Such A Tease
1069 Words
DILLON
I watch as Olivia paces back and forth, her silhouette pasted against the window of her bedroom. She stops pacing and then turns the light off, her figure disappearing into the darkness. I'm about to leave when her front door opens.
"Hey," she says, wrapping a long fluffy robe around her body as she walks towards me. "What are you doing there?"
"I was just heading to my cottage," I say as she stops a few steps from me.
"You're lying," she says, crossing her arms, the windy atmosphere sending the strands of hair that are not captured in her messy bun dancing across her face.
"What do you mean?" I fake oblivion.
She lets out a heavy sigh, pulling the robe tighter around herself, "You've been watching me for some days now. Do you want to explain why?"
"I haven't been watching you," I lie, ashamed to learn that she's noticed me watching her every night since she moved into her cottage. The truth is, my beast has been insisting I get close to her, it's been insisting I claim her but I still haven't made peace with the fact that she, of all people, is my mate.
"This isn't the first time I've seen you outside my cottage, it's just the first time I'm confronting you about it," she says, moving a step closer to me.
"I see you've been doing it on purpose."
"What?" she frowns as our eyes meet.
"You've been changing out of your clothes and into your nightwear at the center of your bedroom for me to see."
"That's what you get for kidnapping someone and secretly watching them go about their lives."
"I did not kidnap you, you willingly signed that contract and followed me here, did you not?" I ask.
She sighs, "You lured me into all of it. You took advantage of my vulnerability."
"That was the only option available." I push my hands into my pockets, "I turn thirty next week and if I don't claim you as my Luna soon, I'll lose my place as alpha of the pack to my best friend."
She shakes her head, "What the hell are you talking about, Dillon?"
I hesitate, thinking of a better way to explain everything to her.
"Look, If you're going to keep me here, at least give me something to do. I can't be spending all my days doing nothing in that cottage," she says breaking the silence.
"You'll meet my niece tomorrow and have a session with her," I say and she nods, walking away immediately.
I watch her get into her cottage and turn the light in her bedroom on, getting out of her robe and clothes, and into her pajamas like she's been doing lately.
'Such a tease,' I say to my beast as I walk to my cottage and smile for the first time when he says 'mate'.
***
"Dillon, can we talk for a minute?" My sister Becca asks, leaving the living room. I follow her into the kitchen and she closes the door, giving me one of her I'm-not-happy-with-this stares.
"What?" I ask, shrugging.
"I'm not happy with this," she says and I smile at how accurate my interpretation of her stare was.
"We don't have an option, Becca."
"Of course, we don't have an option, and losing your position to your best friend will be such a shame to all of us but getting my daughter involved with your human mate is just insane," she says. "We can't trust humans, at least not after their several attempts at invading our premises and capturing us for their shitty studies. We can't be so careless after what happened a decade ago."
"Hang in there, I'll claim her soon and then she'll have nothing to do with Michelle. Not all humans are a threat to us."
I leave the kitchen, annoyed that she considers Olivia a threat to the pack. I too would consider her a threat but to think the moon goddess would set me up and hand this pack over to the curious humans after us through my mate would be insane. If anything, what happened a decade ago was all because of Becca's disobedience so it's quite annoying that she's against me doing something pretty much willed by the moon goddess.
I join Olivia in the living room and Michelle walks in, her nanny holding her hand. When she sees Olivia, she squeezes her nanny's hand and begins to rock herself back and forth.
"That's my niece," I say and Olivia pins her gaze on Michelle, studying her.
"She's autistic," She says and I nod, the certainty in her statement taking me by surprise.
"How do you know?"
"I've had experience teaching children with special needs."
Impressive!
I stand up and walk towards Michelle, squatting in front of her and extending my hand forward, "Hey Michelle, I'd like you to meet someone...Come."
Michelle hesitantly places her small hand on top of mine and walks with me back to my seat.
"Meet your new teacher," I say lifting her onto my lap.
"Hey you," Olivia says but Michelle doesn't respond.
"I'm Olivia." No response.
"May I know what your name is?" Still no response.
She sighs, "Do you want to dance?"
Michelle looks up and nods.
"Come, let's dance," Olivia says, helping her off my laps. She begins to sing a preschool song, shaking her body at the same time and a few minutes later, Michelle mimics her motion.
"Good girl!" She claps and Michelle mimics that too, letting out a soft laugh.
As I watch the two sing and dance, I notice that Olivia is wearing another one of Belles dresses and I make a mental note to ask my secretary to get some fitting clothes for her.
Becca joins us in the living room and despite all her worries, she smiles when she sees her daughters' response to Olivia.
"We still can't trust her," she whispers, sitting next to me. "At least not after what Martin did to me years ago."
"Olivia isn't Martin, She's a whole different person. You'll see that soon," I say, not sure if I mean it. I haven't allowed myself to interact with her enough to know she's not a threat to us.
"Let's just hope history won't repeat itself," she says and I nod, shifting my focus back to Olivia and Michelle.
- Writer
