Now that we’d passed the worst hurdle we’ll ever have to face I was able to let my mind go to all these places, to dwell on all these things that wouldn’t have mattered had I killed her the first time we fucked. “I won’t let them change you!”
I kissed her brow before pulling back to run the back of my fingertips along her cheek where her color had improved considerably from the night before. Gone was the look of worry and the almost sickly parlor that had befallen her when she thought she was running for her life.
She’d probably fight me to the death to deny it, but she seemed more at peace than even when I first met her, before this all started. And her mind was clear in slumber, there were no dark clouds hanging over her thoughts. Something I’m sure will change with her waking hours when she’ll no doubt be back to nagging and giving me shit.
She sighed and moved in closer, rubbing her cheek against the warmth of my hand before settling down again. Her sisters were calling out for her and I could feel their fear growing the longer she went without answering.
As much as I’d love to I couldn’t let them go on thinking the worst, I’m not that cruel, so I gradually removed the blocking shield I’d cast around her and listened to them bombard her senses like a swarm of bees on the attack.
Her brow wrinkled in a frown and her eyes fluttered open seconds before she sat bolt upright in bed. She looked around in a daze for a few seconds before her eyes landed on me relaxing against the pillows watching her. “My sisters are calling for me, I need to go.” I didn’t answer, just raised my brow since we’d been all through this already.
“Lucien, I said I have to go!”
“I love it when you call my name! Now princess, is that anyway to think of your husband?”
“Stay out of my head, who invited you?” She put her hands over her ears as if that would keep me out, though she knew better.
She’s so cute I couldn’t help taking her down again. But in the split second I glimpsed into her mind I saw and felt the real distress there. She wasn’t just saying it to get away from me, she was genuinely worried about them and I guess I can see why.
She’d been out of reach for more than twenty-four hours and I’m sure the only reason it took them this long is because they were afraid of giving her location away had they tried using their immortal energy to reach out to her while I was on her tail.
If they knew she was here with me, had spent the night in my bed and was now really and truly mine, they’d probably lose their little fairy minds. But as much as I’d like to keep them away until our honeymoon was over, I couldn’t leave her struggling with the worry that now plagued her mind. I couldn’t, because her worry had become mine. The takeover has begun; oh joy!
I called out to the bird and told him where to find us after listening to his spiel of empty threats of mayhem, what a douche. I didn’t try talking to her sisters since speaking to any other female in this way is way too intimate unless it’s my mother or hers and is something that if done in the future will make her lose her shit. Her possessiveness isn’t as rabid as mine is yet, it takes time for her kind to get to the level of crazy the males of my species attain, but it’s coming.
So I kept all communication between me, and the bird. Once I was sure he got the message and cut him off when he started in on me again, lecturing me about what I’d done with his mistress I blocked them again.
I didn’t let on to her what I’d done. Instead I tried distracting her with sex, which wasn’t too hard since she has no resistance against me. The more time we spend together the harder it’s going to be for her to deny me, and in a couple of months at least she won’t be able to go very long without having me near.
I never thought I’d like that, I thought I’d like even less the fact that my nature which I have no control over, would choose my mate and leave me without much say in the matter. In all the years I knew that one day I will be mated with someone not of my choosing, I never once thought that beyond the imprinting the man in me would genuinely come to care for his mate.
I knew that my growing feelings and the rate at which they grew had a lot to do with that nature, my people’s natural instinct to care for and protect their mate; but I knew that what I was beginning to feel for her went beyond that.