7.2: ...and Straight Lines

Dina's POV

Did he want food poisoning or something? Was there some upcoming alpha exam he needed to be excused from?

“I don’t know,” he continued, still not looking up, and shifted in his seat. Like he was getting uncomfortable. Then he suddenly looked up and his dark eyes met mine. “You want me to leave?”

“Take me with you,” I exclaimed and dramatically leaned over the table, reaching out for him. His eyes suspiciously followed my hand, before meeting my eyes again. I laughed when I noticed his perplexed expression. As if he was having a bad case of constipation.

“I’m joking. Relax,” I grinned and sat back up, trying to get the constipation image out of my head again. “But seriously, you don’t have to if you’d rather be with your family.”

To be honest, I was trying to give him a way out. He probably just felt like he had to be here, to be a gentleman or something like that. But I wasn't about to let him miss time with his family if he only felt honor-bound to be here with me. I was used to being and eating alone for months at a time. And this was his home that I invaded. He shouldn't feel like he needed to change his habits because of me…

“I’d rather be here,” he answered to my surprise and turned back to his plate.

“Why?” I asked again before thinking.

“You always question your alpha?” he suddenly barked, clearly annoyed.

“Apparently so,” I continued, not even realizing what I was saying. Until I realized and gasped: “Sorry. I’ll stop now.”

He grunted something about ‘women’, but I blocked it out. I slowly retracted my protruding lip and took another bite of the pizza. Hoping that I wouldn't fuck up more tonight…

“So,” the alpha suddenly asked, eyeing me for a second before returning his gaze to the plate. “Why an architect?”

His question surprised me a bit. I mean--- I knew why, but people never really asked because they wanted to know ‘know’. It was just a way to start a conversation and most of the time if I ever answered that question honestly, the conversation died the second I stopped talking. So, if the alpha wanted to talk, I had better make up some bullshit that actually could carry on a conversation…

“I guess I---” I stuttered, mostly just gaping like a fish and feeling rather uncomfortable making up something. “You know--- it-it pays well?”

Why I finished that as a question was beyond me, and like I already predicted, the alpha knew I was making up stuff.

“You mind telling me the truth?” he asked, unimpressed with my bad attempt at lying.

“It’s just---,” I groaned, finding myself pouting again. I looked at the alpha, hoping he’d let it go, but instead, his cold eyes looked like they demanded an answer. “Most people find it stupid.”

“Then you’re about to find out if I’m like most people or not,” he simply stated.

I sighed.

Well, here goes nothing then...

“I like lines,” I confessed, and as I suspected, the alpha tried his hardest to hide his surprise.

“Lines?” he echoed, trying not to sound as perplexed as he looked. “As in--- straight lines?”

“Told you it’s stupid,” I grumbled, pealing off a pineapple and popping it into my mouth. My cheeks were boiling hot, and I couldn’t even imagine how stupid he thought I was right about now.

“Why?” He asked, as I already suspected he would. I took a deep breath and looked up at him. And this is the part where he’ll realize that I’m a complete freak. I mentally noted, wondering if his house had a basement, that he was going to lock me up in until the crazy brigade came rushing in.

“Because I like the simplicity of it,” I confessed, nevertheless. And smiled, thinking about the first time my mother had drawn me my first house. I was 5 or 6 and wanted to make a dollhouse. I remember how gracefully the lines were added to the paper; how one line added depth and dimension, while another added character and warmth. They were just lines, but somehow, to the 5-or-6-year-old me, it looked like she was creating magic.

“It’s just a line,” I smiled, remembering all the hours I spent with her, just drawing everything my heart desired. How just simple lines could create dreams and hopes. Could make people smile and laugh. How simple lines could create so many emotions...

“It’s clean cut and ordinary, but if you add to it, it can become something--- incredible. Unique and extraordinary. Just like us.”

I looked up and, to my surprise, met the alpha’s curious gaze.

“Like us?” he asked, as if he had been listening – actually listening! – to everything I’d just said. Perhaps--- perhaps he wasn’t like the rest…?

“We’re made from simple atoms that in themselves aren’t that extraordinary,” I explained, feeling even shyer now, that I knew he was paying attention to what I said. Most people just spaced out the second I started talking about 'lines and magic'. They nodded and then left in a hurry, as if they couldn't wait to get away from me.

They never asked why...

So why did he?

“But when put together, they make up each and every one of us in extraordinary ways. It connects us to something outside of ourselves.” I glanced back up at him, shrugging sheepishly.

“Simple is beautiful to me.”

And just like that – for a split second – there was a ghost of a smile lingering on his lips. My heart did a little jump in my chest. He already had the dark, mysterious hotness going for him, but the second the smile appeared on his lips?

He became irresistible!

He looked so normal, kind, and gentle. He looked completely different. Younger and more carefree. He looked---

Like a man!

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered, the words barely audible.

“Hmm?” I muttered, being pulled back from wherever I’d been. Wh-what did he say? “I-I didn’t quite catch that…?”

“Nothing,” he quickly corrected himself and his eyes left mine. OK? That was kinda weird, but if he didn’t want to talk about it I wasn’t going to push him. I think I’d pushed enough of his buttons for one day. I grinned. Scratch that. I’d probably pushed enough of his buttons to last him a lifetime...

“I-I better go to make sure my aunt hasn’t killed my beta,” he stuttered, and got up, leaving the plate on the table.

“Be safe,” I said and waved for some silly reason. Luckily, I caught myself doing it and managed to stop myself, but not before the alpha noticed and that grin crept across his features. I blushed. Goddess, I was such a buffoon sometimes… “G-good night, Alpha Stone, and---”

He stopped at the door and turned to me, his profile outlining just how perfect his physic was...

I gulped, forcing myself to remain on task.

“Thank you, Alpha. For everything,” I said, hoping he could sense the sincerity and gratefulness I felt. I didn't know what he was thinking, but he didn’t seem to reject my words.

“Good night, miss Ridley,” he said gently, as if he was tasting the name on his lips.

“Please can you call me Dina?” I asked, feeling myself blushing hard at the use of the formal title. “Miss Ridley makes me sound like an old maid---”

Which I technically was now, so...

“Dina it is then,” he chuckled low and left. I grinned and grabbed another slice of pizza. Hmm, apparently he wasn’t all that bad, I thought to myself.

Perhaps we could even become friends, my wolf eagerly suggested - although I had a feeling that her idea of friendship and mine were not the same. For one thing, my wolf wanted the alpha in our bed, while I...

I laughed.

Me and the alpha?

Friends?!

It would be a bloody miracle if he hadn’t killed me before the week's end.