The Kings Kitten

20 - Night Before The Trip

"I'm coming with you." I declared.

"No."

I look back up at my mate, only to find him standing stiff on the other side of the counter, staring directly at me with an intent gleam in his eye, he didn't seem excited about my offer.

"So you'd rather leave me here alone than take me with you where you know you can keep me safe?" I teased. I playing into the mate bond, I didn't have to be joined to him at the hip, but I wanted the chance to be there when my sister is found, I wanted to know with my own eyes that she's okay. "I can help." I added.

Demetrius shook his head as he looked down at the cutting board, beginning to slice the vegetables in front of him. "You'll be safe here, from everything. I can't risk bringing you with me." He muttered.

"And why not?" I argued back. This was starting to bother me, I had every right to be involved with this mission, more of a right than my own mate. None of his people were taken by the fairies, they tried to take both me and my sister, they might have my sister right now for all I knew.

Demetrius slammed the knife down against the cutting board causing me to flinch, leaning his body up using the strength of his arms against the counter top, he stared me right in the eyes, his own eyes flickering between their usual bright blue and the dark swirling waves of his inner animal.

I'd come to learn a lot about werewolves since I've been here, there were so many book within this house that I read to pass the time. I understood now that the closer their animal urges were to reaching the surface, the darker their eyes would become.

"There's a few reasons why, Madeline. First reason, you're a distraction. I don't know if you've read about this yet from one of my books, but each day that we don't consummate this bond, it gets harder for me to restrain myself around you. It's hard enough right now, I can't have those kinds of thoughts cross my mind during a battle." He argued back, the tone in his voice made me realise that he was being completely serious with his words, he'd used my full name to formalise the matter at hand, and I suppressed a smile as I looked away. I wasn't stupid, I knew werewolves complete their mating process pretty much as soon as they meet, I knew I might have been dragging it out too long at this point, but I could only hope he understood my stance on the matter, I didn't feel ready to make a decision like that, regardless of how we were both feeling.

If we completed the process, my life would change forever. That's only if I survived being marked by him. Despite all the books that were accumulated on every shelf, the ones I had managed to read through never mentioned what would happen to me if I let him mark me, because no where in any of the books I've read thus far have mentioned interspecies soulmates, it was completely unheard of.

"Another reason, the fairies tried to take you once already. Bringing you on the trip with me, I'd just be painting a larger target on your back, you don't need yours to be any bigger than it is already." He added, this time he looked away from me and continued chopping the vegetables. "Last reason, my brother is out there somewhere looking for the fairies too. My brother is not like me, he was raised by my father which means that if he sees an unmarked woman away from her people." He stopped, seeming to take in a deep breath as if to calm himself. "He'd do whatever he wanted, and no one would be able to stop him."

"Not even you?" I murmured, hugging my arms around my own torso for comfort. Demetrius' brother seemed to reiterated all the nasty comments I'd heard about Werewolves. It reminded me that their way of life differed from mine, in more ways than one.

Their own history books referenced a time when werewolf men pursued women from other species, for a long time their people believed it was only okay to have sex outside a mate bond if it was also outside the species.