EMPIRE

12. Refinements

Move.

I've been seated on the floor in the kitchen for over an hour, trying to force my body to stop trembling. I know that I need to get up and move away from the kitchen if I am really to calm down enough to stop hyperventilating. What if someone were to come in right now and see me sitting here like a pathetic child? Oh Goddess, the embarrassment and humiliation I would feel. My knees are tucked up to my chest and my arms are wrapped around them like a vice to hold them in that position.

You know what else held you like a vice? Roman's grip where he left the bruises on your waist.

I inhale sharply at the memory and duck my head, closing my eyes when the images of that particular moment flash across my mind. To my confusion, the bruises on my waist begin to burn, starting up from a slow tingle to a raging fire. My mouth opens in a silent, agonized cry and I throw my hands upwards to fist my hair.

What is happening?

Launching to my feet, I do my best to ignore the fiery torture erupting in my mid riff. Scrambling up the steps, I pull on an appropriate change of clothes and gathering the equipment needed for the distraction that I had planned earlier. I stumble down the steps and out of the house, bolting towards a sanctuary that just may possess the power to heal me.

_@#@_@#@_@#@_@#@_@#@_

"Alpha Dreycov? Alpha? Roman, are you alright?" Luna questioned, eyebrows furrowing in concern for the tall brute. He hadn't responded to her hails, none of her attempts to regain his attention seemed to work. Roman blinked at the sound of his name before turning to look at the woman who was currently giving him a tour of the pack village. He'd been lost in thought, his mind wandering to rest on the subject of his Mate.

"Sorry," he muttered to the Luna, clenching his jaw in frustration. Accalia was distracting him from carrying out the simple duty of being toured around a foreign pack. She was an utterly confusing being, completely throwing him into a loop of being a chaotic mess of emotions. Roman couldn't stand that. The idea of his feelings being brought out into the open, like an exposed nerve, vulnerable and tender. Weak. It made him shiver with distaste at the thought of ever having to be in a situation like that. But that woman, the woman he had been searching for to make the pack and himself stronger and complete, was on the path to unravelling him. That was not something he had intended to happen.

"It's alright, I understand that your mind would be on other matters. Certain people that you may not be able to stop thinking about. It could even be just a specific person," The Luna shrugged nonchalantly, though a small smile played on the sides of her lips. This was a good sign, a very good sign indeed. The fact that his mind was plagued with thoughts of his Mate, even putting him into slight distress is a sign that he cares very much about his other half.

Roman glanced at her with furrowed eyebrows, "what are you trying to imply?"

Luna tried to ignore the way his voice came out in a gravelly growl, the intimidating edge in his tone. She stopped walking and turned to look up at him, an eyebrow raised, almost challengingly.

Roman clenched his jaw, the fierceness in the Luna's eyes reminding him of his own spitfire. Though her fire had been temporarily dulled by his overbearing presence, he knew that eventually it was going to catch up to him.

"I am implying, Alpha Dreycov, that sometimes the thoughts or people that you can't get out of your head are stuck there for a reason," Luna stated, narrowing her eyes at him as she spoke. Roman's shoulders squared and he stood taller as he glowered down at the woman, what business does she have giving him love advice? She may be the Luna of his Mate's pack but she had no right to be approaching this subject, it was completely out of line.