Chapter 80
Charlie POV
I took my coffee upstairs with me, my thoughts were consumed with Kyle and Maria, and what the pack would be like after his death. I washed my face quickly and brushed my hair before I put a little makeup on, the mask you use to protect yourself, my mother used to say, I didn’t realise how true it was until I found myself applying my waterproof mascara. 1 drained the last of my coffee, brushed my teeth and applied a lip stain. In the bedroom, I swapped the shirt I was wearing for a pale blue sweater, and I dug my high tops out of the overnight bag, slipping them on, I gave myself a few seconds to calm down before I went to join the others. I had never been to anyone’s bedside while they were dying before, and I was terrified of saying the wrong thing and upsetting anyone. Just as I was about to get myself together and get up off of the bed, Daniel appeared in the doorway.
“Ben and Maria just left, I said we would meet them at the hospital if you’re nearly ready?” He smiled at me.
“Yeah, I’m ready, I just needed a minute, to clear my head.” I smiled back and got up off the bed, checking around me in case I had forgotten something, or not put something away after myself. I was stalling, I didn’t feel ready to go talk to a boy who was about to di e, and I felt guilty, I had thought that none of it would’ve happened if Daniel hadn’t started dreaming about me.
“Hey, what’s going on in that head of yours? I can practically feel your anxiety over here.” He said as he came into the room to comfort me.
“Is that like a wolf thing? You can smell my pheromones or whatever and it tells you if I’m anxious or ovulating or something?” I rambled, stalling even more.
“I don’t know, I’ve never- stop changing the subject!” He said confused and clearly now thinking about how his sense of smell worked. “What is making you so anxious, maybe if you tell me I can help?” He offered, he sat on the bed and pulled me onto his lap.
“I’m scared I’m going to say or do the wrong thing and you’ll get jealous and there will be gossip about me and Kyle and the more problems with the pack accepting me the less chance we have of seeing if this can work.” I blurted, suddenly feeling very selfish and embarrassed.
“I don’t know how you still don’t understand this, but with or without the pack I’m yours, forever. I’m done, you’re my one, my soulmate, my other half, whatever you want to call it, I’m yours, and I know you think I’ll resent you if I pick you over the pack, but the truth is, there’s no choice. If you’re not here, then I’m going wherever you are. So, no more worrying about the pack, because that’s my job, and they don’t matter, not when it comes to this relationship, okay?” He kissed my cheek, which made me giggle as his beard tickled my skin. I got up and straddled his legs.
“How are you so sure you won’t resent me?” I asked seriously as his hands ran up my body.
“Because I’ve seen the mate bond work, I trust it will work everything else out in the end, I’ve also seen people who’ve lost their mates, and I can’t live like that.” He breathed against my lips; my body quivered under his touch. His lips captured mine, his hands moved beneath my sweater, his fingertips traced my spine, up to my bra strap, as his lips moved down my neck. “I love you, Charlie, I can live without the pack, but I can’t live without you.” He whispered in my ear, it was intimate, like an oath, and it made my panties wet. I had to bite back my whine of need as his lips moved down to the exposed V of skin on my chest. “We should go.” He groaned, his breath hard and fast, I could feel he was aroused, and his eyes were flickering to that of his wolf’s. I moved off him, but that’s when he caught the scent of my arousal. He growled lowly. “F**k baby, do you have any idea how f**king intoxicating you smell.” The gravelly voice of his wolf barked before Daniel regained control. “I’m sorry, did I scare you?” He asked, and I realised when I had gotten off him, I had immediately taken up a defensive position, like in the classes my mother had paid for when I told her I was going to college in Boston.
“No, I’m sorry, I guess I’m just a little jumpy after last time.” I tried to brush past it, I wasn’t sure a big emotional talk is ideal before going to visit someone dying in the hospital.
“No, don’t apologise for not feeling safe with my wolf, that’s on me, and him, but it’s not on you. You have nothing to apologise for.” He kissed me softly. “But, while we are on the subject, I was wondering if you’ve thought any more about letting me mark you? I know it’s a big ask, but I really think my wolf will calm down once there’s and forgive the name because I know it’s not ideal, but, once there’s a claim on you, it makes it known you’re taken.” I looked at him gobsmacked at his whole rant.
“A claim? A claim, really?” Was all I could say as I stood in the bedroom, shocked beyond words.
“Yeah, it’s what it’s called when only one in the couple marks the other, but it isn’t reciprocated,” Daniel explained.
“Why?” Again, it was all the words my brain could formulate.
“Because, occasionally a long time ago, there would be more than one wolf claiming another was their mate. Things got particularly confusing if the usually female wolf was not eighteen, and therefore could not tell which wolf was her mate. Sometimes an older wolf will know its mate, even if the younger wolf hasn’t reached maturity. In some cases, wolves have been known, in the past, to mark their future mates, thus laying a claim to them. The practice was outlawed on juvenile wolves, but it still happens occasionally with mature wolves.” He said, waiting for my reaction.
“That’s disturbing.” Was all I managed to say before I left the room, we had to leave, and I needed to process everything I had just heard. Daniel followed me,
obviously worried about my reaction or lack thereof so far. I picked up my coat and headed for the door, Daniel hot on my heels as I left the house. “Do you have your keys?” I asked him before he closed the door.
“Yeah, but I thought we were going to have a bit more of a conversation about what I asked you upstairs?” He asked still looking at me like I was a bomb that hadn’t detonated yet.
“I need a moment to wrap my head around the fact that, in your culture’s history, it was so commonplace for men to bite women, and girls without their consent, that they gave it a name!” I said, making him pause.
“Yeah, I know it’s bad.” He said as he opened the car door for me, I climbed in, lost in my own thoughts,
“Why wouldn’t you wait? Why would anyone mark their mate before that mate could understand what was happening and why?” I asked, the words flew out of my mo uth before I could stop them.
“It’s to do with the side effects of a half-finished mating process, it goes against nature, for Lycans at least, so there are side effects, for Lycans.” He kept glancing at me, waiting for me to pop.
“What are the side effects, for Lycans?” I asked, sure I wouldn’t like his answer.
“The bond wants to be finished, so you become irrationally attracted to the Lycan that bit you when it’s your true mate. If you don’t mate and finish the bond, you run a fever and can become a little obsessed with finding the one that bit you and marking them back. We call it the heat.” Daniel said quietly.
“Has this ever happened to a Nymph or another species?” I asked a little uneasy that he even wanted to try this.
“Well, we know the same rules don’t apply with vampires, but in most cases, it is the male wolf that bites the female vampire but doesn’t get bitten in return and the vampire doesn’t experience the same side effects. And the male side effects are a bit different, but I don’t think male vampires have that problem either.” He evaded as he dr ove.
“What are the male symptoms then?” I asked, looking forward to a little tit-for-tat.
“A mild fever, the urge to complete the bond, increased libido, increased fertility, increased rage, it’s not pretty.” I recognised the street we were on; we were almost to the hospital, and I was still distracted by Daniel’s explanation.
“And you thought it would be a good idea for me to go through?” I asked incredulously.
“No, I doubt it would affect you in the same way!” He scoffed.
“How sure? Are there stories of Nymphs going through this? Humans? Anyone other than Lycans and Vampires?” I asked, struggling to keep my cool.
“No, but all our physiologies are so different, there is very little chance that it would affect you like that.” He shrugged off my concerns. It pis sed me off, but we were at the hospital, so I chose to pause our fight until after we had seen Kyle. I got out of the car before he had a chance to run around to my side and open my door, I left him in the lot, as I walked towards the entrance without him. I had just reached the reception area and a different girl from my previous visit, I was about to ask her what room Kyle was in when he caught up to me and draped his arm around my shoulders. “I know where to go, I was here earlier.” He smiled at the girl and breezed past her, pulling me along with him to the elevator. A few people were exiting an empty elevator as we approached, we let them past, and Daniel pressed the button for our floor. “What’s going on? Why are you running away from me?” He asked concerned.
“Daniel, you just said you were happy to experiment on me, with nothing more than a hope and a dream that I wouldn’t lose my self-control and beg you to let me mark you back, which is what you really want anyway, and you expect me to not only be okay with you thinking that way but actually go ahead and let you mark me and we will just see what happens. And you see nothing wrong with it, which is the scariest part of all.” I cried, before I stormed off the elevator, and realised I had no idea where I was going.
