☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎
AMIRA ANDREWS
Completely lost in the Goddess's influence, I was unaware of almost anything around me. The only thing I knew for certain was that Colby was still behind me holding onto my waist, and even that was at the back of my mind as I watched her up there staring back at me. Her elegance was unmatched, her beauty so distracting from everything going wrong.
But I had a bone to pick with her. It didn't matter how hypnotised I was, I was thinking about Tom's clan and the torture they'd been going through at the hands of someone I used to trust; someone I trusted even with my body once. Not to mention, someone I formerly trusted to take care of the only person before this group who seemed to ever truly understand. All of my memories were being tainted by the pain of knowing at some point we'd have to go to battle with them. I didn't want to. Not at all.
I had to.
For the first time, I understood what the Goddess meant. This clan were my people through and through; strong, wilful, logical, open-minded. They were me in vampire form, and they'd never do anything like this. I didn't need a mate bond with the leader to understand that. Right from the start, even if I gave them a hard time, a part of me trusted them. Why else would I have gone to sleep in a house full of vampires the same day I'd met them?
With everything I knew crashing around me, these vampires had become a rock my pack never had been. Maybe I didn't give them much of a chance back in the day, but I could see now I'd have ended up just the same as the rest of them.
Reading all of my thoughts, the Goddess slowly smiled, though her melancholy eyes showed me she understood my pain.
"Your people..." she said, motioning out with her hand. "They need you, beautiful. Stick with them."
"I wouldn't do anything different," I replied in my head, then blinked and she was gone. She could trust me now, too. With her influence over me disappearing, everything else was coming into focus and I heard Tara's voice for the first time. I looked over my shoulder to see her quietly talking with Colby, who had drifted a few steps away.
My heart was aching from the weight of the inevitable, so I walked over to Colby, alerting him mid-sentence to my consciousness, and tucked into his side. His arm came around me automatically as I breathed in his scent for what felt like the first time. For werewolves, this was it. The ultimate form of comfort. Having nothing but him patrolling my mind through one simple inhale.
"You okay, Ames?" he muttered, squeezing me for my attention. I just shook my head against his chest. "What did she say?"
I sighed. "Not much..."
"You've been out for a while," Tara replied gently. I pulled away just enough to see her in the corner of my eye. "Do you want me to leave? I know you're... going through shit right now. We were just talking about what comes next."
"It's okay," I told her, taking a step back. "I need to get my head on straight. You guys got a dummy or something?"
"Jake!"
I smiled at Colby despite myself. "No, something I can slash up without feeling bad."
"You don't have to feel bad, Amira," Jake said from the open doorway, his arms spread either side. "Go for it."
"No, but thank you."
"I'm sure we can find you a chew toy somewhere," Colby murmured, distracted by something else. Given how his gaze were on the floor, the others were as involved in this conversation as those in this room.
I rolled my eyes and elbowed him, drawing those blues straight up to mine. He had a shiteating grin on his face — as I expected, so I flicked his nose. "Shut up. For my current chew toy, you bite back far too much."
"What else am I good for?" he teased, subtly running his hand down my back. Just before he got to my hips, I distracted myself from his effortless captivation with Tara.
"Did you need something?" I asked, and Tara gave me an amused shake of her head. She'd come in just for me, to see if I was okay. I appreciated it but the last thing I needed was to talk any of this out, I just wanted to bully an inanimate object until my frustrations were lost to the wind.
An elbow gently touched into my side as Colby muttered, "Hey." I turned to him curiously, meeting those eyes instantly. "Need to take your anger out on something? Fight me."
My lips pressed together for a moment. "No, I don't think I'll- Wait, why am I saying no?"
He smirked. "Come on, you've wanted to kick my ass since you met me, surely."
"I have," I agreed, excitement bubbling up inside of me. I wasn't quite sure why the idea of fighting Colby was as thrilling as it was, but I was all for it. My mind happily forgot about everything else for a second.
"Can we watch?" Tara asked, the same excitement coating her features. I just shook my head, refraining from pointing out how creepy that was to even think about. She pouted but disappeared, dragging Jake, who also looked dismayed, out of the room. I looked at Colby and motioned vaguely toward the floor. He leaned down and I expected him to pick me up nicely, only for him to throw me over his shoulder. I understand before, but that was unnecessary.
"You're such a bastard," I growled when my shoes hit the concrete outside. He was just smiling at me. "Are you trying to rile me up so I exert more energy?"
He shrugged a shoulder. "That depends if it's working." The look on my face told him enough. "Come on, give me your best shot."
Holding back since I didn't want to leave any more scars on him, I launched a couple of feet forward, but he dodged it easily. His quick reflexes were going to get on my nerves if he kept evading me, even if that was the point.
No matter what I did, for a few long minutes, he consistently dodged or blocked my attacks, and with every one, I was growing more aggressive, more irritable. That smug little expression on his face certainly wasn't helping — in fact, it made me want to punch him all the more. But I tried to keep my head and perform more complicated, well-thought-out moves. Only one landed.
Then he grabbed my wrist and threw me almost three metres away.
Growling, I flinched forward like I was going to pounce, before swiftly dodging to the side and slipping under his outstretched arm. I knew I had to act fast, even if he saw every one of my moves coming. He'd already spun to me, giving me the slightest opening to use a move I avoided — for obvious reasons.
Straight men... it was easy to distract them when you demonstrate your ability to raise your leg so high in the air you can actually kick them in the face. I had to work for it, considering he was taller, but I managed it and Colby started to fall down out of utter shock and the force of the move. I purposely waited for his ass to his the floor before swooping down and dropping onto his waist. With my legs either side of him, I smirked, catching his gaze.
He was too surprised that we'd ended up like this to move for a few seconds, his hands up by his head almost in a surrender. Should he have had working lungs, he'd have been too winded to fight back.
I gently grabbed his face and leaned down to kiss him, igniting every one of his instincts as his hands grasped my hips, gliding unceremoniously up toward my waist and taking my shirt with it to touch my bare skin. A sense of need Rise up inside me but I ignored it and pulled back from the kiss, sitting up.
"Annnnnd... you're defeated," I teased, as his gaze roamed around our position. His lip had found its way between his teeth at some point. "Men are too easy."
My expectation for some kind of response fell flat, though, when I realised through the cover of night that his eyes were shifting in and out of their red shade. He'd stopped breathing, lying like a statue beneath me now. As I opened my mouth to say more, he suddenly disappeared, and I only processed it the moment my ass hit the floor.
I looked up in search of where he'd gone, only to find he wasn't even in the backyard anymore. Nor was he in the house, if my nose was right. My brows furrowed in confusion.
What happened? Why had he completely abandoned me out here?
Under the faint illumination of the moon, I received only one answer, not from the man himself. "He wants you in ways you dislike; ways he cannot have you."
I knew what the Goddess meant.
No matter how respectful he was of my wishes to remain bite-free, Colby was still a vampire with the same urges as any other.
"He'll be back," Sam's voice called to me from inside, quiet as I wasn't listening out. I slowly climbed up to my feet unable to stop the slight pout of my lips. "Sorry, Amira. Sometimes our thirst is just too much to handle."
"I know," I replied... but I didn't like it.
☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎