7. Leave Him Thinking
1100 Words
Kier
"Why are you mad? You said she was disgusting. I didn't think you would mind if I danced with her. You already rejected her," Lloyd says nonchalantly, perfectly aware that he's getting on my nerves.
Annoyed, I hit my desk, fracturing the wood, and Lloyd looks up from the book in his hands. "You accepted a dance with her, right after she turned me down."
Lloyd's eyebrows arches. "I fail to see what's wrong with dancing with a beautiful woman who, for once, isn't drooling over you." A pause. "Do you like her, Kier?"
"I do not." My response is instantaneous. Like her? Harbor feelings for a maid? How utterly disgraceful.
I had been taken aback when she repeated those words to me. I love you, Alpha.
In that moment, I wanted and needed in a way that defied reason. I danced with the most stunning being I have ever seen, touched her body that seemed to have been moulded just for me. Her finger grazed my skin and I shuddered, shivered. Her teeth nipped softly on my earlobe and there had been fire on my skin.
But it was Jessamine Everhart, and I would die before I let my senses get confused by the wiles of a desperate, shameless vixen of a woman. Or any woman at all.
Lloyd shrugs. "Then you should have no problem with it. It was just a dance. Had I not taken her hand, someone else would have. So quit bugging me about something as irrelevant as this."
Only Lloyd can talk to me in this manner and get away with it. In my rather tiny circle of friends, he's my best friend. My brother. Randale's the other, but Lloyd and I go way back. We grew up together.
Irrelevant, he said.
But it feels far from that. It is eating at me continuously, and I hate that I had little to no control over myself last night. I hate that I can still hear her giggle while she danced with him. I hate that I can still see the dimples in her cheeks as her eyes brightened up like stars in the skies as she danced with him.
She didn't smile for me like that. I catch myself narrowing my eyes at Lloyd, and I shake my head.
I must be losing my mind if I'm thinking so much about something this trivial.
A knock jars me from my thoughts and a confident feminine voice follows, "Alpha, it is Moira. You called for me."
Lloyd looks at me funny but says nothing as he eases up from his seat. "You very well know you can't mess around with the contenders, Kier."
I lean back in my chair. "Moira will be my choice at the end of the selection. We might as well get acquainted if we're going to start living as a couple next month."
Lloyd's lips thin and though it is clear he has a lot to say to that, he doesn't speak. He bows low and walks out, murmuring a soft greeting to Moira who walks in, head hung low, so that her finer qualities are on display. "Alpha."
"Sit." I notion to the chair opposite of me.
She obeys, though she moves tightly, if a tad rigid. Her dark eyes meet mine and she says, "You have called me to apologize?"
Haughty. Demeaning. Condescending. Being the daughter of the next powerful Alpha after me has given her more boldness than she should have. Add that to the list of reasons I do not want her as my Luna.
"I have nothing to apologize for," I remark coolly, pinning her with a cool stare.
Her eyes turn teary. "You picked her! That was my place! That dance was mine. Your mother promised--"
"My mother doesn't make decisions for me, Lady Moira, and I would suggest you watch your tone around me. I will not condone misbehaviour from you, whoever you might be."
I let her see Zephyr in my eyes, and I let a bit of my aura slip from my hold, suffocating the room with it.
She blanches, ducking her head swiftly. "I'm sorry, I have angered you. I was agitated that you gifted the maid your first dance and I spoke out of turn. I'm sorry."
"Good," I say after a moment and take a deep breath, calming myself.
I lean forward, plopping my head on my wrist as I consider the right words to say to make this better. Lighter. I hadn't called her over to argue with her. On the contrary. After Jessamine Everhart's little stunt last night, I figured I'd need some sort of... distraction.
"Do you like roses?" I ask, sniffing roses on her.
She blinks, cheeks turning red. "Very much. How can you tell?"
I can smell?
I say nothing, pulling out a bouquet of roses from underneath my desk. Lloyd says you can never go wrong with roses when it comes to women. He would know. He's the gigolo.
She brightens up, taking them from me. "They're beautiful!" she cooes, sniffing them.
I will never understand women's obsession with flowers. They make me feel sick. Even now, my nostrils tickle and I suppress the urge to sneeze.
"I picked them myself from the gardens." Lie. I hate the gardens. I haven't visited there in over a year. Not since I got stung by a miserable bee and nearly died.
But she is smiling, seeming to like the idea that an Alpha King would visit the gardens to get her roses. Delusional. That will never be me. "I thought you would be a little down about last night's dance, so I got them to make up for it." I lean in. "You were the most beautiful woman in the gathering, Moira, but I can't have my subjects thinking I'm being partial."
Her answering smile is so bright, I look away swiftly. She's unable to help the blush that creeps up her cheeks at my compliment. I can't blame her. I can be charming when I need to.
"Thank you," she murmurs around a big smile, clutching the bouquet tighter. "I will tend to them and ensure they do not wither."
I really couldn't care less. I can barely hold in my sneeze anymore.
"Goddess's blessings with the selection, Moira. It is of my utmost desire that you win."
Moira blushes hard, understanding the meaning to my words and she rises from her chair, bowing low. "I will, Alpha Kier."
When she leaves, I sneeze so hard, my vision blurs. f**k, I hate flowers.
- Writer
