Chapter 4: Freya

It was a short time later that I heard him get up off the bed. His nose nudged me back out of my half sleep and I turned over to look at him. “What now?”

He nudged me again and then looked back at the bed.

“Finally letting me sleep in my bed then?”

He nodded.

“I'm not thanking you.” Mumbling back I left the blanket and pillow on the floor to crawl into the bed. It didn't smell like dog as I would have thought, which was a blessing. It actually smelled like he had in his human form. The scent calmed me against my wishes and I found myself unable to sleep. “Why are you doing this?” I spoke, looking up at the ceiling. He wasn’t going to answer, probably for the best, but it wasn’t about him answering, it was about me speaking my mind, “I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m here on business, I’m not a danger to whatever pack this is. Just let me do what I need to and I’ll be gone.” My fingers interlaced across my chest as I continued to just stare upwards, looking at the bumps in the ceiling as if they were stars, “Did your alpha tell you I was a threat? Rosetta and I just know each other, it’s seriously just business. How can you even expect me to just fall asleep right now anyway? You’re probably going to kill me. Then again, I guess you’ve had multiple chances to all night. Sure would have been easy to hide my body in the park too. ”

A few snaps and a groan from below was followed by his smooth voice barely louder than a mumble, “Do you ever stop talking?”

I snapped my eyes down to the noise at the foot of the bed and hissed quietly, “That better not be the fucking sound of you in human form.”

“Oh just shut up already,” he grumbled again. “I have somewhere to be in a few hours and I would appreciate it if you let me get some amount of sleep.”

“Then leave!” my whisper was as close to a yell as I could make it.

“Can’t.” He sighed.

“Why?”

“Too dangerous.” I saw one long arm stretched upward like a shadow against the darkness, “You’re fine, just go to sleep. I won’t let anything happen.”

“You won’t?” I scoffed, “You know if you leave, we can guarantee nothing will happen.”

“It’s past three in the morning,” he grumbled and I could hear the exhaustion in his voice, “please, just stop talking.”

“No,” I smirked with victory in sight, “Tell me your name.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“It’s not important.”

“Bullshit.”

“Elias.” He laughed weakly, “Yours?”

“Don’t you already know? Being my stalker, I figured you’d have known everything about me.”

“Guess my informant didn’t get the chance to hear your name.”

“A joke?” I cocked an eyebrow.

He chuckled back, “Sure, whatever helps you sleep.”

“What would help me,” I growled, “is if you left.”

“Already told you not happening.”

“Because your alpha told you?”

He sighed.

The silence answered the question for me though, “What does your alpha have against me?”

“Nothing.” he was speaking low, my guess I was entering dangerous territory.

“Just enough to send a massive wolf after me?”

“You’re an outsider.”

“So? You’re town is full of outsiders.”

“You’re different. He just needed to make sure you were safe. He heard something tonight after you entered that bar.”

“He heard something?”

I heard the sound of his head nodding against the pillow, “It was only a second but it was enough for him to get worried.”

“So he sent you?”

“He takes safety in his city very seriously.”

“Well then, he should be happy I’m not going to be around much after tomorrow.”

“I thought I told you not to leave town.”

“Oh yeah,” I laughed sarcastically, “I don’t live here. I’ve got a job, home, and friends back west. I can’t stay here.”

“You could live here.” he legitimately sounded like he was offering but that couldn’t have been right.

“No thank you, the local wildlife apparently doesn't agree with me. I’ve got nowhere to stay. Also, job.”

“Find one here, I think you could find a nice government job with the city. You could stay with me.”

My laughter couldn’t be contained any longer as I burst out loud nearly needing to roll to my side.

“It was just an offer.’ he sighed.

There was a need to correct him though, he could not have been serious right now. “Not a real one. You honestly seem like a nice guy. Maybe a little awkward socially, nothing some fine tuning with you know humans wouldn’t fix. I’m just not interested. Thank you for the offer.”’

“You think I can’t behave around humans?” it sounded like he was toying with me like he had succeeded in hiding his true self, but of course the events of the last few hours spoke differently.

“I think you’re one the type of werewolf that doesn’t live around humans. Maybe you’re like some guard dog for your alpha, you do the heavy lifting or something like that, but really let’s be serious. You probably live in the woods, have two sets of clothes, kill your dinner with your teeth-”

“I think you painted a fine picture,” he laughed. “Interesting theory too. No one has been so candid with their opinion of me before.”

“How often are you in your human form? You clearly don’t care about being naked.”

I heard him shrug, “Often enough, though I guess you’re right in some aspect. I spent about five years living in my wolf form.”

I knew it, the guy was nothing but a primal animal. Maybe his goddess didn’t hold enough power over him anymore since he was so attuned to his animal instincts. “You seemed like you were able to change back easier this time.”

“When the moon starts to descend, it’s easier. She doesn’t hold her sway nearly as much. Are you ever going to stop talking?”

I loudly shrugged so he could hear me and followed it with a playful tease, “Too much has happened. I feel like I’m wide awake now.”

“You know, for someone who isn’t supposed to be swayed by the moon, you act pretty full of lunacy, you’ve also been spreading some pretty strong pheromones tonight.”

“Dad was a werewolf,” I nodded, “Some things can’t be helped.”

“Your mother wasn’t?”

“No, thank the gods!” I laughed. “Nothing against your kind, but you have to admit, you’re a bunch of animals.”

“Not going to share what you are then?”

“It’s not important.” I laughed, “The important thing is that I’m not a werewolf.”

“Not truly an important detail, though I guess I’m glad to know there’s one thing you won’t talk about.”

The momentum I had felt was finally starting to fade though as I struggled to stifle a yawn. “Would you just turn back into your wolf form? It's really difficult to sleep with a naked man on my floor. I'm feeling a bit too much like I’m in a horror movie right now.”

“If I do will you let me sleep on the bed?”

“Ugh,” I rolled my eyes.

“What don’t let your pets sleep with you?”

“Don’t have any, so no. Besides, you spent five years as a wolf. Shouldn’t you be fine with sleeping on the floor?”

“Some luxuries I find difficult to live without. A comfortable bed is one of them.”

Huffing I tossed myself over to the side of the bed and pulled as much of the covers over as possible, “Fine, but if I wake up and you’re in your human form next to me I’ll fucking call the cops and castrate your ass.”

He shifted back quickly, sounding much more comfortable and jumped up on the bed. To his credit he stayed at the bottom of the bed and at least was attempting to keep to his side, the sheer size of him made it impossible but once I curled my legs up I didn’t mind it.

Sleep was still struggling to find me after that. Maybe it was the purring rumble of the large wolf vibrating the bed that I refused to allow lull me to sleep, or maybe exhaustion was just that rampant I was past being able to shut my eyes. I had just spent half the day driving with little breaks and after this whole ordeal, the energy just wasn’t there anymore but insomnia was going to rule everything now in the darkness.

Dad, I laughed quietly to myself. If you could see me now. You’d never think I’d ever be here. Werewolf sleeping at my feet? I’m actually back in Jericho… Seems so silly, really. Maybe you’d be happy. I don’t know. I highly doubt you’d have allowed Elias to sleep in the same room. Maybe even doubt if you’d have allowed me to stay in this hotel. Definitely wouldn’t allow me to sign over the estate. Everything would be so different if you were still here. Maybe if we hadn’t fought, maybe if I hadn’t moved out. There was a lot of regret floating through my thoughts as I tried to fall asleep.

“Please,” I whispered as quietly as I could to the gods, “please let me fall asleep. I’m so tired.” A whimper behind me caused me to turn over to face Elias. I saw his eyes looking up at me and I offered him some form of comfort, “I’m fine. Just really tired. I’ll be asleep soon.”

Raising his head he cocked it to the side.

“It’s been a long day, can you just not.”

He didn’t lower his head though he got to his feet and laid with his head on the pillow his feet under him facing towards me.

“Are you always going to do the exact opposite of what we agree on? What happened to sleeping at the foot of the bed?”

He shrugged and looked over to me.

“I can’t understand you, you know. You can stop trying to communicate with me. I’m not a werewolf.”

He rolled his eyes and pushed himself back up, curling himself back at the bottom of the bed.

“Yeah,” I laughed, “I find you annoying too.”