“Yes.”
“We will all leave you now to get ready to come and have breakfast with us all.”
“Ok.”
Den’s fingers brush over my eyes closing them, soon followed by a door clicking shut.
Walking into the Kitchen with Ruk, I suddenly feel very self-conscious; everyone has their eyes on me, watching my every move.
“What's wrong?” I ask, frowning and look over my shoulder to see if there is an alien behind me, because the look on their faces is worrying to say the least.
Dallah comes to me, taking me by the hand, over to the table where the Brothers’ and Theo are all sitting.
“Nothing’s wrong, how are you feeling?” She asks, with sadness in her voice, which makes me frown more. Then Sallack makes a funny noise at her, making her change her worried expression to a smile.
“Ok, enough! I’m not stupid, tell me?”
“Sorry Zara, I’m just feeling nervous today as the bonding is getting so close,” She tells me.
“It will all work out Dallah, I have a good feeling,” I tell her with a smile and a wink.
“I love you Zara,” She tells me openly.
“I love you too my little Witch,” I tell her poking her rib with my elbow, which makes her snort out a laugh, as she smiles at me.
Ruk sits beside me and lays his hand on my thigh in a comforting manner.
“So what’s with all the glum faces?” I ask looking at the Brothers’ in turn.
“We’re ok babe. What you up to today?” Mickey asks with a smirk.
“Uh, not sure, probably just hang out in Dallah’s room,” I tell him shrugging my shoulders, as I don’t want to give away that I’m keeping a secret, being; memorizing the words of the spell.
Looking up, I lock eyes with Den, he doesn’t give me a hurtful look like he has been doing every day since coming here, instead he looks at me like he has a mixture of emotions going on inside him.
“Alright?” Den asks me with a shy smile.
“Yeah,” I reply, feeling a little thrown off, and as I look at him trying to work out what has changed since yesterday, Ruk leans in and whispers in my ear,
“We will finish our food and get on the book, yeah?”
I turn my head to him, and as his nose brushes against my cheek, my heartbeat accelerates and my face heats.
“Yep,” is all I can make leave my mouth, as his closeness drives me to distraction. I suddenly feel panic at my reactions to him, seeking Dallah’s attention as I catch her eye.
“Can we have a word?” I ask her quietly.
“Yeah, let’s go into the gardens, not many people are out there,” She tells me, as we quickly slip out through the back doors, why the guys are focused on their breakfast. When we are in a secluded part of the gardens, I turn to her with a sigh.
“I’m crushing on Ruk!” I tell her nervously.
“Yeah, I get that, he is insanely hot,” She tells me, looking relieved.
“No, I can’t! He’s my protector!” I screech at her.
“I think you deserve to choose who you want to be with Zara, it could be 50 years before you find the one. Zara follow your heart, it will lead you to your destiny,” She tells me with a wonderful smile.
“Ah, destiny again, you know I don’t like that word. But honestly, do you really thinks it’s a good idea to be thinking of Ruk in this way so soon after Sallack, and when I have ‘The one’ out there somewhere. I thought that Paris could be the one, you know, before we left,” She nods her head, listening closely, “But I can’t see it any more, I don’t think I feel the way I did towards him. How will I explain that to him?” I ask needing her opinion.
“I think you deserve anything you wish for out of life, and above all to be happy, and if Ruk can give you that then go for it. You are both adults, you know all there is to know about one another, there are no secrets; just don’t fall in love with him. I think Parrise will understand sweetie, I think deep down he knows that he was not the one for you.”
“Yeah, I hope so, because I do love him, I’m just not in love with him. Hey, did something happen last night? I feel like I slept the night away?”
“No, it was the normal night sweetie. Come on, the men will worry,” She tells me, whisking me back towards the kitchen.
“Ruk!” I scream out, as he suddenly steps out from a large rose bush, scaring the life out of me.
Dallah laughs, while Ruk takes me by the arm to walk with him.
“I needed to see you were ok,” He explains.
“Alright. Um, how long were you standing there?” I ask blushing, hoping he hadn’t heard me tell Dallah that I have the hots for him.
“I only just walked around beautiful,” He tells me with a mesmerizing smile, having no idea what those smiles do.
“What are you doing today?” I ask Dallah, needing to look elsewhere.
“Well Julian and I were going to spend the day together, do you mind?”
“Of course not, why would I?” I ask skeptically.
“I just don’t want you to feel like I’m leaving you to it, while I go off and have fun with Julian,” She tells me sadly.
“Don’t be stupid Dallah, seeing you with Julian makes me happy, I love you both dearly. Go have fun and I want all the details,” I tell her wiggling my eyebrows, making her and Ruk laugh.
Sitting on the bed with Ruk, we have piles of pillows behind our backs, while I sit reciting the words from the pages, which I have to cram in to my memory perfectly. What is not helping, is Ruk watching me with such an intensely I cannot concentrate.
“You can find the others Ruk, don’t feel like you need to baby sit me.”
“No, I want to be with you,” He tells me sweetly.
“Oh...ok,” I tell him while looking back to the page, trying to ignore the urge to lean over and kiss his moist plum lips. Damn it!
“Am I putting you off?” He asks with a light frown, which makes him look all the more dark and dangerous.
“No, I just don’t want you getting bored,” I tell him.
“Never would I be bored with you beautiful,” He tells me truthfully.
I shuffle a little on the bed, needing to make some noise so that he doesn’t hear my heart beat rocketing. With being a Werewolf, Ruk and the Brothers’ have amazing hearing, sight and smell, so I have to be wary around them, I absolutely do not want him smelling my desire!
There is a knock at the door, breaking the tension, well my tension.
“Who is it?” Ruk shouts sternly as if angry at the interruption.
“Me!” Mickey shouts back, while opening the door and walking through.
“Hey babe, what you doing?” He asks looking at me sitting with the open book that he helped to find.
“Just having a look at this,” I tell him holding it up and shrugging my shoulders as to not make a big deal out of it.
“Let's see,” He says as he jumps on the bed beside me. Wrapping his arms around my shoulder and kissing my head, while taking the book straight out of my hand.
I watch him as his face screws up, trying to make sense out of the book. To him, or anyone else, the words look like hundreds of little markings, that is what Dallah and Ruk tell me anyway.
“What is this book about? It looks like a load of gibberish to me” He asks frowning.
“Just a book Mickey. What’s up, is everyone ok?” Ruk asks getting his attention away from the book.
“Nu, just wanted to check up on this lovely woman, and to make sure your being good to her,” Mickey tells him punching Ruk playfully, and getting an eye roll from Ruk.
“Shall we go and get some food? The guys are all down there,” He tells us with a silent plea for us to join him.
“I’m gunna stay here, I’m not hungry,” I tell him apologetically.
“You have to eat; you can look at the freaky book after.”
“I ate this morning, I just want to stay here, I’ll be fine I promise,” I tell him with a reassuring smile.
He then jumps up, grabs me under the legs and throws me over his shoulder and starts laughing.
“I swear to god Mickey, you wanna put me down,” I scream at him while trying to wiggle out of his grip.
“You won’t do anything to me, you love me,” He says playfully.
“Ruk!” I scream at him for help, while he and Mickey walk out of the room casually.
“You need to eat,” He says simply.
Mickey swipes at my butt, while running down the mountain of stairs with me on his shoulder, which is scary as hell, as I’m helpless as a kitten bouncing about in this giant of a man’s grip.
While I repeatedly scream at him to put me down through fits of laughter, he finally lifts me of off him and sits me at the table in the kitchen next to Dom.
“Mickey you are such a shit sometimes,” I scold him.
“I know,” He tells me with a smirk and kisses my head before taking a seat.
As we sit eating the large lunch that the kitchen staff made for us, Dallah’s cousins, Sarah, Hydie, and Laura join us. Hydie greets me with a hello and a friendly smile, while the other two barely look my way.
Suddenly the Brothers’ all stand to their feet in fighting mode and growling fiercely, I stand up quickly needing to see what has happened to make them so angry, but it’s just Richard!
Richard and I lock eyes and as I tilt my head to the side to get a better look at him past Sallack’s humungous body, Richard’s eyes cloud over with regret, and something else that I don’t recognize.
“DON’T LOOK AT HER!” Ruk growls at him, making me flinch. What has got into the Brothers’, they were keeping their cool with him last night, shit! Has Dallah been hurt? No, it couldn’t be that, I would know if she were, through our connection.
“Ruk,” I say his name to get his attention, as I slip my hand in his.
He turns his head to me, catching me off guard as his eyes are glowing a wonderful shade of purple.
“It’s ok,” He tells me sadly and looks back at Richard, whom now has ten of his men stood protectively around him. As I helplessly watch on for a battle of Warlocks and Werewolves to take place, Richard surprises me by putting his arms out to his side to stop his men from reacting to the Brothers’ and Theo.
Richard has not taken his eyes from me, which gives me the creeps. Then Den walks towards him, standing in front of him, gaining his attention.
“We need to speak,”
“Fine,” He tells Den, but makes no move to go, his eyes just bore into mine, he looks like he wants to speak with me, but why? Why are they all acting this way?
“What's going on?” I ask squeezing Ruk’s hand, but not looking away from Richard’s glare.
“Don’t look at him Zara!” Ruk warns me, and pulling my attention away from Richard.
“Tell me what’s going on! Why are you acting all this way?” I ask Ruk, and then look back to Richard, who is exiting the kitchen with Den close behind.
“Zara, you know we do not trust him, especially near you. We should go now.”
“What about Den?”
“He will be fine, the Brothers’ will go after him, and before you ask, they will not fight with Richard, we know what will be lost,” He tells me wrapping his arm around my waist as he speeds me away from everyone.
I know that he is my protector, so he has naturally protected me, but this is silly, Richard only walked into the room. I cannot help but feel like something is being kept from me, and I don’t know if I will ever find out.
I spend the day with Ruk in Dallah’s room, letting the magical words from the book stain my memory. As the sun goes down, I know that it is time to get ready for this evening, which I am dreading after the way Richard and the Brothers’ reacted to each other. Dallah let us know that she will be joining us later on in the evening, so she has left me a dress to wear, which hangs in the wardrobe.
Shuffling through the masses of dresses, I see a note attached to a gold skintight dress that flows elegantly down to the feet and looks like it has a train to it.
The note says; Ruk will love this, trust me ; ) xxx
Oh my god, is she for real! What is she doing what if he had been looking over my shoulder, rather than laying on her bed half-asleep.
Nevertheless, I cannot help but laugh aloud at her bluntness; it is what I love about her.
“What’s so funny?” Ruk ask with his eyes still shut.
“Just a note from Dallah, you know what she’s like.”
“Yeah,” He says, and if he had his eyes open, I would bet a hundred pounds that he would be rolling his eyes right now.
Screwing up the note and throwing it into the bin from the vanity table, I lay the dress on a chair while I go to the bathroom for a quick shower.
When I step out of the shower, I am startled by Ruk standing there, leaning against the bathroom wall, but quickly diverts his eyes from my naked body.
“Um... what are you doing in here?” I ask him and smile when I see his cheeks turn pink.
“Protecting you,” He tells me simply, as if it makes perfect sense.
“You know, I am not as weak as you think I am Ruk,” I tell him whilst wrapping my body in a towel. His gaze catches mine as he steps up to me.
“Oh, I know that beautiful, never have I known a woman as fearless as you.”
By complete accident! My gaze travels to his lips, pink and plump, the smoothness of them makes me want to feel them all over my body, Fuck it!
“I need to get dressed now, can you give me a Sec,” I tell him in a fluster, turning away from him biting my lip to stop me from saying something silly like ‘kiss me’. I cannot keep thinking of him in this way, not now, not ever. However, after knowing what it is like being held in his arms, while his lips caress my bare skin. Oh crap! I’ve got it bad, if only he could be the one, it would make life easier.
“Ok, but so you know Zara, I will not leave your side while we are here,” He tells me gently.
Yeah, that is what I am afraid of!
“Ok, got it ‘Ruk the protector’,” I tell him playfully and getting a snort of a laugh from him. But oh my, he really is living up to his name. The way he handled Richard today, had me feeling even more attracted to him, knowing that he really can look after me, protect me. I will never admit it to anyone, but that is what I need and want, I want someone to look after me, and fight my nightmares with me.
Chapter Thirteen
Walking into the ballroom with Ruk on my arm, I feel like a queen. The dress that Dallah has designed is unbelievable, it is without doubt my favorite yet, and having Ruk beside me makes it all the more unbelievable.
Theo walks over to us, greeting Ruk with a nod of his head and me with a kiss on my cheek,
“Angel you look stunning as usual,” Theo tells me with a grin.
“Thanks Theo, so do you... handsome I mean... uh is Dallah here yet?” I ask trying to get myself out of my tongue-tied state.
“Not yet, come on,” He nods his head over his back, and turns for us to follow him over to where we have sat every night.
Angus is first to speak to me as I sit at the table beside him, after I lean into him and kiss his cheek.
“Sweet, you look mouth-watering,” He says with a wink, making my face flush with a warm glow.
“Angus, stop it. How do you think Parrise is doing,” I ask with concern, as it must be hard for him to be away from Parrise.
Each of the Brothers’ and Theo stop speaking while they watch Angus for his reply, but he looks a little lost for words.
“Fine I’m sure. Do you want a drink sweet?” He asks already pouring me a glass of champagne, and passing it to me. I get the feeling he does not wish to talk about it.
“Thanks Angus,” I tell him before taking a sip, keeping a wary eye on him. I think is up to something, or is it that he's hiding something as he is looking a little guilty, but relieved at the same time, which is weird.
The evening goes surprisingly well, until Richard decides
to grace us with his company, walking over to us with his bodyguards and... Den, who stands at his side like one of his own.
“Zara, Gentlemen,” He greets us before he turns on his heel and speaks with Laura, Hydie and Sarah.
There is something not right with everyone tonight; they all seem on edge, especially Richard.
Ruk’s arms come around me as he bends to talk to my ear.
“Dance with me beautiful?”
“I would love to,” I tell him with a meaningful smile.
We dance together in silence, while Ruk keeps his eyes firmly fixed on Richard and his men, so I go unnoticed checking him out, admiring his handsome side profile watching closely as his manly jaw flexes as if he’s ready to pounce and take down his enemy any second. I think he is unaware of how tight he is holding me, but I’m not complaining, enjoying the feel of his muscles tightening under my fingers. Then, suddenly I feel Dallah enter the room, and she is so very happy.
“Dallah’s back, let’s go find her,” I tell Ruk, breaking his concentration, looking at me surprised as if he’d forgotten I was here.
“Take my hand then,” He tells me while already slipping his large one into mine.
I see Dallah standing at the top table with Julian only a foot away from her, and she locks eyes with me smiling happily as we make our way to her, but just before we get to the others, Ruk pulls me to a halt and turns his face to whisper in my ear. The scent of his aftershave hits my nose, and the feel of his nose brushing against my ear does things to me they shouldn’t.
“You know she was right, I do love the dress,” He whispers in a sensual tone. My mouth opens wide as I blush, my chest tightens, and I feel butterflies fluttering inside me. Ruk carries on pulling me past the crowds of people to get to Dallah, unaware of the effects his words caused.
Blue Moon Page 18