Intruder
1052 Words
I gritted my teeth and stepped into the bathroom, leaving the door ajar.
I stripped off the ruined dress, kicking the expensive fabric into the corner. I stepped under the spray and turned it on hot.
The water hit me like a physical blow. I scrubbed my skin raw, washing away the mud, the blood from the bite mark on my neck, and the phantom sensation of the Rogue’s hands.
I watched Matteo through the crack in the door.
He hadn’t moved. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands, perfectly still. He looked like a statue of a fallen angel—beautiful and terrifyingly lonely.
I turned off the water. I wrapped myself in a plush black towel that smelled like sandalwood and him.
When I stepped out, he was waiting.
He had laid out a t-shirt on the vanity. It was his. Black, soft cotton.
“Put this on,” he said without turning around.
I pulled it on. It came down to my mid-thighs. It was a dress on me.
I walked into the bedroom. “We need to talk terms.”
Matteo finally looked up. His eyes scanned me, lingering on the bite mark on my neck that was already starting to bruise purple.
“Terms,” he agreed. “Sit.”
He patted the space beside him on the mattress.
I stayed standing. “I want a lawyer.”
“No lawyers.”
“I want a contract. In writing.”
“Fine. I’ll have legal draw it up in the morning.”
“And I want access to the press,” I continued, counting off on my fingers. “My father erased me tonight. He thinks I’m gone. I want to go on air tomorrow. I want to announce our… engagement.”
Matteo tilted his head. “You want to declare war on your father less than twelve hours after he disowned you?”
“I want him to know he missed,” I said coldly. “I want him to know he didn’t kill me. He just made me dangerous.”
Matteo stared at me. A slow smirk touched his lips.
“You are vicious,” he murmured. “I like it.”
He stood up and walked toward me. The predatory grace was back.
“You get your press conference. You get your revenge. And in return…”
He stopped inches from me. He reached out and hooked a finger into the neckline of the t-shirt, tugging me closer.
“In return, you belong to me. Publicly. Privately. Physically.”
“Physically?” My breath hitched.
“Touch,” he clarified, his voice dropping to a husky whisper. “I need contact, Lucia. Constant. Daily. Tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“I haven’t slept more than two hours a night in three years,” he admitted. The exhaustion was suddenly visible in the slump of his shoulders. “When I hold you… the noise stops. The pain stops.”
He looked at the bed, then back at me.
“Sleep with me.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a plea masked as a demand.
I looked at the massive bed. I looked at the man who had saved my life and then threatened it in the span of an hour.
“On top of the covers,” I negotiated.
“Fine.”
“And if you try anything…”
“Lucia,” he cut me off, his voice dry. “I am chemically dependent on you to keep my brain from melting. I am not going to jeopardize my supply by forcing myself on you. I just want to sleep.”
He turned and collapsed onto the bed. He didn't even get under the duvet. He just lay on his back, throwing an arm over his eyes.
I hesitated. Then, realizing I had no other options and that my own exhaustion was starting to pull me under, I climbed onto the other side.
The mattress dipped.
“Closer,” he mumbled.
I scooted a few inches.
“Closer.”
I moved until my hip bumped his.
Matteo sighed. He reached out blindly, his hand finding my waist. He pulled me in until my back was pressed against his chest. He threw a heavy leg over mine, pinning me down. His arm wrapped around me like a seatbelt.
He buried his face in my hair.
“Quiet,” he whispered.
And then, just like that, he was out. His breathing deepened into the heavy rhythm of deep sleep.
I lay there, wide awake, staring at the city lights through the glass wall.
I was in the bed of the enemy. I was engaged to a monster. And tomorrow, I was going to tell the world.
My eyelids grew heavy. The heat radiating from him was soporific. My wolf curled up in my mind, purring at the proximity of such a powerful Alpha.
I drifted off.
The sound of the door clicking woke me.
It was faint. The sound of a lock disengaging.
The room was pitch black. Matteo was still asleep, a heavy, dead weight against my back.
I didn't move. I kept my breathing even.
A shadow detached itself from the wall near the door.
It wasn’t Dante. It was smaller. A woman.
She crept toward the bed. In her hand, something glinted. A syringe.
She stopped at the foot of the bed. She looked at Matteo, then at me.
“Substitute,” she whispered. The word dripped with venom.
She raised the syringe.
I tensed, ready to scream, ready to fight.
But before I could move, Matteo’s arm tightened around my waist.
He didn’t wake up. He didn’t open his eyes.
He growled.
It was a low, subsonic rumble that vibrated through the mattress.
The woman froze. Her eyes went wide.
She lowered the syringe, took a step back, and vanished into the shadows as silently as she had come.
I lay there in the dark, my heart hammering against my ribs. The danger in this house wasn't just the Alpha. It was everyone.
And I also realized something else.
Matteo hadn't growled to protect himself. He had growled because she had gotten too close to me.
I closed my eyes, but I didn't sleep again.
- Writer
