Warriors of Blue moon
Chapter 15 - Part 5, Enemies of Blue moon.

Layton's POV:

Honestly, I can’t even say how fucking pissed I was to have to drag myself away from Lelanna. I finally had her so close to me, literally in my arms, her beautiful soft lips curling into her incredible smile. My whole body was just so drawn to her like it wanted to sink into her skin. The whole time I was with her, my head was just thinking “fuck the world… fuck everyone else here… she’s all that matters right now”.

Of course, I can’t blame Gabel, after all, I am the Alpha, and he is my guard and an unreplaceable one at that, and no doubt I would have kicked his ass if he didn’t tell me about the disturbance. Turns out some of the warriors patrolling near the village boarder could sense rogues, but by the time we had searched our forest territory and I had more warriors put in place in that area, I headed straight back to the ball to replace Lelanna had already left with her parents, as Florence informed me and according to her she left looking rather happy. I wanted to question Florence, if she had seen Lelanna dancing with any other men, but I couldn’t as she was surrounded by other people, so I called it a night as well and headed to my floor in the Palace for some peace and quiet to once again think of Lelanna.

As I undressed, I would catch whiffs of Lelanna’s scent on my clothes and I would try to memorise the feel of her soft little hand in mine. The way my hand ached to touch her back again and hold her close. I marvelled at how such a beautiful petite and slender woman with such soft, loving hands could be such a fierce fighter, but more so, how my entire body reacted to hers. Both me and my wolf wanted nothing more than to whisk her away and keep her here all to myself, to kiss her and hold her, to look at her beautiful face and body every day till the end of time.

“Slow fucking down”… I reminded myself… “it was just one dance” but the weaker part of me couldn’t shake off the way she smiled and felt her entire body relax into mine.

Damn! that woman could be the Achilles heel to any man, but I don’t want her to be that for any man but me! Even though I fucked up and I may not deserve her, I can’t help but still want to make her mine, to have back what we were so close to having before.

If only one day she could forgive me and trust me… trust that I’m wiser and stronger now and I’d never hurt her again, I’d rather fucking die! It didn’t help that my wolf would always stand to attention and wag his tail whenever she was close, whenever we caught a glimpse of her face or her smell. How we are not fucking destined is beyond me… but I can feel she’s meant to be mine, regardless!

The quiet tap at my door suddenly bought me out of my thoughts and back to reality. “YES” I called out, pissed at being disturbed again!

“Alpha Layton, Its Sam”

“Come in”.

Sam walked in still in his black tux as he smiled sheepishly and hovered in my lounge area as I stayed seated on the edge of my bed.

“What is it?” I asked.

He sighed as he ran a hand through his now messy hair “Gabel just told me about the rogues… and that there seems to be no sign of them now”.

“That’s right, we’ll have another look around the boarder tomorrow, head a bit further out and see if we can sense anything” I spoke to him as my eyes stared at the cream carpet beneath my feet, while I undid my tie.

“Want me to ask Lelanna to come along?”

I nodded in response.

“Everything ok Alpha Layton?”

"We’re alone Sam, stop calling me Alpha for fuck’s sake, you know I hate it. To you and your family, I’m Layton and always will be.”

He sighed as he sat down on a chaise lounge and ran his hands flatly over his trousers. ” Look, mate, somethings clearly on your mind, so is it the rogues… or personal?”

After a few seconds of silence, I decided to answer him with the truth. I could fake it and say yes, why the hell are rogues once again nearing our boarders, but tonight I couldn’t be bothered to put on any pretence. “No um, its personal actually”

“Care to share?”

“Probably best not to Sam”

“Let me guess... it’s about Lelanna?”

My head shot up in surprise as my eyes locked onto him and my posture tensed. but he just smiled and chuckled “chill Layton” as he shrugged his shoulder casually “I saw you two dancing earlier... it was nice to see to be honest, it was like old times”

“Old times?”

“Yea, you know… how you and Lelanna would always seem so close and happy when you were together… well, It was nice to see you both that way again”.

I cleared my throat and relaxed again, thinking of downplaying the whole subject. “yes well, I’m glad she’s starting to feel better about being back”

“Oh, fucking hell Layton, really?”

“What?” I looked at him in confusion as he just looked at me as if he was starting to feel fed up, rolling his eyes at me “what? why are you looking at me like that for?”

“Mate, we’ve known each other since we were kids, which means I’ve seen you and Lelanna together since we were kids. I know you fucking like her, it’s obvious”. Silence then wrapped around us as I failed to think of anything to say in response, wondering what was best to say… or if it even mattered that he’d gotten that last part slightly wrong.

Sam finally interrupted the silence as he sat up straight and looked at me with wide eyes.

"You love her?... Layton are… are you in love with her?”

I shook my head hoping I could deny his realisation as I rose to my feet and walked toward one of the large floor to ceiling windows in the lounge area and even with my back turned to Sam, I could feel his eyes piercing into me as if he could still tell what I was thinking, even without being able to see my forlorn expression.

“Layton, I mean I knew you always had a soft spot for her and to be honest, I did always hope you did love her, I just never… well I suppose after the banishment I thought maybe you had moved on”

I turned back to face him then and shot my arms out wide beside me. ”How have I fucking moved on Sam? Do you see me fucking moving on… in what way have I?”

“Honestly,I thought maybe the only reason you hadn’t chosen a Luna yet was because you were waiting for your destined mate rather than choosing one for the sake of it”.

“SHE IS MY CHOSEN ONE” I yelled as I could feel the frustration and anger at myself build up “DESTINED OR NOT”.

“Fuck" he breathed out as he leant forward to rest his arms on his legs, suddenly looking deep in thought. “Have you told her this?”

“NO… course I fucking haven’t. Why the fuck would she want to hear that from me, hmm?”

He waved his hands in gesture as he shook his head ”Jee, I don’t know, maybe because she should know how you feel… I know there’s some shit between you that you both need to hash out, but I think you need to be honest when it comes to shit like this… have you always felt this way about her?”

I nodded “yes” as I sighed in defeat, tucking my hands into my trouser pockets.

“Then why have you never...”

“I don’t know” I interrupted him. " I don’t fucking know… cause before I was always too much of a coward and now… I can imagine I’d tell her, and she’d run for the fucking hills.”

Sam got up from his seat and started to make his way to the bedroom door as he blew a loud breath through his partly closed lips. ”Well, I think you should! But perhaps this is something you need more time to dwell on… and who knows, maybe in another year or two, while you’re still trying to decide whether you want to tell her or not, she’ll have met someone that wasn’t so shy about his feelings toward her. But at least you’ll get to watch her be happy with someone else instead of you and you can always ponder on if things would have been different If you were just more honest… but hey you’ve only had twenty odd years to think about it, what’s a few more”. and with that he left my room closing the door firmly behind him.

Fuck I knew he was right, but what if she still hates me? But then if I don’t say anything because of if’s and but’s then one day it will be too late.

I sent a quick mind link to Jefferson, he was in charge of the patrol tonight, to remind him to send word as soon as anyone steps onto our territory and with that I got the rest of my clothes off and slumped into bed feeling rather bittersweet about seeing Lelanna out in the search tomorrow.