Cold Flames

Darla and Olivia .13.

.November.

Soft miniature hands caressed my face, tracing my forehead all the way down to my chin, softly as though treading on dangerous ground. Rubbing my cheeks soothingly with a sort of patience I didn't understand and running along the slope of my nose gently. The touch was feather like and almost non-existent as it skimmed my closed eyelids. It wasn't until I felt the change from my ears to gently touching my lips did I finally allow my eyes to hesitantly flutter open.

Blocking my view of anything else was a chubby face belonging to a little girl of probably a year or less old. Her dark skinned face took up most of my eye range, containing thick messy dark curls that barely framed her tiny glowing face. Instead of jumping back in shock like any other person would in a situation like this, our noses nearly touching, I found myself captivated by her grey shaded eyes. She was blind.

I watched her for what seemed like eternity and she picked up her contact, using her fingers to paint invincible lines on my face, and then she was molding my face with her palm, tracing all of my features. Watching her was captivating and it didn't once cross my mind why there was a child on top of me.

"She likes you."

My head snapped away from the child's, my eyes fleeting across the room and towards the unexpected voice.

I was met with Alpha Hunter's fatigue covered features. He sat hunched at the edge of the now dry tub I had taken a bath in. He had on a plain dress shirt with the sleeves pulled up to his elbows and a well knotted tie hanging loosely on his chest, his first two or three buttons undone, revealing his strong chest which I tried my hardest not to stare at. Even tiredly dressed, his hair hanging loosely on his face, he still managed to look flawless.

His large presence hogged the room and it was then I noticed that I had fallen asleep in the bathroom. Miss Iris, the woman I had met earlier and Alpha Hunter's home caretaker must have left me here seeing as I was too tired at the time to even look for a bedroom. I looked away in embarrassment at my discovery and was met once again by the gaze of a child whose puny fingers were tangled in my now disheveled hair. I couldn't help but get lost in her beautiful eyes as her milk covered breath fanned softly across my face.

"She belongs to Jace," I heard his deep voice say in the background. "Her name is Darla."

Darla's fingers slipped effortlessly through my locks, unknowingly combing it out for me. I let out a sigh of content, appreciating her innocent gesture. After a few minutes of her doing this with silence around the room, Alpha Hunter's shallow breathing echoing around the seemingly smaller bathroom, I watched curiously as Darla began to fret in my arms. Having rarely been around babies, I watched in panic, not knowing what to do as she squeezed her face, tears threatening to fall.

I turned towards Alpha Hunter to alert him of the problem but I saw he was already watching me. Embarrassed, I looked away and felt my cheeks heat up, failing to notice Darla who had already quietly with a bit of stumbling on her feet sniffed her way towards Alpha Hunter, clutching his leg tightly when she reached him. I hadn't realized he had been openly watching us. His eyes half closed with sleep, most likely tired from his meeting.

Every male mate wants a pup to continue his lineage and honestly, the thought of that scared me. It wasn't really having the pup that was my problem; it was more of taking care of the pup. I knew nothing about babies and had no idea how to act around them. The closest I had gotten to a baby before this was at a naming ceremony in the Pack House that was done a week after the birth of every pup.

Alpha Hunter picked Darla off the floor with ease where she was whimpering and wrapped her softly in his embrace, his biceps bulging noticeably as his arms went around her. Darla's arms went tightly around his neck and a yawn escaped her pouty lips, causing me to do the same even though I had been asleep less than ten minutes ago. I found the scene before me slightly intriguing seeing that a man who was well known for ruthlessness and massacre could so comfortably hold a willing child in his arms.