Two Hearts: The Hunt [Slowly Editing]

Chapter Forty-Three

A/N- Sort of explicit content in this chapter, and a poem that's metaphorical but paints a pretty graphic picture if you understand it so don't say I didn't warn you!

If you don't want to read any of that just skip over to the part right after my little poem :P

I feel like you guys have been waiting a long time for this...

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Adrianna's POV

"Wake up."

It was a bitter order that echoed around in my ears somewhere between consciousness and sleep, preceded by the rough pressing of a warm hand on my shoulder that jostled my form with surprising gentleness.

I felt an icy breeze wrap around me as I cracked my eyelids open, meeting Caleb's guarded eyes as he towered over me. The passenger door of his truck was ajar; I was leaning on the seat's backrest with the side of my body as if it were an actual bed. Through squinted slits I stared up at Caleb. I couldn't see much of him besides his eyes, which were glowing a bright gold in response to a clustered group of lights that lit up the encompassing night from somewhere behind him.

Still groggy from sleep, I gingerly sat upright, swiping a hand at the side of my mouth to clear it from slimy threads of saliva. I scrunched my nose despite myself.

"Are we here?" I asked Caleb hoarsely, the ugly memory of our fight causing me to adopt a tone of distant formality.

He bobbed his head once.

I peered around him, swiveling to the right and swinging my feet over so that they were partly outside, dangling from his truck. It was cold out, the coldest night in Wyoming thus far. I thought if I looked closely I could see an aura of condensation wrapped around his hot body like a blanket of fog, his internal body heat competing with the frigid environmental conditions through release of water vapor.

"You just going to sit there all night or what?" he asked impatiently, making sure to express his profound irritation by crossing his arms over his chest.

I glanced at him before darting my eyes once again to the backdrop of lit lights, blinking out the blurry sleepiness in my eyes. "Are we at my place?"

"No."

I stared at him. "What?"

"I said no."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm a controlling boyfriend who would rather have his girlfriend sleep someplace where she was safe," he explained without emotion. "Oh, and I'm not going to listen to what you have to say-don't even think about arguing with me on this because I'm a future Alpha and what say goes. Now get out of the car."

I narrowed my eyes, pouring as much animosity into my glare as I could muster. I wasn't sure what was worse: his cold, hard-eyed attitude or the merciless way in which he was throwing my insults back at me.

I stumbled over my jelly-like legs, numbed from stagnant disuse, and Caleb caught me tightly by the forearms before I could collide into his chest.

The whole thing was strikingly familiar.

"You alright?" he inquired, a trace of worry in the question.

I nodded and quickly pulled away from him. "My body feels like a rock right now, I knocked out pretty hard. Sorry."

"Don't tell me you need me to carry you into my apartment again," he said, surprising me by raising a brow.

"Thankfully I won't be requiring such services tonight," I said with a ghost of a smile. "I'm not bleeding profusely this time around. Besides, the first time you carried me you purposefully dropped me on the floor."