SWNOVELS Chapter 326
Chapter 326
EMILY
I don’t bother asking Axel what his punishment will be if I disobey
him and leave the house.
Instead, I turn on my heel and walk out on him, going to find
wherever Jessica ran off to.
I half expect Axel to follow me, but he doesn’t, and I don’t know if I’m relieved or annoyed.
No, I tell myself firmly. I’m definitely relieved.
But even I’m not buying my own lie.
When Axel had pulled me up against him just now in the office, for a second, I’d thought he was going to kiss me, maybe do
even
more than that.
My body had all but melted like ice cream on hot pavement.
I wanted him.
Even worse now that I knew what it was like to come apart in his
arms.
Chapter 326
But I hated myself for that.
Did I have no self–respect?
2/5
The man has made no secret about his negative feelings toward
1. me.
Yet my body and my instincts–most especially my wolf–want me to surrender to him every time he turns that heavy gaze my
way.
I find Jessica, but she’s with other pack members and I don’t get a
chance to talk to her.
I’m not sure what I would say to her anyway, how I might present the idea of getting rid of Axel in a way where she might help me
instead of running straight to Axel or Aaron to tell them what I’m
planning.
Dinner comes and goes, and Axel is lurking here and there, always watching me closely as if he’s expecting me to just get up
and run
off at any second now.
I ignore him, and it seems as long as I’m with Jessica, he mostly leaves me alone.
Jessica asks me if I want to watch a movie, and I almost instinctively look to Axel for permission which just pisses me off
even more.
Chapter 326
Since when did I start thinking I needed his approval to do
anything?
3/5
So I resist the urge to look over at him and tell Jessica I’d love to
watch a movie.
We pop some popcorn and grab some soda pop like when we
were teenagers and head into the mansion’s theater room.
Axel leaves us be, but I’m sure he’s probably lurking in the hallway.
We watch a rom–com and we both cry and laugh and it feels like old times...exactly what I needed.
However, eventually the movie ends, and Jessica says she’s heading to bed.
I don’t want to go to bed, because I assume Axel is just waiting to lock me in my room again.
We walk out to the corridor and while Jessica heads upstairs, I tell her I want a book from the library.
At the end of the hall, Axel appears out of the shadows.
Lurking.
Just like I knew he would be.
“Where are you going?” he demands like the prison warden he is.
Chapter 326
“I’m not tired yet, I want to get a book from the library,” I snap impatiently, stepping around him.
Axel doesn’t reply, just trails me into the library.
Inside, the room is as welcoming as it always is. There’s
4/5
overstuffed chairs, cozy couches, a fire in the hearth burning low
in red and golden embers, and the pleasant smell of furniture
polish and old books.
I spend some time walking up and down the shelves, until I find
a book of poetry by Emily Dickenson I must have read a hundred times when I was younger.
I didn’t always understand it at first, but I liked the way she put the
words together.
I get it down and then decide to test a theory, going over to stretch
out on the couch in front of the hearth.
I arrange the pillows to get comfortable and even flip a soft knitted
throw blanket over my legs.
Axel doesn’t say anything, but he does add some more wood to the fire, making the flames flare up higher and more brightly.
While I settle in to read, Axel takes one of the chairs and picks it
1. up.
Chapter 326
5/5
He then pointedly positions it square in front of the French doors
leading out to the garden.
After that, he sits down and crosses his arms, staying rigid and on high alert.
It can’t be comfortable.
I roll my eyes and settle down deeper against my own comfortable
cushions.
However, I wonder if maybe for tonight at least I’ve outsmarted
him.
Because if I don’t go to bed, then Axel can’t lock me into my
bedroom.
B