Moonless

Chapter 21

An; So 862 reads and 176 votes, thank you so much😭 Also if you are American like myself. Peace and love, it was horrifying what happened last Wednesday at the capital. Let's prevent something like that from happening again.
———————————————————-
"No!?" he called after me. I ducked my head and quickened my paces "How can you say no to a night in Paris?"

Why was I saying no, easy, I now slept in a cell beneath the Alpha's mansion, because Beatrice had stolen a wine bottle from the Alpha. The message was clear. If one of us did something, everyone else was punished. I couldn't risk what would happen to them if we were all caught.

"The door is in the Musée du Louvre metro station in the men's bathroom. Feel free to use it:"

"I want you to stay, but I won't make you. I just took you here to try and get your mind off what happened today."

"Well, you can stop," I yelled over my shoulder. "If you truly want to help me, stay away from me."

 "Okay," he called after me. "I'll keep my distance until you come to me, which you will."I stopped in my tracks and turned around. I stormed back to where he stood and grabbed his red tie to the suit he now wore and yanked his face towards mine.

"What don't you-"

"If you die, I die."

"If you die, I die?" I repeated back to him.

"Yeah you heard me," he said while he grabbed the hand holding his tie and pulled me closer.

I tried to pull away but he did not release my hand from his grip. So I turned my face away from his. "Stop talking nonsense."

"I'm not talking nonsense, I'm showing you how serious I am. Like I told you before, I want you. I want you to be my mate. And I don't care what happens to me. If Connor would have so much as touched you back there, I don't think I would have been able to hold myself back. So the stakes are just as high for me, as they are for you. My honor isn't the only thing I am willing to risk now, if your life ends, so will mine ."

"I need to stop for the sake of my friends, my family. I'm risking their lives by continuing to do this with you!"

A grin stretched over Grayson's face, and he let out a small laugh. Before I could stop myself my hand shot out and slapped him across the face. Grayson's eyes widened in surprise, while he brought a hand up to the cheek I had just hit.

"You know what!?" I spat. "Even though you claim to take this seriously, you really don't do you!? I should just kill myself before you get us both killed and put us out of our misery!"

The words had not even left my mouth when the next second, Grayson was on top of me and my back was pressing into the cobblestone road.

"Take it back," he growled. His eyes glowed a bright yellow in the darkness.

I didn't answer, while I stared back at him.

"Take it back Aurelia."

I breathed in a shaky breath. "I take it back."

Grayson slowly climbed to his feet and walked away.

I slowly sat up.

I could see from where I sat, his entire body was shaking.

"Why did you say something like that!?" he demanded with his back still towards me. "I almost lost control..."

"Because if you don't care about what happens to my friends, so I had to choose between being with you or their lives. I will always choose their lives."

He turned to me, his eyes still two pools of molten gold. And I saw that his teeth had elongated into fangs. "I never said I didn't care about your friend's lives.

"Why did you laugh?"

"I laughed because my father may try to kill you if he found out, but your friends are way too valuable. I laughed at the absurdity that he would kill them, just because you are mates with me."

"I'm in a jail cell because Beatrice stole a bottle of wine, which he made her drink in front of us all. And I'm sure he didn't make him drink more like he promised because he didn't want to waste any more of his wine. I don't think it's so absurd that he would do something horrible to my friends, my family, because of something I did. We are very replaceable."

Grayson shook his head, "No trust me, he can't replace your friends. My father would have enjoyed seeing her drink until she was unable to stand, and vomiting all over the place. Someone else was not a fan of the show."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't tell you, but trust me. Your friends are more than safe. You though are replaceable to him. And that's why I won't leave Pine Ridge without you."

Why was I replaceable and the others weren't? We were all in the same program?

"How can I trust you, if you won't tell me why my friends are safe? And why I'm not as valuable as them? Our scores were all similar."

"I just can't trust you with any more information, I already told you too much you are too reckless. The longer that we remain unmated, the less control we will both start to have because of how strong our bond is. I haven't lost control like this since I was eight."

"I'm too reckless!? That's rich coming from you!"

"You just hit the Alpha's son and told him you would rather die than be with him. After he made it clear he would give everything for you."

"Yeah, within a dream. And I don't recall asking you to do that."

"Have you been losing control lately?"

The image of slamming Annie into the wall flashed before my eyes.

"Let me rephrase that question. Are you usually a calm person in control of yourself?"

"Yes," I replied.

"And have you seen yourself acting in ways now, that the old you would never do?"

"What if I was? I'm also under a lot of more stress than usual, so it could be that."

"So you are? And before you answer, just know I'll be able to tell if you are lying?"

"So you can read my mind again?"

"No, but I can hear your heartbeat. And I'll be able to tell if you lying. Because if you are losing control, it's only a matter of time before you get yourself killed. So to avoid that, we will need to become mates, immediately."