Chapter 85: Good morning, sunshine
Noah’s POV
"Good morning, sunshine!" Lucas’s bright voice says as he yanks the curtains open and I groan.
Like a vampire who is a werewolf, I make a small growling noise and turn to my side.
"Too bright" I complain, pressing my face into the strawberry scented sheets.
I hate falling asleep sad, because when I do, I wake up with a headache and everything feels too overwhelming. The golden sunlight and Lucas’s voice are overwhelming.
"Get your ass up, prince" Lucas says and I groan again in protest.
Now what did I do last night to feel this way? I feel like poop but as the cruder s word version.
I turn around and start to search my brain to remember everything. One, I masturbated and gave myself pleasure in my enemy’s bathtub.
Two, I thought of telling Elias Deus that I’m falling for him. Three, the amazing Elias Deus packed his bag and left without telling me where he was going.
Ugh.
Why can’t I have a normal day in my life?
Oh, I forgot about Roman. How could I have forgotten about Roman’s visitation to this place and the possessive outburst Elias had.
"You can eat breakfast up here if you want. Siren is concerned about your health" Lucas says. He’s moving around in front of the shelves housing different kinds of things.
I guess when Elias is away, Lucas is the one trusted to look after his possessions.
"Did he ask you to send pictures of what I’m doing like last time?" I ask curiously and Lucas pauses with his hand on his chin.
"Surprisingly, no. He hasn’t even texted since they left...strange" Lucas mutters. He occupies himself blowing air to clear the dust off an oddly shaped purple rock.
I don’t even know what that kind of rock is or what it’s worth.
"Does Elias sell the rocks, watches, books, or anything?" I ask, turning my head to take in just how big this room is.
A student field trip could be held here, and it would feel really satisfying. It’s so big and well arranged. Like the space of a psychopath.
"Nah. Elias never sells anything. Truth is, these things are taken from bad conditions. He reshapes what he can, remolds what he can, and fixes what he can..." Lucas says and my heart softens.
Elias is a savior...
"Then he keeps them for himself and kills anyone who touches them" Lucas adds and there goes my ’savior’ thought.
Does that kind of thing sound normal to Lucas? It doesn’t sound normal to me.
If you save something, you should let it go, not trap it.
I shift in the bed, subconsciously sniffing the air for a whiff of his unique scent. And I smell his pheromones, but it’s faint. Too faint.
Lucas blows air again and I drag my attention to him.
"Just dust it off with a duster or something" I mutter with annoyance at the noise he’s making and he chuckles under his breath.
"Yeah, no thanks. I already lack a cock. Losing a hand is not on my to-do list" he says without looking back at me.
"Do you know Elias measures the distance between his rocks and the edge of the shelf with a ruler and a divider?" Lucas asks and I laugh in disbelief.
"I kid you not" Lucas steps away from the shelf and goes to the books next.
That sounds...insane. How many times would I call him and his family psychopaths?
I know something is wrong with him, yet my heart is slowly falling in love. Slowly is a wrong word, my heart is skinny-dipping for him!
"Has Elias fallen in love before?" the words fall out of my mouth before I can stop them, and Lucas stops moving.
The guard turns his head slowly to look at me. His eyes look weary and there’s a worried expression on his face.
"No need to tell me not to fall for him, Damien already told me. Plus, I’d be stupid to love a man who razed my city" I say quickly.
My voice shakes, but I act like it’s just a morning voice issue.
"There’s nothing wrong with loving Eli" Lucas says. He walks away from the shelves and falls into Elias’s chair. The alpha interlinks his fingers and crosses his legs as he looks at me.
I do my best not to think of his lack of penis and if it hurts.
My mind...my mind is like a kaleidoscope.
It’s a kaleidoscope that used to be forced into showing only one color. But without Winslow’s textbooks, Freya’s voice, and even dad’s kind guidance, my mind has become a universe of its own.
"Yeah well...I’m just asking" I say, moving my leg around to check my ankle. It’s healing well, I think?
"Elias has never had a romantic relationship. He has been fixated on finding the cherry blossom boy" Lucas says and I cringe.
"A cherry blossom boy, who might not be me" I say and he shrugs.
"A cherry blossom boy who is from Winslow" he says and I frown.
"How do you know he’s from Winslow?" I ask curiously.
"The cherry blossoms? I’m pretty sure it’s a Winslow representation" he says and I open my mouth to argue that they grow everywhere, but that’s not true.
Only Winslow has the perfect soil and climate to accommodate those trees. The life Winslow gives is what makes my city a tourist hot spot.
"So, it’s true you’re from Winslow too. Why’d you leave?" I ask and Lucas’s relaxed expression hardens within seconds.
He looks like the first time he met me in this room. Tense. Serious. And guarded.
"Someone has to rip the band-aid off at some point, right?" he says and I rest my back against the headboard, folding my arms across my chest and matching his expression.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"You were a popular kid. Always lively and playful, my sister and I used to sneak out to wherever you were just to see you play" he says and I drop the hard expression off my face.
"Aria" I say his sister’s name and he nods.
"You know you were really a prince, right? Winslow is more like a monarchy with a governor than a democracy. Every kid wanted to see how the amazing Noah Goldsmith played" he says and I feel bad.
I don’t know why, but I feel bad.
"Suddenly you disappeared for two weeks. Then there was a man named Conan who got publicly shamed for kidnapping you, Noah" Lucas says and I move closer to the edge of the bed.
Yes.
I just started to remember fragments of that.
"C-can you continue?" I stutter.
"I don’t know where he took you, but the adults around me said he gave you some flowers" Lucas pauses and frowns, releasing his interlocked fingers to say the next part.
"The flowers could have been any type of flowers. And this is the part where I’m not sure if you’re Elias’s boy with the cherry blossoms, because a lot of kids also went missing around that period too" Lucas says with a frown.
"What happened next?" I ask in a broken voice.
"I don’t know. One month later, you returned to public eyes and you were more mature. Less playful, more sheltered, and more controlled. You were different and acted like you remembered nothing about the kidnapping, you even forgot who Conan was" Lucas says and cold sweat breaks out on my temple.
A small voice starts to talk in my head and I see twelve years old me with a smiling man.
Memory:
"Conan, I don’t know where you hide every time" I complain as I hold on to the end of his shirt.
"I know honey. Just hold on to these flowers, I’ll be back to get you before they die" Conan says.
"Why? I want you" I say.
"Cherry blossoms mean hope and new beginnings, don’t you want that, honey?" he asks and I shake my head.
"I’ll come for you, go on. Walk down that way" he says and points towards a forest.
"Come back for me?" I ask and he nods. His blue eyes are glassy as he pushes me in the direction of the forest.
I don’t know this place, but it’s okay. I have my cherry blossom and Conan is coming!