Fated

Chapter XXII

Adira

It was 12 am. The clock ticked quietly on her bed. She couldn't sleep. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She was just overthinking. The curtains in her window moved in the wind. The warmth of her covers in the cool breeze was homey. Yet, Adira felt a million miles away. Her brow creased as she frowned.

Grumbling to herself, Adira put on the shortest shorts she could find. She changed into a tank top and applied some clear lip gloss. Screwing consequences to hell, she grabbed her pillow and comforter, walking out of her room. She knocked on the door next to her, before opening it. Adrian was awake, reading a book in the moonlight. He was shirtless. Yay.

He looked up in confusion at her entry, before smiling at her tired form. "Can't sleep?"

Adira dropped her pillows in defeat. He didn't even check out her legs. "Yeah," She mumbled.

Adrian patted the bed next to him. "Do you want to sit and work next to -"

Adira interrupted hotly. She had just about enough of this. "Actually, you know what? I can sleep. But I don't want to. Because you are an idiot. I dislike you severely. What the heck, Adrian?" She picked up a pillow and threw it at him.

Blocking her attack, Adrian looked at her confused. "Love, I don't underst-"

Adira threw another pillow at him. "That's the problem, no? You love me. But you don't touch me. We don't even make out anymore. And if you're not into all that stuff it's cool, but you probably should have warned me about that before you mauled me continuously during the first week after our mating! Way to get a girl's hopes up. You. Are. A. Prick." Adira was sure she made quite a picture standing there in front of Adrian, in her most slutty nightclothes, gesturing wildly in frustration. She cringed at herself.

Adrian laughed. He actually laughed. The audacity. Adira was going to kill him. Where were her knives? She raised another pillow threateningly.

Raising his hands in surrender, he quietly came and stood in front of her. Even bedraggled, he took Adira's breath away. He was ethereal. The air hummed with static, as sparks flew between them. Her body yearned for his touch.

Gently, as if she was made of porcelain, Adrian cupped her face, their foreheads touching. "You stupid, stupid girl." He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I was just giving you time to process, you silly idiot."

Any retort that Adira had was swallowed up as his mouth touched hers. He kissed her languidly as if he had all the time in the world. As if this moment, across space and time, would never cease to exist. He kissed her with reverence, slowly exploring her mouth. His tongue met hers. Adira's hands moved from his hair to his chest, skin meeting skin. Adrian growled into her mouth.

The kiss changed. They kissed hungrily, with impatient nervous hands. Adira's right arm found Adrian's left. Sparks exploded, electricity ran down Adira's body. She moaned into his skin before jumping onto Adrian, making him lose balance, and fall backward on the bed. She grinned at him, lust tinging her vision gold, as her hands went lower until they were almost -

"Are you sure?" He asked throatily.

Her only reply was a mischievous smile as both hands went south.

----

Amor

It was 12 am. Amor sighed as she looked at the moonlight brightening their little cottage. Despite being the beta couple, Amor and Eden lived in a simple cottage, a little further into the woods from the packhouse. The kitchen clock beat in a steady rhythm. Tick Tock. Tick Tock. The gentle breeze fluttered the pages of the book Amor was currently pouring over. She had been trying to decipher it for the last hour and a half with no success. Being the sole researcher in the group, Amor was often weighed down with the responsibility of finding answers. And though she never blamed her friends for it, on days like this, where answers were few, it was a heavy burden to carry. Sighing, she ran a hand through her inky black hair. She let her head fall face-first into the book in despair.