The Final Alpha

Chapter Three- Campus Confidential

Aria's POV

It took approximately forty minutes through small town traffic and dodging tails before coming to the side entrance of my campus dormitory. I’d rarely stayed as it was my father’s wishes, but with certain responsibilities making it difficult keeping my perfect attendance by traveling, I owned a bed beside a bubbly roommate who had become more of a sister in the last three years as a fellow student. But where she may be forgiving for my distant thoughts and forgetful nature, this would be more difficult to explain.

“You better have extra caramel in mine for ditching me-” The door came open to my knock as I looked with a paranoid gander on either side of the hallway. It was early enough that few feet touched the corridor, but still risked enough by lingering.

The messy bun of dyed blonde hair threatened to fall over her shoulders at a dramatic casting as she looked between us in confusion.

“No apology needed.” She grinned as I only realized by the fall of her eyes that he’d been holding my arm.

“No, it’s not, c-can we come in?” I asked out of breath, keeping the excitement of the morning as reserved as possible. I was never one to come clean to Brooke about the truth of my extracurricular activities in the day as it could put her in danger. Because of it, she believed I’d met someone and brought him home. If only, things would be so much easier.

“A friend…”

“So what, you lied about needing to study and met some hunk last night? I’m not mad, I’m actually proud, but you could have at least brought a friend or something,” she pouted as I pushed him into the en suite bathroom. Explaining some believable but vague story about how he came on a late flight and got mugged, she gasped and added in commentary when expected, as I set the shower to steam.

“Stay here and wash off the blood.” I urged while closing the door and returning to Brooke.

“He seems too young to be a friend of your dad’s…I mean if you are into that, that’s totally fine, but maybe you can give me a heads up next time or,” her eyes suddenly widened as a gust of steam came to my back.

“Jesus almighty,” her charming southern belle accent called as I turned to find the source of her scrutinization.

All six-foot-something of muscle and sunkissed skin chiseled to perfection stood in stark, unabashed, existence. Nothing more than corded muscles, deep eyes harboring intrigue, and a thick length hanging between his legs. All grounds for distraction made my skin flush from head to toe.

“OhmyGod!” She reached forward as if he was some interactive display and I was quick to stand between them. It was when she commented that I remembered we weren’t alone. And I realized I never could be with him again. Not without seeing him like he was now. And it would take some time to ever see anything else.

“You can’t do that!” I rushed him, pressing the towel he abandoned at the chair left directly inside the bathroom, wrapping it until it covered him. In doing so, my nostrils were invaded with a rush of smoke and pine. My eyes rose to him as I bowed near his waist, covering him, and turning back to Brooke.

“You have to put some clothes on. We can’t raise any attention.” I spat in believing he could understand. Taking the clothes I’d stolen from the lost-and-found when we first entered the co-ed living quarters, he managed to understand. But he simply dropped the towel again and my eyes lowered in selfish appreciation.

“Holy s**t, Aria, he’s,” impossibly perfect as far as the male specimen goes? Yeah, I’m well aware. But would she still feel the same after knowing what he’s capable of? After all, I thought I did. And someone supposedly called a monster saved my life.

An hour later and the dorm room had never felt smaller than it did right now and it was only the two of us. I'd convinced Brooke to take notes and hand in my paper as a favor, but I had other priorities than my first unexcused absence for the duration of my collegiate career. Instead, I had a pair of steel eyes narrowing on me and awaiting my every move. But even as I had nervously paced the small space furthest away from him, he only kept his eyes to my face.

"Can you talk?" Whenever I spoke, his eyes fell to my lips. But much like a dog who was unfamiliar with a trained command, he set his neck off kilter as if to try and understand.

"Can you understand me?" Again, the motion copied, but just like the first incline, it was a soft adjustment of angling.

"We need to get you out of here and somewhere you can blend in better," I eyed him for research purposes. Who was I kidding? I was ogling him without needing a reason. It was made worse by the damp hair hanging over his eyes that gave a sultry appearance with bangs covering his eyes. As if he had exercised or some other excuse for movement that caused the perspiration.

"But you can't even respond to me…" I explained out loud. "Do you have a name?" To this, his eyes seemed to comprehend something, but not enough to answer. And much like my favored Disney movie, I optioned for a way someone lacking phonics would understand.

"Aria." I set my hand wide across my chest. "My name is Aria…" I repeated it until he stood. Taking a step back to his advancement, I made it only a bend before his hand was over mine. It swallowed me fully and was horribly warm in a way I suddenly hungered for more. I wanted to feel that hand, both hands, on my hips as they inched lower and lower and-

"Your name?" I cleared my throat. But he only fixated. Rather frustrated at the s****l tension dripping between us from the silence, I realized I'd have to give one of my own. Like a pet. And with that came some ownership. But as I looked at him, I thought of a slew of names that seemed unbefitting to him. Nothing modern worked with his appearance he held now or the way he carried himself with chivalrous protection. He was cold and hard-almost a wall of stone until he needed to act.

And that was when his eyes seemed to offer the name itself.

Steele.

I'd spoken it aloud and it softened his features. Somehow beyond anything else he'd grasped in pieces, this he knew to be his. And with it came a nod.

"I need you to stay close to me." I explained more in selfish ambition to have any excuse to have him close.

"I need you to-" a knock suddenly came to my door and he turned with a glare. As I reached to look through the peephole, he took my hand. Without another motion, he took my place and I saw his shoulders rise from an inhale.

He was smelling my guest from our shared side of the door. And whatever it was sent him into a stiff tension. Turning to me just over his shoulders, my eyes fell to his hands that were made into fists.

"Aria?" A familiar voice breathed as I exhaled with relief.

"It's okay, Steele, it's just the RA." I pressed a hand to his chest to calm him as I did with my father, but he only took my wrists harder.

"It's okay…I need you to stay out of sight. I'm not supposed to have you in here." I pushed him into the bathroom where the door cracked before giving Graham access. His usual curled dirty blonde hair was pulled into a baseball cap that was corrected by a wave of his hand and replaced in nervousness.

"Hey, I saw that you didn’t leave with Brooke, are you okay? Are you feeling okay?" He looked around the room, noticing Steele's discarded pants on my bed as his eyes turned melancholic. Graham was a friendly face since I’d first arrived, but was anything but authoritative. Still, his care was considerate for everyone but the current beast of a man willing to tear him to shreds if he came within two feet of me.

"Can I get you something?"

"No, just feeling a bit nauseated." I acted the part by brushing my hand over my stomach.

"There's some really good ginger tea in the commons. I'm headed there now for Dietrich," our shared Greek history professor, "I can bring it back before class."

"No, really, I’m okay."

"I know it must be bad if it has you breaking your perfect attendance," his eyes shot to the direction of the bathroom at a sound we heard in unison. Steele's weight shifting beyond the door. Looking between the two of us, I lunged behind the door and slammed it as I rushed right into the weight of his chest. Huffing and seemingly angry. But for the first time his eyes were looking over my shoulder in anger as if he could see through the door.

"Aria?"

"I'm..I'm fine, I just want to try and sleep. I'll stop by the RA station later, promise." I stared at Steele as he glared harder at the door.

"O-okay…I'll let myself out. Feel better." It wasn't believable but it was enough to be left alone. Waiting for the door to close, I made my way back into the main heart of the dorm before taking a breath out.

"Sit here and stop brooding…." He softened in us being alone. With hands on my hips as he sat on my bed, I shook my head.

"What am I supposed to do? What was I thinking? I should have just let you go in the woods and instead you're trapped here. It’s not like I can keep you here. You don’t exactly blend in…" I groaned at the thought. I looked to the fresh snow and the busy campus below as he was certainly going to be noticed no matter who he passed as he was too defined and handsome to be missed.

We'd have to wait until night.

Slipping off my jacket, I muttered that I might as well study for the upcoming winter finals and motioned for him to stay quiet. A habitual practice I had to read out loud brought him closer to me as we nearly brushed and somehow there was comfort in that so I didn't move away. Instead, I reread the same paragraph over and over before finally switching over to psychology.

Somewhere between reading about the functions of the brain during grief and highlighting my notes of worthy definitions, I turned to find him asleep. His body took the entirety of my bed with the exception of the small space I’d occupied to remain studying. And suddenly the words of importance through the expensive textbook weren't as important as the man in my sheets.

I'd begin to sketch him in the margins of my notes. Beginning at his jaw and the incoming stubble peppering his defined figure. His full lips that made me lead the pencil to my own to imagine the pressure on mine. The wavy hair cast aside and dried as I wondered how soft it would be to run my fingers through it. And finally the muscles. Only his torso was exposed by a lift of the shirt that was a size too big and bunched as he'd settled in comfort. An Adonis belt leading to that forbidden weight I had memorized as if it were some pristine art form had me sketching it in detail. Until suddenly I awoke to the heat of his arms wrapped around me from behind. As my nerves were aware this was foreseeable by firing squad as far as The Legion was concerned, I'd never felt more safe.

I awoke to his nose nestled behind my ear and the notion of his fingers on the exposed skin of my hip. He made no attempt to do anything more than source some claim and I was powerless to stop him. Instead, my body moved closer as I turned into his arms. He was still asleep and a sliver of moonlight kissed the lips of rays I envied. I traced his mouth, desperate to know how he'd savor me-or maybe devour me. I'd never been held like this, especially by choice, and it was quickly becoming an obsession being in his arms.

He jolted upwards, palms pressed to the mattress before he looked out the window. I took a moment longer than I should have to appreciate the tense arms gripping the window, before joining him and pulling the curtains wider. At that same moment I searched the darkness around us, I spotted the motion in the treeline encircling the campus. Heavy willows swept away to the sight of combat boots and the tips of arrows peeking into the star-lit light of nightfall.

I'd caught the attention of Donovan and his newly wrapped neck as he looked to my window. Lifting his bow, he shot to the glass as it shattered and I pushed Steele out of the way. We landed on Brooke's bed and he held onto me as if I was the one in danger. Cemented into him, I tried to stand, but he only held me closer.

"We have to go." I managed as he tugged me tighter.

The sound of broken glass from the floor beneath us broke us out of our moment as we charged out the secondary exit. But the instant the door cleared us and reconnected with the frame, we were surrounded.

The attempt made to save each other was going to be what killed us both in the end.