Noah’s POV
There are no more good days for me...everyday hurts in a different way, and today? Today hits harder.
It hit parts of me that shouldn’t be touched. My home. My family. My virginity. My life in general.
For a split second, I had a taste of home, I even dreamt of going home to Winslow, but the dream ended when Elias showed up.
He’s an unwanted reminder of what my real life...a painful wake up call.
It cost all the hope in me to take to Elias’s attention away the innocent priestess. It would have killed me if he did anything to her. It would break me harder than being taken away from Winslow did to me.
Now I have to keep both Zane and Freya away from Elias by agreeing to anything he wants.
"This aisle" Elias points at the aisle of male clothes.
We’re in a large clothing mall.
The people and the buzz of life barely registers with how lost I am in my head. I’m not sure how we got to this particular store, but we’re here and the clothes on this aisle are arranged neatly.
They’re all pristine and expensive in a way that even a wealthy person would have to check the tags twice.
I’m familiar with wealth, but not familiar with this level of it, neither am I familiar with the hand sitting on my lower back.
Elias Deus is keeping his hand there as if he didn’t just slam me against the wall and as if he hasn’t been threatening everything about me since the day he forced me out of my home.
Lucas goes ahead of us, touching random clothes and muttering to himself.
Out here, he looks more like a normal person and not like the castrated bodyguard of a mad family.
A mad family that has father who shot at his son-in-law during their first meeting at the breakfast table...
"Move, Noah, we don’t have all day" Elias says close to my ear.
His heated air brushes the shell of my ear, and maybe it’s because of my post-heat, but my body responds to him with a shudder and I nod.
"Walk" he instructs and I take the first step forward, trying to act as if I’m not falling apart.
"Hello, welcome to Gold Cards! How can I be of help?" a store attendant shows up with a bright smile.
She has her long hair in a ponytail, and her clothes are a white shirt paired with a pair of black pants.
"Shoes" Elias responds, pointing at my feet with only his gaze.
The woman follows the line of his sight before she claps cheerfully. She does seem to be afraid of Elias and the darkness he carries.
"Of course, we have so many gorgeous types that you can try, come this way please" she gestures and Elias takes his hand off me.
It takes everything in me not to look for his hand.
"Come on" the woman beckons to me, and I follow her all by myself.
Two days ago, I would have thought that being away from Elias meant being able to breathe, today it’s the opposite.
I don’t want him, but I need him by my side, it’s his fault for making me this way.
In an effort to take my mind off my captor and enemy, I stare at the shoes I secretly like, letting the bubbly lady lead me to a different part of the store.
She guides me to a bench, and as soon as I sit, I place my hands on my lap. Straightening my back to be in the posture of politeness that has been ingrained in me.
"My name is Jennie, feel free to express your likes and dislikes, okay?" the lady says.
"My names Noah" I introduce myself and she gives a little squealing noise of happiness.
"You’re so pretty...I hope that’s not offensive, but gosh, you’re crazy pretty" she gushes.
She doesn’t wait for me to respond before rushes to pick a black box from the shelf, returning almost immediately and opening the box with excitement on her face.
Inside the box is a black dress shoe.
While it looks really good, it’s the type of shoe that I’ve always worn, and it’s the type that I don’t like.
"Do you like it? It matches the one you have on right now" she says and I look down at my own shoes.
Dad got this for me from Italy.
He wanted me to look proud for the event before the Deus brother came to ruin it.
My father got these shoes with a pair of cufflinks. The cufflinks are gone with my suit...
Why does my chest ache...why am I being so emotional...why is my vision blurring?
"Hey..." Jennie places her hand on my knees, "you don’t like it?" she asks softly and I shake my head.
"It’s not that..." I start to talk but my voice cracks mid-sentence.
"Leave him" Elias says and Jennie slowly gets up, looking at me with sad eyes` .
Elias is holding three different shoe boxes, and I can only watch as he comes over to me with them.
Without saying a word to me, he places them on the bench before he starts to unbutton the cuffs of his shirt.
"What are you doing?" I whisper, watching the god-like alpha’s concentrated frown.
"No one touches you but me" he says.
I don’t know what to do with myself as he goes down on one knee.
Elias Deus supports himself with the other knee, he gives me no time to process what is happening before he lifts my leg and places it on his thigh.
The sadness that was starting to swell in my chest mixes with confusion and I drop my hands to the side of the bench to brace myself.
What is he doing?
"W-What..." I stutter in disbelief as he takes the shoe off my leg and drops my leg without care.
The ball of my feet hits the tiled floor, and I gasp as he picks the other leg.
My heart has moved from its position in my chest to my throat. And goddess...with how fast it’s beating I might break faster than I should.
"Elias..."
"I appreciate silence, stone angels don’t speak unless they’re asking to be thrown out" he says.
He pulls out a pair of street shoes, a simple white one with comfortable soles...the one I was eying on my way to this bench.
"Eli-"
"Silent"
He slips the shoe on, tilting his head side to side as he checks the size. It’s too loose for me, it’s two sizes bigger than my size.
He gets up, shoves the shoes into the box and takes it with him while I stare at his back, still lost and confused.
"Oh my god...that was freaking hot...your boyfriend is so hot" Jennie says with her right hand fanning her cheeks.
My omega protests against her compliment for Elias with a quiet growl, but I silence it...Elias is nothing but a monster to me.
"He’s not my boyfriend" I say, watching the blank faced alpha return with the same shoe, but this time, it in my size.
"This one" the alpha murmurs, returning to the half kneel position, and tapping my left leg.
I lift my leg for him, and he put it on for me.
A perfect fit.
The first shoe I have ever gotten because I wanted it...if this was a better situation, maybe, just my heart would have fluttered.
But this is Elias Deus, the representative of death, the one who watches you and counts down the time till he can take you.
The one who would control the number of times my heart would beat if he could.
No.
My heart would never flutter for him.
Ever.