The Alpha's Little Witch | Completed ✔️

Chapter 22

JASLYNN

I was gone for two minutes to wash my hands clean of whatever parasites lived on that dildo. 

Somehow in those two minutes, Alrik found something that was disconcerting, and all of a sudden, I found myself running beside him out of the house and back into the woods.

I didn't even have time to process that he was carrying an unconscious Ester over his shoulder along with a large garbage bag that was overflowing with papers.

"Alrik, what. The fuck. Happened?" I panted between my breaths. He looked completely at ease with our fast pace as if he wasn't carrying an old lady, "Malcolm knew we were visiting."

"What?" I shrieked, skidding to a stop, "How did you find out?"

He nodded to the bag in his other hand, "There was a letter. He was ready for us. They were ready for us."

I underestimated Malcolm. In my eyes, he was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch who didn't know left from right. He never gave me a reason to believe he could concoct complex and thorough plans. It was no wonder why he was running around confidently.

Every time we made a move, he was two moves ahead of us. 

"Come on," Alrik said softly, nudging me, "We can discuss this after we get back to the ship. I have already mindlinked Reece the coordinates of our location and by the time we get to shore, they should be there."

I nodded my head and pulled the loose strands of hair from my face as we picked up our pace again, "We're going to have to stop overnight though, and if we're going to use Ester for questioning, we have to heal her head injury."

"Do we have to?"

I gave him a deadpan look, "How do you expect her to talk if she dies? Summon her ghost?"

"Witchcraft?"

I grabbed the garbage bag from his hand and whacked his back although I was partially amused, "I hate you and your witch jokes."

"As I said before, the double standards in this relationship are terrible."

"What relationship? All we do is insult each other, make out, and have occasional deep discussions."

He turned his head and lifted a corner of his mouth in an almost seductive manner, "I can get deeper with you if you'd like."

I didn't miss the innuendo, and my eyes widened as he took a large step into my personal space, practically crowding me into a row of trees. He bent his head in my direction like he was about to kiss me, but I gently moved one of Ester's arms so it was in his line of vision.

"Don't forget we have a guest–"

"That's unwanted," he muttered, stepping back. 

"You can't say she's unwanted if you kidnapped her."

"It's not kidnapping. We're just taking her in for questioning."

"Were you planning on letting her return to her home?"

No reply. 

A part of me wanted to push him for answers, but the rest of me wanted to see what he would do. Maybe this was how I was supposed to discover the other side of him– the one that gave him his feared reputation–because it was clear to me that he would never reveal his dark parts around his mate without good reason.

Until then, I would just have to work on getting through the thinner walls he had up.

"Since you offered to get deeper with me," I started, capturing his attention, "Tell me about yourself. What are your hobbies?"