His Willow

Chapter 16

"So Jessie tells me you love this part of the forest, the part with all the flowers hmm?" Alaric asks beside me, walking hand in hand back through the trees and going somewhere nice to talk. I think we both needed a change of scenery after our little meltdown and get some much needed fresh air. This part of the forest has become my new happy place, aside from Alaric of course. All the pretty wildflowers bushed past my ankles and awakened my senses. Feeling like I belong somewhere is a massive thing for me, makes me feel like I can go there when the thoughts get too tough to handle. 

Thinking back to Alaric's question had me frowning up at him, puzzled at how he knew this piece of information that I know for sure that Jessie didn't reveal to him. How could Jessie have the chance when she knew it ten minutes before we ran into Alaric, getting into trouble. I let go of Alaric's hand and dug into my back pocket, retrieving my pen. I felt Alaric's burning gaze on the back of my head, intrigued at the scribbles on my arm.

I lifted up the question written on my arm, holding it up to Alaric. He held my arm tenderly as he read over the words "Did Jessie tell you I liked the forest before what happened yesterday?"

Alaric had a lot of conflicting emotions swimming in his eyes as he read over the words. He ripped his gaze away from my arm to my eyes, looking at me with unease.

We were here to talk after all. I'm the silent one, Alaric's the one whos suppose to be giving me answers!

"Jessie told me when I found you in that pup's mouth," Alaric said with disdain, happy at the information but not the thought of me hanging in Kai's mouth.

Before I could react at all and write out my response, Alaric grabbed ahold of my hand rather aggressively and licked all over the ink, I jerked back in surprise at his wet tongue on my skin.

"Angel, I forbid you from writing anything else on your hand or body, you will get ink poisoning, and I simply won't allow that," Alaric said sternly. Stopping us momentarily to wipe the ink clean with no trace that it was ever there.

I nodded my head slowly at Alaric, slowly starting to get used to his sudden acts of possession and overreaction to things, just going along with it for the time being. But oh boy, when I get my voice back, Alaric won't be prepared for my unfiltered opinions to come out. He's pretty lucky I can't talk in situations like this. It's killing me not to put him in his place sometimes, telling him I'm not a little glass doll that could smash any moment, I'm getting stronger, and I need him to realise that.

Instead of writing on my arm again and Alaric throwing another hissy fit, I grasped the small backup notepad in my other pocket, jotting down my thoughts.

"How did Jessie tell you? She didn't say anything?" I asked, very intrigued by Alaric's answer for this.

"How about we sit down first before I tell you the answer to that question, love." Alaric said, swiftly picking me up under my arms and placing me around his waist, holding me to his chest tightly like a koala hugging a tree.

My head bobbed with each step he took, seeing the forest pass by much quicker than the steady pace we had before. Looking around at the pretty wildflowers and openings in the trees, it had a striking resemblance to the nightmare I once had. Walking through the forest in my dream with the bunnies and deers walking beside me. I felt my eyes frown at the thought, maybe we were walking in the same area, but all the forest looked strikingly familiar, so I brushed the idea aside pretty quickly.

Alaric slowed down and found a nice place to talk, the area was guarded by thick trees and a bed of daisies, looking bright and healthy. Peering above our heads, it showed the breathtaking sunset appearing, and soon the stars will be in perfect view. It's like Alaric knew this beautiful area already, I doubt he would admit it to me, so I kept my thoughts to myself.