Chapter 3

Amikat’s POV

Everyone applauded us as we stood on stage together, and Arienne never let go of my hand. The sensation was unreal. I’ve held other people’s hands before, been in relationships, but just touching his skin was more than anything I’ve ever felt towards anyone. He looks down at me and smiles, and I hate to say I couldn’t smile back. This man has been so hot and cold with me. I feel like I never know what side I’m going to get. After he’s done making his announcements, he helps me off the stage and trails after me like a lost dog as I head back to Carmen and her friends. “Amikat, wait please, can I talk to you?” I turn around sharply and glare at him. 

“Dude, you hated me an hour ago, and now you wanna be all buddy buddy with me? It doesn’t work like that.” 

“Please, just stop and listen.” I continue pushing my way past people to the edge of the yard. I start to remember what the girls told me. How I should give him time. I stop and turn to look at him. “Thank you. Can we go somewhere more private to talk? Please?” I think this over.

“Fine,” I say. He leads me through to the back end of the yard by my arm and pulls me off into the woods. We walk for a little bit before stopping at a lake. It was beautiful. The full moon was shining on the water, and I could smell the fresh pine. Arienne smelled like pine and rain. I remember that. I can smell him lingering behind me, not saying anything. “You aren’t going to kill me out here, are you?” I joke.

“Of course not, silly,” he laughs nervously. “I just thought I should start being more honest with you. So I want to tell you some things about me. Maybe in return you can tell me something about you.” 

“We’ll see.”

He tells me that I am not his first mate. This I know, from the girls talking earlier. Then, he tells me what happened to her.

“We have a rivaling pack. Blood Moon Pack,” he explains. “It’s the same pack that killed your parents all those years ago. Well, we had a run in again two years ago. Just a simple dispute over borders. Nothing warranting what they did.” He falls silent for a moment. Arienne looks out over the lake. A dark pain fills his eyes, and I swear I can feel it too. “Layla was out on the patrol team, and their Alpha and his warriors slaughtered them. All six of them, including Layla. I don’t know if anyone told you, but every type of pain you could ever feel only pales in comparison to that of losing a mate. It’s been two years, and I’m still grieving. So I’m sorry if I was a bit aggressive and put off by your arrival. I was never told you were coming, or anything of the sort. I’m very sorry for the way I treated you today.”

“The letter I got was signed by you, ya know,” I say.

“That was my sister’s doing. I had no clue that was happening. Her and Gamma Samuel went behind my back on that one, and I’m still upset at them. Every matter in a pack is supposed to come through me. I am the Alpha.”

“And that means, you’re in charge of everything?”

“Yes, and you, as my Luna, are supposed to rule by my side, if you’ll stay.” I think over his words. It sounds pretty much like I’d be queen. That’s a lot of responsibility.

“What if the pack doesn’t like me?” I ask.

“They’ll have time to get to know you. And if they respect me, then they will respect you.”

“How come you suddenly want to get to know me? You seemed so set on getting rid of me earlier.”

“I was being rash. I was just surprised by you, is all. And again, I'm very sorry for how you were treated. Can you forgive me and let me start over?” He looks at me with those big, perfect blue eyes, and I can tell he’s being genuine. Still, there’s a ping of doubt in my heart.

‘Accept him, Amikat, accept our mate,’ pleads Amira, in my head. She’s all too excited to see a return on her hopefulness.

“FIne. I forgive you, but I’m not going to forget what you did, or let you off so easily.”

“I understand that. Regardless, given our situation, I think it would be beneficial to move as slowly as possible. Things with mates tend to move very fast, but I don’t think either of us are ready for that yet. Usually, and especially with Alphas, the mating process would be completed very quickly. The bond works very fast.”

“What mating process?” Is he talking about sex?

“Well, for werewolves, it consists of sleeping together, you know, mating, and then we mark each other to let everyone know we are mates. It’s a very territorial thing, but it’s what we have to do.”

“Mark each other how?” He laughs awkwardly.

“I forget how new and weird this all is to you.”

“Just tell me,” I say, jabbing him in the side. He catches my hand, and folds his fingers between mine. I feel the bond. The electricity between the two of us. 

“Well, we bite each other on the neck, most of the time werewolves do it while mating.” I mull this over in my head. So in order to be mated to this man, I have to have sex with him and let him bite my neck. “I told you, it’s gonna sound weird to you.”

“Oh, not weird at all!” I say, my tone dripping is sarcasm. 

“Yeah, but like I said, we should move slowly. Only as fast as we are both comfortable.”

“I can agree with that. It’s not in my normal human customs to bite the neck of someone I’ve only just met.” He laughs at that statement.

After the conversation, we head back to the party. Everyone seems to be having a good time. There are many drunk people here, and I guess werewolves like to party it up. Arienne leads me through the crowd introducing me to a lot of pack members that I won’t remember. I met beta Collin officially as well; he’s a tall, wide built man with blonde hair and blue eyes, he had a square chin and was sporting an all black look. very stern and sort of scary. I honestly had no clue how he could be considered Delila’s perfect match until I saw them together. He instantly softens up around her, and she teases the hell out of him. I can tell he likes it though; the way he looks at her is really cute. Arienne never leaves my side the whole evening. He acts chivalrous, always fetching me drinks without me asking, and he even holds my hand. It’s honestly so hard to be standing by him without having some form of physical contact.

After the party, he walks me up to my bedroom. He opens the door and smiles down at me. “My room is right next door to yours if you need anything,” he says. “Do not hesitate to come get me if there’s absolutely anything you want.”

“Thank you,” I reply. I walk into the room and start pulling the pins out of my hair. I turn to see Arienne still standing in the doorway. “Did you need something?” I ask shyly. 

“No, not really,” he says. “I just wanted to tell you that you looked absolutely beautiful tonight. Most beautiful she-wolf at the entire event.” his eyes get a little darker, and I can tell his wolf is surfacing.

‘Arlo wants to come out and play,’ teases Amira. But Amira wasn’t here earlier when Arlo came out. She doesn’t know what he will do. 

“Can I ask you something?” he says, his voice all husky.

“No, you can leave,” I panic. I rush to the bathroom and lock the door behind me. I listen to see if he leaves. I stayed behind the door for a few minutes. but I never hear him go. I’m going to have to open the door to see if it’s safe. 

I don’t know why I’m panicking like I am. He might not react like earlier. He’s been better tonight than he was earlier. I unlock the door and peek around the trim. He’s not there.

Arienne’s POV

She seemed like she had a good time tonight. I was going to ask if I could kiss her. I wanted to, all night. She sent me spinning every time we touched, and I don’t know what I was thinking earlier today. Of course I was shocked, but I shouldn’t have treated her like that. I know she still has to be hurting from that. It pains me just to think about what I said. Then, Arlo came out and scared her. I didn’t mean to scare her. I don’t want her to fear me, or Arlo. I want her to be comfortable getting to know me. 

I need to make sure I can at least get to know her. And I want her to get to know Arlo. ‘I’m not all that bad,’ he chimes.

‘I know. But you scared her today.’

‘You didn’t want her today. You made her sad. So I just wanted to tell her that I want her. She needs to know we want her.’

‘You chased her through the house and cornered her in the elevator. Dude, you have to calm down and let me handle her for a while, okay?’

‘Fine. I can try.’

That has to be good enough for now. 

I went back to my room and undressed myself, thinking about what Amikat might be doing at the moment. Maybe she’s undressing too. Maybe I could’ve helped her with the zipper, helped her take it off… 

Oh gosh. I can’t be thinking about that right now. My cheeks start to heat up, and I know I probably look about as red as a tomato.

I head over to the bathroom and begin to unbutton my shirt. I slip it down off my shoulders and eye myself in the mirror. I look at my dead mate’s mark on my neck. It’s still there. A beautiful little crescent moon with a star in the negative space, in a light shade of pinkish red. It’s the same shade of her lips. It’s the last physical thing I have to remind myself of her. I couldn’t bring myself to look at her clothes or smell her scent after she passed, so I had my housekeepers clean out all of her stuff. I don’t know what was done with it, and frankly I don’t care. I run my fingers over the mark and take a deep breath. 

If I let Amikat mark me, then Layla’s will disappear forever. I will never see it again. I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet, but I’m definitely ready to get to know Amikat. She is so sweet. She smells like lavender and vanilla, and her eyes are absolutely encapsulating. I reminisced about our evening together and our conversation at the lake as I headed to my bed and tucked myself in. The way the moon shone in her eyes and reflected off of her soft skin made me want to kiss her. But of course that would be rash, and she might not want something like that any time soon. I hold a pillow close to my body and imagine Amikat snuggled up against me as I fall asleep. it doesn’t smell like her, but It’ll have to do.

Amikat’s POV

I woke up the next morning with the sun spilling in through the windows. I opened the curtains last night to look at the stars and forgot to close them before I went to bed, so unfortunately for me, I’m up at sunrise. Part of me wants to go see Arienne. Even though I just saw him last night, I somehow still miss him. I also can’t stop thinking about his eyes last night. They changed again, like when he had chased me to the elevator. I know that’s just Arlo coming to the surface, but I’m not used to it. I just panicked and I really hope Arienne isn’t mad at me. I put a robe over my nightgown and decided to head to Arienne’s room to see if he’s awake. If I miss him, he probably misses me too, because of all that mate bond stuff. Still, I wonder if I can trust him. 

I start to have second thoughts when I’m walking down the hall. He said he wanted to move slow. What if he doesn’t want me coming into his room to see him? Should I just wait to see if he approaches me? He did say I could come in if there’s anything that I needed. ‘Don’t be a scaredy cat, Amikat, you are a werewolf, we have no room for fear. Especially towards our mate,’ interjects Amira.

‘You’re way too brave for your own good.’

‘Just the right amount of brave, scaredy cat!’ 

I continue forward shyly, and stop in front of his door. I knock softly, not wanting to wake him if he’s still asleep. I hear movement inside his room, and then the door opens. He’s standing there in nothing but a pair of shorts. He leans against the doorframe and smiles. “Hi there,” he says. His voice is tired and husky. “Did you need something?”

“I, um…” I start to get flustered. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. “I just wanted to- you know what? nevermind! It was nothing!” I turn to start walking away, but he grabs me by the wrist before I can go. 

“Wait, don’t go. Not yet.” I don’t have time to say anything before he pulls me into a tight hug. The tingles erupt all over my body, and I ment into his arms. His scent fills my nose, and I feel safer in this moment than I ever have in my entire life. I wrap my arms around his middle and squeeze him back. “I missed you last night,” he whispers across my neck. Chills spread over where his breath touches me. 

“I missed you too, that’s why I came to see you,” I reply. He pulls me into his room and shuts the door behind us. Suddenly, I’m pushed up against the wall, and he’s staring into my eyes. His gaze is soft and welcoming. Nowhere near the man I talked to in the elevator yesterday. ‘Kiss him, or I will keep calling you a scaredy cat!’ Amira chimes. I ignore her. I have to wait until he’s ready for something like that. After what he told me last night, I’m going to make sure he gets all the time he needs to heal. 

“What are you doing?” I ask. He looks down at my lips, then back up to my eyes. 

“I was going to ask you if I could kiss you last night,” he breathes. “Before you ran off.”

“I’m sorry about that, I didn’t mean to upset you if I did.” His words make me blush.

“I wasn’t upset, just worried that Arlo scared you. He means well, he’s just never been the best at showing it.”

“I get that. My wolf can be a little loud sometimes.”

‘Hey now…’ Amira says.

“So can I? Kiss you? Would that be okay?” I blush even harder. He grabs both my hands in one of his and lifts them above my head against the wall. His other hand is caressing the side of my body. He is so close I can feel his breath against my neck. All my body parts are screaming from his touch. I feel the heat between my legs twitch. I want him so bad right now. 

“Please kiss me, Arienne.” I hardly finish my sentence before his lips crash into mine.

He starts soft, placing his fingers on my cheek, letting go of my hands. I deepen the kiss, teasing him with my tongue. He presses his body up against mine, sending shockwaves through my core. He does things to me no other man could. My hands find his hair, grabbing handfuls as he shoves his tongue deep into my mouth. His hands wander past my hips, and he grabs my butt, pulling me up so that I’m straddling him, pushed up between his body and the wall. In this position, I can feel his member pushing up against my core, and I want him so bad. “I want you Arienne,” I breathe between kisses.

Just as suddenly as he started, he stopped, dropping me to my feet. He turns around and swiftly walks himself to his bathroom and slams the door. I hear the lock click behind him.

He left me standing here alone. Why did I say that? Does he hate me? Oh gosh, that was too much. I slide down the wall as I try to control my breathing. I can’t help but feel hurt, even if his reaction was my fault.

I scurry back to my room and lock the door behind me. I fall to the floor in a ball, and I let out all the emotions I’ve been holding in. Of course he doesn’t want me. He had a mate. There’s no way I can compare to his first mate. His first love. There’s absolutely no way. I try to catch my breath between sobs, but I can’t control myself right now. Amira is repeatedly just telling me to breathe, and that everything will be okay.

A few hours passed, and even though I’m dressed and cleaned up now, I haven’t left my room. Arienne hasn’t come looking for me. I know he must want nothing to do with me by now. He kissed me, and he must not have liked it. There’s no way I’m enough for him. This is the Alpha, after all. Maybe he knows there’s no way I’ll be able to live up to his and the pack’s standards. I’m a total outsider. An unwelcome outsider. 

I have to do something to take my mind off of this. I decide to tidy up my room. I make the bed, and scrub the bathroom from top to bottom with the few cleaning supplies I found under the bathroom sink. The shower is clean, the bedroom is clean… And I haven’t touched the kitchenette since I got here, so there’s no purpose in cleaning that. I sit at the window and stare outside for a long time after that. 

I watch the backyard. There’s a few housekeepers in the yard cleaning up the party from last night. I did have a good time last night. from my window, I can see the lake where Arienne took me to talk. It’s a beautiful glassy lake, with lots of birds swooping over the surface. The clouds above are gray and I can tell it’s going to rain, so I open the window. This house really is a masterpiece. The windows on either side of the bed are two huge arched shapes full of intricate panes held in place by gold metal trim. There’s a few latches in the centers of the window, and they open on hinges like a set of french doors. I open both sides and let the outdoor scents fill my room. The windows are floor to ceiling, so I’m able to sit on the floor with my feet dangling outside. It kind of reminds me of my favorite place back home, on the cliff. I would go out there to think a lot. But now, I have a lot more to be thinking about, so I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to let my thoughts run.

‘I can help keep your mind off of things if you want me to,’ Amira offers.

‘That would be great,’ I reply.

‘Your birthday is in three days. You’ll be eighteen. How exciting is that?’

‘The only good part about that is being able to shift into a wolf for the first time.’

‘And that will be exciting. I am itching to run. Being stuck inside your skin all the time is not comfortable. You will enjoy it too.’

We continue to talk for a bit until It starts to rain, and I have to close the windows. It still kind of irks me that no one has come looking for me today. I know that making friends goes both ways, but I am not in the mood to go wandering about. I don’t want to run into Arienne right now. It seems that he’s avoiding me anyways, and that would be awkward for both of us at the moment. I pull out my phone and scroll mindlessly through my apps and games until it starts to grow dark outside. I go to the kitchen to see if the cabinets are stocked. I’m happy to find all sorts of snacks and ingredients for cooking. I find some microwave raviolis and heat them up in a bowl and take them to the window to eat. After I’m finished, I take the bowl back to the kitchen and wash it. Then, I scrub down the sink, the counters, and the microwave. Once it’s all spotless, I head to the bathroom and strip off my jeans and tshirt and jump in the shower.

The water is scalding hot, but that’s exactly what I want right now. I want to melt Arienne’s touch off of me. He doesn’t want me, and I want absolutely no reminder of it. I scrub every inch of my skin with the loofah and rinse. I let the water wash over me for a long time, until it begins to turn lukewarm. I turn the faucet off and step out. The steam is covering the mirror, so I wipe it with my palm to reveal my reflection. My skin is beet red and I look like a wet rat. I wrap myself in a towel and lay on top of my bed over the covers. It’s completely dark out now, and Arienne never came for me. Why am I still hoping that he will?

Arienne’s POV

After locking the bathroom door, I slam my fist into the wall. Why am I so stupid? I know she’s not ready to be moving that fast. It’s just the mate bond, telling her to mate. Of course she wouldn’t want that yet. 

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

‘She told you she wanted you. Why did you leave her standing there? She probably feels embarrassed for kissing you now,’ Arlo scolds. ‘If she didn’t want to before, she probably really doesn’t now. You ruined your guy’s first kiss with your nonsense thoughts.’

‘I don’t need to hear this from you, Arlo. We both know you wouldn’t have handled that situation any better.’

‘I would have at least given her what she asked for.’

‘And that also would’ve been wrong.’ I shove Arlo to the back of my mind and lean over the bathroom sink. She probably hates me now. Arlo is right about that. 

After I get dressed for the day, I exit my room. Before I head to my office, I should go see her. Standing outside her door though, I can’t bring myself to knock. I stand there for a few minutes like an idiot, not knowing what to do. 

I continue towards my office. There’s a lot that needs to get done right now. Before I even make it there, I’m stopped by Beta Collin. “Sir, we have an urgent matter that needs tending to,” he states, handing me a file.

“Brief me on the situation please.” We continue to talk as we walk to my office.

“It’s Blood Moon Pack. They’re wanting to call a meeting to dispute the border lines, again.”

“Of course it is. When do they want to meet?”

“Today, if you’re free.” He rubs the top of his head. I look through the papers and find the maps with the border lines. He’s claiming that we’ve overstepped his boundary by four acres. That’s absolute dog shit, and he knows it. There’s gotta be something else he wants.

“Call them and let them know we’ll be coming this afternoon. Please get the Gamma and brief him on the situation. We’ll all be going on this trip.”

I enter my office, and Collin heads off to do what I asked. I slam the papers down on the desk. What the hell does that asshole want this time? He’s always using these little complaints and shit to get us to come onto his territory. It’s always dangerous going there, but I don’t want the likes of them anywhere near my pack, and especially not inside my packhouse. 

Once we’re ready to go and everyone is loading up into the car, I wonder if I should let Amikat know where I’m going to be for the day. I want to go up there, but I don’t know if she wants to see me right now. I’ll let her be for the moment. We can always talk when I get back.

“You ready?” asks Samuel. 

“yes, Gamma, let’s hit the road.”

The drive there is short, only an hour or so. Once we reach the gates, they have us step out of the vehicle and they check everyone for weapons or other substances. They let us pass and we park in front of their packhouse. It isn’t as big as ours; they are nowhere near our size or power, yet they choose to skirmish and pick fights with us all the time. They always lose, but there’s going to be losses on both sides regardless of the outcome, and that’s something I’d really like to avoid. As we exit the vehicle, he’s standing on the top of the stairs with his hands clasped in front of him. I’m still filled with tremendous amounts of anger towards this man. After all, he was the one who had Layla killed two years ago. I hate everything about him to his stupid goatee and dumb spiky hairdo, all the way down to his little pigeon toe feet. Nothing about him says Alpha to me. Only a cheap, murderous, coward.

“Thank you for joining us, gentleman!” greets Alpha Connor. “Let’s head inside to talk.” We follow him inside, and head down a hallway to the left, where he opens the doors to a meeting room. “have a seat, you three,” he says. His whiny voice makes my blood boil.

He starts off by addressing the border issues, and we eventually come to an agreement that his patrol must have been wrong about the issue. I knew this already. He just needed a way to get us out here. “I do have one more thing I wanted to say, before we adjourn this little chit-chat,” he says. “I understand you’ve found yourself a new Luna, isn’t that right, Arienne?” 

“You will address me by my title, or nothing you say warrants a response from me,” I say sternly.

“Okay, sorry, your greatness, Mister Alpha Arienne,” he laughs. This man. “So this new Luna… I understand she is a rogue, yes?”

“Not technically, no, her parents derive from River Moon. They were killed by your men in the war, a few years back.”

“I see…” he clasps his hands together. “And do you know who her parents were?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know why that is a problem to me? Do you remember what your father’s Beta did to me, all those years ago?”

“I don’t see how this is relevant, Alpha Connor.” My blood is starting to boil. If he’s getting to the point I think he’s trying to make, then I will not hesitate to kill him.

“Oh, of course it’s relevant. My son would’ve been about your age now, would he not? My son, that her father murdered all those years ago?” I stay silent. What does he want? Justice?

You could cut the tension in the room with scissors.

“I want her brought to me. I want her to pay for what her parents did. If they get to kill my child, a child, mind you, then I think it’s only fair that I return the favor."

“You will go nowhere near my Luna!” I scream. “You so much as put a toe over the border, and I will kill you where you stand. Do you understand?” 

“Frankly, I don’t,” he muses. “I thought you were one for justice. And don’t you say this would provide plenty?” 

“We’re leaving. This conversation is over. Don’t you dare come near my territory, or I will make good on my threats. I will not show you mercy.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it!” This man must be hoping for a war. What a sick bastard. 

We head out of there quickly, and begin to make our way back home. I see wolves dart in and out of the woods, following us to the border. They stop once we reach the edge of our territory. I have to get home and be with Amikat, right now. I need to make sure she is safe. I’m already running over all of the new safety measures I’m going to have to implement to make sure nothing goes wrong. That sick bastard Connor won’t get anywhere near my mate. I have to make sure of it.

Once we reach the pack house, I exit the vehicle and head straight inside to Amikat’s room. I knock on the door, but get no reply. I try the handle and it’s locked, so she must be in there. It is after dark, so she might be asleep. Still, I want to see her, so I give the door a little shove, and the locking mechanism gives. ‘dumb old house,’ I laigh to myself. I open the door to find Amikat fast asleep on top of the covers wrapped in a towel. She looks so sweet and innocent in her sleep. I climb on top of the bed next to her, trying to be careful not to wake her. Still, she stirs and turns to face me. “Hey, I’m not dressed!” she squeaks, sitting up. She holds the hem of the towel over her chest. 

“It’s okay, you look cute,” I laugh at her shyness. “I missed you today.” Her face falls.

“You’re not mad at me?” 

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“This morning, I-” I press my finger to her lips, effectively shushing her. 

“This morning, I was rude. I left you standing there. I could’ve handled that situation better than I did.”

“No, I’m sorry, I knew that was too fast, I really don’t even know what came over me this morning. I’ve never done anything like that in my life.” She blushes and turns away. “I thought you didn’t want me. You never came to see me today so I thought-” I grab her chin and make her face my direction.

“That was my bad. I felt like you weren’t going to want to see me. I stopped because I didn’t want you to feel pressured or anything. I thought I was moving too fast for you.”

“I thought the opposite,” she giggles. “It was the best kiss I’ve ever had in my life, if that makes you feel better.” We talk about other pointless things for a little bit, just getting to know each other. I still need to tell her about what’s happening with Blood Moon, but I’m not sure how to bring it up, especially without scaring her.

“Hey, there’s also something really important I need to talk to you about,” I start. 

“I kind of want to go get some pajamas on really fast, if that’s okay?” she asks.

“Of course, I’ll be waiting right here for you.”

She gets up and crosses the room to her suitcase on the floor. She still hasn’t unpacked. I guess no one’s told her she can stay here permanently, if she wants to, anyways. Amikat pulls a black nightgown and a hairbrush out of the suitcase, and heads to the bathroom. After a few minutes she pops out the door all dressed, and her hair brushed. I haven’t seen her natural hair down until right now. She is absolutely beautiful. Her light brown hair has natural waves and reaches down all the way to her waist. She walks towards me and plops down on the bed next to me. “What were you wanting to talk about?” she asks.

“Well, I had a meeting with our rival pack today. Blood Moon,” I start. “I’ve told you a little bit about them already.”

“The pack that killed my parents, and your…”

“Yes. That one.”

“What did they want?”

“Back in the same war your parents died in, his son also died. He claims it was your father who did it. He recently heard about your return to River Moon somehow, which I’m still looking into who told him, but that’s beside the point. He says he wants justice.”

“What does he mean by that?” her eyes were wide.

“He wants blood for blood. For us to hand you over to him.”

“You’re not going to do that, right?” she whispers.

“What? No! Of course not! I told him if he so much as crosses the border, I would kill him. He won’t come anywhere near you. Of course, there are a few new safety measures that I’m going to put in place, which we’ll go over tomorrow with our patrol and warriors. Part of that is going to be 24/7 guarding for you. You will not be allowed to go anywhere unless you have me or another pack member with you. Understood?”

“I guess that makes sense.” She looks to be mulling things over in her head. I know this is all still new and scary to her, so something like this could become very stressful. “When would I be allowed to go home?” 

That question sends a ping through my chest. Home? I thought she would want this place to be her home. With me. “You still want to leave?” I ask.

“I haven’t really put much thought behind it, I guess I didn’t know if I was welcome to stay or not.”

“Amikat,” I take her hands in mine. “You are my mate. If you want, you can live here forever. I’d really like it if you stayed. I don’t think I could let you leave and be okay. But of course, it’s up to you.”

“I’ll think about it,” she says. That will have to be good enough for me right now. 

“Thank you.” 

After that conversation, I ask her how she spent her day. She didn’t do much, all cooped up in her room. I made her feel sad this morning, and she didn’t want to do anything at all today. If only I’d come to see her. I feel bad.

Amikat’s POV

I’m still working on soaking in what he told me. Some guy with a God complex thinks he can kill me for something that happened when I was too young to even know what was happening. I understand his loss, but that has nothing to do with me. After the conversation, we talked about random things, and I could tell he was just trying to get my mind off of what he told me. But it’s not going to be that simple. With the way he put it, along with the new safety things, it sounds like they don’t know when or where he might attack. My life will constantly be in danger until they figure this out, and I’m going to have to be followed around everywhere. I already know how annoying that’s going to get. 

It starts to get late, and I can tell Arienne is tired. “I think I’m gonna go to sleep now, thank you for coming to see me,” I tell him. 

“My pleasure, Amikat.” 

“You know, you can just call me Kat,” I tease. “That’s what I usually go by.”

“Okay, I can start doing that.” He gets up to leave, but turns around when he reaches the door. He looks as if he wants to say something, but he remains silent for a moment. “Do you think I could stay in your room tonight? I really don’t want to leave you here by yourself.” he nervously runs his hand through his hair. “I can sleep on the couch, or whatever you want.” Truth be told, I’ve been craving his touch all day.

“Come here,” I say, scooting over and patting the bed. He smiles and comes over. He slips his shoes and tshirt off, and he’s in nothing but a pair of athletic shorts. He sits down on the edge of the bed, and I can tell he’s super hesitant. I lift the covers up, and he lays down beside me. We both pull the blankets up and get comfortable. He’s still laying on the other side of the mattress, though. I can tell he’s hesitant to get close, and I don’t know if it’s okay that I slide closer. I decide to let it be, and I close my eyes and fall asleep. 

I wake up in the morning to find a pair of arms wrapped around me. Arienne’s warm skin is pressed up against my back, and his face is nuzzled into my neck. Even though I’m awake, I don’t move; this feels so nice and I don’t want him to leave me yet. Closing my eyes, I soak up his touch, feeling the tingles of electricity between the two of us. I have to use the restroom pretty badly, but I’m gonna hold it as long as I can before I have to get up. Soon, Arienne stirs, and he retracts his arms flipping to his back. I turn over as well, and I’m met with his smiling face and tired blue eyes. The blanket is resting at his waist leaving his chest exposed. His abs look so sexy as he stretches his arms to rest above his head. “Goodmorning,” he says, his voice tired and husky. 

“Good morning to you too,” I smile. I scoot forward and plant a kiss on his collarbone. His breath hitches in his chest, so I retract myself. Too much, Kat. “I’m gonna go use the bathroom really quick,” I say to him. Sliding out of bed onto my feet, I walk to the bathroom and shut the door. After I relieve myself, I wash my hands and take a look in the mirror. My bedhead is absolutely insane! Quickly, I try to smooth my hair down before I return to the bedroom. I lay back down next to him, and he turns his head to look at me. He lightly brushes my arm with his fingertips, chills spreading wherever he touches. “You’re beautiful,” he whispers. I smile at him. 

“You are too,” I giggle. Suddenly he reaches out and grabs me by the waist and pulls me onto him so that my legs are straddling his sides. I plant my hands on his chest and just stare at him. I’m not sure what he wants, so I’m afraid to do anything. ‘Don’t be silly, you know what he wants,’ Amira says to me. ‘Kiss him, he wants us.’ I disregard her statement, and just lay my head down on his chest. He wraps his arms around me tightly and we lay there for what feels like a perfect eternity. “I need you, Kat,” he whispers into my ear. “I thought I could ignore you, but I need you more than I thought I would. In this moment, you are my everything.” His deep voice sends chills down my spine. I look up at his face. God, I want to kiss him so bad. I sit up so that our faces are level with each other. I can feel his breath against my lips as his eyes shift down to my mouth. He grips my hips tightly, moving under me just slightly; I can tell he’s getting aroused. I can’t take it anymore.

I smash my mouth to his, and he deepens the kiss almost immediately, pushing his tongue inside. His hips move underneath me, and I feel something hard pushing up on my core. I slide my hands up to his face, and then to his hair. Your tongues dance together in perfect movements, and I can feel myself getting wet. I begin to grind my hips against his groin. “Kat… Kat…” he breathes out between kisses. I pull away, but continue to rub my core against him. 

“Arienne…”

“If you keep doing that, I don’t think I’m going to be able to control myself,” he says. In my head, I know I don’t want to stop, and I don’t know if I want to keep egging him on like that. I feel such a strong pull towards him, and I know what I want. I think he wants it too. I begin to kiss a line down his chest and stomach. When I reach the bottom, I run my tongue up the length of his body, ending at his ear. Arienne grabs my butt and squeezes lightly, letting out a soft moan when I run my tongue over his neck. Ge grabs me around the waist, and swiftly whips me around, pinning me beneath him. I see his massive erection pressing against the fabric of his thin shorts. “Amikat, we have to stop,” he says. “We can’t do this yet.” 

“Why not?” I say, slightly offended.

“If I’m going to have sex with someone, I want it to mean something,” he says. Do I not mean anything to him? Am I not his mate? I know I want this. I crave every part of him. Does he not want me?

“Fine,” I say. I climb out from under him and head to the bathroom, and lock myself inside. I’m embarrassed and hurt. How could I not mean something to him?