Claribelle's Mate

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Damien's POV

My talk with Cole the night before had helped. He hadn't really given me any new reasons to hate vampires, only re-listed mine and then reinforced them. He was a good buddy. He understood that I was angry and sad at the same time. He knew how badly I had wanted my mate, not screwing around like he does. He knew that I was looking forward to finding her, but he just did everything he could to make me feel better.

We'd stayed up late talking about all the reasons that I was better off without a vampire for a mate and then playing video games to take our minds off of the heavy conversation. Even after staying up so late, I woke up early. I was plagued with dreams of Clari. I could only blame them on Jake. If he hadn't taken over yesterday, forcing me to see the playful side of Clari, I wouldn't be having dreams about us wrestling in the forest, her saying my name instead of Jake's.

Once again, all my reasons for hating vampires didn't seem good enough. I wanted my mate, vampire or not. I couldn't have her though. I had to keep reminding myself of that. Mine and Cole's reasons might feel stupid now, but they made sense last night and they'd make sense again.

I was itchy and twitchy and I decided that another run was the only way to calm myself down. If this kept up, my dad wouldn't need to assign morning guards. I'd be out here every morning, trying to get my mind off of my mate.

Shaking my head, I ran for the border. A couple laps around the border would calm me down and set me straight. If I was lucky, I'd find some rogues that I could take down.

Every time a picture of Clari's laughing face appeared in my mind, I shoved it back. You can't have her, I'd tell myself and keep running. She wouldn't be accepted into the pack. I couldn't rule with her by my side. It just wasn't possible.

I had just reached the eastern border when two scents stopped me cold: Clari's and rogues, three rogues if my nose was on point. I had gotten my wish for rogues to attack, but I was terrified that they'd hurt Clari. I took off, running faster than I had been before, trying to find them before Clari got hurt. As I got closer I smelled blood and Jake surged to the forefront.

That's Clari's blood! he growled angrily.

I pushed myself even faster. When I finally found them, I froze in my tracks. A reddish brown wolf was down, cleanly knocked out. Blood littered the leaves and Clari looked to be on her last leg as blood ran freely from a claw mark down her side. A brown wolf was struggling to stand, looking like he'd been thrown into a tree while a black wolf lunged, taking Clari down to the ground.

Before I could help, Clari threw him off her and I watched in amazement as she stood slowly, before faking the wolf out with a punch to the muzzle, knocking him out with a quick kick to the head. She turned to face the brown wolf, the only one left, and slowly sank to her knees, energy depleted. I was amazed she'd even managed to take down the last one with the amount of blood littering the leaves. It didn't look like there was any left in her body.

I leaped onto the brown wolf before it could get close to her, making quick work of ripping its throat out. I wanted to do the same to the two that Clari had knocked out, but she needed my attention more.

I reached her side right when she tipped, catching her softly and laying her gently in the leaves. Fear swept through me like ice. She was pale, still losing blood and not healing as fast as I'd hoped. I knew that she needed blood in order to fully heal. I didn't know what would happen to her if she didn't get it and I wasn't ready to find out.

"Clari, stay with me, baby," I pleaded with her. "C'mon, you can take some of my blood, sweetheart, just stay with me."

She shook her head. "I don't want y-your first impression of m-me to be a m-monster," she stuttered softly.