by Jennie Dah
“What? You want to do it here? Fine, let’s do it then.” I pull my arm away from him and start to pull my shirt over my head. I only lift it to my waist before I hear a growl from him and I’m lifted off of the ground again.
I wrap my legs around his waist and hang on to his shoulders. I pull back to look at his face but I still can’t see much. His shoulders are really tight and broad my fingers barely graze each other back there.
I grunt and shift around a little to get them entwined but still no luck. I push myself flush against him and cry out in victory when my fingers finally touch. I get distracted by the smell emanating from him and I bury my face in his neck and breath him in deeply. I hear him grunt above me but I ignore him and trail my nose up the arch of his neck to his ear but soft coarse hair tickle my nose and I pull away from him to look at his face again.
“Ooh you have a beard!” I exclaim in delight. “I’ve always thought that beards were sexy but where I come from only old men grow their beards now. I’m not saying they’re sexy or anything but I just thought only a real man knows the value of growing and caring for his beard. Shows character. I mean why grow a beard if you’re not gonna take care of it, right?” I pause to take in a breath.
I move around a little to get more comfortable and he heaves me up higher and grunts.
“I know I look somewhat skinny but I get told a lot that I’m really heavy. There was this one time that I’d fainted in school and no one was able to lift me off the ground and two people had to carry me. One for my legs and the other for my arms and they’d told me what a lot of work it was.” I stop talking when I feel his eyes on me.
I can’t see much in the dark but I assume his sight is better than mine. I smile really big at him and feel vibrations in my chest. I yawn really loud and give him a sheepish look.
“Sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there,” he says gruffly. The smooth deep timber washing over me feels like I’m being embraced in a warm cocoon I never want to leave. Hmm I like the sound of his voice.
“Where are we going? You’ve been walking a long time now. Maybe you should put me down. You must be tired. I like walking. My family always told me that I walk really fast so maybe we’ll get there faster if you just put me down,” I tell him helpfully.
“Woman, do you ever stop talking? God. How the hell did you survive your childhood with a mouth like that? We’ve only been walking for five minutes and I’m ready to not see you again for a long time. My head is pounding the shit out of my ass.” Someone snaps in frustration beside us and I squint into the darkness but I couldn’t make out anyone.
“Where did you come from? I didn’t see you there. I still don’t but now I know you’re here. I’m Makafui. Just call me Kafui. If that too hard for you just call me Celia. And I don’t usually talk this much but what do you mean when you said that…” I stop talking and ask instead. “Forget it, what’s your name?”
“I’ll see you inside Nicholas,” he says in frustration and then he’s gone.
“Nick,” I sigh his name and he grunts the sound travelling straight to my tummy. Hmm, that’s strange. I frown and wiggle around a little.
The sound of snickers fills the quiet night air. Oh, there are more people here. I try to look over Nick’s shoulders but I can't see anyone.
“Hello, I didn’t see you guys over there—”
“We’ll see you inside, Nick,” someone says loudly and then I hear the slamming of a door and then silence.
“Those guys are really rude. I didn’t even introduce myself,” I say dejectedly and then perk up immediately. “There was always this time at school that we’d learn about greetings and manners. So for the rest of the day whenever we see someone we always stop to great and be polite. Every single person we meet on our way home we stop to greet and it became a thing so people know whenever we come back from school in greeting mode that means we learned about greetings and manners at school that day.”
I stop talking to take a breath and realise the man holding me hasn’t said a word and I deflate. I lay my head on his shoulder and I don’t say a word for a while.
I feel him fidget but I still don’t move. I close my eyes and listen to the calming beat of his heart. I’m almost asleep when I take a deep breath and smell the ocean on the breeze. We really must be close to the ocean then.
“Are you okay down there, Kitty?” I make a non-committal sound in the back of my throat.
I hear him open a few doors and feel him turn around corners and then finally he opens a door and then it felt like everyone was talking at once. My headache from earlier threatens to split my head open and I keep my head on his shoulder with my eyes closed. I clear my mind of all the chatter and breathe in his comforting scent.
He smells like home. Like the smoke from the first firewood lit at dawn and the smell of the fresh grass in the morning after a midnight rain. I snuggle in deeper into him and let the sound of his heartbeat lure me to sleep. I’ll deal with all this in the morning if those guys don’t find me first and after I’ve eaten a really heavy breakfast. Comfortable for the first time in what feels like forever, I let the darkness take me again.
Chapter 4
NICHOLAS
“She’s gone,” Stella crushes into the room breathing heavily. She points frantically outside while trying to speak and everyone in the room goes on high alert.
“Who’s gone?” Charlie asks with a frown. Owen snaps out of his seat and grabs Stella by her shoulders but she jerks out of his hold and bends over at the waist.
“I’m so sorry,” she says over and over again. Owen shakes her by the shoulders but she just keeps mumbling she’s sorry over and over again. Owen pushes away from her and rakes a hand through his hair. He pushes her out the door before slamming it with the force of a hundred stampeding elephants.
“Fuck!” he yells into the room which has everyone staring at him in shock. He’s always the calm and cool one, nothing fazes him while I’m known as the hothead with anger management issues. I lean back in my seat and cross my hands behind my head. What the hell’s with him anyway?
“What’s going on?” Arthur demands.
Fucking asshole thinks he’s better than everyone. I roll my eyes at the ceiling. How stupid can he be? We’d just been discussing the women that have been disappearing all over the island and on the Mainland too and he’s asking that?
I wonder who they took now. About a year and a half ago, women have started disappearing from the Mainland and no one knows why. At first it had been women past the mating age and those nearing the mating age but a few months ago pregnant women have started disappearing too.
The strain it’s causing on the Council is starting to wear on us too with the pressure they’re putting on us to find the people behind the kidnapping. Why don’t they get off their old wrinkly asses to go look for them themselves if it is so damn easy.
“She’s gone. We have to find her. Now!” he says frantically looking around the room with wide eyes. Okay, he’s officially starting to freak me out.
“What in the hell are you talking about?” I finally ask in frustration.
“The girl that was brought in about a few months ago that everyone thought was going to die? She woke up this afternoon,” he says more calmly breathing in deeply getting himself under control a little but he still looks agitated.
I snap to attention at his words. She’s awake. And she’s gone. That’s becomes the only thought in my head as fear spikes through me.
How could she be awake? Just then a spike of adrenaline spikes through my system and my breath starts coming in fast pants. My body begins to heat up and then my heart starts beating an irregular rhythm.
Huh? I feel the mark on my chest burn and I hiss. Everyone turns to stare at me quizzically and my mask of cool indifference slips back into place.
“She’s still alive? I thought she was dead,” Arthur says and then waves it off dismissively.
She should have been dead but about
two months ago, my curiosity had driven me to the medical section of the Castle.
Why? Everyone has been talking about the unusual woman that’s been found ashore on the island and I just wanted to see for myself what was so special about her that has everyone curious and even ‘Cool' Owen frazzled.
It was mostly Owen’s reaction that’d made me curious. I should’ve listened to my mother. I’m too damn curious for my own good.
I snuck into her room when everyone had been in the big hall having the usual end of the month dinner that everyone’s supposed to attend to show we—supernaturals, mostly shifters, the possessive thugs—still have no problem living together.
I stood over her bed looking down at her but I couldn’t see anything different about her that would make people talk.
Pale brown skin and caramel colored lips that look like they could really use some balm, she was covered up from her head to her toes and I couldn’t even see her hair.
I leaned in closer to get a better look at her but then her eyes flew open and my body had frozen up in place and won’t budge no matter how much I tried to move.
I looked into the cat green eyes with a ring of fire surrounding the irises and feel the breath leave my body and then I felt something soft nudging at my psyche.
I had no control over my body then and then strands extended from my psyche and wrap themselves around hers binding me to her forever.
Then her eyes had fallen closed again and it was like nothing had happened. I think I’d stayed frozen for a few more minutes before I was able to move again after I’ve gotten over my initial shock.
I’ve been there a few more times to see her but there’s been no change in her condition and I haven’t felt anything crazy from our bond so I put it out of my mind and I haven’t been back there since the last time I went to check on her.
“Yeah, she should have but she started responding to the treatment about two months ago and now she’s awake but she doesn’t remember anything. I was going to run some tests tomorrow, see if I can find out more but now she’s gone. We have to find her,” he says desperately.
I clear my mind and try to feel her again. I envision my psyche and then I see it. Wrapped tightly around mine you wouldn’t know where I begin and where she ends, I see the most beautiful pulsing thick strand of yellow and silver light but the silver seems more prominent.
I reach out with my psyche and gently brush it trying to pinpoint her location but I get nothing from her. My heart tightens painfully in my chest and an overwhelming feeling of loss flood my system.
I let go and then breathe deeply through my nose. I reach out again more forcefully this time, trying to remember what I’ve learnt in psyche and bond class which I have to say isn’t a lot. I nudge at the strand and then I’m in her head.
Whoa. I blink a few times to sift through the chaos. Damn, her mind is a mess and she can’t even hold on to one thought for longer than three seconds. I look through her eyes to see where she is and she isn’t that far away from here. She must have used the backdoor.
How did she even manage to get out of that maze? I see the shopping center that was recently built for the teenagers and the Function Hall. I feel her wistfulness at seeing the cottages and my stomach warms with pride. Why is she looking around so much?
Wait a minute! Something is blocking me out. I look at the smoky wispy screen in front of me and try to pass through and I almost choke. I cough roughly, my eye stinging. What the hell?
“She’s still here. Outside. Backdoor,” I say coughing into my fist. Then someone hits the alarm and the whole place becomes a madhouse. I get out of my seat and head out. Once outside I breathe in the cool night air and I feel the burn in my lungs disappear.
I blow out a breath and look up at the night sky. There isn’t a lot of light around here but I can see clearly like it’s daytime. Even being unable to shift, I sometimes get to use my beast's enhanced senses but only when I’m desperate and right now the desperation rushing through me is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. I close my eyes and take a deep breath hoping I smell her and there it is. She smells like a goddamn chemical laboratory but underneath that is a faint smell of honey and cocoa butter with just a hint of cloves and the smell shoots straight through my system like a shot of adrenaline.
Mate. Mate. Mate.
That becomes the only thought in my head and I take another deep breath to smell her again but my sense have taken a vacation again. I growl in frustration at my messed up senses. At least I still have my powers.
Once I get my bearings straight, I teleport straight to her and just in time before she can disappear into the trees.
I lift her off the ground and pull her into me. I tighten my arms when she starts kicking her legs and clawing at my arms, little growls filling the quiet night.
She’s cute.
“Calm down, Kitty,” I growl at her and her body goes still.
“Good Kitty,” I praise.
“If you don’t put me down in the next two seconds, you won’t have your balls come morning. I swear,” she threatens and my balls draw up tight at her warning.
There’s something in her tone that indicates that she’ll follow through with what she said. I push her away from me and spin her around to face me and let just say my brain just went off. Like I couldn’t even form a thought.
Not even ABCD.
I feel my jaw drop and my tongue hang out and quickly snap my mouth shut when I hear the others in the distance. I don’t know how the rest of the night will go but this is going to be a long night that I’ll remember for life. That I’m sure of.
***
She’s wrapped tightly around me when I finally make it to the Meeting Hall and I have to say the way her warm body is wrapped tightly around me is doing things to my body that I shouldn’t be thinking about right now. I try to look down at her but all I see is thick black braids. Soft breaths hit the sensitive skin of my throat and my stomach tighten in reaction. This is turning out to be a much longer night than I thought. I push the door open and Michael gives a loud whistle and I glare at him.
“Shhh,” I snap and I feel her move around a little. I stay perfectly still not wanting her to wake.
“Is she asleep?” Charlie whispers peering at the woman in my arms with wide eyes. I nod and he sags in his chair in obvious relief. Owen rushes around the table to me with his hand held out as if to take her from me and a growl rips from my throat at the same time that Logan, Robbie and Michael rush over to stop him.
“Don’t do that. You might wake her,” Charlie whispers. Owen stares at us like we’ve all lost our minds.
“Where’s everyone else?” I ask softly. I look around the room but there’s no one besides the five men. I talked to Arthur earlier when I had Celia and he said they’d be in here waiting. Looks like the asshole wasn’t even here when he’d contacted me. I step away from them gingerly careful not to jostle her too much.
“Why are you talking like that?” Owen snaps loudly. I shoot a glare at him and stop dead in my tracks. I look at my seat and calculate the distance between where I stand and the closest chair.
“Shhh,” everyone says looking with wide eyes at the woman in my arms. I stay still while she snuggles more into me. I’m afraid to even move now.
“You do not want her to wake up, dude. Trust me,” Charlie says rubbing at his ears. “My ears are still ringing.”
The guys laugh at him and I grunt, an overwhelming sense of protectiveness surging through me. I don’t like that they’re laughing at her. She’s an angel. Maybe just one that talks a lot.
I move gingerly over to my seat and maneuver her so I’m holding her bridal style now. I sit down and set her in my lap and look down at her. She scrunches up her little button nose and an involuntary smile tilt up the sides of my lips. Cute.
My expressionless mask drops back in place when I hear how quiet the room has gotten. I can’t have them knowing the effect she has on me and what she means
to me.
It’s the best and fastest way to get killed around here. Besides the Council can’t ever find out she is bonded to me. The Council has to permit all bonds and assign a shaman to perform the ceremony.
“What are you planning to do with her?” Michael asks his voice barely above a whisper. I clear my throat hoping to have some more time to come up with a convincing enough lie.
I can’t have this men find out what had happened and our bond won’t let me give her to anyone else. Besides, I won’t let anyone else touch her.
I might not be able to understand how things happened but I believe the universe sent her to me, perhaps in penance for the shitty hand it dealt me all those years ago. Bonds in our community aren’t formed the way ours had. It usually takes time for even true mates to finally realize that they are destined for each other.
I’ve had many sleepless night because of my bond with her. There’s a lot on my mind I don’t know the answers to and I can’t just go around asking this nosy bunch. Owen looks at us like we’ve finally lost our damn minds. Well, I have in my case.
“Well I’m taking her of course,” he says like that’s the obvious answer. He comes closer to me and try to pull her away from me. A vicious growl rips from my throat and I snarl at him, holding on possessively to my woman.
That’s right, she’s my woman. Has been ever since she bonded us together. My gums ache, my canines stubbing at it in an effort to come out but being unable to shift the way the way others can, I know that they won’t and saliva pools in my mouth.
I’m one second away from tearing his throat out with my bare hands when Celia tightens her hold on me and growl softly in her throat. I look down at her in surprise but her eyes are still closed. My canines stop trying to drop, the ache receding a little and I shake my head a little to clear it. He rears back in surprise at my attitude.
“It’s late and we need to be up early for the start of the festival,” Michael says probably to prevent a fight from breaking out but I know it probably has to do with my reaction and how fast he can get me out of here so he can drill me about my behavior. Being my business partner and my best friend he knows me well enough to know I wouldn’t behave like this without a reason.