VIVIAN GREY
When I came around, I felt like I had rested for a few years but it was probably hours. I didn't need to open my eyes to remember if anything I wanted to get the image of that girl's head snapping so close to me out of my head. Even scarier was the complete darkness that seemed to surround Zaliver, his angry expression, and black eyes.
I squeezed my eyes even tighter, making the little white spots appear behind my lids. I sighed out loud.
I wasn't sure how I felt at the moment, how should I feel towards Zaliver? Do I hate him? Fear him? My mind and wolf were at war against each other. While the human side of me knew that what Zaliver had done was wrong and cold, my wolf tried to explain to me that it was the nature of wolves and life in general. That Zaliver had just protected and acted on instinct when it came to us, that his anger was more than what a regular alpha would have when his mate would be put in the same situation.
One side was convinced to label him a monster while the other labeled him justified.
Was I in any real danger?
No.
I wasn't, sure she had tripped me but I doubted she would have planned on pummeling me to death, at least not with witnesses and it wasn't like I was going to let her lay a hand on me without a fight. I wasn't a warrior like she probably was but I'd put up a pretty damn decent fight.
Why couldn't he had just asked her what her problem was? There was no need to kill her for tripping me. What was her problem?
Even while I thought this logically, I felt freaked out a little by how calm I was being about just having seen my first death close up and having my mate do it as well. But then again I think I must have unconsciously prepared myself for this, earlier today I was thinking about the stories about Zaliver being a cold killer. I guess I had expected him to do something like this one day, but just not so soon.
So close.
My eyes opened and adjusted to the dark room, I looked towards the dark curtains, I wasn't surprised to see darkness past them. It was nighttime, but I had been asleep practically the whole day, this island was bad for my health. If I wasn't getting tested or loaded with information I I was being knocked out. Well, it's better than getting knocked up, I joked trying to distract myself.
I pulled my arms beside me to pull myself into a sitting position, immediately feeling the cold heavy feeling around both of my wrists. I closed my eyes as annoyance passed through me, I took in a deep breath.
"He didn't." I said to myself out loud.
"I did." Came the all too familiar monotone voice.
Opening my eyes I looked forward to see Zaliver sitting on a couch that faced the bed, he sat with his legs parted and arms crossed over his chest, his face was fixed on a blank expression, his black hair falling over his blue eyes making it hard to see what his eyes showed.Because of the dark room he seemed almost like a shadow. Seeing him now made me feel...I don't know.
I reflected his expression at him, not sure how to act now. How do you bring up a murder? 'So about that chick you killed today...' I don't think so.
I breathed in deeply.
"Why?" I asked, lifting my left hand and watching as chains followed. He had dared to chain both of my wrists up to the bed. I glared at him but he didn't even appear bothered by the fact that he had done so, but of course not if he didn't feel guilty about snapping someone's neck why would he feel guilty about chaining me up?
"Do I need a reason?" He questioned me, the nerve of this man.
"Yes! Yes, you actually do!" I snapped at him.
"Can you guess why I would chain my mate up after she witnessed me killing someone in front of her?" He turned his head away from mine and looked to the window as if looking out through the closed curtains. My annoyance dried quickly at the issue in the room, he had somewhat of a point.
I stood up and pulled at the chains, I was surprised when it just kept coming, walking towards the bathroom I was even more bewildered when I made it and still had enough to possibly reach the shower if I had entered, I looked at Zaliver suspiciously. Why were the chains so long? I asked him.
"I had them made for you." He said as if I nothing was wrong with that. This fool.
"I don't know what bothers me more, the fact that you know how long the chains are supposed to be for me to have enough room to roam freely in the room or the fact that you had these made for me." I said dryly, tugging at the chains until I felt resistance. They were really strong, as I expected, even my wolf strength didn't denture anything.
I turned fully to look at Zaliver and clasped my hands together before walking to him, I stopped in front of him, noting how tense he looked. My wolf, who no matter what would always take his side apparently, pushed me to comfort our mate.
"Okay look, I'm not going to lie, seeing you kill that girl did freak me out a bit but I kinda expected you to do something like this-" He tilted his head at me, " no offense. I just figured that all of your years on this planet as a wolf god, you'd be bound to kill someone, let's not pretend wolves don't go around slaughtering rogues every chance they get. I just didn't expect it to happen so fast, so close. And totally unjustified as well!" I explained to him.
The whole time I talked his face changes from blank to surprised, a small portion of relief and then to anger. He made me take a step back in surprise when he stood and loomed over me, I tilted my head up to look at him. His black hair hung away from his dark blue eyes, I gasped and blinked repeatedly at the black veins that seemed to move slowly under his eyes. They were pulsing black underneath his skin. It was frightening and then, of course, he had to open his mouth and show me those sharp, long pearly whites.
"Unjustified?! You call what she did unjustified?!" He spat out through his teeth, his chest lifted up and down with the large breaths he was taking, it was distracting.
I answered in a small voice, I really need to learn when to shut my mouth.
"She tripped me. I really don't think killing her was the right choice." I looked down at his chest while I spoke.
"Your right." I looked up quickly, not be living he had agreed with me so quickly. Does that mean he regrets killing her? I really need to learn that girls name to pay my respects.
"Really? That's great now that-"
"I should have tortured her first, then maybe I'd be calmer." He said pissed at himself.
My face fell.
"Of course." I said mostly to myself. I wasn't surprised by his answer but I was still disappointed to hear how serious he was. I walked away from him and went to sit on the bed, walking over the annoying chains.
"Can you get this shit off of me! If I didn't feel like a prisoner before, I do now." I moved my arms widely in motion.
He crossed his arms over his chest making his muscles bulge. I moved my eyes from his chest so that I wouldn't stare at his face and was happy to see the veins had gone and him looking like his gorgeous self.
He studied me sitting there for a long time, I just looked back at him flatly.
"I had expected for you to be uncontrollable, unstable emotionally and scared out of your mind. . .of me. I thought you'd hate me for sure." He said after a while, peering at me with curiosity clear on his face. His voice was tight yet controlled, for a second I thought I heard it waver.
I just shrugged at him and began fiddling with the shiny chains on me, trying to find a way out of them.
"It'll catch up to me eventually, warning." I said absent-minded, but being completely honest. It would, I was was a winger, always going with the flow but trying not to be ignorant to the things around me, most of the times whatever I choose to ignore it and not give much thought to always came back to bite me back in the ass later.
"So you're not going to do anything crazy or try to run away?" He asked me as if not believing me completely, I couldn't blame him. Almost.
"Yup, no crazy escape." I snorted. "Besides it's more like swimming than running here." He cracked a small smile at the corner of his lips.
"So now that we understand each other, sort of, you'll let me out of these chains right?" I asked him, confident that he would now that we've talked.
"No." My head snapped up to look at him, bewildered.
"Why not?" I yelled at him.
Ignoring my tone he cocked a brow at me, his face sly. It just pissed me off now.
" Because while I appreciate the honesty and warning I'm not a man to take chances. Until your little breakdown happens you're not leaving this room. If you want anything just ask me." He said smartly.
For the first time ever I snarled at him, causing his eyes to narrow and darken but other than that he did nothing but stand there while I snarled viciously at him. I wasn't a huge threat, hell I wasn't a threat at all to him but I was pissed off and still haven't shifted in close to three days, it was building up and I could feel it.
"You can't do that to me! Not only will it not work for squat but I haven't shifted in three days, so unless you want an angry, crazy and violent female wolf possibly stabbing you, now, or clawing your face off in your sleep. Remove. These. Chains." I spoke through closed teeth.
His eyes widened in anger at me, his own growl erupted from his throat. My wolf tried to get me to submit to him, flattening her ears to her head but I refused. If I did then I feel like it would always be like this, me speaking my mind and when he disagreed he'd just get me to submit, if I wanted to at least have a somewhat equal ground with him I had to stand up for myself.
"You idiot! Do you know how dangerous it is for your kind to hold in a shift, I can't believe you would endanger yourself like this. This just proves how much you need me to take care of you!" He scowled at me.
I looked at him slack-jawed.
What? Out of everything, all he heard was the shifting part, and how the hell did this become about me depending on him all of a sudden? Where the hell did this come from?
"Wow, hold up there, first of all, it's not my fault that I haven't shifted in three days. I was on a plane for one, kidnapped and knocked out for two and then knocked out again for three. So if anyone's to blame here, it's you. I was planning to go for a run when Algebra freaking took me. One day! I'd like one day where I'm not getting put to sleep!" I exclaimed.
"Come on. We're going for a run and then you're coming straight to bed." He walked up to me and pulled out a key from his pocket. I held my hands out for him to unlock the chains, but he stopped in front of me. Looking me straight in the eyes he growled out.
"Behave." I rolled my eyes at him, just wanting to get these things off of me and shift into my wolf who was a lot more excited than before, she wanted to show off.
Behave mutt.
Yeah, yeah.
He searched my face for any clues that I might try to do something stupid, sighed and then released my chains. They fell to the floor with a soft bang, I waved my hands, no longer feeling the heavy cold weight.
"Come on."
* * * *
Zaliver had walked me into the forest behind the house, I was excited to be surrounded by familiar scents, while the island was mostly forest, l hadn't actually entered one yet. We walked into it until Zaliver felt we were far away from anyone and buildings.
Unlike how most werewolf stories said, our clothes didn't shred at the shift. I mean think about it, if every time we shifted our bones had to break and reform and then fur had to sprout, we'd be dead if we had to shift for a fight. The first time our bones did break and our clothes did tear off, but that was because we were transitioning from human to wolves for the first time. After that every shift was almost like blinking, our human body kept the wolf inside and our wolf shape kept our human body inside. It was just a switch of control really, our clothes didn't shred and then we went around naked. Over the centuries it seemed our wolves adapted tool the cloths kept and realized that if we wanted to keep our race a secret from any human threats that, leaving shredded clothes and naked human bodies wasn't very acceptable.
I tried to ignore Zaliver's eyes on me as I closed my own to push forward my wolf. Shifting wasn't about how fast you could shift your body to defend yourself, it was about trusting your wolf, releasing yourself and letting yourself be taken out of control if yourself were in danger all you would have to do was trust your wolf and they would do the rest. My wolf accepted me into herself and I went into her mind and into felt the familiar tingle of warmth spread from my heart to my body. When I opened my opened my eyes everything was clearer and lower.
I looked over at Zaliver who ranked his eyes over my wolf form. I knew what he saw, he was a dark caramel wolf who's fur slowly began turning darker until my tail was black. I also had a patch of black fur on the tip of my left ear. Werewolves were a lot bigger than normal wolves, but not bigger than horses like some stories tell. I was a good height for a female werewolf, I watched as my wolf walked over to Zaliver who reached out to touch the top of my head. My wolf nudged at his leg with her snout.
"So soft." He murmured, running his hand through my fur, stopping to pull gently at my left ear.
No!
To late.
My wolf purred loudly, my left ear is a soft spot for my wolf. Zaliver froze wide-eyed in shock at the sudden noise. My wolf took this chance and began to rub our body on his legs like a cat would do.
Stop it, dummy, we're wolves, not cats!
No, I want him to wear our scent.
He has, we've been with him all day and night.
Zaliver seemed to regain something and looked down at me, a playful glint in his eyes.
"You're quite the flirt aren't you?" He said, his voice husky.
My wolf winked a brown eye at him. I groaned inwardly, yeah go ahead and flirt with him! It's not like I'm the one that's going to have to face him after we're done here.
My wolf suddenly turned and took off, leaving Zaliver behind, wanting to get chased by her mate. It seemed Zaliver himself didn't like her leaving him behind because he appeared beside us a second later still in human form, keeping up with us.
We kept this up, just running side by side next to each other until my wolf felt like she had her fill and without warning mid-stride gave me my body back causing me to shriek as I prepared myself for the impact. Arms wrapped themselves around my body and a second later Zaliver had flipped us over mid-air, his back hitting the ground and me landing on top of him. Moments like these where I'm glad our cloths appeared back on me.
Damn you wolf! I know what you're trying to do!
She snickered. Bitch.
Helpful Bitch. she corrected.
I froze for a second on top of Zaliver who hadn't removed his arms from around me. I slowly looked up to see him already looking at me, his eyes slowly darkening as I looked into them. It's always been him on top of me, never me on top of him. I could feel his heart beating under my hand, it was strong and fast. As we looked into the each other's eyes I felt myself get pulled into the vast ocean of blue his eyes held, my body heated me the feel of him underneath me, to be surrounded by his scent and the feel of his hot skin agent mine.
"Are you alright Vivian?" He asked, his voice coming out provocative. I watched his plump red lips pronounce my name slowly, sensually.
I'm dead.
I think my ovaries have exploded with how hot that one sentence came out.
No, no I'm not fine because my mate is sexy as fuck and is currently under me, with his arms wrapped around me and we haven't even kissed yet and I already feel like I'm dying on the inside.
"Uh yeah, s-sorry. I don't know what came over my wolf."
"She seems to be quite mischievous and playful." Without removing his hands around me, he rolled us over so that I was under him this time, both of his arms let go of me and he put his forearm on either side of me, putting his face real close to mine.
"It makes me wonder if you'll be like this in bed." He whispered hotly, blue eyes making me shake with their intensity.
I made a strange sound from the back of my throat not sure how to breathe, even more, respond. I take back what I said earlier, I'm dead now.
Then my sass came back, that and I liked teasing him. His reactions were funny.
"Why do you say that like you have a chance?" I asked jokingly, hoping to lighten up the atmosphere. I was so not losing my virginity on day two on the forest floor with my mate.
His eyes narrowed at me, a growl slowly building up from his chest, I could feel it with how close he was to me, his lip slightly curled up to bare his teeth at me. I felt his legs shift, both on either side of me, his hips pushing my lower half down, officially pinning my lower half. Quicker than I could protest he had my hands pinned above me.
I looked at him wide-eyed, did I overdo it now?
"Why must you push me to my limits? I'll advise you to watch your tongue. While you are my mate, I've never let so many rude remarks slip in the span of forty-five hours, but I will not let another remark about you and a male slip. Now let's go, you must be hungry." He suddenly had us both upright and held my hand as he led us through the forest with me stumbling like an idiot behind him.
Holy cow, that was intense. I've never been really close to the male population except for my dad and few cousins but I'm pretty sure it wasn't normal for male wolves to be so possessive. It took a few seconds for my heart to beat normally and that idiot mans his last words were correct, I was hungry, really hungry.
I stared down at our hands as we walked, his were big and felt soft yet rough at the same time. They covered my whole hand in his, it left me thinking about the strength these hands had.
"What was her name?" I asked quietly, the slight tightening of his hand let me know he knew who I was asking about.
"Martha. And I don't want to talk about her anymore, whatever her problem with you is no longer a problem." He said coldly, his shoulders rolling back.
I pursed my lips but didn't push it, rest in peace Martha I guess. Hope you don't haunt me in your afterlife for getting you killed.
"Why didn't you shift?" I asked him, changing the topic.
He glanced at me and gave a wary smile. Great another question to avoid. I was getting really tired of this.
"Next question?" I asked irritated. He nodded.
"What's your favorite color?"
He snorted at me and shook his head.
"Really? Black." Expected.
I was going to start with small questions and build up, I was trying to see which topics he avoided.
"Song?"
"None." I gave him a disbelieving look to which he shrugged.
" Movie?"
"None."
"TV show?"
"None."
"Sport?"
"They're pointless." At least it wasn't a none answer.
"Favorite book?"
"None."
"The heck is wrong with you?" I asked exasperatedly.
"What?" He asked, amusement in voice. I think he was playing with me, that or he likes to annoy me. I huffed at him, he knew what he was doing.
"So are you not going to ask me?" I asked after silence had fallen over us. I could see the pack house porch lights from a distance.
"I don't need to. I already know." I blinked at him.
He smirked down at me cockily.
"You like the color violet. Your favorite song at the moment is Often by The Weeknd. Your favorite show is The Vampire Diaries. You don't have a favorite sport but your favorite book is 50 Shades of Grey. Kinky." He listed them, making me feel mortified at the last one. His amused expression then turned dry.
"You also favor that Christian guy." He scowled at the ground. For a moment I thanked the Lord that he was just a character because I have no doubt that Zaliver would have killed him if he was real. #TeamGrey. Sorry, Zaliver.
Why is it that the tables always turn on me?
"I'll make you something to eat and then off to bed." He said as he opened the front door and walked us straight to the kitchen, he pulled out a chair for me and then pushed me in. While he pulled things out for me to eat I looked over at the wall to see it read 11:57. It wasn't so late.
Zaliver although seeming to try not to give anything and way about himself or do anything romantic like being mates would do was very aware of me, I felt that this may be his own way of showing me he cared, but I wish I knew more about him yet the chance of him opening up to me seemed to be impossible. Could it have something to do with the other gods he spoke of? He mentioned not wanting to mark me because of them and then he took me to get checked out as if to see if I had something that could hurt him.
Could that be it? I shuddered at the thought of hurting Zaliver, I didn't want to darken my thoughts even further so I'd pushed it to the back of my mind.
Zaliver ended up making soup for both of us, I thought we wouldn't be full but whatever he put in it filled me up to the top.
"Now bed."
"But I'm not tired." I whined. He rolled his eyes at me and we went to our room.
Oh god, I've even begun to call it our room.
Man, I had to figure what my position here was because without the mating mark I couldn't really count myself as Luna if anything I was just an intruder that the alpha didn't want to let leave.
" Give me your hands." He said picking up the chains. I shook my head back and forth.
"Nuh-uh, I'm not putting those things on. There's no need." I let out a relieved sigh when he dropped them to the ground.
"Fine, but you'll be wearing them tomorrow when I leave." My ears perked at his words.
"We'll see about that. What are you doing?" I asked.
He turned and walked to his drawer, pulling out bottoms and a pair of pj's for me. He handed them to me.
"Business." Was all he said walking into the bathroom and turning on the lights.
I contemplated this, it would give me free time away from him, which was much needed.
I changed quickly, by the time he walked out I was sitting on the couch. I ran my fingers through my hair.
"I guess I can go job searching tomorrow if going to be living here. I don't have my papers here though." I murmured concerned. Maybe Zaliver could pull some strings.
"You don't need them because you won't be working. If you want something just tell me." He said brusquely. He came and sat next to me, putting his arm around the back of the couch almost around me.
And here I thought he could hook me up with a job.
"If I'm going to be living here I need a job Zaliver." I stressed out the word job.
"And why do you think you need a job?" He asked me rudely, leaning closer to me.
"Oh I don't know maybe to buy clothing because I can't keep wearing your clothes for the rest of my life- or however long I'm going to be here, as well as necessities, and whatever I'm going to need." I tried to explain myself.
He tisked me.
"If you want someth-"
"I'm not just going to ask you whenever I want something. That's called being a gold digger." I said looking at him with faint amusement, he rolled his eyes at me.
"I remember when that word first came out, believe me when I tell you that you're using it in the wrong context. But it's not gold digging when your mate, me, is here to give you anything you ask for." He murmured.
"I don't care, I'm not living off of you."
His mood suddenly darkened, I got the sense of anger coming off of him.
"Why does it sound like you're planning to find a job to pay off rent?" He snarled at me.
I blinked at him. Sometimes when he talked, it was hard to follow. This man...
"Is that what it sounds like to you?" He nodded at me.
"That's not it-"
"Then what is it?" He demanded.
"I-I just want to. . . Well, I'm not sure what type of relationship this is, if you can even call it that, and I've no idea how to handle the sudden change that comes with you. I'd wasn't ready for a mate so soon and then you came along or kidnapped me, and you turned out to be a god so that was a shock. I guess a job can me help me find some stability of sort." I explained looking at nothing in particular, I felt my chest lighten at getting my thoughts out. Minutes passed by, Zaliver saying nothing so I turned to find him looking straight at me with a blank face.
I bit my lip, not sure if I annoyed him with my babbling. He let out a soft chuckle and ran his fingers through his thick black hair.
"What?" I asked anxiously. I feel like I showed him a small portion of my self.
"I had thought their plan was to send you to me to use the bond at their advantage, that you'd be a little seductive doll to play me into their trap. But now I realize that it's the opposite. " His tone was ironic.
"What?" I asked confused at what was now his rambling.
Is he saying we can't be seductive?That fucker. My wolf grumbled.
He suddenly let out a booming laugh throwing his head back, his hands going to his stomach. I've never heard Zaliver laugh so fully so hard in my life. His laughed even though unexpected, warmed my heart. And just as suddenly as it came it was gone and I suddenly found myself under him.
He smirked down at me, his hand coming up to trace the corner of my eye and down to the corner of my lip and then over it. I slowly looked down from his eyes to his lips. A fiery trail following his finger.
"Oh, my luck. You truly aren't tainted by the horrors of this world, you're just... you. And now that I see that I plan to enjoy every second." He smiled down at me with a coy look, his blue eyes dazzling me.
"What are you going on about?" I asked him softly.
"Hush." He said playfully.
And then he kissed me.