Chapter 5

James POV.

Her expression changed the moment I made mention of my girlfriend. She froze like I had dropped a bomb and left her to scramble for survival. I might have been tone-deaf to her situation and her feelings.

She was still getting used to this place and here I was doing the total opposite of a guard job.

“I'm sorry if I may have upsetted you,” I said gently.

The hell was I thinking. There was something about her. I couldn't place my finger around it, but she made me struggle with my emotions. Whenever I was close to her I felt like my control over my thoughts, my mind was slipping away.

I had imagined her in different scenarios, which was damn wrong. She was the Alpha's daughter and I had known her forever.

She made me want to cheat. I was desperate to get a piece of her… just a kiss from her succulent cherry lips. Her wide smile that lit up the night sky, and her amber eyes, reflecting her innocence and extreme curiosity.

“You have someone already?” She questioned, snapping me out of my head. “For how long? How come I didn't know about it?” She ran her hands through her hair.

“Eaay with the questions,” I forced out a light smile, gaining control of myself. “I try as much as I can to keep my private life personal,”

“Personal,” she suddenly snapped, clamping her fist together. “But you are my…” she paused and gritted her teeth.

“Your what?” My curiosity heightened, slipping my hands out of my pocket.

“You are… you… oh my gosh! I can't believe you have a girlfriend and kept it away from me all this while,” she paced around in a circle, swinging her arms in the air carelessly.

“I didn't think it was important and besides don't you have your fair share of high school teen drama? You'd be starting college and you'll…”

“ Fuck!” she snapped, slamming her hands in the air.

“What! What's wrong?” I asked.

Eleanor was always so close to me. Her father wasn't the best listener so I decided to step in, to make her feel the love she wanted from a father. But overtime, the feeling began to deepen.

I began losing control of the fatherly love I wanted to replicate. It was turning into something dark and forbidden.

I understood why she reacted this way. She had sometimes considered me her father, especially when the Alpha yells and disregards her presence. She must have been surprised that I was going to share my attention with someone leaving her lacking.

She thought I would leave her.

“Hey, hey,” I called softly. “You don't have to freak out, I'm still who I am. I'm not going to stop doing my job, I'll be here for you,”

She shook her head slowly as though a dark realization had just hit her. “Leave me alone,” she whispered.

“Huh,” I moved closer, as I tried to hold her hand.

“I said leave me alone! Leave, I want to be alone,” she said with a stern voice, her eyes seeming as if they were about to well up in tears.

She had never been hurt this way. I guess it was a bad idea stating I had someone I was in love with.

Or I was slowly falling out of love with.

I walked out of her room to give her some time. The maid tried to knock as I shut her door but I stopped her to give Elie a minute. Or an hour.

The whole day felt empty without Elie. She didn't look for me or try to strike up a conversation. She locked herself in her room until dinner time and after that, she went back up to sulk.

I couldn't let her sulk all day, so I went up with her to loosen her mood a little bit, but her father phoned me mere breaths from knocking.

I quickly picked up on instincts and lowered my voice.

“Alpha,” I beckoned.

“Did you both arrive undetected?” He asked straight to the point.

“Yes Alpha. There was nobody on our trail, I made sure of it.”

“Good, I want you to keep her there. If possible make her forget she ever has a home here for now. She can't know the truth of what's really happening here. No one must know,”

“Yes Alpha, I'll keep her safe… and distracted.”

“While you are on that, make sure you don't bring attention to yourself, you can never be too careful,” he warned.

Before I could shoot back a reply, the call hung up. I looked around, making sure that nobody was lurking in the corner.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?” I mouthed. I should have been scouting the area for enemies, but I let Elie try to control me without her knowledge.

With a clenched fist, I rushed outside, shifting into my wolf and scouting our perimeter for threats.

It went on for minutes until I suddenly sensed a presence staring at me from a distance. The presence was cold and hard to miss. The eyes glowed in the dark, but it looked completely like it was made from shadows and nothing else.

I turned in its direction, growling to scare it away, but it moved an inch closer. The threat wasn't backing down, neither did I know what level of threat it was.

Either way, I charged forward knowing I had to keep Elie safe. It was my responsibility and my obligation. And the only source of strength I had was my wolf and the moon.