Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
ARABELLA
When I first woke, I felt disoriented. I couldn’t tell you where I was, I just knew it was not where I had been before.
You know, after Cy bit me and seemed to awaken a type of magic in me that I could have never expected to contain.
Even now, it felt like I was buzzing, and something told me that the more my mates marked me, the more I connected with them, the more this feeling would grow.
Despite not having opened my heavy eyes yet, I knew that the silk sheets underneath me weren’t familiar.
The space around me was dark and heavy with magic, yet when I managed to open my eyes just a small amount, I could feel moonlight shining down on my frame.
It took a significant amount of time to roll from my stomach to my side as I looked at the thick forest that surrounded me.
I stretched and let out a happy sigh at the feeling rushing over me.
When I felt fingers trail up my spine, I should have been worried about the unfamiliar magic, but instead I just let out a happy hum. Because while it was unfamiliar, it also wasn’t. There was some part of my psyche that recognized it, and I was far too tired to fight how I felt.
Plus, my throat hurt from where Cy had marked me, but that didn’t bother me that much.
What bothered me more was that my stomach was churning with the chaotic storm of magic raging inside of me.
It wasn’t enough to convince me to move in any way, but it did have a shuddering breath coming out of my lips.
“My moon.” A deep, masculine voice that was accented had me freezing only for a moment before melting into the sheets again.
His cadence had my entire body relaxing, and a comfortable contentment soared through me, removing my ability to be worried or upset to any extent.
I found myself wanting to turn around to see the mystery man, though, especially when he laid behind me, his rough fingers wrapping around my hip.
I was too relaxed, and my body felt like it was being swaddled by a weighted blanket.
When my eyes flickered down to the fingers on my hip, I realized they were an umber tone covered in scars and runes.
I tried to not overthink the emotions soaring through me, mainly desire that pricked my skin.
“Who are you?” I closed my eyes again, the darkness around us like a comforting cocoon. I could feel his lips pressing against my neck, but he wasn’t trying to touch any more of me, almost as if he just wanted to savor holding me.
“A better question is who are you?” His voice had my toes curling. “And why do you come to my forest?”
“We are trying to find a god terror, Hate, and maybe even Peace,” I admitted easily, not understanding why I was trusting him with the information, exactly, but instinctively knowing it was okay for him to be aware of our plans.
A rumble broke from the man. “Why would you seek trouble like that, my moon?”
“Humans are attacking the institute, and we think Chaos and Hate are behind it. We have to stop them.” I blinked slowly and tried to move my body again. “Why can’t I turn around?”
“I can’t let you.” He exhaled slowly. “You aren’t allowed to see me.”
“Why not?” I didn’t like the idea of that.
“It will hurt you, you are only human.” His voice was filled with a sadness I didn’t like at all. I didn’t want him to be sad, and I couldn’t exactly explain why it bothered me so much.
“It won’t,” I promised as I tried to push past the heavy blanket of relaxation, but the hand he placed on my back infused my muscles with relief and made them feel like jelly.
“I can’t risk that.” His lips pressed to the top of my back. “I can’t risk you getting hurt. I will help you leave this place, but you must follow me. Don’t go looking for the god terror; nothing but death greets you on that path.”
The word death seemed to shake the frame of the dream, and I let out a strangled gasp as Saint’s power broke through. The touch to my back stopped, despite me still not being able to move.
“Arabella?” Saint’s voice was even. I felt the person laying behind me sit up as a low rumble left his throat, causing chills to break out along my skin.
“I’m fine,” I called out casually. “Just can’t move.”
“How did you get in here?” the other man asked, making me want to see his expression.
“Ashur…” Saint chuckled, but it was dark and clearly not amused.
“It’s been at least a few thousand years, hasn’t it?
I am completely unsurprised that you decided to take that form, although it’s a bit monstrous, even for you.
” His voice turned harsher. “You are making a fatal mistake by taking our mate into a forced dream realm.”
So they knew one another?
“I was warning her to not go find Hate. Why are you allowing her to walk into danger if she is your supposed mate?” The man had a hard bite to his words, and I could feel how angry he was.
“I don’t control Arabella,” Saint said evenly. “My flower doesn’t need anyone to control her… Well, except in bed.”
“Saint!” I grumbled.
“You have defiled her?” Ashur, apparently, snarled.
“I have done some filthy things to her, it’s true,” Saint mused as he grew closer. “Now let her the fuck out of here.”
“Not if she won’t be safe. She can’t survive what you are suggesting—”
“Yet she has,” Saint drew out. “Surely you recognize what Arabella is, Ashur. You may have been feral for the past thousand years or so, but the dynamic hasn’t changed.”
There was silence before Ashur let out a low rumble. “No.”
“Yes,” Saint leveled, “Which means, of course, that she wouldn’t be harmed by your gaze, but that doesn’t mean shit to me. Stay in your wolfy form or don’t, I will break down this dream realm if you don’t let her out now, and you know I won’t be gentle.”
“Could someone please let me up and tell me what the hell is going on?” I asked finally, feeling it hard to be upset or worked up to any extent.
“As you wish, my moon.”
Suddenly, the odd conversation and the weird atmosphere was gone. I gasped as everything seemed to spin around me, and I tried to grip onto something before finding myself with my head buried against a fur body.
I let normal sleep slip over me, hoping that I would get an explanation for my dream when I woke up.
Amun
Arabella’s head was in my lap, her sleepy, perfect expression making me want to take her away from the shit occurring around me.
I couldn’t give a fuck who the asshole was that Saint had pulled from her dream state—Ashur, I believe Saint had called him.
All I cared about was that my precious human was safe and okay.
Luckily for Ashur, it seemed he hadn’t hurt her at all while inside of her head, because if he had, then I really would have killed him. He may have been an ancient bastard, from what I could sense, but when it came to Arabella there was almost nothing I wouldn’t be willing to take on.
“You need to leave now. You shouldn’t be in the same fucking vicinity as Arabella, let alone breathing the same air,” Saint demanded, his normal lighthearted tone completely gone, which gave me more than enough clue to how dangerous this terror was.
He had a very odd power signature, one that was both disguised and very obviously extremely strong. Then again, that wasn’t the only thing odd about him.
When I had arrived at the institute, I’d known that I looked rough. I mean, I had barely gotten used to being out of a legitimate tomb before I was whisked away for draining humans. This guy, though?
He legitimately looked like a wild animal.
I had no idea how he managed to have pants on when he shifted, but I suppose that was something to be thankful for.
I didn’t want to see him or any of these other bastards naked.
The rest of Ashur, though, was covered in scars and wounds from fighting, and then there were rune-like tattoos in a language I didn’t recognize.
The oddest part of all? His eyes. I wasn’t one to notice stuff like that, but it was almost impossible to not notice with how uncomfortable they made me.
I was almost positive that it was intentional.
Then again, it wasn’t often you saw someone that had completely black eyes with lightning bolts of silver moving actively throughout them.
I could feel a weird sensation through my magic, as if he was naturally draining it, and considering I literally drained life energy from humans, I didn’t care to experience it myself.
Ashur let out a low growl. “You are out of your mind if you think I am leaving her.”
Where the hell was his accent from? It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
I narrowed my eyes at him, but then Arabella shifted and everyone looked down at her. I had no idea how she wasn’t fully aware of how everyone gravitated towards her. I mean, everything about this team was solely focused around her as their core.
“You know what she is, that’s the only reason you want her,” Saint accused. The concept made me absolutely livid.
“I took her before I knew what she was,” Ashur bit back before looking away from Arabella. “Plus, it doesn’t work that way for us, just like how it doesn’t work that way for the group of you.”
“You have mates?” Saint asked. So this guy had mates like a god terror but wasn’t one?
“Only one,” Ashur murmured, looking back at Arabella.
Razar stepped in front of us. “That isn’t fucking happening.”
“You have no idea who I am, don’t try to tell me what I can do,” Ashur stated, his voice void of emotion, before looking back at Saint. “Why have you brought her here? She should be far away from here, especially if you are searching for one of your kind.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t try that with precious,” I pointed out. “She doesn’t like being told where she should be and what she should be doing.”
“I meant to be protected.” Ashur frowned.