Forbidden

Chapter 32

32

Spending time with Liam seemed to get better and better every time I saw him. And every single kiss, every touch, every word whispered or said was firework inducing, mind shattering and heart breaking. An exhilarating high, the world’s most lethal aphrodisiac. But the effects of coming off of it were appalling.

Being away from Liam would compare closely to rejection, with the heart string pulls of heartbreak, and the terror of my wolf’s anger with me. And him. Nature wanted us to happen, I could feel it in every modicum of my body, but reality refused.

I’d come dangerously close to being found out on several occasions, provoking suspicion—something I wasn’t exactly eager to divulge with Liam—his scent was strong on me after evenings running as a wolf with him in the forest, tumbling around in the clearing with our lips joined. Sometimes, the scent was so strong, it blended in with my own, thanks to the weak bond we shared together. The bond that was also incomplete. Sometimes I would have to run around in the forest after seeing him, in the dirt and the river, trying to get the scent that wanted to become my own off my skin.

I knew that Tegan and Hayden had smelled the difference in my scent; they wrinkled their noses absentmindedly, but never thought much of it because my body was already changing. Becoming an Alpha. I decided that they had written it down to the change.

I stared into the mirror, looking at myself and couldn’t help the odd sense of déjà vu I felt inside.

I could see the hand of my wolf’s miniscule doing.

I was taller, with leaner, more feminine muscles. My bone structure had changed, and slenderness had been achieved, and the Alpha scent on me had flourished into its own, sending off a strobe of authority when I was close to other wolves.

There wasn’t a trace of the Misha I’d seen in that mirror when school began. It was amazing how much two months full of indecision and surprised could change a person.

I had not seen such changes in Randel. But I’d seen them in Liam, my Mate.

He had put on a little more muscle over the few weeks we were together, and all the boyish grandeur around his face had completely disappeared, giving way to the man. I was proud of him in a way, but sometimes, I couldn’t help but think that he wasn’t meant for me. I would be a liar if I said that I didn’t notice how Shadow wolf girls treated him; how his future Pack treated him. In their eyes, he was already Alpha. He exuded the dominance he needed to guide them, and they looked up to him.

I wanted for us to be together so badly.

But hatred for Shadows was in our blood. It was so deeply ingrained in us that our inner wolves resonated with it.

I wondered briefly what they would do if they discovered Liam and me.

Thoughts like that were ever present in my mind; it was thoughts like that that I couldn’t shake, no matter how much I wanted to.

I strode downstairs and into the kitchen, where mom was mixing a solution to clean her paintbrushes with on the island, while Tegan sat in my brother’s lap outside on the back porch, in the wicker swing seat, her giggles filling the air.

I fished an apple out of the fridge and bit into it, savoring the taste.

“Where are you going?” my mother asked me, eyeing my scarf and my coat as she dumped her brushes into the plastic container.

“Just for a walk.” I murmured around my apple.

“You’ve been taking an awful lot of walks lately Mish,” she replied, looking at me peculiarly.