Chapter 12: Chapter 12

LUXURY

Selene haunted me.

She was a constant presence in my mind, a lingering heat in my blood, a wound I refused to let heal.

It didn’t matter how much distance I put between us.

It didn’t matter how many times I told myself she wasn’t mine to want.

She was there.

In my thoughts. In my senses.

In every breath I took.

And now, after last night—after she had come to my door and whispered the words I dreaded hearing—

~Because I can’t stop thinking about you~.

I knew I couldn’t ignore her much longer. The scent of her, the memory of her heat pressed against me—gods, I’d spent ~weeks~ trying to rid myself of her presence.

And today?

Today, she was impossible to ignore.

I wasn’t supposed to be here, at the market, but I’d sent Erik to oversee our borders this morning, thinking it was better if I stayed away. Better if I didn’t let my presence disrupt the focus of the pack.

But as I walked by the path leading up to the market on the hill, I heard it.

Selene’s voice.

Sharp. Angry.

Standing against someone who could break her with a single move.

I moved quickly up the path and reached the edge of the market in seconds. It was simple, weaving through the crowd, my steps silent as I followed the source of the tension. My senses sharpened as I closed in—listening, feeling the shift in the energy around me.

Selene’s heartbeat was quick and uneven, but she wasn’t afraid for herself.

She was furious.

I inhaled deeply, sifting through the overlapping scents. The iron tang of aggression. The heavy weight of intimidation. And beneath it—her.

Standing in front of someone smaller. Weaker.

Shielding them.

“That’s enough,” she snapped.

Her voice cut through the air, firm despite the way her body trembled from exertion.

I heard the low rumble of a male voice—one of the enforcers, maybe two. Hale and Kade Xander.

Not good men.

“Move, mortal.”

A command. A warning.

Selene didn’t move.

“You’ve already made your point,” she shot back, voice steady. “She dropped the bread. It wasn’t theft.”

A girl.

That’s who she was protecting.

A child, barely old enough to shift.

One of the enforcers growled then, low, threatening. I stepped forward before Kade could do something stupid and the moment I spoke, the weight of the marketplace shifted.

“~That’s enough~.”

Silence.

Hesitation.

Then, the sharp rustling of fabric as the wolves backed away.

I turned my head slightly, listening. Feeling the way the air changed as the crowd began to disperse.

Hale’s presence lingered a second too long.

He was debating something.

Then—finally—he stepped away.

The energy lightened, but it wasn’t gone.

Because Selene was still standing there.

Still daring to breathe too close to danger.

I heard the sharp exhale from the girl behind her—the way her breath hitched with quiet relief.

Selene must have turned toward her because her next words were softer.

“Go. Now.”

The girl hesitated.

Then I heard quick, retreating steps.

Smart.

Selene, however?

She hadn’t moved.

I took another step closer.

Felt the sharp, jagged edge of her presence cutting through the space between us.

She was angry.

At me.

At them.

At all of it.

She was still breathing hard. Not out of fear. Out of principle.

I should have left. Should have walked away and let her process whatever reckless thing had just possessed her to throw herself in front of two wolves twice her size. But I didn’t because I wanted to know ~why~.

“That was reckless.” My voice was quiet. Even.

Selene let out a breath. Not quite a laugh. Not quite a scoff.

“It was right.”

Something in my chest tightened. She was still standing firm, even now. Even when it was over.

I considered her words. “You put yourself in danger.”

A pause. “So did you,” she said.

I blinked.

She wasn’t wrong.

I’d spent my entire life in a state of calculated risk. Being blind meant I had to be smarter. Faster. Better.

But Selene?

She had none of my advantages.

No wolf. No strength.

And yet she stood anyway.

It was foolish.

It was reckless.

And gods, I admired it.

I shouldn’t have.

But I did.

I stepped closer, lowering my voice.

“And what would you have done if they had hit you?”

She exhaled, tired. “Tried not to cry.”

A beat.

And fuck, I laughed.

Short. Quiet.

But real.

So did she.

And just like that the air between us shifted.

The tension didn’t disappear.

But for the first time in weeks, it wasn’t hostile.

It wasn’t edged with avoidance, with longing.

It just was.

I took another step forward.

Selene didn’t move.

Didn’t step back.

Didn’t run.

And for the first time since I’d pushed her away, I realized maybe she wasn’t going to. Maybe she never had. Maybe I was the only coward between us.

The marketplace had begun to return to normal, but there was still a lingering shift in the air. Wolves stole glances at me but made a point of moving away rather than toward.

Selene, on the other hand, acted as if nothing had happened.

She bent down to gather the supplies she’d dropped, and I knew what they were—not by sight, but by scent. The sharp, earthy aroma of dried herbs, crushed slightly from their fall. The faint, oily tang of unspun fleece, not yet washed clean of lanolin, carried on the cool breeze. The soft jingle of coin in a cloth pouch as she adjusted her grip.

I didn’t think before I knelt beside her and reached for one of the sacks.

She went still.

Then, slowly, she turned toward me. “What are you doing?”

I didn’t answer right away.

Instead, I picked up the bundle of wool, holding it in my arms.

“It’s heavy,” she muttered.

I shrugged. “It’s not.”

I felt, rather than saw, the way she scowled at me.

But she didn’t argue.

She adjusted the weight of the bags she held in her arms, and I felt the heaviness of her gaze on me.

“You don’t have to help me.”

“You need another set of hands.”

She scoffed. “Since when do you help carry things, Alpha?”

I tilted my head slightly. “Do you always give your helpers the third degree?”

A beat.

Then—softly, she said, “I don’t need help.”

That made me pause.

I let the silence stretch before speaking again.

“Neither do I,” I murmured.

I picked up the remaining sacks before she could argue, adjusting them easily in my grip.

She sighed, muttering something under her breath that I didn’t quite catch.

The woman was silent as we left the marketplace, but I could feel her watching me.

She was never particularly subtle about her thoughts—whether she spoke them aloud or not, I could hear them in the way she breathed, in the tension in her body, in the way she shifted her weight when something unsettled her.

And right now?

She was unsettled.

Not by fear.

By ~me~.

By the fact that I was walking beside her, carrying her supplies like it was the most natural thing in the world. Like I hadn’t spent weeks avoiding her. Like I hadn’t pushed her away and told myself that was the right thing to do.

I adjusted the weight of the sacks in my arms, listening to the sounds of the village as we moved through it—the soft crunch of dirt beneath our boots, the distant murmur of voices, and a faint rustling as merchants packed up their stalls for the evening.

Selene let out a slow breath, like she was gathering her thoughts before finally speaking.

“You don’t have to do this, you know.”

I kept my pace even. “Do what?”

“This.” She shifted slightly, and I heard the way she gestured. “Carrying my things. Walking me back. Helping.”

I turned my head slightly toward her. “Why do you assume I’m helping you?”

She huffed, and I could almost hear the eye roll. “Because you are.”

I fought the smirk threatening to pull at my lips.

She wasn’t wrong.

But I wasn’t about to admit that.

Instead, I just said, “Maybe I needed to walk.”

Selene let out a short laugh. “Sure. That’s why.”

I did smirk at that.

She was still watching me, her gaze flitting over me like she was trying to figure something out.

I tilted my head. “You’re staring.”

“I am not,” she shot back, too quickly.

“You are.”

“I was looking at you.” She hesitated, then muttered, “Which is not the same as staring.”

I raised a brow. “And what exactly were you looking at?”

Another pause.

Then, softer, “You don’t usually come down here.”

She was right.

I didn’t.

I’d spent most of my life avoiding the village, letting my presence linger in the background rather than inserting myself into the daily lives of my pack.

Wolves respected me. They feared me.

But I was not one of them.

Not in the way they were with each other.

I’d learned long ago that distance was safer.

It meant I didn’t have to listen to the way they doubted me.

How could a blind alpha lead? How could he command when he couldn’t even see the wolves who followed him?

They didn’t say it to my face, but I’d heard it whispered before.

And I’d spent years proving them wrong.

I exhaled slowly. “No, I don’t usually come down here.”

“So why today?”

I was quiet for a long moment, considering how I wanted to answer that.

I could tell her the truth.

That I’d heard she would be there…that I heard her voice. That I’d felt the shift in the energy the second she had stepped between those wolves and that girl. That I’d come because—because what? Because I wasn’t able to stop myself? Because I needed to know she was safe? Because I was waiting for an excuse to be near her again?

I shook my head. “I told you. I needed to walk.”

Selene hummed like she didn’t believe me, but she didn’t press.

Instead, she let the silence settle, comfortable and unforced.

It was strange, how easy it was to walk beside her.

How I could feel her in a way I didn’t feel anyone else.

It was something in the way she carried herself. There was a strength in her, one that had nothing to do with power.

She had no wolf. No fangs. No claws.

But she was braver than half the warriors in my pack.

And maybe that was why I was still walking beside her.

Because I wasn’t sure I’d ever met anyone quite like her before.