by Cooke, CJ
“Thank you,” I whispered. My throat felt ravaged, and I desperately needed a drink of water.
“You shouldn’t sleep here,” he said, looking at the blood-stained sofa I was lying on. He looked down at Kyle, who was still sat on the floor staring at my face. “You need to move her to the bed. Gently,” he emphasised.
Kyle shot him a scathing look, gave him a sharp nod and then turned back to me.
Caleb came back out the bathroom, and Wyatt gathered up the medic kit, placing it on the coffee table.
“I’ll leave the kit here. She’ll need the dressing changed in the morning.” Then he and Caleb walked out, leaving me alone in the room with a seething Kyle and Liam, who was resolutely staring at the ground and seemed to refuse to meet my eyes.
I didn’t have it in me to argue or start this conversation with them now, so stubbornly decided to just get myself to bed. Kyle placed a gentle hand on my chest to prevent me from moving when I tried to sit up. I could see the tears in his eyes when he looked back up at my face, and I realised he wasn’t angry with me.
Kyle gently slid his arms underneath me, and when I gave him a brief nod, he lifted me as gently as he could from the sofa. I tried to grit my teeth and pretend like it didn’t hurt, but it was like the whimper forced its way out of me. Now the wound was stitched closed, it was already a lot less painful. It still fucking hurt though.
Kyle slowly walked me to the bed before he laid me down gently. He carefully peeled my leather trousers down my legs and then pulled the blanket over me.
He stood up as if to leave, but I grabbed hold of his hand. “Please stay,” I quietly asked. I could feel sleep fast coming to claim me, but I didn’t want to be alone.
“Are you sure you want me to?” Kyle asked.
I could hear the sadness in his voice, and it broke my heart. It wasn’t his fault I was out there being reckless. I’d got myself in this position. But I knew Kyle would be beating himself up that he wasn’t there to protect me.
“Always,” I simply said. “I will always want you beside me.”
Kyle gently climbed into the bed with me and held my hand. As I drifted off to sleep, I heard a mournful howl outside the window. I had a brief moment where I wondered where Liam and Sykes had gone, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, and I quickly fell asleep.
Chapter 12
The next morning the sun was streaming through the windows, and I almost felt like a real person again. I rolled onto my side and snuggled against Kyle before I even had time to remember the massive wound. Thankfully it was on the other side of my body. But as I snuggled against him, I realised it barely hurt at all today. My magic was back to just a gentle background hum. It never seemed to altogether leave me anymore. It was kind of comforting, though, to always be able to feel it.
Kyle stirred beside me, and his arms came up around me. He snuggled his nose into my neck and took a deep breath of my scent before sleepily sighing in content. I couldn’t help but smile. This was better than last night. I didn’t miss the fact we were alone though, and I was pretty sure we had been all night. Liam and Sykes had never come to bed. If I found out they were with one of those other women, I’d have to leave the packhouse. Otherwise, I’d definitely kill her.
As I imagined all of the ways I was going to stab her, Kyle suddenly shot up in bed, and I slipped off his side back onto the mattress. “Dude, warn a girl first,” I laughed.
“You’re injured,” he said, his hands fluttering around me as if he was trying to decide if it was okay to touch me. “You’re supposed to be resting.”
“I was resting, thank you very much. I was having a nice rest on my mate, but then I was rudely thrown off,” I huffed. I may have been exaggerating how annoyed I was, but he was sooooo warm, and I wanted back in on some snuggle action before we had to face the outside world and reality.
“You’re not supposed to be snuggling. You’re supposed to be resting. You know, lying still and healing.” He seemed to decide the best place to touch me was my forehead, as he laid his hand over me in some attempt to gain my temperature.
“Will you stop that,” I said, gently removing his hand. “I feel fine,” I shrugged.
“Aria, last night I could see inside your body! I saw your bones! You do not feel fine,” he huffed sitting bolt upright and trying to give me a stern look. Unfortunately for him, he had the adorable bed hair look going on, which really wasn’t making it work.
“I know, but I honestly feel fine,” I said. I laid back and started to pick the sides of the dressing off my side, but Kyle slapped my hand away. I couldn’t help but laugh. I hadn’t seen this side of him before.
“You stop,” he came back in a typical middle school retort which just made me laugh more. Kyle broke into a grin, and I knew that the two of us at least were going to be okay.
“I want to look at it, and the dressing needs changing anyway, remember?”
“Okay,” he sighed. “But let me take it off. I know what you’re like, you’re just going to rip it off and probably take half your stitches with it.” I would have argued with him, but he was right. I had fully intended to rip that bad boy off once I’d picked a corner free to get a hold of.
Kyle set about gently pulling the sticky sides of the dressing off me. Thankfully it came free fairly easily. Otherwise, I think this would have been a valid form of torture. Torture by giant band-aid. The fact Kyle was bent over me, and his face was only inches from my stomach was torture enough. I could feel his breath against my skin, and it was doing all kinds of things for me. I must have been squirming a bit too much because when he was only about halfway through, Kyle asked, “Am I hurting you?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking,” I murmured, staring at the ceiling and deciding to start doing multiplication tables in my head before I snapped and pinned him to the bed.
Kyle gave one of those manly knowing laughs that made me clench my thighs together and went back to peeling off the dressing, but a little quicker this time. “You must be feeling better,” he grinned.
Once the dressing was free, Kyle dropped it on the bedside table and then he was just staring at me. It didn’t take long for curiosity to get the best of me. “What? What is it? Is it bad? Oh my god, have I got scales? Am I turning into a demon?” I asked in a panic.
Kyle ran his fingers over my side, which only made me squirm all the more because that shit was ticklish. “It’s gone. It’s completely healed,” he said in awe.
Not being able to take it anymore, I twisted to check for myself, and he was right. I mean, of course, he was right, but I still needed to see it for myself. The wounds were completely healed. They weren’t even scabbed over, they were just healed. The only way you could tell where they had been was because the stitches were still in my side.
“Cool,” I said, running my fingers over my side. “Right, well I’m going to have a shower and then would you mind taking these stitches out for me.”
“Stay where you are, woman,” Kyle said, pushing me back down onto the bed.
I couldn’t help but laugh, and Kyle flopped down beside me. “I should have been there with you yesterday,” he said seriously.
“No, you shouldn’t have,” I said, rolling onto my side, so I was facing him. Kyle had the most beautiful eyes, and they held all of the emotions he was feeling in them. “I was reckless. I went out there angry, and I took on those demons because I wanted a fight.”
In the light of day looking back at my actions, I was ashamed of what I’d done, of what I’d put Kyle through. It was selfish. I’d been selfish. And maybe a little childish, by running off rather than actually talking to Liam and Sykes.
“What happened yesterday? Why did you run off like that?”
“It was stupid,” I sighed, not wanting to explain my freak out over Sykes touching another woman. In the light of the day, I was feeling stupid now. “I was stupid.”
“Sykes didn’t come back last night. Liam slept on the sofa. I need
to know what’s going on Aria. This is our pack, and I’m our Alpha. We need to fix whatever is happening and protect our pack.” Now I didn’t want to look into his overly expressive eyes, but Kyle slipped a finger under my chin and tilted my head to meet his gaze. “It’s going to be alright, sweetheart.”
“Yesterday, when your father sent me to the kitchen ...” I tried to look away and took a breath. “Liam and Sykes were there with two other women. They were sitting around the table, laughing at something. One of them had her arm around Sykes, and he had his hand on her knee…” I trailed off.
Kyle bristled next to me. I felt tears swim in my eyes, and I blinked them back, not wanting to cry. It was too late though because Kyle saw them anyway. He pulled me into his arms and held me and those damn tears came back anyway. “Oh, Aria,” he whispered.
“I overreacted, I ran out of there and then I took off and saw those demons. I was so angry I just landed in front of them. I wanted to fight, and I wanted blood. I didn’t even put them straight down. I played with them, and I drew it out. I lost track of one of the ones hanging back, and it managed to get a hit in on me. It was my fault I got hurt,” I said with my head buried into his neck.
“No, sweetheart. It’s the bond. It’s so new. It messes with your mind. If you were a wolf and had walked in on that, you would have ripped her to pieces. Liam and Sykes should have known better than to put you in that position.”
“What …” I huffed out a breath, this was not a question I really wanted the answer to. “What if they don’t want me? What if now they’re home, they realise they want a shifter for a mate? That I’m … too much trouble.” At least I didn’t have to look him in the eye while I asked.
“Sweetheart, look at me,” Kyle said, shrugging out of my arms and drawing me in front of him. It was hard looking him in the eye. “Your name is written on my heart. I was made for you and you were made for us. There is never going to be anyone else. When you were hurt yesterday, I would have torn apart the world to get to the demon that hurt you.”
I sighed. This wasn’t my world, and I didn’t come from somewhere that had fated mates. I couldn’t just accept this. It went against everything I’d seen growing up.
“I need to shower. I still have demon blood in my hair. And I’m pretty sure I stink. Can we just not talk about this right now?”
“Okay, if that’s what you want. But I think we should deal with this now before it blows out of control.”
“What happened with Isaac last night?” I asked, getting out of the bed and stretching.
“Nothing. What did you expect to happen?”
“Nothing, I suppose. So, what was your father’s plan? Question me and then, what? Take me out back and shoot me,” I laughed, but I was deadly serious. Marcus was dangerous.
“Maybe not shoot, but yeah probably,” he said seriously. “Being my mate won’t protect you here, Aria. We need to talk about what we’re going to do next,” he said as we walked through to the bathroom together. Kyle grabbed the medic kit off the coffee table where we’d left it last night.
I didn’t miss the crumpled blankets on the sofa, and the lack of Liam. He must have left this morning before we woke up, or rather before I woke up, so he wouldn’t have to speak to me. It didn’t matter what Kyle said, Liam and Sykes’ actions were telling me loud and clear they didn’t want to be around me.
“Dominic and Madame Nines want me to go on some quest to find the other Valkyrie. I was thinking about heading out tomorrow after Britt’s funeral, but I didn’t have the chance to talk to you about it after last night,” I said, turning on the shower and testing the water temperature with my hand.
“Valkyrie?” Kyle said with a raised brow while he rummaged through the medic kit.
“Oh, yeah, a lot happened yesterday,” I said, turning back to him. Kyle patted the countertop next to the sink, and I hopped up there, so he had easy access to my side. “Apparently I’m a Valkyrie.”
Kyle stopped cutting my stitches and looked up at my face. “I suppose that makes sense,” he said, “What with the wings and the blades and stuff. It actually feels like it was pretty obvious,” he frowned.
I sat in silence while Kyle cut the stitches and pulled them out. It was a weird feeling being able to feel them tug free of my skin. When he finished, he patted me on the leg. “You’re all good stinky. Now you can hop in the shower.”
“Hey! I mean, I do stink, but you don’t get to say it out loud,” I laughed, stripping off my underwear and stepping under the water.
Kyle leant back against the counter and watched me as I washed my hair, three times! Demon blood was really hard to get out. Maybe I should cut my hair shorter. Once I was clean, I glanced over my shoulder at him. “You going to stand there all day, or are you going to join me?” I asked in what I hoped was a sexy vixen kind of way. I think I pulled it off because Kyle was out of his clothes and in the shower with me quicker than I’d ever seen him move.
As soon as he had the glass door slid closed behind him, his lips were on mine, and he was pushing me against the tiled wall. This was what I needed to reassure me he was mine, that they were all mine. The only problem was Liam and Sykes weren’t here with us. Kyle ran his hand up my previously injured side and across the side of my breast. His thumb circled my nipple, and I tipped my head back and sighed. I loved the way it felt when he moved his hands over my body.
He dipped his head down and took my other nipple into his mouth. I felt his tongue circle around it before he gently bit down. Kyle kissed his way across to my other breast before doing it again, and I couldn’t hold back the whimper that slipped through my lips. Continuing to kiss his way down my stomach, Kyle dropped to his knees in front of me. Seeing him kneeling in front of me as he looked up into my eyes was hot as hell. He kept eye contact with me as he lifted one of my legs and draped it over his shoulder. He kept looking me in the eye as he dipped his head down, and his tongue darted out to taste me.
I was so turned on I was panting. As Kyle closed his eyes and feasted on me, my head rolled back, and I moaned in bliss. He slowly slid one finger inside me while his tongue circled my clit. When he pushed a second inside me and began to work them against my g-spot, I felt myself slowly climbing closer towards an orgasm. Just before I was about to slip over the edge, Kyle suddenly stood, hauling me up and slammed his cock inside me. I screamed out his name as I came around him and he ground his hips against me groaning my name. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he ground against me. His lips kissed their way down my neck and across my shoulder. I felt his teeth graze the base of my neck, and then he suddenly pulled back. He looked at me, searching my eyes for something, but all I could think of was him, and the words just slipped from my mouth. “I love you,” I breathed.
The smile on his face seemed to light him up right from his soul. He shone with happiness and it was captivating. “I love you,” he told me.
Kyle quickened his pace as he slammed himself inside me. I felt that feeling surging low in my stomach as a second orgasm rushed me. Kyle’s teeth found my neck again, and I felt him bite down hard. The pain morphed into a feeling of bliss, and I came hard again. My mouth watered, and my heart raced. Kyle slammed into me twice more before he finally came. As he shouted out his release, I found myself leaning forward and biting into his neck.
Kyle held me close against him, pressing us against the shower wall. It was a good job he was still holding me because I was pretty sure I couldn’t feel my legs right now. When I saw the small trickle of blood run down his chest, my eyes grew wide, and I pushed myself out of his arms, my weariness pushed aside by my overwhelming concern. Kyle put me down on my feet with a confused look on his face, and I stood on my tiptoes to get a better look at the bottom of his neck. On the base of his neck where it met his shoulder, there was a deep bite mark which was bleeding freely.
“Oh my god! I am so sorry, Kyle!” I exclaimed, horrified as I wiped the line of blood away from his chest. “I don’t know w
hat got into me.”
Kyle looked confused again and then craned his neck to try and look at his shoulder. There was no way he would be able to see it without a mirror, but he looked back at me with a big smile on his face. He ran his finger down my neck, and I winced as I felt a sharp pain. Putting my hand against my neck, I moved it away and looked at my fingers, seeing blood on the tips.
“You don’t have to worry sweetheart. It’s just a mating bite.” He gently kissed the bite on my neck. “It completes our bond,” I heard his voice whisper through my head.
I leant back to look him in the face. “Did you just say that in my head?”
Kyle smiled and searched my eyes. “I knew our bond would be strong enough for this,” he said in my head.
Kyle wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against him. This was happiness, and I just wished we could stay here and never face the outside world. I leant back to look him in the eye, and I could feel him in the back of my mind. I could feel his happiness. “You love me,” I whispered in my mind.
“I will love you each and every day, for the rest of my life,” he said out loud.
Chapter 13
When Kyle finally persuaded me to emerge from the shower and get dressed, the harsh reality of our situation slapped me straight in the face. I walked out of the bedroom in fresh clothes and found Wyatt sitting on the sofa, talking with Liam and Sykes.
“I came to check your wound,” he said, standing up and walking over to me.
“No need,” I said, sitting in the nearest chair to avoid him. “I’m much better. Thank you for your help last night.”
“We should check it isn’t infected,” Wyatt said sternly standing over me.
“I’ve already checked, and there is no infection,” I heard Kyle growl.