me absentmindedly before turning back to his empty plate.
It was strange seeing him again, he was so kind to me when I was in school and now Michael just seems… distant. As if his thoughts are being pulled in a million directions and he can’t think through any of them long enough to get a word out.
Ayden and I walk at a snail’s pace back to my bunk, I don’t tell him that I don’t sleep in the huts. My reclusive life is no one’s business but my own. I keep waiting for him to say something. Anything. Silence is the only thing between us.
I stop at the tree that houses my bunk, he turns on his heels when he realizes I’m not at his side. Dark eyes stare down at me, too close for comfort, eyes that are filled with the thoughts of a man I no longer recognize. He looks at me with confusion marring his smooth features.
His long legs are just inches from mine, his lips parted, lips that once kissed mine with so much devotion I thought he’d always own a part of my heart. It was never his to own though…
“I—I’ve thought about you every day.” His hand moves at his side as if he might reach out to me but he closes his fist tightly and lowers it at his side. His eyes leave mine as he studies the leaves between our feet, his pristinely shined shoes offsetting my dusty sandals. “Did he hurt you?”
“No, he helped me.”
His eyes snap to me once more, his lips part as a breath shakes out, a laugh threatening his voice. “He helped you? Tearing you away from your friends and family. He helped you?”
A long breath fills my lungs, my eyes closing briefly as I try to think of how to explain this to someone that no longer knows me. Someone that couldn’t even understand my life if I wrote it out in black and white.
“I can’t explain it, Ayden, but just think about your life and mine. Are you happy? In the life that you live, are you happy? Because I’m the happiest I’ve been in all my life.”
It’s odd to think about, my life here is strange, a bit lonely at times, but it’s mine. If I wanted to leave tomorrow I could. If I want one child or a hundred no one would question it. If I wanted to spend the rest of my life alone it would be entirely my decision.
And if I wanted to spend my days with one beautifully lethal hybrid vampire… I could.
“Fallon, you left before I could properly meet you,” President Docile’s smooth and pleasant voice floats over my shoulder.
Her face is still curtained by the thin black veil that shields her features from me. My fingers itch to push the fabric aside but I force myself to keep my hands at my sides.
Her thin body sways closer to me, grace fills her every move, so out of place in the wild Wandering community.
“Mr. Raske has told me so much about you. I just had to meet the human girl that has become so taken with Kaino. He is a charming boy, isn’t he?”
Her statement catches me off guard and my mouth hangs open, no words or even a breath slips over my lips. My brows rise high and I find myself looking to Lord Raske or Kaino or anyone of the representatives standing behind the president. No one says a word.
I feel Ayden’s eyes on me, unspoken questions fill the silence.
“Yes, he’s very…” I pause, grasping for a word to accurately describe Kaino in a positive light. “Protective,” I finally sputter.
Thick, dark lashes fan across Kaino’s cheeks as he cringes from my description. I see the sigh he releases from his wide chest but he remains quiet.
Raske smiles at me, nodding, pleased with my kind words. The president’s veil shakes as she seems to nod at me. Her thin, pale hands are held neatly in front of her, perfect posture has her sharp shoulders strung tight.
“How nice. Perhaps we will have to revisit the Wanderers in the near future.” The strange woman turns toward Michael who zeroes his attention in on the woman, taking a step closer to her, ready for her every demand. She raises a hand to his shoulder, resting it there against the pressed white shirt. “Let’s be sure to… check in on the progress of this couple and their community very soon.”
Michael makes note