The Art Of Sneezing

Chapter 38

I hop up the stairs and make my way to Alexander's office. Tom and I just got back. We decided to buy pizza on the way home, so I'm taking some to Alexander. A loud shout echoes from his office as I reach the door. "Yeah?! Well fuck you, too!" I swing the heavy door open to see him slam his phone down on the desk before roughly dragging his hands through his hair.

        "Alexander. . . ?"

        He looks up at me with a stressed look. It softens when he sees me. "Luna," he says softly with a smile. I walk over to him and start moving some papers out of the way for the pizza box. I set the box down before sitting across his lap. "What's this?"  He murmurs into my hair.

        "I got you pizza," I say as I grab a piece of the meatlovers and hold it for him to take a bite. "You look like you could use a break."

        It's true. He takes a bite and closes his eyes as he chews, giving me time to inspect him. There are dark circles under his eyes and his brow looks permenantly furrowed. I offer him more pizza as I softly run one hand through his hair comfortingly.

        Alexander sighs, eyes still closed. "I've had a long day. Rogues attacked Derek's father and killed him. Josh took over, but Derek and the other ALpha's have concerns of Josh interacting with Rogues. What do you think?"

        He's asking me about Alpha stuff? I grin at this and smooth his furrowed brow with my hand. He relaxes, closing his eyes once more. "I never really liked Josh. He always seemed . . . off. And he was always hitting on me." Alexander growls possessively at this. "Don't worry. Nothing happened." He relaxes once more. "Can't Derek challenge him? Josh is kind of weak."

        This question seems to snap Alexander back into stress mode and he sits forward so fast I almost fall. He catches me absent mindedly. "That's the thing, though! We don't know how much Josh has integrated into the Rogues. If Derek won the challenge, we could be looking at a full on Rogue war against every pack. WIth the numbers we're seeing, no one would survive."

        "So these Rogues seem to be under the control of one leader. All we have to do is get to him and someone can challenge him."

        He sighs. "This isn't some 21 Jump Street operation 'infiltrate the dealers, find the supplier', Riley."

        I drop my hand and face him. "But it is, Alexander. We give them something they want, that goes through everyone to the leader, and we use that to kill him."

        Suddenly, he stands, dumping me in the floor. "They are not getting what they want." He growls.

       "Well, what do they want?" I ask as I stand up and dust myself off.

        "It's not what," he continues to growl. "It's who. They want  you, Riley. And l'll be damned if I let them anywhere near you."




Alexander's POV

"It's not what," I growl. "It's who. They want you, Riley. And I'll be damned  if I let them anywhere near you."

        My wolf barks in anger as he thinks of those mutts taking Riley. I stare into Riley's light brown eyes, feeling my wolf urging me to take her and hide her somewhere. I yank her close to me and take calming breaths of her scent.

        This would be easier if we mate her already. We could protect her better and our scent would frighten the Rogues.

        I growl at my wolf. She's not ready for that and you know it!

        He growls right back. It's getting harder to hold back! You can't keep denying our nature! We should have mated her the moment we saw her!