Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
DAMIAN
I had always known that I had no self control when it came to Arabella.
I also don’t think it had ever been truly tested until this moment. My jaw tightened as she walked ahead of me, seeming trapped in her own thoughts, the quiet, dark forest giving the illusion that it was night.
The others didn’t seem to think it was weird how she was acting, but I knew something was wrong, and I was fighting the urge to wrap her up, pin her against a tree, and fuck the answers out of her.
I could see that her face was flushed, and the confusion in her gaze had me wondering where her thoughts were.
It was a minimal amount, but I could smell her desire, and it made me want to tug down those pants she was wearing and bury my mouth against her cunt.
There was something I wanted far more, though, and it was to know what was going on with her.
“Cherry blossom, are you okay?”
Last night she had slept throughout the night perfectly—all of us had—and we had waited to wake her up because she had seemed so out of it. Now, though, I was wondering if we should have woken her up, because the look on her face was almost disoriented.
“How long did I sleep?” she asked groggily.
“Maybe eight or nine hours. We all just woke up minutes before you did.” I ran a soothing hand over her back, a tremble working over her frame. “What’s wrong?”
“I had a weird dream,” she breathed out, “and I am still feeling the effects of it.”
“What type of dream?” I cupped her jaw, bringing us to a stop and forcing her to look up at me, knowing without a doubt this had to do with fucking Ashur. I would actually fucking kill him.
“There was a man…the one from my dream before,” she murmured and ran a hand over her face. “I can’t remember now, and my body feels so weird. I feel like I was surging with energy and then just completely cut off from it. I think I am shaking— Damian.”
Her voice was soft as I wrapped my tail around her waist and backed her up against a tree at the edge of the path.
I had no idea if the others had stopped or not, but I was completely focused on Arabella.
I inhaled the scent of her growing desire as I gripped her face and pressed a hard kiss to it, causing her body to melt and release the tension that had previously been there.
A growl broke from my chest when her fingers wrapped around my horns and her legs tightened around me.
I knew I was moments away from shifting into my nightmare form, and I could barely focus on whoever was calling my name and trying to draw my attention away from her.
“I feel like I am burning up inside,” Arabella breathed out. “It is only getting worse the longer I try to ignore it. It’s been like this since I woke up.”
Grabbing her wrists, I pulled them off my horns and placed them above her head so I could concentrate.
It was so fucking hard seeing the blatant need that covered every inch of her face.
I wanted to be the one to fix this, to make her scream out in pleasure as she finally found that release on my cock.
“You have to relax, cherry blossom,” I attempted as she tried to pull me closer, those gorgeous eyes darkening with desire as a whimper left her lips.
I had very little control as it was when it came to Arabella, but she was very much testing it right now.
I was about one kiss away from just fucking her right here and now.
“Then help me,” she hissed and struggled slightly, which snapped my nightmare instincts into place.
I pinned her further against the tree, making it so she had no ability to move at all.
My power flared in response to my teammates trying to get close, as pink and black flames surrounded us, not burning anything but sheltering us.
I knew reasonably they were no threat, but my nightmare instincts were convinced they were trying to take away my mate from me.
“We can’t.” I swallowed, trying to remember yesterday. “If we do that, you are in more danger than before.”
“Then do something.” Her voice was soft, begging. “Please?”
I had no idea what it was about Arabella asking me for something, but I found myself searching my mental rolodex for every possibility on how to handle this, everything I had learned so far about this odd exchange of power that she seemed to create.
If we couldn’t have sex, we needed something else that would allow her to be drained of the excess power…
I could mark her.
I could mark her. That was fucking brilliant.
My tail tightened further around her as I pressed my lips to hers, her body shaking with need as I gave into the instinct that had been riding me from the beginning.
My lips trailed up her skin, and I let all my power surge into her at once, Arabella letting out a small scream of surprise as my lips brushed against her scar.
I could feel her tremble, and almost like a climax railed through her, she suddenly deflated, unconscious, my body the only thing holding her up. My magic flooded back through me, feeling ten times more powerful than before, making me feel like I was nearly high off of her scent and energy.
I was suddenly regretting leaving Ashur’s home. This wasn’t safe, and it wasn’t safe to just pause on the path like this until she woke up.
I transferred her into my arms, wrapping her up and tucking her against my chest as the flames died. I turned to find everyone staring at me in confusion and frustration. Probably because they thought I had lost my cool, which to be fair, I had been fairly close to doing.
“Her magic was all worked up because of a dream.” I narrowed my eyes at Ashur, who was in his wolf form and didn’t react, staring at the woman in my arms. Saint growled at him but did nothing else, which told me that this fucker was probably an even match for him.
That was horrifying to consider. “So I marked her to take away the excess energy,” I finished. .
Cy stood next to me, looking down at her before offering me a curious expression. “I wouldn’t have expected that to be your mark.”
“I think it’s more about what she would want.” I looked over the small black heart underneath her scar, no longer a drawing she created but rather a true tattoo.
Now she would always have that small design that she seemed so fond of. It wasn’t a big or flashy mark, it was simple and exactly what she needed… Because that was what I wanted to be to my cherry blossom—exactly what she needed.
I knew she could be insecure about the scar, but I had always thought it was beautiful.
“We have to keep going,” Razar said after a moment, seemingly frustrated on how to handle any of this. “It isn’t safe here.”
It wasn’t, but the bastard was also a control freak.
“It isn’t safe for us to come across a god terror while she is unconscious…”
My words came to a stop as Arabella opened her eyes and looked right at me, my eyes widening slightly because it was very clear that the small black heart mark wasn’t the only thing I had added.
Her silver-colored eye now contained a bright pink circle of color on the outside edge that seemed to almost sparkle and change.
It was beautiful. She was beautiful.
“Damian,” she breathed out as affection filled her gaze, “thank you so much.”
I pressed my forehead to hers. “No problem, cherry blossom. I know you mentioned waiting for the right time to mark you—”
“No.” She shook her head. “That was perfect. You’re perfect.”
“As much as I love the love fest going on here,” Saint drew out, “I can feel strong magic north of us, so I would highly suggest we get moving so we can get out of this damn forest.”
Arabella nodded despite my scowl at the god terror, and I put her down in front of me.
Now that he mentioned it, I found myself feeling exactly what he was referring to, and it had everything inside of me rebelling against the idea of exposing Arabella to that.
I wanted to tuck her away and keep her safe from all of this bullshit.
My girl wasn’t having any of that though.
Instead, she moved ahead and I followed after, not wanting to be far from her in case I needed to move her out of the way.
It was far from the first time I had done that, and honestly, sometimes it wasn’t just danger I was moving her away from.
Sometimes it was people that I didn’t want her talking to because I was a possessive bastard.
“If you want me to, I can try to schedule a meeting for Thursday at sixteen hundred,” Arbaella said to the Class B team that looked frustrated. I glared at them, wanting to make Arabella’s life easier and finding it frustrating as all hell that I couldn’t do anything about this.
‘This’ being the weekly open ‘office hours’ that she thought would be a good opportunity for nightmares to come talk to her and relay to the Director any problems they were having.
I didn’t like it at all, and each of us took a turn monitoring them, making sure that no one tried anything.
We would have probably all been in here if it wasn’t for the obvious fact that no nightmares would come because they were scared.
“That works.” The team lead nodded and turned, leaving just one nightmare left. I had a feeling he was a creature terror.
“Can I talk to you privately?” Class B asked, and instantly a growl emitted from my throat.
“Is there a problem?” Arabella stood and rounded the desk to stand near the terror. I fought the urge to tug her back to me and instead inhaled and slowly exhaled, managing to keep my temper in check.
“I just don’t feel comfortable with the team I am on anymore,” he admitted, sounding shaky. I relaxed a bit, feeling bad for the guy.
“Why?” Arabella leaned against the desk.
Class B swallowed and looked towards me. “They keep doing dominance fights within the team, and I grew up with mostly humans… I just don’t want to have to feel like I am constantly fighting to live a normal life.”