Kael's POV
Behind her, I stood mind spinning back through all that happened tonight.
I couldn't get my eyes off her.
No matter how much I tried to distract myself from her my eyes kept finding her over and over again in the large sprawling bar.
I noticed everything.
The gentle sway of her body as though she would be picked up by the wind and blown away in a second, how her hands moved with practiced meticulousness yet there was this dreary drag like she was second guessing herself before doing anything.
Normally that wasn't my type of woman, someone who already looked over and done with life.
Still…
I have never felt so irrationally attracted to someone.
Well, I wouldn't say this was the first time.
That woman from the bar, at Aaron's wedding.
I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there was something that pulled me towards her, refusing to let me look away from her…
And eventually we ended up in bed.
A moment of foolish weakness.
That was all it was.
And it ended up costing me the medallion.
I had scoured for it in neighboring packs for nearly a year now, sometimes I went to packs like Lunaris where I had connections and my presence would not be deeply probed into or immediately seen with suspicion.
"Kael, I never imagined we would get so close…" Corvin commented, ensuring his suspicions were thinly veiled. "...There was a time I couldn't see you for years, now the guest room in my house hardly even gets a chance to form cobwebs."
Of course there was always a limit. I should have seen this from a mile away.
Corvin was never really ever the trusting type, no alpha with all his wits about him was.
Which is why that one night stand continuously surprises me.
"What can I say? The attractions in Lunaris keep pulling me back." When I said the word attraction, I made sure to look at the dancers who were gyrating on their poles with clothes that left little to nothing showing.
They were hardly doing it for me, but thankfully distracted Corvin for the moment, he even leaned closer to whisper to me.
"You know with the right amount of dough I might be able to arrange one of the girls for you, what do you say?" The grin on his face grew two times larger. "I can tell you that I have personally tasted them and they are what they are, trust me you won't regret it one bit. In fact, you'll keep coming back for more."
The more he spoke the more repulsed I became. At one point, I checked out from the conversation altogether just mumbling here and there.
I hardly paid any attention to the pole dancers when I came in and even as the night wore away. Corvin began to drop more and more comments, the price of the women lowering as if they were losing value in real time.
Eventually he stopped and I couldn't have been more thankful for that, I could look at that woman more carefully now.
I just knew she was familiar.
But for some reason her face wasn't.
And neither was her scent, I am the alpha of mystic Hallow, there should be no one better at identifying the scent of a pack member than me, and I wasn't getting that from her.
But my curiosity kept me beyond the closing hours of clawfire bar.
Brought me up from behind her, she screamed, nearly bolting away when she noticed me. I held her sides so that she wouldn't trip and hurt herself.
"Careful now," I said, my fingers lingering on her arms, the soft warmth that came from them, but common sense came back in and I snatched my hands away, shoving them into my pocket.
"I forgot something," I said, waving my little wallet as evidence.
She clearly looked skeptical about my excuse but was unquestioning. She turned back to return to her work and as she continued to wipe the table, her hands started moving slower and slower until she finally stopped all together.
"Alpha, do you need anything?"
Even her voice seemed like something I had heard before.
But why did it feel like anytime I tried to search the corners of my memory for her, I was slamming head first into an invisible wall.
"I was just wondering…" I said, trying to keep the conversation going, "...when someone will show up and help you with the rest of the cleaning," .
A small chuckle managed to escape from her lips, the rest web trapped behind them. What on earth made goosebumps appear on my skin?
She was just an Omega.
Why was I so…? It's almost like I've forgotten myself, but I had to anchor myself back to the surface of sanity once more.
The medallion was missing and it was all my fault. I had let myself slip just one time after years of guarding it all for this to happen.
I somehow realized that along the line, the question I had asked her wasn't answered yet.
She looked at me from under her lashes, her gaze testing me in a way that I could not fully wrap around in words. All I could do was watch her as she inched closer to me and I didn't have the slightest urge to pull away as I would have done with anyone else invading my space.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Alpha Kael, I have never been to Mystic hollows but I hope you find who you are looking for "
I bit down so hard on my bottom lip I'm surprised it didn't bust open immediately.
"It's really late, should I wait around for you to close so that I can walk you to your house?"
I never knew that somebody's face could get so pale so fast. I blinked and it looked like she had lost years from her life.
So I backed away, but a little voice in the back of my head told me I wouldn't be able to forget her so easily.
The voice was right.