Temporary Alliance

Chapter 12 : Scars

"How long have you known?"

"Since last night."

Sighing out heavily through my nose, I tugged my hair with my hands in frustration. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"You were indisposed and from what happened later today, it completely escaped my mind."

Narrowing my eyes into an icy glare, I was going to argue that he had many chances in the morning or at lunch time to tell me, but I decided not to. I was too tired to start picking fights with him today and besides, there was no point fighting him if I didn't need to. He wasn't the enemy anymore.

I stared deeply into his dark greys and I could tell he was telling the truth. "Okay. Let's go."

Alexander paused for a second. "Tomorrow."

"Why?"

"We all need a few hours to rest."

I looked away from him, thinking, and despised the fact that he was right. After everything that had happened today, everyone was bound to be exhausted and if we kept going at this pace, we were going to get sloppy and make foolish mistakes.

"Fine." I bit out sharply, accepted his reasoning, then headed towards my closet.

I rummaged through the clothes I had hazardously thrown around in the closet while I was packing, and quickly found my sports bra, a random t-shirt and shorts, then proceeded to change into them. When I walked back out of the closet, Alexander was still standing in the exact same position he was a few minutes ago.

"Heading down." I grumbled, barely coherent, as I walked past him and headed towards the basement to hopefully let out some steam.

My eyes quickly zeroed in on the large punching bag and I jogged immediately towards my target. After wrapping my hands, I let out all the pain and frustration crawling under my skin.

*

I was so focused on beating the hell out of the punching bag that I didn't realize someone was behind me until I felt a hand on my shoulder. Without thinking twice, nor bothering to register who was behind me, I quickly aimed a kick at the back of their knees. The person fell and I rapidly brought them to the ground then pinned them under me.

Upon understanding what had happened, I sighed out utterly pissed.

I was sitting on Alexander's stomach with one hand clamped over his throat and the other raised in a fist, ready to throw a solid hit.

"What the hell were you thinking sneaking up on me like that?" I growled, thinking that he could have been seriously injured and how unaware of my surroundings I was.

There was no emotion on his face.

"You called me and I didn't answer." I inferred and eyed him carefully.

"Yes." His answer was short and brisk.

"Why were you calling me?"

"Dinner's ready."

Guilt gnawed at my stomach and I cringed just slightly knowing the he came to offer me dinner while I knocked him down flat on his back.

"Next time, fight back. You were always better at hand-to-hand combat than me anyways." I grumbled bitterly as I was about to get off of him, but his muscles tensed under me and before I knew it, he was sitting up straight with me right on his lap.

"It'll make things worse because you'll perceive me as a real threat." He commented, his voice smooth and steady, holding truth.

I felt hand his hands slide from waist down to my hips, leaving a light trail of fire. Unable to help myself, I stared into his dark greys with curiosity. We were both mesmerized by each other, leaning in closer to one another unknowingly, some force pulling us closer together. His breath fanned over my lips and just like that, reality snapped back into me. We were mere millimeters away from a kiss when I realized that I was literally straddling his lap, so I quickly leaned away from him with my heart pounding against my chest.