ELEVEN

 The pouring rain left Alaric drenched from head to toe, Eliza clinging onto him unconsciously.

 His guards caught up to him in no time, quickly building a tent with the supplies they had managed to bring along. He watched the tent come to life impatiently, an almost lifeless Eliza pressed against his chest.

 Alaric had a whole lot of emotions gushing out of his veins. But oddly enough, anger wasn’t  the emotion he felt the most.

 It was worry. With a mix of fear.

 “Alpha, the tent is-”

 He didn’t wait for them to finish, Alaric immediately rushing in with Eliza in his arms. He carefully laid her on the ground, her whole body as cold as ice.

 “Fuck.”

 It was impossible to light a fire. Not with the pouring rain and strong winds.

 “Eliza,” he tapped her gently, in attempt to wake her up. She barely stirred though, her eyes firmly shut. “How can a girl be so stubborn?”

 Her hair was completely soaked and her clothes were no different. Not only was she stubborn, she was also reckless. Attempting to escape with nothing but a thin gown that could easily get in the way?

 He looked away from her and shook his head, returning his gaze to her barely a second later. She looked peaceful without her mouth moving. Sensible too. Maybe it was best he let her sleep the exhaustion away.

 With a sigh, he took off his coat, water dripping from it as he placed it far away from her. At least, she was asleep. It would be easier to watch her the entire night that way.

 But what if she caught a cold? She had already overly stressed herself all day and now she wanted to end it with a cold?

 “Fuck,” he drew closer towards her, carefully lifting her body so she could rest on his lap. Pursing his lips, he took off his wet shirt, squeezed the water out of it until it at most damp and carefully, wrapped her hair around it.

 He gave it a gentle squeeze, getting the dripping water completely out of her hair. When he was done, the wet strands fell to her face shoulders, more strands falling to his leg.

 His knitted brows slowly loosened as he moved his fingers and carefully brushed strands off her face and shoulders. His fingers lingered for a while, slowly tracing the outline of her face.

 Pulling away, he realized I’d never looked at her that closely before. No, he had seen her that closely. He had seen her face as he did things to her body the night they met. But it was the first time he was actually studying her face.

 Betraying him, his fingers moved again, this time to trace her chin before travelling upwards. He gently touched her lips, feeling a whiff of air as he moved from bottom lip to upper lip. He touched her nose, noting how high the bridge was and then her eyes, her eyelash suddenly moving.

 Her whole body suddenly stirred, incoherent words escaping her lips.

 A sigh of relief immediately escaped Alaric’s lips. She was fine. She was just sleeping.

 She moved again, this time curling her legs. Her head was still rested on his thigh as she drew closer, wrapping her arms around him, obviously cold.

 Alaric looked around him uselessly. There was no warm cloth leaving him conflicted at the thought of getting her warm.

 “I-I- I’m cold.”

 “Of course, you are,” he muttered under this breath. “You always are.”

 He shut his eyes, memories he previously hadn’t giving much importance to resurfacing,

 The first night they met- first night they had sex- she was also cold after getting drenched in the rain. The circumstances felt extremely similar and just like that night, he only had one resort to making her warm.

 He hesitated for a while, but watching her shiver again, he was left with no choice. He relaxed his tense body and moved her away from his thigh so she could rest fully on the floor.

 Then he rose to his feet, unzipped his trousers and took off the last piece of wet clothing he had on. The gush of wind from outside quickly clung onto him, drying his body easily.

 Eliza shivered again and before it could get any worse, Alaric lowered himself onto the ground. Carefully, he laid himself next to her, barely any distance between us.

 He sunk in a deep exhale and before he could move again, Eliza saved him by trouble.

 She drew closer towards him, wrapping her arms around him as she pressed her body against him.

 For a moment, he resisted. Then the second he felt her legs rub against his, his restraint snapped. His arms unfolded and wrapped it around her in one swift motion, pulling her in as their body met in a rush of heat.