Chapter 14: Kiss Me, Then.

S E B A S T I A N

Where did our mate go?

How will she disappear?

Where did she go?

Duke is already in a full-on panicky mode which is not of any help.

The moonlight shines down the beaten-down path I am walking on, and the wind is crisp and smells of fresh pines. The leaves crunch under my feet with each step I take, grass and weed sliding against my pant legs, and I try to make my breathing as normal as ever despite my wolf being hysterical.

I shake my head and sigh as I stop to look at the wildflowers— which strangely and aptly remind me of Emmy, mysterious, intriguing, and so goddamn beautiful. That arrogant and foolish yet brave human who is truly a fresh breath of air in my mundane life of bloodlust and savagery. I never thought of letting someone in, and now I have a mate, I think I can.

Right?

Duke howls happily for a moment which makes me bring back to reality. I roll my eyes and look away, rubbing the back of my neck. Ugh, where did you go? I straighten up and resume my steps as I wonder if I treat her the way she should have from the beginning, will she accept me? Will she let me in? Will she love me?

I shake my head to get these thoughts out of my head, but that's when I feel something eerie in my bones and halt in my track. Since it's already dark, minus the moonlight and starlight peeking through the trees, I squint my eyes and scan the place as I inhale the air, which now reeks of a metallic stench that I could taste in the back of my throat.

I then hear a whimper.

A helpless whimper.

My frown deepens, and I peer through from where I am, only to be left startled by the lifeless bodies lying and blood splattered everywhere. What the hell! What the fuck happened on my fucking territory? Who dared to do this? I step closer to investigate when from the corner of my eyes, I catch a glimpse of something big and white and beaming light but tainted with red.

It's a fucking white wolf.

Rarest of rare in our community.

What is this one doing here in my territory? I witness it pin another dirty grey wolf and bite the neck. Then, stepping off the whimpering she-wolf, the white wolf stays still.

I find it strangely calming to watch the wolf take a break when Duke excitedly howls, Mate!

What!?

Completely stunned, I break the eerie silence as a twig snaps under my pressure. It alarms the wolf, and it immediately looks up to lock those fierce blazing red eyes with mine.

This can't—this can't be possible.

Emmy is the rare white wolf of our generation!!!

However, before I can react to this new piece of information or to the guilt flashing in those eyes of hers, I hear a grunt of pain, and I reluctantly take my eyes off her, only to look over her to see another greyish brown rogue wolf glaring and snarling at her back.

Preparing his frail, injured body to attack her, which doesn't fit well with me as a grim look appears and the moment he growls and lunges toward her when like the wind, I come between them and hold him by his furry throat. One look at me—I sense him tremble out of fear, and his eyes are shaky and watery.

I smirk with pride until I look over and lock eyes with her. My grip tightens around the rogue's neck, and I apply way more force to have a snapping sound echoing in the woods, but I do not letting go of her intense gaze devoid of emotion.

I'm so confused and in shock, and so is Duke, but at least he seems slightly cheerful.

Yet I don't know how to react, and she, in her wolf form, and I, in my human form, stare at each other for the longest seconds of my life.

That's when we hear growls and suddenly find ourselves surrounded by 6 or 7 useless rogues. They glare at us.

I face them intensely, but not before I glance back over my shoulder at her. We lock eyes for a brief moment. I know we have a lot to talk about, and she has a lot to explain, but not now. She knows it, too, because she slightly nods at me.

I purse my lips and look away, agreeing that this is the time to fight only, not to create unnecessary drama that can be resolved later on—with that being understood, I shift into my wolf form.

Bring it on, those you dare to disrespect me!

Duke howls in excitement.

The pathetic excuse of a fight ensues, with her and my team easily winning. Child's play, yet it's exhilarating to hear them whimper and beg for mercy before I snap their lives away with my claws. I briefly glance over at her and grin. Whatever it is, we do make a great time kicking sorry asses like these.

Not for long when I notice a reddish-brown wolf circling to attack me. I smirk. My claws dig and put a hole in his stomach. His widened eyes are shaky as he looks at me. He's hurt, but I keep going. I can smell how scared he is. It pours out of him just like he is spluttering blood.

Don't kill me. I will tell you everything. Just please don't kill me. He whimpers and begs.

As if I care.

I scoff.

Why are you here? How dare you trespass the Midnight Hunters' borders? You disrespect me. I growl snappily and tighten my grip on his head. I can easily crush that skull.

He shakes his head and whimpers. I was ordered, no, paid. So our group was paid to ambush the girl.

I snarl. Who fucking paid you?

He trembles with fear and looks like he is steadying himself to respond, but I release my anger and repeat blows that decapitate him. I move back and stare at the nasty mess when there is a loud thud.

I turn my head and find that white wolf on the ground, whimpering in pain.

The other wolf pins her down and swipes his claws on her shoulder before he bites into her neck. Even with no imprinting, I feel her pain. It hurts like hell, and I can't imagine her bearing that. Blood squirts out of her body as she howls in utmost pain when her droopy eyes move over at me.

A tear rolls down her fur.

An apologetic guilty smile appears on her face.

The wolf continues to prod her wounds which makes me see nothing but red as I immediately rush and pounce at him.

I take him by surprise and kill him.

My breathing is heavy. I glower at the lifeless body shifted back to a human before I decapitate him in rage and growl when a painful cry brings me back.

Emmy — I shift back to my human form as I scurry toward her and take her in my arms.

"Mate," I whisper.

Finally, accepting that no matter who she is, human or werewolf, she is my mate. "Hey, love, can you hear me? Please, hold on. You're going to be okay. You can't leave me. Please, please." I say and hold onto her naked self in my arms with the utmost desperation when she slowly forces her eyes to meet mine. She painfully lifts a hand. I shake my head but freeze as she presses her palm against my face.

A faint smile appears on her bloodied lip, and she whispers back, "Mine."

It would have been a lovely moment if she hadn't fainted.

E M B E R

I open my eyes with immense pain coursing through my body and reaching my head as I let out a low groan. I look up at a stony ceiling above me.

Confused, I frown. Where am I? Rayne is too weak to respond in words but with a head shake.

I move my eyes around and can hear water pounding the rocks. So I am near a water body? I note in my head though even thinking makes my head hurt. I feel hands in my hair caressing, and I look over to catch a glimpse of someone hover me.

It feels good that I fear I will fall asleep again, but I need to know what happened to me after I let the darkness engulf me. And was it for real that I saw him when I was in my wolf form? Did I out myself to my mate, who believed I was a mere human? I peel my eyes open to investigate when a hand appears out of nowhere and slides something off my face.

My hair— a face with a faint relaxed smile appears in front of my eyes, then as fingers caress my cheek, and I flinch a little when a familiar voice softly says my name, "Emmy."

Sebastian?

I blink rapidly, and it happens that he is staring down at me as our eyes lock. His tired, desperate eyes look a little alive when he gasps and then pulls me in a sudden hug as I sense a pair of arms around me, "Oh, my!"

Rayne feels her heart skipping beats.

Relieved, he deeply sighs, "Oh, thank god! You woke up. I was so worried." I let out a series of groans and grunt in pain because every part of my body hurts like a bitch, but being in his arms feels reassuring.

He notices me wince and pulls away as he murmurs, "Oh, I'm sorry if that hurt—" startled, I don't let him finish and push him away from me.

But he doesn't let go of me because his arms are steadying me. That's when I take this moment to look at him and how hot our mate is, despite the fact that he looks worn out and older than the last hour or so I saw him. However, the next thing in my mind comes that he caught me as a wolf and then fought with me against the rogues.

I blink and try to tear my eyes off him. I just couldn't do it. I watch him sulk and pout with a grim countenance that I feel bad. I force myself to look away and notice the place I am in looks like a dark cave, but there are hundreds of glow worms lit it up and a freaking waterfall inside here—it's quite breathtakingly alluring.

"Why?" he grits.

His voice makes shivers run down my spine as it brings me back to him. I raise my eyebrow and mumble, "Why what?" I turn my head to look at my mate. His hands are clenched, and his jaw is tightened. He looks pissed, but mostly I feel hurt emitting from him. My heart aches for him, or is it from the wounds I got?

Which makes me glance down to see I'm practically wearing nothing except a blue shirt with dried blood on it and some gauze tape wrapped around my breasts.

But before I can react, he runs a hand through his hair and huffs, "Why are you so hostile with me? You laugh and smile so easily with others."

Is he serious?

He takes a deep breath and sighs, "Even after knowing your truth, I fought those filthy rogues with you. I brought you here and healed you. I comforted you so far in this freezing area, yet you always scowl at me." he looks anguished as he awaits an answer, but did he seriously ask me that?

I scoff, "That's because they don't treat me like you do."

"What do you mean?" he quizzically looks at me, and I gape at him as if he has gone bonkers. Is he pretending that he did nothing to me?

I lean back and snappily taunt him, "They treat me better than you. I'm a human to them while all you do is torment me."

"You are no human from what I just witnessed," he says matter of factly. It's clear that he knows, and I indeed met him. Not a hallucination.

I roll my eyes at him and snarkily say, "You know what I mean."

There is a moment of silence, hoping he is taking time to reflect on his misconduct toward me, but he surprises me when he looks back at me and snorts, "Well, at least I saved your life."

So, he wants to be petty now.

I stare at him in total disbelief and scoff, "Unbelievable."

He tilts his head and smirks, "Thanks, I know I'm unbelievably hot."

Heck, he is.

Rayne swoons and agrees as I glare at him. And too overconfident for my liking. What the heck is wrong with him? I clench my fists and then fake a smile, "Oh, gee, thanks for saving me then."

I immediately look away and pout. Wasn't he gloomy a few seconds ago? He leans back and sighs but doesn't tear his eyes off me, "No need to be sarcastic. I did what I had to do."

I snap my head back at him. I must say he has a knack for annoying me every time. I raise my eyebrows, blurting out, "What did you have to do? You had to do? What was it? Was it to humiliate me? To let your members mistreat me? Or was it your girlfriend slapping me?"

I taunt him, sneeringly.

Sebastian rolls his eyes and snarls, "She isn't my girlfriend—" then he murmurs, "and no."

It would be a lie if I said I was not a little relieved.

Okay, okay, I'm a lot relieved.

But that's not the point here.

"Ha, yeah, what you had to do was force your fated one to work as your personal maid—" unable even to finish up the sentence and to sit so close to him, I get up.

Uh, too fast.

Too fast.

I feel light-headed and stumble on my feet when he calls out, "Careful," his husky voice pulls my heartstrings as he holds me still in his arms. I allow myself to lean into him for a moment and breathe in his sweet scent, but before I am fully lost, I immediately pull back.

I push him away and glare at his face as I harshly say, "You don't need to worry about me. I am fully capable of taking care of myself. I mean, I took on almost everybody."

I say with a tinge of pride in the tone, and it surprises me to see him mirror my expression. "Yeah, it was very valiant of you." he grins.

Ugh, there are stupid insects fluttering in my stomach that I want to thwart right away.

Master of a straight face, I straighten up and look right into his eyes as I snap, "Do I have to remind you what you've done to me since I was caught here? What happened to me for the past couple of days? Ever since I got here, you have done nothing to help me and have the audacity to ask why I am hostile to you." I run a hand through my hair and wince as I snappily state, "Because it's messed up. Everything you do is messed up—and what the heck!"

I step back away from him and exclaim, "Are you serious? You saw everything?" I scramble and try to cover any skin that shouldn't be shown with a blue shirt. It's a rhetorical question because, of course, he did. I mean, he attended to all my wounds.

I catch a glimpse of a slight smirk on his face, shudder at the lust in his eyes, and pretend not to notice how it hurts me to say hurtful words to his face. It even hurts to rant, but right now, I am in the adrenaline rush that keeps me going when I watch him shrug and then murmur, "No, I didn't mean that... any of that."

I exasperatingly blurt out, "Then what? Explain to me. Explain to me why you can't let me go, yet you are making me stay here. It's maddening."

"Because I don't know."

I raise my eyebrow and scoff, "What? You don't know?" I take a moment to calm down, with my chest rapidly heaving up and down. I watch him in silence and notice a crease on his forehead, his tightened jaw as if he is pondering over what to tell me.

"Yeah, I don't know." he sighs and looks up, facing forward. "I don't know what to say or how to. All my life, I thought having a mate was a sign of weakness that others would take advantage of." I thought it too. "Having feelings and expressing them felt like a sign of weakness, and all I have been doing is deciding and acting upon my decisions. Consequences be damned. I like having everybody fear me than loving me. But not with you."

What?

I raise my gaze as my heartstrings get pulled, and my heart beats inside my rib when he looks over at me and nods. "Yeah, I can't be the way I am when I am with you."

He steps into my space and gently places a hand on my face. "Because, with you, I have these feelings I have never felt before. You make me feel things that weren't there. They are intense and make me go crazy. Staying away from me or staying by my side, the thought of you drives me to go crazy that I can't think of anything else that mattered before you came."

The fluttery feeling is back again as if it never left. I shudder and try my best to keep a normal breath, but it seems impossible.

My heart is fricking pounding as he maintains eye contact and continues, "It's not just my wolf inside, but I have been thinking about you. You make me curious. I want to be the one who makes you laugh and smile. I want to hold you in my arms. I want to mark you already because it's fucking bothersome to see other men around you."

Rayne excitedly howls at the suggestion.

As the pad of his thumb caresses my cheek and moves down closer to my lip, I whimper.

He leans in to whisper as his lip touches my earlobe, "I want to kiss you, and not because your lips are tempting, but because it's you. You don't know how much I want you to make you mine—" I blurt out, "Then do it." interrupting him but surprising myself more than him.

"What?" He pulls back with a confused frown.

I don't tear my eyes off him and determinedly stare into his eyes.

"Kiss me, then."

I nod and click my tongue, "Make me aware of those feelings you never had before. Make me know how much you want me. Let me know that this won't be a mistake, Sebastian. That I won't make a mistake—" Our eyes meet for a moment. He doesn't need a reminder because he crashes his lips to mine the next moment, knocking the air out of my lungs.

I take a couple of steps back, not expecting the sudden impact.

He roughly moves his lips against mine, and I find myself responding to his kiss. I tangle my fingers in his hair and lightly pull on the strands. His hands run up and down my sides and grip my waist.

I notice him being extra careful because of my wounds until he grabs my butt and lifts me off the ground. I gasp, which gives enough time for our tongues to meet, battling for dominance, but he wins not so pretty quickly. I wrap my legs around his waist and feel his hardness. I moan at the pure ecstasy of it all as our bodies thrill against each other, and we melt together, floating, tangling, drifting.

I lean your head back, and eyes half-lidded with delight as his lips explore your skin under the glow worms light. I let out a gasp as he gently nips at my neck, his hand drifting along my thigh... then higher. My breathing grows heavier as I lean into his touch.

I feel him smirk, but then he stops and looks into my eyes. We are both panting heavily and breathless from the intense make-out session.

He doesn't say, but he is challenging me if I know now his hidden feelings and desires.

I feel the blush and almost chuckle when his lips capture mine again, and I lose myself in his fiery kiss.

I close my eyes, letting the sensation overtake me.

Enemy or not... I'm going to take a chance to love someone and be loved by someone.