“So, if you marked me again, it wouldn’t work?” I ask, tying the strings of my pajamas.
“Is that an invitation?”
“No.” I grin, sliding back into bed. “I’m done now.”
He turns around and climbs in the bed with me.
“Would it, though?” I ask.
“No,” he says, pulling me against him, and snuggling close. “But I can give you strength and help you heal faster through the bond.” He moves my hair to trace where he marked me. It’s already healed, but both of us know exactly where he bit.
“Can I do that for you?”
“Not yet.” His fingers brush against my skin in strokes, sending shivers up and down my spine.
“Why not?”
Lifting his gaze, his eyes find mine. “Because you haven’t marked me.”
I swallow. “So, if I were to...mark you, I would be able to heal you? If you were injured, I mean.”
“The initial bite, yes.”
“And after.”
“The same as me.” Leaning close, he kisses the spot. I can also speak to you in your mind.
I feel his grin rather than see it when I gasp.
“I thought you could only do that in wolf form.”
“Now that I’ve claimed you, I can speak to you in any form. You’ll be able to do the same once—if you claim me.”
“I have a question.”
Amusement dances in his eyes when he pulls away. “I may have an answer.”
“Why didn’t you know I was your mate when we first met?” I ask.
His gaze shifts between my eyes. I try to fight the desire to hide from the intensity of them. “Do you think I hid the fact?” he asks. “That I knew before the shift?”
“No.” I lift one shoulder in a shrug. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
He nods as his eyes travel back to my shoulder. He can’t seem to leave it alone. “Everyone has a mate link, but no one can actually sense it. Not until you touch your mate, and it flares to life.”
“Still doesn't explain how you didn’t know.”
A corner of his mouth quirks up. “I’m getting to it.”
“Proceed.”
He laughs. “Thank you for your permission.” He reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “I did feel something, but I thought you were human.”
“Because humans don’t have the mate link.”
“Exactly, the mate link and bond is from the essence in our blood, just like the alpha and pack bonds. My best guess is because you hadn’t shifted yet. Maybe that dulled the link, made it harder to detect until you shifted. Now that I think back on it, the signs were there, but I was oblivious.”
I brush over where he bit. “I felt something when I first shifted. This insane desire to mark you. But so much has happened that I didn’t connect the dots.”
He covers my hand with his and squeezes.
“Is there a difference between links and bonds?” I ask.
“Link is before the bond is in place. So, for example, the link was solidified and became a bond for me when I marked you, but yours is still a link.”
I’m a bit hesitant to ask the next question in case he gets the wrong idea. “And what happens if you refuse the link?”
“The link breaks…snaps in half. I’ve heard it’s extremely painful.”
My heart pings. “Y-you were willing to feel that pain if I declined you?”
He sighs, his thumb brushing back and forth over my skin. “Yes, but I didn’t want you to know.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t want to sway you. You would never purposely inflict pain on me, let alone anyone.”
My chest tightens. “I love you.”
Resting back on the bed, he pulls me to him. “I love you too, my mate.”
Gripping my hair, he gently pulls it, forcing my head to move until my neck is bared to him. “Do you know what else the mark means?” he asks as his fingers caress the invisible mark. My breath hitches, his touch more intense than usual.
I hold my breath as his fingers dance up my neck. “Well?” he says, his breath caressing and tickling my skin.
“Not exactly,” I say, breathless. “Just that it means you claimed me as your mate.”
“Yes, but there’s more.” He nips my ear. “Not only is it a claim, but also a promise. A promise to always love you, cherish you, protect you, and care for you.” He cups the back of my head, pulling me forward until we’re once more face-to-face. “You are my number one, above everyone else, even before the pack. I will never want another, only you. Forever you, Ellie darling.” His eyes mist over with unshed tears as he gazes into mine. The warmth in them is stronger than I have ever seen before. “I was afraid I would lose you. I love you, my mate, my love.”
Tears burn my eyes as I choke out, “I love you too. I love you with all my heart, Ash—I don’t know your middle name—Sylvester.”
He breaks out in a laugh with a watery smile. “It’s Buwan. It was my father’s name, and his father’s before him.” He leans in and kisses me briefly. “And I love you with all my heart and soul, Eleanor Rose Hollenberg.”
“How did you know mine?”
He grins. “Birth certificate.”
I chuckle. “Figures.”
I wake up to the mattress moving and watch Ash climb out of bed and stretch, revealing a sliver of his smooth light-brown skin. He sighs then turns around, catching me ogling him. Blushing heats my face as he sends me a smile.
“I’ll be right back,” he says and enters his adjoined bathroom.
Turning onto my side, I listen to the water running. It’s still too early to get up, and I don’t want to. After everything that happened yesterday, I just want to spend all day in bed.
My heartbeat spikes.
“Am I an alpha now?” I whisper into the dark. Ash and I are now the alpha couple because he claimed me, right? I look over to the bathroom. The only thing left to do is for me to mark him. And I plan on it, but not until everything has calmed down and we can make it special. Not sure how to do that quite yet.
His phone buzzes, making me jolt. A moment later, Ash comes out and picks it up, scowling down at it.
“Any news?” I ask, not being able to hide my curiosity.
He sighs, places the phone back down, and rejoins me in bed, snuggling close. “Russell suspects witches are involved. They snuck up on us too easily.”
I jerk up into a sitting position. “So Russell is okay?” Does it make me an awful person that I forgot about him for a moment?
Ash pulls me back down to him. “Yes, he has some deep gashes and a few broken ribs that need some extra care, but he’ll be fine.” He chuckles lightly. “To his horror, he’ll have to take it easy for a while.”
I relax into Ash’s embrace. “Oh good. He’ll be okay.” I sigh and then jerk back up. “Wait. Jane!”
He pulls me back down again. “She’s in bad shape but Kathy is personally watching over her. She is optimistic that Jane will have a full recovery.”
I place a hand over my heart as it aches. So Jane really was there. Marcus wasn’t lying about it. Ash wipes a few of my tears that escape.
“And Alice?” I whisper.
“She was hurt badly, but will also make a full recovery.”
I did this. Marcus was after me. If I wasn’t there, no one else would’ve gotten hurt.
“Ellie, stop it.” Ash props up over me, gazing into my eyes. “I know what you’re thinking. It’s not your fault. It’s Marcus’.”
I blink rapidly. “But—”
“No. Marcus is the one who attacked. Don’t blame yourself.”
“How did he get to be so powerful?” I ask, terror eating at me. “Is it because of witches? Did they use magic?”
“It appears that way. They could’ve been hired, or the lycans could’ve bought potions to dim our senses or to camouflage themselves. Hard to say which it is.”
“Would a witch need to be present to
use magic?”
“Not if it was a potion.”
I nod and think back on the attack before Marcus. “Well, I didn’t notice any non-lycans. But I guess they could’ve camouflaged themselves.”
“Russell said the same thing.” He lets out a pent-up breath. “Also, Sophie and her team couldn’t find Marcus.”
“Why am I not surprised?” I say, bitterly. “How?”
“He got away by jumping in the freezing river. There are no tracks leading out of the water anywhere, but also no body.” The picture of the river enters my mind as I remember running by it yesterday. It was half frozen with chunks of ice floating down it.
“Do you think he could survive that?”
“Even a pureblood would struggle healing if exposed to that water for long.”
“I feel a ‘but’ coming.”
He gives me a solemn look. “But he’s larger than even a pureblood, stronger and faster too, and his scent is wrong.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“He smells rotten.”
I try to remember his scent. He did smell rotten to me, but I’m not used to using my enhanced abilities yet. Sophie said you have to think about it in human form to use them, like I have to do when I partial-shift, but in wolf form it comes naturally.
“So you think he survived?”
“Considering our recent experiences with him? Yes.”
I knew it would be too good to hope for this to be all over. “Our luck has been pretty bad.”
It’s strange to think about everything that happened yesterday, everything I found out. I don’t even know where to start. I guess looking at my parents’ files might help. Maybe it’ll tell me something that will help because I want to get this behind us. To move on. But that can’t happen until Marcus is no longer an issue and the mysteries behind our parents’ deaths are solved. Maybe then we can all focus on healing and moving on with our lives, including making this a pack to be proud of because...because now I’m Ash’s mate.
“Not all the time.” Ash nuzzles closer and mutters into my neck. “If we didn’t have some luck, I wouldn’t have found you, nor would you have survived last night.”
I turn into him more and cuddle back. We stay like this for a while, both of us lost in our own thoughts. It’s been too long since we’ve been able to just relax and think with one another. It’s nice, just listening to his even breaths and heartbeat. Although, his breath on my neck is a bit distracting.
A caress on my cheek jars me from my thoughts. I turn my face into Ash’s light touch.
“What are you thinking?” he murmurs.
“If I wasn’t a lycan, would you still have wanted me?”
His brows scrunch together as he turns to face me. “Of course. I didn’t know you were a lycan until you shifted, and I wanted you before that. Remember? I’ve told you multiple times.”
“I know, but I would’ve died before you if I was human. I would get old while you would still”—I gesture to him, and he grabs my hand and kisses the tips of my fingers—“look like this.”
“I wouldn’t care.”
“How do you know?” I ask.
“Because I’ve seen it with others. Charlie was married to a human and loved her. He even had a child with her—Alice. She didn’t die when she was old, but he mourned her for years and years after.”
“But if she were a lycan, maybe she would’ve lived longer and—”
“If she were a lycan, we wouldn’t know the Alice we know today, and with a fifty-fifty success rate of the bite working—”
“Bite?”
“Right, I forgot we haven’t talked about that yet. There are two ways to change a lycan, either to receive the blood of an Elite and become an Original, or be bitten.”
“Is that how there became so many?” I ask
“Yes. For example, the witch Elite freed a lot of her fellow slaves by sharing her blood and making them Originals. Then there are the bitten. They are the ones that were changed from being bitten by either an Elite or Original. And the bitten aren’t as strong.”
“Okay, I think I get it. So, if the bite didn’t work on Alice’s mom, nothing would change, right? Alice would still be half-human, half-lycan.”
“No…if it didn’t work. There would be no Alice, because her mother, Lily, would’ve died. Those who don’t change into lycans are killed by the bite.”
My eyes widen. “That’s horrible.”
He nods. “But people were willing to chance it.”
I can’t fathom why. “Why?”
“Because of love or power. Only the Elites can change others with their blood. So, if an Original wants to change someone they have to bite them.”
“Could you or I change someone with a bite?”
“Yes, but the chances of survival decreases with the essence in our blood. The less we have, the less likely they’ll change.”
“Does this still happen today?” I ask.
“No,” he answers, lowering his hand to my waist, the heat of his touch sparking something inside, “at least it’s not supposed to. It was banned after the war by a vote of the Originals and alphas. There aren’t many rules that we all follow, usually each alpha decides for his pack, but that’s one of them. The others are no killing in cold blood, no slaves…those kinds of things. But how each pack is run is up to the alphas.”
Letting out a long exhale, I rest my head on his chest. There’s still so much to learn, yet I can’t keep everything in line in my mind. “I may be a bit overwhelmed again with everything.”
“I may have a solution to distract you.”
Peering up at him, I notice his roguish grin. I prop myself up on my elbows. “What are you thinking?”
He leans forward and captures my lips in a searing kiss. “I’m thinking of doing a lot of that.” He works his way over, placing kisses in a trail along my jaw then down my neck. My heart races and my skin warms as he adjusts the collar of my shirt until my shoulder is revealed. His hot mouth lands on his mark, sending a jolt of desire through me. He grins against me.
“Ash, I—”
“Shh,” he whispers and captures my mouth once more. “Let me show you how much you mean to me.”
“You already do, all the time,” I say between kisses.
He takes advantage, swiping his tongue across my bottom lip and inside my part lips, brushing my tongue with his. “No more talking.”
I hum in response and let him take the kiss deeper, focusing just on him and his touches. His hands tangle in my hair.
Wet drops land on my face. I open my eyes to see tears fall from Ash’s closed ones.
My chest tightens. He’s been putting on such a brave act for me. I’ve put him through so much in such a short amount of time.
Reclosing my eyes, I grab his face in between my shaky hands, feeling the soft scruff along his jaw and cheeks, and tentatively take charge of the kiss. I’ve never initiated like this before. But I want to. And I want more this time.
I push against him until it’s me who’s on top. I try to show him just how much I love and care for him with this kiss. How lucky I am to have him. I hope he can feel what he means to me. He’s been here for me every step of this process. But I’m not just wanting this because I want to prove my love, no, I want this simple because I want to. I want the intimacy it brings. Why should I have a reason to want more than that? Shouldn’t loving him, him loving me, and having a mutual desire for this be all we need?
I elicit a moan from him when I suck on his tongue. One of his hands strays away from my hair to move down my back until it reaches a sliver of exposed skin.
Ash’s breath hitches when I tug on his shirt, wanting to feel more of his skin on mine.
His hand stalls as he breaks away, breathing heavily. “Ellie, I…”
I sit back on my knees and look down on him. “I want this, Ash. I want you.”
He swallows. “But yesterday…”
“Just showed me how much you mea
n to me, and how much I want this. Us. Please, I want more.”
His gaze burns into mine. “We would be us, even without this.”
I smile. He always says the perfect things. “I know. But I want more. Do you?”
He bites his lip and nods. “But if you aren’t sure…”
I brush a lock of his ebony hair off his forehead. “I am sure.”
His throat bobs. “Any time you want to stop, just say the word and I will.”
“Okay.”
Ash takes a shaky breath. His body trembles under me as he gently tugs me back down to him. “I love you, Ellie,” he says against my lips before taking them with his own.
“I love you, too,” I say back and get lost in his touch.
Ash places a cardboard box of my parents’ things on the kitchen table for me. “I’m sorry it’s not more. This is all they gave me.”
“It’s more than I had before.” I grab the files that lay on top. “Did you look through these already?” I ask.
“Only briefly. Do you want me to go through it with you?”
I glance up at him. “You don’t have to. I know you have some work and searching you want to do before Christmas.” Christmas is only two days away and the surprise attack was three days ago. We want to be prepared, but we decided that on Christmas we would take a break and relax.
He bites his lip, looking at the box then to the files in my hands. “I think I’ll grab my laptop and bring it in here in case you have any questions.”
I smile. “Sounds good,” I say, sitting down at the table. He leaves the room while I open my dad’s file first. His birth certificate sits on top.
My eyes bug out when I see his birth date is in the sixteen hundreds. He was at least four hundred years old. My heart pings—that was around the same age as Charlie.
Alice is still staying with us, but right now Dr. Kathy—I mean Kathy as she requested I call her—wants to keep a close eye on her, so she’s been in the hospital since the attack. Along with Jane and Russell. Jane is in a forced coma like I was, but it’s likely she’ll be under longer.
I open my mom’s file beside my dad’s and find she’s younger than him by a hundred years. A smile forms on my face. Kind of like Ash and I.
Removing the rest of my dad’s files, I spread them out in front of me and place my mom’s to the side for the time being.
Saving Ellie (Lycans Book 1) Page 31