LEAD BY THE LUNA

Chapter 3

I looked at the man, waiting for him to turn around and apologize for his rude behavior but he didn't. His shoulders were still tense but heaving up and down deeply. "Well?" I asked, my foot tapping impatiently waiting for him to say anything, but all I could hear were his labored breaths.

Slowly he twisted his body, he faced me and his eyes were this dark and deep amber color. His jaw was chiseled with a high cheekbone. His eyebrows were thick and black but they did not hide his beautiful eyes. His nose was long but in the right way. His face was if the gods had crafted them itself. I hadn't since this type of beautiful since- No it's can't be him. It just can't be. There's no way he could of found me, I've stayed well hidden after his and my family's betrayal.

I took a small gasp, quiet enough that he could not hear. I slowed my heartbeat as quickly as I could before I looked him in those amber eyes. The eyes that once looked at me with such hate and venom were now looking at me with lust as if I was a feast. He still didn't speak, he just continued to stare at me. The slight tilt of his head as if I was some unknown foreign object.

My senses after eight years were becoming clearer, I could hear the increase of his heartbeat. His calm breaths now becoming erratic. He can't recognize me, for I am not the same woman that he knew years ago. For the first time in eight years I said my first prayer to the moon goddess that he did not know

who I was. That he thought I was someone else.

It was then that the slight smell of his arousal started to fill the elevator, the smell tickled my nostrils as I tried to force myself not to react. It was then for the first time in eight years I heard the one voice in head I tried to forget as she spoke the forbidden but truthful words. "Mate."

We continued to stare at each other, not a single word was spoken. The tension and arousal was thick in the air. My head was in a whirlwind and for the first time in eight years I could feel my resolve break. The presence of the wolf who abandoned me was swirling around in my head.

After years of being abandoned by my family, betrayed by friends, and hurt by the mate who was meant to love her forever, she decides to grace me with her presence. I could feel the palm of my hand curl at the anger boiling in my blood. For years I cried and begged for my wolf to stay with me, to fight with me when he rejected us, but she didn't. She abandoned me and left me a werewolf with the inability to shift. She curled away in the back of my mind, and no amount of begging would get her to come forward to comfort me. I was truly left alone.

I looked into the eyes of the man who was meant to be ours forever. I could see his wolf peaking through, edging to the surface, trying to work out if I am his mate. I know he won't sense me because the witch I saw after the rejection put a charm in place that stops him from feeling the full affect of the bond. The witch told me that if he ever saw me, the wolf in him would recognize me as someone familiar and the bond we felt would almost be a light strum. I remember her warning that despite her charms, nature and fate can overpower the charm depending on how determined the mates are. I shook my head and directed my attention to the wall. I let out a huff, trying to convey my frustration with the man.

"Well?" I exasperated for a second time.

He coughed slightly. "I'm sorry." His voice was husky and deep. My eyes wanted to close and drown in the sound of his voice. It was sexy and erotic, heightening my arousal further. "I didn't mean to bump into you."

"Sure you didn't," I retorted. I needed to maintain my ice-cold composure. The quiet murmurs of my wolf were trying to break the composure of the many walls that I had built. He looked at me and tilted his head. I could sense his need to work out who I was to him, the puzzlement clear on his face.

"I'm sorry, but have we met before? You look familiar," his tone was questioning.

"No, we haven't," I stated coolly. "Oh well, erm, my name is Saul. Saul Warner," he replied. He held his hand out, but when I looked at it with disgust, there was no way I was touching his disease-ridden hand.

"Miss Sinclair," I stated. I masked my face, refusing to bow down to him and show him any emotion. "Amelia Sinclair?" he questioned.

"Yes, but only friends and family call me Amelia. So, Miss Sinclair to you," I snipped. His face, once filled with lust, now turned cold as he looked me up and down. I could see he was appraising me. Everyone knew who I was. I was a formidable businesswoman, and if I remember his tactics, he was looking for a weakness. I chuckled internally, knowing that he does not realize that he has been my biggest weakness, as well as a mistake.

"Sorry, Miss Sinclair," he said. The hand that he once held out for me was now hanging by his side. Truth be told, I knew I wanted to reach out and grab his hand and never let it go, but I couldn't be weak.

As the elevator rode, there was an uneasy silence. I closed my eyes as he stood beside me and faced the door. I could feel the heat from his arm radiate. I bit my tongue, refusing to speak. I couldn't bear to hear about his new life with his family. It would break me further. Honestly, I didn't think I

could break anymore, but it was happening right in front of my eyes.

There was a jolt in the elevator, and the ground shook. Losing my balance, I grabbed onto the first thing I could, which happened to be Saul's arm. The tingles of his skin danced across my palm. The inferno fire was now reduced to a simmer, and a soft moan escaped my lips. I looked towards my hand and could see Saul's unwavering gaze on it. He scrunched his eyebrows, looking at my hand gripping his forearm. I pulled my hand away as the elevator stopped and the lights began to flicker. The speakers in the elevator filled the small occupied space.

"I'm sorry to inform you, but our elevator seems to have broken down, Miss Sinclair. We will see that an engineer is sourced as soon as possible," a chirpy feminine voice filled my ears.

I groaned, knowing full well that I was truly and utterly screwed. I was stuck in an elevator with the one man I loved and hated at the same time. The man who was my everything but also my destruction. The man who rejected me and my wolf. The man who had no idea that he was in an elevator with his rejected mate.

"Louise?" Saul questioned. f**k. Maybe he does know.

The name that slipped through his mouth was one that I hadn't heard in eight years. I could feel myself wanting to blanch at his words. Fortunately, the walls that I had resurrected allowed me to hold one hell of a poker face. Camouflaging my disgust at that name, I calculated my next words. Thoughts raced through my head. Do I ignore what he said and let the silence consume us until he says something else? Do I scream and shout at him, calling him every name under

The sun, for not realizing I was his mate sooner? Do I curse and spit at him for even letting my name leave that snake of a tongue of his? "Louise?" I ask, my tone filled with fake confusion. I look at him with a slight tilt to my head. "Yes, Louise? Is that you?" he whispered. My heart pounds slightly as my name comes out as a plea. "Sorry, who is Louise?" I decide to play stupid. There will never be a time or place for me to have the type of conversation he wants to have. "Erm, Amelia. Sorry, you just reminded me of someone," he muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets as he leans the side of his body on the elevator. His gaze lowering to the floor. "You sounded like her," he murmurs.

My wolf stirs in the back of my head, coming out of her haze. I'm scoffing at her weakness as she tries to come out of my mind after being in a comatose state for eight years. She left me to deal with the heartache, the pain. She left me with the inability to shift. I was basically human. Her abandonment caused me to become more callous and cold to those around me. The one person who was meant to be there for me just left, and now she wants to make her appearance because her bastard mate is within my vicinity.

My thoughts are cut quickly from the speakers in the elevator. "Miss Sinclair, I apologize for the inconvenience, but our engineer is on the way, and unfortunately, there is a gridlock, so we cannot anticipate how long it will take for the elevator to be fixed." I groaned. Honestly, out of all the days to be stuck in a confined space, it had to be today, and it had to be with Saul Warner. I close my eyes, cursing the moon goddess, trying to determine what the hell I did to deserve this. I had grown up respecting my elders and parents, getting good grades in school. I was kind to people growing up. Yet all I had received in return was pain.

"Well, it looks like we are going to be here for some time," Saul said. He pushed himself from the wall and shrugged his blazer off and placed it on the floor. His white crisp shirt showcased his refined body as he fell to the floor with his back pressed against the wall. I looked down at him, the disgust was clear on my face as I tapped my foot. "May as well get comfortable," he shrugged.

My head fell back as I looked to the ceiling and took a deep breath, refusing to show Saul any sign of weakness or emotion. I groaned as I knew that I would be here for some time and shook my heels off and sat on the opposite side of the lift, stretching my legs out and crossing my ankles as I placed my hands in my lap. I refused to make conversation with him as I could not risk the charms breaking. I needed to maintain an emotional distance that would conceal my true identity. However, there was a nagging feeling in my mind that was curious as to why he was thinking about Louise. No matter how much I tried, I just could not kill that curiosity.

"So who's Louise?" My face was expressionless, not wanting to clue him onto my true intentions. The minute I said her name, his shoulders tensed, and his eyes closed. I could tell it was too personal for the stranger in the elevator, but I didn't give a f**k. "Someone I used to know," he replied nonchalantly. "Seems to be someone special if you're imagining her voice." I taunted. His closed eyes opened,

and his gaze became hardened. The amber eyes he had were now deep, dark, and black. His breathing was labored. I chuckled internally at the wolf that was surfacing, his anger becoming apparent. Ah, Mr. Alpha doesn't have a poker face like I do, and he can't do a single thing about it because he senses I'm human, not a wolf. "She's none of your concern," he spits and turns his gaze away from me. An involuntary chuckle escapes my lips at his response. If only he knew that girl was me.