Night Flower

7

YELENA

"Enjoying the view?"

"You mean the tree tops and a few stars."

His gaze lowers to mine and my palms start to itch. Holding on to the ground does nothing to stabilize me. I find myself dizzy, getting lost in his eyes.

"I thought you'd be happy getting out of your room."

"You mean changing the view from my prison cell to this." The sarcasm is oozing out of my pores. I can't and won't stop myself. He triggers it, I don't know why but being sassy, and talking back makes me feel energized. "You thought wrong."

He stays quiet for a moment then lets his body roll back slowly and lays iron on his back. Legs straight arms behind his head while his eyes stare straight up. The moon is not present tonight, just clouds and stars. The new moon, makes me feel vulnerable and alone. She has been my companion since the day I was sent out on the scouting mission.

Even with the chilly ambiance comfort fills me. Is the smell of the ground and the breeze as it runs through my skin, and hair, ruffles my shirt, and makes the leaves sing. Being cooped up in that shut room was not my cup of tea. Socializing was not my thing but the weeks had been piling up, my schedule had been programmed from dawn to dusk barely interacting with anyone. Ruby and Lydia took turns in taking my food and I was beginning to think that Ruby only did it to spite me, to show me who was boss.

"Why did you sleep in the tub?" The questions startles me, even though I had not forgotten his presence his breathing and scent had soothed my brain.

"The music." I simply said.

"What music?"

"It came through the bathroom window." It was merely instrumental, soft. Accompanied by chatter and laughter but it was loud enough to entertain my rambling thoughts.

"You have good hearing." The hard cords of his muscles tighten as he shifts and rearranges himself. His current attire allows me to take a glimpse, to visualize, to imagine what is under that shirt; hard muscle.

"I was bored out of my mind. There's isn't anything to do in that stupid room of yours, you have no TV, no books and that massive computer is password protected." Anything to shift his attention towards my abilities but I surprised myself by confessing the truth.

"Be thankful that I didn't send you to the dungeons." He wanted to scare me.

"Why thank you. But you don't have to be so accommodating."

"You wouldn't like the company." The way he said it, and the tone of his voice made me imagine what sort of creatures he kept down there. Maybe crazed pups, cold ones waiting for trials or he was bluffing. But from the way his body tensed, yeah that told me way more.

"Why? Keeping other girls against their will down there?" It wasn't a hard picture, a dozen women waiting for their turn for a night with him. Though I image them wiling, almost desperate for a word or a look in their direction.

"You shouldn't talk about what you don't know." There's a warning voice on his voice, the same one he gave me before.

Yelena, you should stop trying to pull this man's strings. Is not safe.

"Then enlighten me."

"You shouldn't test your luck, little liar." He didn't need to growl or bare his teeth to look menacing. His voice and eyes were enough. "Come, let's get you back to your prison cell." Without much effort, he was back on his feet with a hand outstretched to me.

"No," I said leaning backward, the thought of being locked up back again made my skin crawl.

"I wasn't asking. Either come or I'll have one of my men drag you inside and they are not as patient as me." And just like that, a dozen men materialized out of thin air. They weren't looking at me, just stood there waiting for the order to pounce. These men had been guarding him. Making sure I didn't do anything stupid and listening in to every word I said. I'm not stupid but I did forget for a few minutes who he was. He wasn't in a vulnerable state when he laid down beside me, he knew quite well what he was doing, trying to open me up.

And he almost did.

The hardline of his mouth, the glow of his eyes. He had been somewhat content before now the switch to something neutral, that I couldn't even guess what was going through his mind.

Reluctantly I stood up and ignored the side glances that his goonies were giving me. I had no choice but to follow him inside, missing the feel of the soft grass under my naked feet, and the smell of the earth. Next time, if they allow it I would have to control my mouth.

Walking a few feet behind I notices how dry leave and twigs had stuck to his clothes and hair, it was an impulse nothing more. I knew better than to try to brush it off him but as soon as a strong hand pulled my arm back with enough force to break it told me I had made a mistake. Touching him was not allowed, at least I wasn't. Pain seared from my shoulder to my fingertips.

I tried to pry myself free, slapping the hand that had almost lifted me off my feet while I sob in pain.

"Dalio."

"She tried to do something. Caught her just in time."

"Let her go." And just like that my arm flopped back down bringing back another wave of pain. The angle it felt was odd, and the pulsing pain from my shoulder was making me dizzy, if it weren't for the wall next to me I would have been on the ground already. Out of all the abilities I could have inherited healing wasn't one of them. At least not as fast as the rest of my family.

"Damn it, you dislocated her shoulder." Through closed lids, I watch the man that had hurt be dismissed while the rest just stood there waiting for orders. "We have to put it back."

Someone must have grabbed me and lifted me off the ground but they were careless with my injury, in the middle of the commotion new faces had joined in, Reineck watched me as someone retailed the current events. Would this help them finally believe that I was just an ordinary girl? That a normal hot-blooded female wouldn't be crying and complaining about a dislocated shoulder like I was.

"Stop whining."

Fat tears fell down my face. They had put the shoulder back in place while I screamed bloody murder. He hadn't been present. Lydia and two others had held me down as I kicked and cried.

"It will hurt for a while, now stay still and maybe the pain will lessen." There wasn't an ounce of sympathy in any of them. No one offered pain medicine, they simply cleared the room one by one, the last locking the door behind him.

Sitting on the unmade bed contemplating my reality I came to the conclusion that this had been the worse decision I had made in my short life.

The pain had lessened or I was getting used to it. Laying on my back was not helpful, sitting with my back to the headboard was the only thing that kept it to a minimum. The pain, the quiet, the cruelty of them leaving me like this. Expecting less had always been better, I had put myself in this situation and for the looks of it, I had dug myself in deeper.

No one touches an alpha.

What was I thinking?