His Darling

His Darling | 4

CHAPTER FOUR.

If I didn't feel any fear being in unknown places before, I do now.

I think it's because I'd never felt so trapped. All my life I'd been so careless. Never held against my will. I was Raven Wilde after all. The girl that had many admirers but had never been the one to be tied down and be settled for commitment. The girl that loved adventures and the dark and bad jokes and was afraid of nothing. It was strange having this aching feeling in my chest that screamed fear and desperation. Something that was so foreign to me.

Now I was in trouble. The word had been said to me so many times that it shouldn't have had affected me. But coming from this brooding and unnerving stranger, it was like a rock sinking down my heart.

"What do you mean?" I was sure my stare shoot daggers at him. "And how do you know my name?"

His dark hair was over his forehead and he pushed it back slowly, still looking at me. There was something in his gaze that both eased and alarmed me. "You need my protection," was all he said, his eyes drifting to my leg on his lap. He slowly placed the ice pack on my ankle. I flinched slightly and winced but stubbornly stayed in place.

His answer just rose more questions, "Why? Last time I checked, I didn't do anything to earn your protection." The word earn was dragged out of my lips. The cold pack on my ankle felt strange.

He looked back up at me. His eyes as blue as the ocean. Mysterious and full of things I didn't know. "You just need it." He said.

My eyes flickered to the older man sitting on another couch. He had a look of slight concern as he looked from the blue-eyed man to me. He'd radiated something as soon as I'd seen him but I didn't know what. Maybe it was his aura and how serene it was.

I tried to wipe away my glaring eyes and silently begged him to tell me.

He shook his head right away. "I can't tell you. At least not now."

Anger flared up inside me and I threw my leg off the blue-eyed man's lap in another desperate attempt to escape, but my leg was caught in a deadly grip before I even had time to move off the couch.

"You've got the wrong girl--I don't need your protection!" I screamed, at the verge of pulling out my hair.  "Let me go!" I tried to twist my leg around his grip, making the ice pack fall on his thigh, but it was useless. The pain in my ankle was too much.

His face was expressionless. His voice gave him away, "I can't,"

"Who are you?" I screamed at both him and the older man. I could feel my heart hammering uncontrollably in my chest. I was beyond angry, frightened and confused.

"Raven, calm down," said the older man. His tone was almost fatherly. My head snapped toward him. He stood up. "I'm Henry," he said. "We won't hurt you--you must understand."

But I couldn't understand. I looked back at the blue-eyed man. "What's your name? How do you know me?"

"I'm Xander, and that's not important right now." Placing the ice back on my ankle, he grabbed my leg gently and placed it on the couch, doing the same for the other one. He stood up, and without another word, he left the living room, his strides tense.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and flinched, my eyes finding Henry's.

I began to wonder if that was his real name at all.