Mark of the Damned | 18+

Warm With You

Song - Warm with You by Hayden Calnin

Pinching my eyes closed, I wrap my arms around my legs. Tucked into the corner of the room, I hum to myself, trying to block out the noise.

Slamming, cracking, breaking. Every thump from the cabin is violent.

Everyone is shouting, fighting with one another. Several times it seemed that they were going to burst through the wood, breaking the ship to pieces.

"Enough!" Captain Cormac yells over the chaos. The room goes silent at the sound of his command.

Resting my chin on my knees, I listen, still too nervous to move from the corner. One word taken offensively, and the fight can start again.

"Where the fuck is your head, boy?" Captain Cromac growls. "You've been distracted all day, now you're fighting on the ship? If this is because of the girl, I'm throwing her overboard."

"If you send her away, I'll be forced to go with her." Cooper's voice is clear as a bell.

The shocked gasps and murmurs from the crew are nothing compared to the bellowing laugh from the captain.

"Is a bit of tight gash so important to you that you would abandon course and leave your family?"

"She calms my beast." This he says quietly, almost so that I can't hear it.

"What?" Big Jones heard him, I know he did by the shock in his voice.

"I can't explain it. She was with me last night. She saw me turn. It was as if my brain was inside the wolf. I can remember everything, I was completely in control." He sounds bewildered. "I didn't hurt her, I don't think I could have even if I wanted to. The wolf was—" he pauses. "- It's as if the wolf wanted to protect her. He liked her."

The room is completely still.

Seconds of silence pass before someone quietly speaks. "You were in control?"

"Yes."

"She saw you?" The captain seems more concerned with that than anything else.

"Yes, but-"

"Girl," Captain Cormac yells suddenly. "Get out here."

I'm frozen, tucked against the wall. I don't want to go out there, I don't want to face them. I know too many things I shouldn't know.

When I don't come out immediately, I can hear the floorboards creaking under the weight of his angry steps. The door slams open, and he fills the space of my tiny room. His eyes are black, and his chest heaves with rapid breaths. He grabs my arm, yanking me up and out of the room. Throwing me down to the floor, he hovers over me as sheer panic courses through my body. He's going to kill me. It's in his eyes and clenched fists.

"We can't allow you to speak of this to anyone."

"I won't! I won't tell anyone!" I hold my hands up, begging from my knees for him to believe me.

"We can't risk it. If you tell anyone, the whole crew will be hanged for it. Four people died last night as a result of our affliction. It's you or us." He steps forward, ready to snatch me up from the floor.

"No-" I start to plead, ready to swear on everything that I won't tell a soul, but before I can get the words out, I am yanked up from behind, my body is shoved into the wall as Cooper comes in between us.

"I won't let you hurt her," his voice is eerily calm. He simply states it, an inarguable fact.

"You won't let me?" the anger on his face is momentarily replaced with amusement. His lips twitch into a smile that chills my bones. "Sit down, boy, you seem incapable of remembering who is in charge here. You don't let me do anything. Your job is to sit down and shut your fucking mouth. I am the captain. This is for the good of the crew, not because I want it-" he pauses, his smile growing. "Though I must admit, there is a certain joy in it, isn't there?"