you.” Gabriel had added in a whisper.

I could feel the sting of faithless tears starting to fill the corners of my eyes while I forced the painful memory from my thoughts.

Another blue flash and a crack of thunder forced me up and off the bed completely. It was enough to send me into a full-scale panic attack and I started to gasp for air again.

There was a distinctive tap from outside, and without thinking I rushed to pull the door open to find Axel standing on the other side once more.

“Hey, Cas. This storm was getting real bad and I just wondered if you were - ” Axel started, but his sentence went unfinished when I reached blindly for him and clutched at his shirt.

***

Axel pulled her close and he could feel her heartbeat pounding against his own.

He was frozen for a second.

It was the very last thing he expected and he had to make a decision.

He lifted up both arms and tentatively wrapped them around Cassandra’s back. She melted into Axel’s embrace like she was made to be there.

***

It had been so long without human contact and when I finally let someone hold me it was like a flood had been unleashed.

I pressed my face into the dip of Axel’s neck and clung to him for comfort.

“Cas… it’s okay. Hey. It’s okay to be scared.” Axel murmured against my cheek. I knew I was blowing warm puffs of air across Axel’s skin while I trembled beneath his touch.

***

Axel’s mouth brushed against the soft hair on top of Cassandra’s head and he instinctively moved his hand to run his fingers through it. It smelled amazing so he pushed in closer and pressed silken strands of it against his lips like he wanted to engraved this moment so it’ll last forever.

Axel couldn’t hold back a low growl of want. He breathed Cassandra in, his entire body hitching with every new intake of scented air. He could almost taste the sweet droplets of scent that pushed their way out of Cassandra’s pores and settled on the warm skin at the back of her neck.

Axel had to force every natural instinct away just to keep his tongue inside his mouth.

***

I closed my eyes.

I had never felt so safe.