Proven Heart

Three: Home

Selena felt the happiest when she touched his lips. Long has she fantasized about him kissing her torridly under the Moon. His big, calloused hands leaving her red and ravished.

“You are home,” she chuckled, her voice shaking with untrained nervousness. “Permanently?”

“Yes,” he nodded.

He was the same as he was. That grin, she loved it and wanted to see it every day ever since he left her in pack Albrich’s gate. The way his hands quivered with excitement while holding hers almost seemed like she was being rocked into safety.

Eternally, she was content. Selena wiped the joyous years staining her flushed cheeks.

“How are you back? I thought you had at least half a year more to stay there.”

Nathaniel snickers, his cheeks aflame, caught in his little white lie.

“Yes, I told you that,” he says. “I made a hopefully harmless lie to surprise you.”

“Uh, well, the two men are a bit much, aren’t they?”

She glanced at the wolves, both of them seem too focused on their phones.

“Sorry,“ he says. “They’re my men. I’ve commissioned them to follow you.”

Her brow rose, piqued with a suddenness of curiosity.

“Are they the ones who’s been following me for the last three years?”

Selena had always felt someone was watching her from a distance. It might be too far of a guess, but ever since she had Nathaniel’s wolf, her ability to sense wolves hawking over her had improved.

And there wasn’t a time she was out that not one wolf was following her.

His lips twisted for a second. “A couple of them, yes.”

“A couple?” She gasps. “How many did you employ to watch me?”

Nathaniel’s cheeks flushed momentarily as he regained his composure.

“I have twelve wolves in rotation. Half of them are my associates and the other half, my uncle Andre’s men.”

A small chuckle escaped from her lips. It was abundantly clear he was unwilling to disclose what he had confessed. But she loved his honesty and let it pass for now.

Though twelve spies watching every step that she made was going off the rails.

“You worry about me too much.” She says. “I-I think I can handle a wolf on my own now.”

His eyes widened, lips forming into a word but it did not leave him. Instead, his broad shoulders lowered, and he reached for her hands. He caresses her knuckles with his calloused fingers and brought them to his lips.

Gingerly, he places his chin above her head and stayed there. In their closeness, she could hear his lulling heartbeat, goading her to calmness.

“I can’t risk anything when it comes to you. You need to know that.”

She gulped.

Nathaniel had used his voice on her. She wanted to speak but couldn’t do so when the strength in his voice knocked her off her shoes. It was the first she had heard him do it. That only meant he was serious. And she was a frightened, but willing, follower of his utterance.

All that she could muster was a simple nod.

Somehow, Nathaniel using his given Alpha’s voice to her took her by surprise. But it was a surprise that she welcomed.