Fear

Indrik

"Hey!" I called excitedly, shaking Luna awake.

She sat up, nearly sending me sprawling on my back. Her eyes were wide with, fright? "Luna?"

I might have as well not have been present with the way she stared with blank eyes over my head. I was preparing to speak again when she lowered her eyes to me. "Is it morning already?" She asked, blinking in confusion as she stared out the slightly open window outside which darkness still reigned supreme.

"How are your wounds?" I asked, dropping to my knees while keeping my eyes fixed on her arms but in the dim light of the lamp, I couldn't see much of the bruises on there. I knew they were healing though. After I had taken responsibility for the poison, telling a very grumpy group that consisted of the council as well as my friends about how I had drank poison and forced my maid to take responsibility for it, (a story which they had been very reluctant to believe even though it was true in a way,) the doctor had been allowed to treat her and they had stopped calling for a rearrest. This had been a relief because spoon-feeding an unconscious maid/master while hiding away from roaming guards did not look like a very appetizing option.

She yawned again as she frowned slightly, her eyes flying to her arms. "Better. I guess. But it might just be another trick."

I didn't know what she meant but I winced as I recalled last night. I had gone all Alpha male mode on her, an action which even now in retrospect still shocked me. Last night, after we had finished eating and she had made her way to her room, I had remained by the window, staring up at the moon that looked like a very hungry giant had taken a huge bite out of it, leaving a jagged crescent hanging in the air. My eyes might have been on the moon but my mind was anywhere but with it. I had replayed the scene with Luna over and over in my head so many times that I was certain I could never forget it even if I had amnesia. Growing up in a pack that boasted of only strong wolves, being a frail wolfless kid meant that I was bound to be stuck in the shadows, a colossal failure that would always remain a stain on the white walls of the Druid Peak Pack. I would have been if not because of the females that could never take their eyes off me. Oftentimes, I would look in the mirror and scoff at the image that stared back at me, wondering what was so impressive about it. The other sex though did not seem to think the same way as they were ever coming after me. There was hardly a day that I would step out of the palace and not be swarmed by them, each one eager to impress. Rather than make me proud of my looks though, their actions only served to make me insecure. It didn't help that Leon would often tease me about how others had wolf powers while I had face powers. I had pushed away the girls and eventually stopped going out during the day altogether. Not to the places where I could be found by the girls at least.

Too much information. Anyways, my point is, apart from Blaire, I had for the most part never been in close quarters with any girl. Not voluntarily at least. But earlier? Earlier had been different. Luna had not been the one to push herself on me, instead, I was the one who had stepped into her personal space, pinning her down. Heck, I had almost kissed her. I shivered at the memory, like I had not thought about it a million times. In that moment, as I stared into her blue eyes that reminded me of the ocean on a calm day, I had forgotten about everything else. Her wounds, my still frayed innards, everything, had faded leaving just her face looming larger than life in my mind. If not for... I shook my head as I pinned my eyes on Luna who was waving an arm before me.

She was fully awake now, her eyes looking more of cobalt in the early morning light. Yeah, one of the changes I noticed since I returned from the precipice of death was that my senses had now sharpened. Well, I still didn't quite grasp the full implication of that but it meant that my eyes worked better now, even in the dark, it meant my nose could pick up the smell of roses out back, the smell of the horses in the stables much farther away and also not so pleasant smells which I would be better off not picking up, it meant my tongue could pick out every single spice that had been used in preparing food. All of these were great and I figured I could grow to love them but none quite bothered me as much as the change in my emotions. What I would have ignored in the past now got me either raging mad or so soft, I could barely hold in my tears. Something told me it had a large role to play in what had happened.

"Hey!" She called again. Her voice came from so close to my ears that I jumped. It was only because she was light on her feet that I did not bash her nose. "Watch it!" She complained.

"Sorry!" I hadn't noticed her get out of bed and take a stance over me.

She scowled, her expression informing me that she was dangerously close to bashing my face in with a fruit again. "What do you want, master?"

"I was hoping we could train?" I asked, hoping she hadn't changed her mind over the night or even worse, this morning. I had after all woken her up in the early hours of the morning. It hadn't seemed like much of a bad idea at the time, having been unable to sleep after a short snatch of sleep but now, I was realizing just how mad it could make a master. "Please?"