Fate of the Wolf

Storm

Naomi actually didn't go to dinner, after she had came back to her room and bathed her skin free of soil she had promptly passed out on her bed fully nude. In spirit of the wolf she supposed.

However, the first rumble of thunder had her bolt upright from her deep sleep. Looking around her room it was dark, so it must've been in the middle of the night. The cute little wooden alarm clock on her nightstand read 3:29 am. Welp, she guessed a good nights sleep would have to wait. Naomi hated storms. Rain? Fine, it was just water. But thunder and lightning sent her into a spiral.

It was storming bad the night her mother died. Storms meant distaster, death, impending doom. Cameron would crawl into her bed on those nights, there to hold Naomi's hand in hers and focus her breathing. She was such a wuss.

Naomi was beginning to sweat thinking about it, but took one of the soft, lavender fuzzy blankets from the bed and curled up on the floor near the door. She sat on the ground, her back against the bed, that way the patio doors and approaching storm was farthest from her. Her own bedroom at home had no windows for this reason.

She pulled the blanket around her naked body for comfort, trembling some as the wind picked up and wooshed against the house, followed by flashes of light. "Fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck." She muttered to herself.

Call for Aiden. Her wolf prompted her. Mate will protect us.

She didn't want Aiden to see her like this. She had already made a fool of herself when she had some sort of hallucination in the woods with the rogue wolf. Even now that she thought about it she felt like she could feel a presence. She hoped her mind would not play tricks on her again. But instead she sat here, pitiful really, a grown woman in her twenties afraid of a storm. Aiden didn't need to see the complete loser that was supposed to, ideally, lead his pack alongside him.

But as time passed sleep did not dare visit her. Instead the rain that pelted against her balcony doors mocked her, and she could've sworn the wind whispered to her as well. Though she couldn't hear what it was saying, like in her dreams. Oh she was surely fucked, she was dreaming things again while she was awake. She searched around the room, pitch black except for the flashes of light offered by the damned lightning. Her wolf eyes however could make out every shadowy detail, a room in black and white noir. Naomi was shaking, and she rocked back and forth to calm her racing heart. There was no one here, she smelled no one so surely she could trust that sense of hers at least.

There was a knock at her door, a gentle tap. She froze in terror, she felt sick now. Another tap tap.

She was in no state to defend herself. She was still butt-ass naked. Her stomach growled, missing its undelivered dinner.

"I heard your stomach growl Naomi I know you're awake." Aiden's steady voice came from the closed door in front of her.

"Go away." She mumbled feebly. She didn't have the strength in her to get up and lock the door, not that it could stop an Alpha male from getting in if he wanted to.

She buried her face in her knees curled up in front of her, Aiden should leave.

"I had a bad feeling something was wrong, it woke me up. Now that I'm down here I can hear your heart and your breathing, do you need me to call the medical wolves love? Tell me what's wrong."

He was not going to leave her alone. Not if her stupid phobias woke him up. Which, by the way, was impossible right?

"I'm fine." Her teeth chattering surely gave her away. "Go away." She muttered.

Aiden twisted the handle of her door slowly and she watched petrified as he looked down at the scene before him.

Here she was, his destined soulmate in all her sniveling glory. She sat on her bedroom floor in nothing but a fuzzy blanket damp with tears and sweat.

He stood there for only a second before shutting the door behind him and reaching down to pull her up into his arms. Up onto the bed. She swatted his arms with one hand and groaned, her body already growing sore from the incessant shaking. He frowned now, and sat down cross-legged in front of her, his back against the door and filling a good portion of her yellow carpet with lilac rosettes that lay on the floor underneath them. His knees brushed her own. He must've thrown clothes on for her in a hurry because he was only in some dark boxers and a white t-shirt he had on backwards.

She didn't have the words to tell him. Didn't have the energy to explain herself. Naomi yelped in surprise as a bright flash of lightning lit up the room followed by a loud crackle.

Aiden grumbled disapproving of something and reached for her again, some notion of understanding crossing his furrowed features. He pulled her in his lap instead now, cradling her body close to his warm chest. One of his hands rubbed her back through the blanket, the other brushing back her hair. He rested a cheek against the side of her head, and he whispered many things to her to calm her down, his intoxicating wolf magic sending signals to her brain. His words, his careful caress, were comforting to her. "My sweet little wolf." He said. "I've got you here, nothing can reach you. You are safe. You are safe." She flinched again as the lightning lit up the room, no thunder this time. She breathed a shaky sigh of relief. They sat there for some time, and Naomi looked up only once to study the wide angular planes of his handsome face illuminated in a stark contrast by the flashes of light. Like camera flashes she took a few mental images of him, his hands under the blanket now on her bare skin. The pads of his fingers grazed her back, tracing down her spine and the other gripped her thigh protectively, anchoring her body to him. She shivered, this time not from fear of the storm. She no longer gave thought to the scars on her thigh that his fingers likely scoured.

Aiden caught her staring up at him and he kissed her forehead in reply. The action sent trickles of sparks down her body, so she only buried her face in his neck. She inhaled the comforting scent of his pine and mint and relaxed against him, letting herself finally drift off in the protective entombment of his strong arms.