Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Maya's pov 

“Maya! Maya!! Goodness, that lazy child better not be asleep!”

  The handmaid's voice ripped through the peace and silence of the morning like a sharp knife…waking me from a steamy dream.

 Her impending footsteps finally reached my door as I scrambled to get up and open it.

   “ There you are! so you are still sleeping at this time?!” she barked at me planting her hands on her hips and shooting an interrogative look my way the moment the door was flung open.

 I rolled my sleepy eyes momentarily to the wall clock and then back. 

   It was only 5: 00am, most of the maids were asleep now and yet I was being abruptly jerked out of my slumber. 

 “Sorry, I just overslept…” I apologized and she shook her head mimicking my voice. 

“Sorry! I just overslept…it's not like this is even a permanent arrangement, I've had to take on a lot of cumbersome responsibilities because we can't afford more maids right now, all you have to do is drag your own weight and you're whining,”

 She nagged for about half an hour before thrusting a sheet of papers in my palm.

  “Here's your list of chores for today!” she declared, her eyes shooting daggers at me, daring me to complain. 

   Knowing better, I bit back my complaints and swallowed them in a heavy lump down my throat.

  “Let me wash up first…” I said my eyes still stained slumber but she grabbed my wrist as I tried to close the door. 

  “The things on your list are not even that much! You can finish up with them before you take your bath…”

 I stared at the headmaid dumbfounded, but compliant…after all, I know no good ever came out from voicing out my feelings.

 “Okay.”

  So I grabbed a laundry basket and began to tackle the first thing on the list, I took my dirty clothes and then went over to my sister's room, dumping her own clothes in the basket as well. 

  She stirred on her queen sized bed, but didn't awaken. Nobody would be abruptly waking her to do any chores, who would dare to do that to the pack’s beloved gem?

  But as for me…

 I sighed, lifting the basket up to my hip level and walking out of her room going towards the basement that also served as the laundry room.

“Ugh, I'm still so sleepy,”

  My dream crept into my mind and my cheeks reddened, I shook my head.

 “Forget him, it was a one-time thing in the heat of the moment…” I told myself.

  Dropping the basket, I lost my footing because of how drowsy I was. In the blink of an eye I saw my body tilting backwards and falling.

  I clamped my eyes shut waiting for the impending impact of my expected fall, but it never came, instead, a pair of warm arms surrounded me like a blanket pulling me to a firm chest.

   A feeling of deja vu swept me up like a wave as I stared into those blue eyes.

 “Barry?!” I half yelled, he placed a finger on his lips and I quieted down and he released me slowly, leaving the lingering feeling of shivers on my waist. 

   “What are you doing down here?”

 I said grabbing a white crop top from the basket and transferring it to another one to prepare the clothes before I wash them…or at least that was what I was trying to do but his scent was making my head spin.

    “I wanted to talk to you, I know you have been avoiding me..”

 My heart dropped, thanks to my mountain chores I had been able to dodge any encounter with him for the past 3 days, but I knew I couldn't hide forever. 

He was here to reject me.

 “I've been trying to sort out my feelings…I never expected this would happen,”

  I took in a deep breath of air, straightening my legs and turning around. 

“I know it doesn't mean anything but I'm glad it was you and not someone else,”

 The face of my one night stand struck my mind and I shook it out of my thoughts. 

I was talking to Barry now.

 It would be better to rip off the band-aid right here and now, at least he was kind enough to do it in private.

 “Maya, what are you talking about?” he asked me, sounding  genuinely confused, and closed the distance that I had created between us.

 “I don't want to reject you,” he said. 

 My heart thumped violently against my chest.

 “But Madeline…” I said but I was getting intoxicated with his scent again, “... Don't you want to be with Madeline instead? She is the one blessed with a wolf, I'm just…”

  “Is that why you let another man touch you?”

 He said his voice sounded gritty and pained, and I felt like I was punched in the gut with guilt. 

 He sniffed my neck and growled.

 “For the past couple of days, I have been smelling him on you…every time I saw you, I thought I would go mad…”

 “Barry, what are you…?”

 His lips found mine, cutting off the rest of my words. 

 He inhaled a deep breath, grabbing my waist causing me to wince but the pain was swept off my mind as my legs instinctively wrapped around his own waist.

 It was different from the way the stranger touched me…it was more feral, more raw and when he was done, he didn't pull me into his embrace like the stranger did. 

 Maybe that wasn't normal?

“Gosh, that wasn't bad at all…”

 He said, grabbing his pants and shoving his legs in one after the other. 

 He put on all his clothes without sparing me one single glance, I got dressed feeling used and dirty…then confused, does this mean he was choosing me over my sister?

 “But, Barry, what about Madeline?”

 He finally looked at me.

“What about her?”

A smile slowly wrapped around my face, I had given up everything else for her to take away.

 But I wasn't letting go of him.