Chapter 8

Kane watched as the events unfolded before him in slow motion. He had just come back from a fierce battle that had left him more scarred than he would like, and he was livid.

The only thing that has been keeping him sane is the fact that his mate is coming back home after so many years. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was nervous.

He wondered about the changes that had occurred to her all the while she was outside the country, and he couldn’t help but want to see her.

His wolf had been giddy all day long, dying to see his mate, and Kane, despite his outward disposition, shared the same fate.

He had confirmed from Toby that she was sleeping peacefully in her room, and that was the only reason he had entered in his wolf form. Changing to human will slow down his healing.

Kane had been trying to remove the splinter from his fur when he heard her footsteps even before she entered his room, and he had been praying to the moon goddess that she wouldn’t enter his room. But the moon goddess could be a bitch sometimes because Ariel opened the door and entered like she owned it, and it took everything in him not to pounce on her.

Kane had held his breath while still praying under his breath that she wouldn’t venture further into his room, but who was he kidding?

One moment, he was hiding himself before her, and the next, a powerful light shone on his face, and he shielded his sensitive eyes from the rays. Her screams were all he heard before she fell backward.

Not on his watch!

Before her head could touch the ground, Kane was running towards her, catching her before she could meet a terrible fate.

“Shit.” Kane wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of electricity he would experience as their skins made contact. He sucked in a sharp breath, closing his eyes to steady himself, and he was able to help her towards the bed.

She could wake up at any moment, so he had to be fast. He was changing into a human despite the pain that licked at him for disrupting the healing process.

He barely spared a glance at his bruised knee with discoloration all over because he was picking up a mop and cleaning every trickle of blood.

He needed to wash off all the evidence before she woke up.

Kane was running to the bathroom, turning the knob to the hottest he could bear without getting burned, and taking the fattest bath ever before he rushed out of the bathroom all red and looking like a tomato.

He was just putting on his clothes when he heard her breath returning to normalcy, and Kane was literally flying to go and meet her.

And he was just in time because her eyes fluttered open, and he was rewarded with an alluring set of blue eyes that only seemed to draw you in the more you looked at them.

“Hello.” Kane said in his baritone voice that it had Ariel shivering against her will.

Oh my gosh! She had a mini-fangirl panic in her mind. That was one of the hottest baritones she had ever heard, and she just wanted to curl up on the sofa and listen to him read her bedtime stories.

But the haze was quick to disappear, and she suddenly remembered how she got here.

“Oh my god! The…the…the... Be-be-bea” Suddenly, she lost her ability to breathe, and she was whizzing. Her mouth was opened, and her chest was rising rapidly as she tried to catch her breath.

“It is alright; you are safe.” Kane whispered into her ears while his hands caressed her arms gently. “Just take a deep breath.”

Ariel’s eyes were fixed on him as she followed his instruction, taking puffs of air and inhaling it on his command.

“Good girl, just like that.” Kane whispered, and Ariel was going crazy.

Fuck! If he was sounding like this when he was comforting her, she wondered how he would sound when she was taking him in, and she was going crazy.

The sharp look Kane gave her was as though he could read her thoughts, and she was sinking into the sheets.

Good going, Ariel. You got the man thinking you are a horn dog. She chided herself.

“How do you feel now?” Kane's voice was breaking her out of her thoughts, and she nodded her head. She opened her mouth to talk, but she felt cold fingers on her lips, shutting her.

“Shhh. Don’t talk too much; let me get you water for your throat.”

What do you do when you have a fine piece of sex fawning over you?

You keep mute and heed his advice, and that was what Ariel did. She nodded her head mechanically, like a robot, and wondered if she had somehow landed in heaven.

She watched him go, looking at his powerful limbs as he threw them in front of him. She had never felt this sexual attraction for anyone in a long time.

Ariel had declared herself asexual when she didn’t find anyone attractive on her campus. No matter how handsome they were, their appearance wasn’t making her insides turn to jelly or her lady part throb.

Yet this man came, and she was almost putty in his hands. She could understand why people have one-night stands, and right now she was lusting after this man.

Kane came back almost immediately, holding a bottle of water and a glass cup in his hands, and Ariel watched as he poured her a glass, bringing it closer to her mouth.

“Drink.” It was a simple command, and she needed no prompt before she started chugging the water until she tapped his arms to signify she was satisfied.

“Thank you.” Ariel said, expressing her gratitude in a polite voice. She wasn’t a shy person; hell, she participated in student politics back at the university, but she wouldn’t meet this man's eyes.

While hers were fixed on the abstract painting on the wall, Kane's eyes roamed about his mate, appreciating the view.

“You may speak.” Kane said, and Ariel was taken aback. How dare he tell her what to do?

She would speak if she wanted to and not because a man asked her to, yet she was opening her mouth before her brain could process it.

“A bear.” was all she could stammer out when she remembered the furry creature she had locked eyes with before she passed out.

“You are going to have to talk to me in full sentences if you want me to understand you, Ariel.”

Ariel was flying up from the bed into a sitting position before she could think of it. “How did you know my name?” Kane was taken aback by her sudden outburst, and his shoulder shook as he laughed. “I didn’t crack a joke, Mr., how did you know my name?” She snapped, her voice ringing in the hallways.

Kane took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He disliked any atom of disrespect, but he would let it slide since she was still new to their world. “Where do you think you are?”

Ariel looked around her for a moment, connecting the dots, and she suddenly remembered who she was. This person was talking like he knew all about her, and only one person could come to mind.

“You are Kane.” Ariel stated as a matter of fact, and he smiled.

"Indeed, I am; now you were about to tell me what happened.”

“I saw a bear.” Ariel finally managed to speak out, and from the look Kane was giving her, she knew she would have kept her thoughts to herself.

“Don’t be silly now, Ari; there is no way a bear could get inside here.”

“It is true. I saw a bear.” Ariel shouted in defense, but she remembered the look he had given her when she raised her voice, and she was lowering her tone. “I could swear I saw blood dripping on the floor and a large bear.”

Kane shook his head, and Ariel was not sure she liked it. “Look around you.”

Ariel hated the tone he was using on her, as if she were a stubborn child, and it was not sitting right with her. She grudgingly swept her eyes around the room, her lips forming a pout, but to her dismay, everything was looking sparkly clean, and she was losing her mind.

“I swear I saw blood around and a bear, and everything was dark, and…” she said, shutting her mouth as she felt his arms wrapped around her.

“You must be experiencing jet lag and hallucinating. But it is fine; I will send in someone with your food so you can eat.”

“Fine.” That statement was enough to keep her shut. She could never say no to good food. So she sat and folded her hands as she waited for the food.

As she took a bite of the tuna sandwich, all she could think of was welcome back home.