The Pull

(Lyra)

The peace hit me like sunlight shining into a frozen room. It was wrong. It was strange. I didn’t even know him, yet some part of me reached toward him as though he were the anchor I had been drifting toward my whole life.

For some reason, I could smell his scent…..Cedar wood and wild roses. It was overwhelming and I wished the scent would never leave my nose.

The Alpha was seated behind a massive darkwood desk. His posture was straight, his broad shoulders square, his hands resting lightly and too lightly on the armrests of his chair. It was as if every muscle was poised, ready for action and dangerous.

It was as though he was the piece I had been missing my whole life which was strange. He was mesmerizing.

But it was his eyes that locked me in place.

There were Gray, storm gray. They weren’t dull, they were alive, shifting like clouds before a strike of lightning. They cut straight through me, stripping me bare without a word.

And they were… scowling. As if ready to pounce on me but something assured me that I would not be harmed, not by him anyway.

The warmth inside me didn’t match the cold sharpness of his eyes.

River moved beside me but didn’t speak. I could feel the weight of the Alpha’s attention shifting over me like a slow blade. He didn’t look at River. Only at me.

He scanned me from head to toe as I shifted in my feet. I raised my head to study him and almost gasped when his face came into the light.

He was breathtakenly gorgeous even with the scowl on his face. His jaw was sharp and I imagined it being able to cut through ice. His hair was crying out for me to run my hands through it but I wouldn't dare.

“Come closer,” he said.

The words weren’t loud, but my feet obeyed before my mind could decide if they should. Each step toward him felt heavier and lighter all at once, like I was walking through deep water toward something that pulled the wave.

When I reached the desk, the peace in my chest grew stronger. My breathing slowed without my permission. The thundering of my pulse softened until I could almost believe there had never been panic in me at all.

He didn’t stand nor did he blink.

“What is your name?”

The question slammed into the emptiness in my mind. I opened my mouth but found only silence. The fog in my head moved, but no sound came out.

“I… I don’t know.” I replied honestly.

A flicker of something….annoyance? curiosity?….moved in those storm-gray eyes.

“What pack claims you?”He asked me without breaking eye contact.

“I don’t know.” This was the only answer I had to any of his questions.

“What are you?”He asked me, staring into my eyes.

That made me flinch. “I don’t…..”

“She doesn’t remember anything,” River said evenly, cutting across my stammer which I was grateful for.

The Alpha’s jaw tightened. His eyes swept over me again, slower this time. It wasn’t studying….it was measuring. Calculating.

“She has no scent,” River added. “Not wolf. Not human. Nothing.”

For the first time, the Alpha’s eyes narrowed in a way that wasn’t anger……it was thought. I wondered what was going through his head.

“And?” he asked River without looking away from me.

“The mark,” River said quietly.

Something shifted in the Alpha’s expression. Barely there, but I felt it, like a ripple in still water.

“What mark?” My voice was sharper than I meant it to be. This was the second time I was hearing of this mark, a mark I was yet to see.

Neither of them answered.

The Alpha leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on the desk. “Look at me,” he said.

I was already looking at him, but this time I realized……he wanted something more than just my eyes. Something deeper as if he wanted to see my soul.

The pull inside me grew so strong it made my chest ache. I wanted to move closer, to reach across the desk, to… I didn’t even know. Touch him? Lean into him? It didn’t make sense. I barely knew my own name, but somehow I knew this man’s presence was the only solid thing in my world.

The Alpha’s eyes darkened, and for a heartbeat, the scowl faltered. Not into a smile…..but into something that felt like recognition.

Then it was gone. His expression shuddered.

“You will stay in the Nightclaw guest wing,” he said, voice clipped. “You will not leave without permission. You will not speak to anyone unless I say so. Until we know what you are, you are not free to wander.”

“Why? River said I wasn't a prisoner so why am I not allowed to wander?” I asked out loud.

“I am the Alpha of this pack and you will do as I have said,” The Alpha thundered. In that moment, I noticed his gray eyes turn black. The peace in me trembled at his tone, but didn’t vanish.

“You still don't answer my question.” I replied.

River gasped at my words as if surprised that I spoke.

The Alpha's eyes returned back to their color and he looked at me with surprise which he quickly masked with a scowl.

“These rules are for your safety and the safety of my pack. We have had some…….. unpleasant times with strangers,” he replied with finality in his tone.

I nodded slowly. “Fine.”

River stepped forward, ready to lead me out, but the Alpha’s voice stopped us.

“One more thing.”

I turned back to him.

“Until we know the truth, you are under my watch.”

The way he said “my” sent another wave of unexplainable calm through me, and I hated how much I wanted to stay in this room just to feel it.

River’s hand touched my shoulder, and I let him guide me toward the door. But I could feel the Alpha’s eyes on my back the whole way out…..They were heavy, searching, as if he already knew something I didn’t.

And maybe he did.

As the huge door closed behind us, the muffled sounds of the study faded, but the weight of his gaze didn’t. It clung to me like a second skin.

River didn’t speak as we walked the long hallway, but I could feel his curiosity pressing against my silence. I didn’t have answers…not for him, not for myself.

Still… that strange calm lingered, stubborn and warm, curling low in my chest. I didn’t want it to.

I didn't want to remain in his presence just to look into his grey eyes.

I didn’t want him.

And yet, if the Alpha had told me to stay, I think I would have. Without question.

That was the true mystery in all of this.