His deep brown eyes lighted with anticipation. His sharp nose breathed the blueberry scented of her silky silver hair. His full lips were slightly opened ready to take in other delicious ones. Then he uttered,
"So, what does ACB stand for?" Akrem shot the question to Arianell who was thinking hard at the moment.
It was a week before the exams started to hit and they had to hit the books before that. In secrecy, both Akrem and Arianell were ecstatic when their photography and design majors came across in the general lectures such as histories of architecture.
"Ummm, A for ancient. C, I don't remember. B is for Byzantine…" Arianell sounded doubting her own answer.
"C is for Chaital and Claire, Akrem's sisters," Iron contributed that made Akrem lost the control of his emotion. Iron relaxingly played with the stress ball that he threw over and over to the air. Caught and threw, caught and threw like an OCD child.
Arianell was bad at memorizing especially histories she didn't like. She preferred all the technical and artsy parts of designing buildings, meanwhile Iron was really good at histories. Since Akrem was the alpha, he was better than Iron and he was also definitely a great teacher. One hidden skill that usually useful back then when he was in the Green Valley.
Akrem was also good with children, especially when he told stories through pictures he took using his camera. Just like Arianell and her private course children.
Iron was sitting on another table next to Arianell and Akrem's table because he had his own pace of memorizing histories. Well, it was because he didn't need to study. The Iron fists of the Gursala clan had a photographic memory. The best Beta for an alpha could get.
Akrem glared at Iron that made him almost choked and falsely pretended he was coughing without Arianell saw the slight change in Akrem's expression. His expression became lovingly when Arianell opened her eyes from her difficulty of memorizing the histories and looking at Akrem. Then she chuckled,
"Did you just glare at Iron?"
[Touche!] She read my mind crystal clear.
Then Akrem showed a lazy grin while asking,
" How did you know that, Anne?" now his smile became devilish as he tried to put naughty image in his mind for Arianell to find. He was imagining pinning Arianell to the tall book shelves on the backside of the all-know library.
It would be in the ancient section where nobody would bother to go there and read the dusty books. He would bury his sharp nose into blueberry-scented silver hair of Arianell. His facial hair on his perfectly curved jaw would tease Arianell's neck skin and he'd press lines of kisses on her beautiful collar bone giving Arianell the pleasure of moaning because of his touches.
Akrem surely had the advantage to think dirty like that as a natural animal instinct of a werewolf to mate. Especially to his true mate, his true Luna, Arianell that she hadn't realized it yet.
Unfortunately, Arianell wasn't as strong as her dad to read Akrem's mind. But she could…
"I read your emotion, 'Krem." She sweetly answered with her affection smile. The one smile would melt the wilderness of even the deadliest predator still in its human form.
Then Akrem's demonized grin now grew bigger because he thought he'd take advantage of Arianell wouldn't know what his dirty mind would be. And if he could state it out loud, he didn't care that even he did that on purpose so Arianell would know that Akrem knew she was his true mate, his true Luna.
Then it was only a matter of time before he would finally know the result of Arianell's answer to his true feelings.
"But you can't read my mind yet?" Akrem stared deeply at Arianell's bright blue eyes with loving gaze.
Arianell slowly shook her head while smiling shyly.
"I'm not as strong as my dad yet." Arianell literally repeated the adverb used by the gorgeous tall man in front of her. It was a sign that she was really into him. And she showed it by leaning closer to him, her gaze begged he would take her to his arms and gave her long time kisses.
But Akrem hesitated, because Arianell wasn't a werewolf yet. He needed to make sure and gathered some more info about why Arianell was his true mate, his true Luna. He just couldn't wrap his head around the fact that his mate wasn't a werewolf but a human Empath. As expected from highly meticulous alpha, Akrem thought all the possible outcomes. So, he tried to look away and redirected the strong electricity current between them,
"Hey I got an idea," Akrem's eyes sparkled brightly and he resumed, "'Ron, stay there, I gotta try something."
Iron was still throwing and catching the stress ball to the air, looked puzzled and tilted his head to Akrem's direction, "Huh?"
"Close your eyes now, Anne" Akrem commanded.
Arianell frowned and puzzled.
"Trust me, I gotta try something" Akrem grinned and let loose the view of his two lines of perfect teeth, that surely no sane female companion would say no to his demanding low and heavy voice.
Shut, Arianell did to her sky blue eyes. She waited with anticipation. Her heart pounded faster.
Suddenly Akrem shot a split-second glare at Iron without thinking and he suddenly smiled at Iron. He tried not to show emotion, just playing with his facial expressions.
Iron left puzzled by the silliness Akrem did. He slightly opened his mouth in awe.
Arianell who waited, now felt curious because she didn't detect any emotion. The outside tip of her right eyebrow raised, she tried to peek through the edge of her right eye. She saw Akrem threw his million dollars smile then he finally said,
"OK, now you can open your eyes. Did you detect any emotion of mine?"
"Well, I heard your happiness in my mind" Arianell just smiled, still puzzled.
"I actually don't feel anything but for not more than one 'Mississippi' I glared at Iron." Akrem smiled thought that he was brilliant.
"Really?" Arianell looked surprise by Akrem's game. They stared to each other longingly with big smiles on their faces.
They were just being silly while Iron was still staring at them. He knew exactly that they both were made for each other, even with the foolishness they both had. The absurd Alpha, and the silly Empathic Luna.
Iron shook his head and finally stood up.
"Ok, guys. Guess I'd call it a night. We still have a week before the first day of the exam. 'Nell, you'd better work on your histories. C stands for Classical era. Greek and Roman. It's as easy as that. I'm sure Akrem will make you prepared for that subject."
Iron stood in silence next to them who were still staring at each other, in love.
"My goodness, this lovey-dovey couple but insist not being a couple", there was a slight satisfaction in Iron's tone of voice though he tried to hide it with falsely being grumpy.
"I'm outta here, guys. Gotta pick Diamond up, and don't after me, I need my romantic night run with her. Is that clear, Akrem, my mighty alpha?"
Akrem still lovingly stared at Arianell without a blink of an eye. So, Iron needed to call him again,
"'Krem? Hello, knock-knock, anybody home?"
"Hmm? Ah ya? Sure, take care, don't kill rogue vampires without me." But Akrem's eyes were still onto Arianell's now sparkling river blue eyes.
"I'll let you know. And I need to talk to you later, it's urgent." Iron lowered his voice and gave emphasis, a code for werewolves about death and life matters that finally put Akrem into focus. He knew it was his call to act as a true alpha. Then he finally looked away and looked at Iron in the eye, …
-to be continued-