Free Web NovelChapter 110: My Mate II
"You’re serious?" I blurted out.
I couldn’t believe my ears at the invitation. In fact, I haven’t digested Damon’s earlier confessions before he dropped such a huge bomb on me. Damon claimed he regretted his actions. He wanted to make it up to me.
He wanted me to mark him in return.
"I would not ask if I wasn’t," Damon retorted wryly. "Why do you seem so shocked?"
"If you’re asking me to mark you just because you feel guilty for treating me badly, you shouldn’t," I said, moving back so that his fingers no longer lingered on my skin. Every area he touched felt as though it was on fire.
I hated it.
I hated how much effect this fated bond between us had on me. It felt as though I couldn’t make the choices for myself, or that I wasn’t a person with my own thinking. Most of all, I hated how I was basically betraying Blaise’s trust.
What a monster I was for preaching about fidelity to Damon when I couldn’t even keep my loyalties to Blaise alone.
"You’re worried about my brother." The words left Damon’s lips as a sentence — a fact — and not a question. He could perfectly read my thoughts with just one look, bond or not. It was infuriating.
"Wolves come in pairs," I said, "not trios. You are the alpha of the most powerful pack. There are plenty of women who would be more than happy to be your chosen mate."
"What if you’re the one I choose?" Damon countered.
I bit my lip, silent. My gaze fell on the bedsheet, the wall, the floor― anywhere but on Damon.
Taking my silence as my only response, he continued to say, "You can take your time to decide. But this will also be for your safety."
"My safety?" I echoed.
"Yes," Damon said with a nod. "You and Blaise’s bond isn’t fully connected yet. He hasn’t marked you since then."
I thought back to when Damon had temporarily blocked Blaise’s connection with mine, just so that Blaise was kept out of the loop concerning whatever Damon and I were up to. Just thinking back to that made my face burn and my heart ache. My stomach was doing loops― I felt like I was going to hurl with all the guilt that was brewing inside me.
How could I treat Blaise like that? Why did I allow it?
"If you’re mated with me, I will be able to reach you in case of emergencies," Damon said.
"I can’t use the packlink," I said with a shake of my head. "I have no wolf. It doesn’t matter if I am mated to you or not― my bond with Blaise is complete and I still have no access to it."
"But I will be able to feel your thoughts," Damon said. He inched a little closer, causing me to shift back on the bed. He followed suit, climbing on and trapping me in between his arms. "Sadness, anger, distress..."
He listed them off one by one, his face inches away from mine. I had already reached the edge, unable to move any further unless I didn’t mind toppling off and giving myself a concussion from the fall. Damon took this opportunity to lean in, his lips hovering just a hair’s breadth away from my own. I could feel him there but our skins were just a bit away from touching.
"Lust," he hummed, the soft vibrations of his voice thrumming in the air around me. freёweɓnovel.com
I gulped, swallowing the lump that had formed in the mere seconds. Then, as soon as he edged in, he pulled back.
"I would be able to come to you if you were ever in danger. And now that we are in Ironclaw, this is an important advantage to have," he said.
"Let’s say we go through with this," I mumbled, my gaze still locked with his. It felt as though our lines of sight were tied together, unable to break apart. There was something stickier than honey linking us and it was difficult to pull free. "You said that I could take my time to consider whether or not I can accept you as my mate alongside Blaise. What if I decide that I don’t want that for us?"
’What if Blaise doesn’t accept it,’ was something else I wanted to add. Yet, I tactfully kept that to myself. I didn’t want to be so full of myself to think that the brothers would fight over me, yet I also didn’t wish to take the risk knowing how possessive werewolves could get.
"Then I won’t bother you," Damon firmly replied. He sat a little straighter― this was the first time we were both on the bed yet there was so much polite space between us. "I will never take another mate again."
"Why not?" I asked, curious. "Not like you’ve not done it before."
I didn’t mean for it to be a jab but it was too late. The words had already left my lips and I could only bite down on my bottom lip, internally chastising myself for what was said. Thankfully, Damon didn’t seem like he took any offense to that. He merely shrugged.
"I will only accept one mark― the one from my fated mate," he answered. "Even if I were to find other companions in the future, they will never be able to replace the person that the Moon Goddess paired me with."
Again with the knots. It felt as though my heart was slowly turning into a tangled ball of yarn, unable to break free from all the thoughts that kept the core encased. I could no longer make out what was right and what was wrong― who was I to force Blaise to share a mate with someone else? Likewise, who was I to take away Damon’s chance to have a fated mate?
It seemed like every decision I could make was wrong.
"It’s only for safety," he reiterated. "I won’t force you to make a choice before its time. But let me make it clear now that it doesn’t mean that I would stop trying to convince you to accept me as yours."
I sighed, dipping my head low. When I raised them again, I met Damon’s eyes straight-on.
"Alright then," I said.
Damon lit up like a sky full of fireworks at my words. He wormed his way over to me, pulling his shirt a little down to expose the bit of skin where his neck met his shoulders. I, too, inched a little closer, placing one hand on his shoulder and the other at the back of his head to support myself.
"Whenever you are ready," he murmured, a low rumble in his voice. I caught a hint of something I couldn’t quite recognize, yet felt oddly familiar. It didn’t seem like an emotion I had ever seen in Damon, and thus, I couldn’t quite put a name to it.
I took a deep breath. Damon’s scent hit me in the nose― warm and comforting, yet cool enough to calm the storm churning in my stomach.
Then, I leaned in and bit down.
