4: Self-respect

Alaric

*

"It’s your responsibility to save my life if that she-wolf kicks me in the ass one day." Emma joked, to which I rolled my eyes. She was my right hand and was blessed with the gift of watching everyone’s past by touching them. So, yes, she figured out what Moana meant to me when she accidentally ended up touching me.

Though I tried to avoid her touching me, she was my right hand after Beasty chose a different path for his hand. So she found out the truth by touching me.

"I’m serious. I don’t need to touch her to read how much she hates me." Emma pointed out. I saw a werewolf warrior staring at us, maybe trying to understand what we were saying, but that was impossible because we vampires had our own language and could only be understood by other vampires.

Just like other creatures couldn’t understand witches' and witches' spells or demons’ language,

"She hates me too. As a result, we're both on the same page."I pointed out. I wanted her to tell me that Moana didn’t hate me, but Emma didn’t say a word about that.

"I don’t know, man. I guess she hates me more than she hates you."

Ouch! That hurt.

"Can't you say that she doesn't hate me for my happiness?" I complained like a baby. I would blame mate bond for that.

"Fine. She doesn't hate you. She loves you." Emma said with a smile.

"Really? Or you're saying this to make me happy?" I asked hopefully.

"Isn't it obvious? To make you happy. Because that is what you wanted to hear." She pointed out.

"Seriously? Why the hell did you tell the truth this soon? At least you should have let me stay happy for a while before bursting the balloon of my happiness."

"I promise to do that next time. Anyways, where were we before? Yes, about Moana's hatred toward me." She said reaching back to where we were before. "As much as I can understand any woman’s nature, the reason she hates me to this extent is that I roam around you most of the time and am pretending to be with you like we are together," Emma explained the things in detail. "Only if she knew the truth." She added.

It was true that Emma and I used to fist-pump. But that was in the past. I might have slept with numerous women in my past, but not since the night Moana walked into my life. I hadn’t involved myself with any other woman.

I just couldn’t.

Because she had occupied my mind completely. That was a different thing: I had to keep pretending to be with Emma so that people around me wouldn’t see the sudden change in my behavior, as well as because Moana tried to approach me after I canceled our one-night stand deal, so I needed to keep her away by showing that I already had a woman.

"I don’t understand why you haven’t rejected her yet. It’s not that you have a wolf who will die." Emma said, to which I didn’t reply because I myself had no answer to this question. All I knew was that Selene might have thought of something before pairing me with her, but what?

Why did she pair me with someone whose result would be death in the end? She paired me with someone who hated vampires.

Why not a human whom I could turn into a vampire?

"And if you want to keep her, then the question is, Does she too want you?’" I glared at her at these words. "Relax, buddy!! I’m just repeating the thoughts that I have read."

"Moon Goddess, I really wish to have the gift of a shield." I groaned, hating the fact that she could see everything with just a mere touch.

"Oh, in that case, only Queen Lenora can help you with that. She has the power to change anyone’s gift if that vampire wants the same." Emma said. "And she will do this favor for anyone only if she is really impressed by them."

"Impressing her means doing something stupid like killing werewolves. Last time, Werewolf King let this matter go because Liara was involved in it. Punishing us also meant punishing her because Liara brought Theodore into the Ever Green Pack even after knowing that Theodore was half-hybrid." I told her. "And I doubt that would happen this time. If he would demand our heads from Queen Lenora, then she wouldn’t waste a second before handing us over to them."

"The woman who killed her own sister, do you think that she will care for us? She is sly and cunning and thinks only about herself." I said it in irritation because she was the villain of my love story. I can’t wait to have our kingdom have a new queen or king, and that would be possible only after killing her because I doubted that she would leave her precious position on her own.

As far as I could see, there were two people who could be good rulers. Vampire Princess Leora Black and Vlad Cornell

"I can’t agree more. I mean, can you believe that she doesn’t want to hand over her kingdom to her own daughter? Just because her daughter isn’t anywhere near her or, say, is a saint among devils. She always keeps her own daughter locked in a tower, like Rapunzel. Poor girl." I nodded my head because that was true.

Leora was also known as the hidden princess because everyone knew that she existed but no one knew anything about her look, her age, or her gift. Hell, if she stood in front of me ever again in the future, I wouldn’t be able to recognize her for sure.

Ending the conversation, we went in opposite directions to check the border. I had a gut feeling that sooner or later Queen was going to call me after knowing my involvement with the werewolves all the time.

‘Will she punish me for it?' I doubt that, and in case she did, then I would tell her about the bright sight of staying in the good book of Liara. By now, even she would have an idea of who Liara was.

While I was thinking all this, my eyes landed on Moana and that mutt. I couldn’t stop myself from hearing their conversation.

I was really expecting her to let him get close to her. Was she really this desperate that she would start whoring around?

I was mad at her for stooping so low. I was mad at that mutt for kissing what belonged to me. I was mad at myself for watching all that drama and not killing that mutt.

I knew I pushed her away, but really? She could have behaved like an adult instead of a baby. She was, indeed, a baby in front of my eyes. I had lived for twenty-eight years as a human and then turned into a vampire. Long story short, I have been twenty-eight for the last seventy-eight years now.

With each passing second, my anger and irritation were rising, and I knew I had to do something before I ended up doing something stupid like killing that mutt.

While she went with that mutt in her room. I walked towards Alpha Ambrose’s room to inform him what his daughter was doing behind his back.

To be honest, I knew that she was going to get scolded, but I didn’t give a damn about that part. She deserved all those scoldings, as she had earned them on her own.

I couldn’t hear what happened inside her room, but yes, I saw that mutt leaving her room soon after Alpha Ambrose reached there.

‘Yes! Mission Successful.’ I mentally cheered and returned to my work.

*

Hours later,

I returned to Theodore’s house when the sun made its first appearance in the sky. It was now the werewolves’ duty to guard the whole place. The house sounded dead in the absence of his family, especially his kids. I sighed and walked towards the guest room where I was staying while my people had to stay in the quarters that Alpha Ambrose had arranged.

The moment I opened the door, I felt someone else’s presence in the room. The scent was masked, but I could hear the heartbeat. I casually walked inside only to slam that intruder head on the floor, who was waiting for me by climbing on the corner of the wall like a Spiderman.

Everything happened so fast that in one moment, I felt someone jump on me from the top, and the next thing I knew, I grabbed the neck of that intruder and slammed on the floor.

"Moana.." I removed my hand from her neck and looked at her in confusion.

"Hi Alaric," She greeted me with a beautiful smile, and the way she called my name, fuck, I almost stopped breathing. My name sounded so great from her mouth: Bye, Alaric!" Using this as her opportunity, she threw a punch at me, but I was quick to move away from her.

Observing her anger, I knew why she was here in the mood to kill me.

"How dare you?" She growled in anger, standing on her feet.

"What did I do?" I asked innocently.

"Don’t act innocent, leech. You know what you do." She growled at me again. I used to hate werewolves growling at the end of every sentence like a full stop until she landed in my life. "Why did you report everything to my dad? I can do anything that I want. Don’t act like my teacher, reporting everything about to my parents." She growled again.

I really think something was wrong with it. Her growl sounded like a purr to me.

"I don’t mind treating you like my student, after all, you don’t know a lot of things," I stated for a fact.

Student and teacher!

Forbidden desire again.

"There are so many things that I can teach you," I said, to which she glared at me. "I mean in terms of fighting moves, not that," I explained it because what I said could be taken in another way as well.

"No, thanks. I can’t trust that person who is not a person of his word." She taunted.

I fumed in anger, hearing her words. I recalled how she let that mutt kiss her. "Don’t you have some self-respect? Or throwing yourself at someone else is something that you have learned?"

"Excuse me?" She glared at me in anger.

"You heard me. Do you think that I don’t know how you used to throw yourself on Theodore? You are now repeating the same thing in front of me or that mutt." I saw a flash of pain in her eyes. I knew my words triggered her, but she was quick to mask it with her answer.

"Who the hell do you think you are to judge my character? Do you think I don’t know about your life?" She growled in anger. "It’s funny that a man is giving me a lecture on self-respect. Moreover, it’s my life; I can spread my legs in front of anyone I want to. You've got no right."

That was it.

It looked like we could trigger each other with our words, and the next thing I knew, I ran toward her, slamming at the bed because it was standing just behind her. If the wall hadn’t been behind her, then I would have slammed her against the wall.

"What did you say?" I asked in anger.

Fuck!! In bed with her was a wrong move.

very wrong move.

"You heard me." She hissed; even her breathing was uneven. "If not for you, I would have gotten laid last night. And now, I just could think about his hands all over my body." She added, closing her eyes. At that moment, I really wanted to kill my own mate by sucking all her blood out of her vein.

But I knew what was better than death.

And I would, my little mate.

.

#TBC