Alpha's Mate : Daughter of the Moon (Book 2 of The Outcaste Series)

Chapter 21

I've missed you guys!!! Hope you didn't miss me too much. A lot on my plate lately, but this story is dear to me as are all of you so a big thank you to all those who went out of their busy schedules to check up on me. 

TBH, I ended up reading the whole 'Master's Vampire' 2-3 times to re-jog my memory over the past year where this chapter was sitting in my notes. It went through like 6-7 edits and I'm like omg just publish it already or the readers (you, yeah you) would think I've dropped it and gone MIA.

Anyhow~ hope you enjoy as always. xoxo

My heart dropped to my gut. A lump plugged my throat and my brain shut out everything but the man consumed in the shadows.

It was without a doubt him. I'd recognize his voice anywhere. It was like always, controlled and polite, but with a touch of softness—vulnerability perhaps even.

Before he or I were able to get a good look of each other, a cold hand covered my mouth and spun me around to face the still opened door as my back pressed against someone else's much straighter posture. She was hiding me with her taller physique, not saying a single word as she kept the silence. I snapped out of my earlier trance and played along, covering my mouth and trying to control my breathing though it was safe to say I wasn't breathing at all in that moment.

"Alvena?" the voice in the darkness called again with more urgency this time as he turned around. I could swear my heart beat a hundred times during the past several seconds.

"It's you...Evelyn," he corrected with slight disappointment in his tone though he did attempt to mask a majority of it.

Tears were threatening to spill out while I was struggling to choke down my cries. The survival instinct in me kicked in and I stood frozen, but I was shuddering inside like a lost animal in a rainstorm.

"I could've sworn I saw..." He took a few steps forward in frantic composure, and was so close I thought he'd notice me hiding.

"Master Alek, did you see her again?" Evelyn responded with crisp monotone.

Again?

There was a long strenuous pause before he heaved out a sigh and lowered his guard.

Did his senses dull?

"Do you know what today is, Evelyn?" his voice proceeded with regret as he placed down what sounded like an empty bottle on his desk.

Evelyn dipped her head. I didn't have to see to picture her indifferent expression. By now, her master would prompt her to answer him. She would hesitate and then voice her opinion as if that earlier pause was just out of courtesy. She'd say something and he would give her a gentle smile and then turn to me and ask what we were going to do with her. We'd all laugh and then head over to the gardens where Lord Perrot would casually drop by and it would be the four of us everyday. Those were such precious times. The time when I actually believed he loved me.

Being in the study only flooded my mind with all the memories I had locked up in a place I didn't ever want to visit again. I still remember his words very clearly. No matter how much I wanted to get it out of my head, it's impossible to forget.

"The day Alvena disappeared..."

I almost let out a gasp had my hands not automatically jumped to cover over my mouth. I must've made the slightest sound and to extinguish any suspicion, Evie quickly distracted him with something I didn't expect.

"...and the day I betrayed you."

Her sentence finished strong, followed by a momentary silence where the tension grew so intense that I thought the air would freeze. It was definitely a sore spot for him and I only crossed my fingers that Evie wasn't going to get into too much trouble for blurting out everything on her mind. It would be hypocritical of him to punish her since it was he who spoiled her too much from the beginning.