❝She was sheltered, her mind under the roof that water dripped off of. The safety was unfamiliar, and for that she found sad.❞
When she woke up the next time, Cayce had disappeared. There was a fading scent in the air, replaced by a new one, the same one clinging to her t-shirt.
She wanted to open her eyes, stretch, and yawn, yet there was a part of her that couldn't bring herself to do so. There hadn't been time for mental preparation. She'd had no time to actually think about what she'd say.
Was it really only a little while before that she'd been with her family, still training for everything leading up to the moment where she would be forced to run? It felt like lifetimes ago already, but she already longed for it once again. She always had to have her guard up, even then, but at least then she knew she was safe.
She was used to having to calculate things, to carefully plan her next move and her cautious act. This was one of the times where she had time to think, but she had no idea what to expect. There wasn't necessarily a way to predict this. There had been no way to predict running into him.
"I know you're awake. I can hear your heartbeat."
His voice shocked her, nearly quiet enough to be a whisper. It was deep and rough, caressing her ears the way a piece of velvet would caress her body. It shocked her out of her thoughts, and she growled. If her heart hadn't been racing, it certainly was now. He was calling her out on her act, impatient.
Her body tensed for a moment, and she used the sudden movement in her body as motivation. It took a lot of willpower to get up, but she made sure that it looked as effortless as possible, yawning and opening her eyes. She wanted to snap at him but resisted the urge to do so for the sake of her innocent act.
The moment she fully opened her eyes, they locked on his form. It wasn't until she laid eyes on him that she understood that this was just a glimpse of the mate pull. Every cell in her body gravitated towards him, and the sudden urge to be near him, touch him, and talk to him was overwhelming.
Her first impression of him was that was he was gorgeous in a way someone should never be allowed to be. Her eyes were immediately drawn to his broad shoulders, and she gulped. From there, she couldn't stop her eyes from traveling along his caramel skin, clearly tanned from the sun, to his face. He wore a rather thoughtful expression, she thought, staring down at her. His eyes were a gentle brown, nothing giving away his thoughts. They matched his chestnut-brown hair, which was styled in an artfully tousled way. He had a thinner nose that almost countered the frame of his face, where a sharp jawline was located. She swallowed, then realized she had been staring for much too long and forcefully tugged her eyes from his form. Get yourself together, he's just a guy.
"Oh, don't stop staring on my account," his voice came yet again, amused. Her eyes flitted back as he spoke, and the corners of his mouth shot up, something that triggered a new feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Who said I was staring because of you?" she countered easily, somewhat relieved that her brain was still functioning after looking at him for a hard moment. She fought to keep her voice steady for the first time, nearly gritting her teeth with the effort not to launch herself into his arms.
His eyes widened at her response. "Fair enough."
She looked back down and kicked off her blankets, refusing to flinch as the cold air torched her skin. She felt all too self-conscious under his eyes. The heat from his gaze alone was enough to warm her right up. Her head raised in his direction again, and she leveled her chin. "Have you blinked at all, this entire time?"
Almost reactively, he blinked at her words, taken aback by her sudden willingness to speak to him. "I'll openly admit that I'm staring. I'm not ashamed of looking at you. After all, you are destined to be mine as I am yours."
"And if it makes me uncomfortable?"
He tensed at her words and implication, and she could see for a moment that he was trying to figure out what she meant by that. He averted his gaze. "I'll stop then."
Her legs swung off the end of the bed, and she reached for the glass of water on the nightstand, which had recently been refilled. "Who are you, anyways?" Bitterness crept into her tone, giving away a piece of her resentment for him to see. She hated being clueless just as much as she despised the royals. She wanted to take back the words the moment that she said them. Instead, she just paused and watched carefully for his reaction.
When he opened his mouth, she didn't wait for his words. She decided in the split-second before that she didn't want to hear them. If he was a royal, did she really want to know? Later, yes. Right now? Not in particular. "Actually, how much do I owe you for taking care of me?"
If he'd been startled by her last request, his reaction was nothing compared to this one. "Owe me?"
"Yes," she said. "How much do I owe you and how can I repay you for granting me shelter and protection for these past few days?"
He stilled at the word repay, pausing before he paced towards her a couple more steps. "You owe me nothing."
She scoffed, avoiding the eyes she could feel on her. "Don't be ridiculous, protecting someone like me in this world always costs you something."
"Even if it cost me, I wouldn't make you pay for my decisions." She looked back to see a darker expression flit across his face. When his eyes came back to hers, she only gave him an even stare in response. After a good minute, he tilted his head. "Actually, you can do one thing for me."
"Oh, yeah?" She knew that he would be able to come up with something. Men in the world were normally cruel, selfish creatures. They had little care for anything or anyone else, and she didn't want to be in one's debt. Just because he was her mate didn't mean that he owed her anything.
She swore she blinked, and then he was closer to her, in front of her on his knees. His hands reached for her without permission, latching onto one of her limbs ever so gently. His touch sent strange tingles throughout her body, the feeling of someone touching her rather foreign. She ripped her leg from his grasp instantly, tense even when pain shot through it at the motion.
"Don't ever touch me without my consent. Ever," she snapped, her heart racing. It was too sudden, and too far.
He ignored her; his gaze still fixated on her leg. "What happened to you out there?"
The simple ignorance of his question and his lack of acknowledgement pissed her off. She looked away from him, her mouth pressed firm into a line. What was it that he could do with the information if she told him? Kill the person who touched her? Please. "What do you think happened? I'm a female on the run."
"I want you to stay here, with me. If you stay here, I can protect you." His words sparked anger inside of her. She hated the truth to his words. She hated that she was here dependent on him. She hated that she was probably going to stay because she had no other option.
It was another moment before she heard him stand up. His footsteps sounded quietly on the tile floor as his scent slowly faded from the room. He shut the door on his way out, leaving her with a mind on overdrive and questions.
Just like that.
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What's your first impression of her mate? What do you think of their interaction?
I really tried hard to make this as smooth as possible, but all the same as in-depth as I could. I'm not sure that I've established that quite as well as I hoped, but I'm quite proud of the effort that I put into this. It was originally meant to be a New Year's surprise. Happy New Years & Happy New Decade, you guys! Hopefully we can all make it a great one. 2019 was kind of rough, haha.
I've decided that I might not have a schedule for this story even when I start turning my full attention to it. I wonder if having unrestricted amounts of time and longer times in between updates might improve chapter quality. We'll have to see. Let me know your thoughts on that.