6. Helena
CHAPTER 6
Helena
M umbling under my breath, I wake up and roll my head and shoulders, groaning.
“What the hell just happened?”
“You fainted.”
“Holy shit!” My eyes open, my body leveraging off the soft surface so quickly as my head whips around to the dark corner where Raphael sits in a chair watching me.
I turn around quickly, my head spinning and yet everything else in me stilling when I smell his warm, cinnamon and pine smell all around me.
“Where the hell am I and what am I doing here?”
He shrugs. “I kind of already answered that. You passed out and I couldn’t take you back through the ballroom. Every shifter and vampire in there would have been all over me trying to get to you. Fresh blood and all that.”
I shiver and close my eyes, remembering the huge gray wolf in front of me and his deep, dark chocolate eyes. “You’re a wolf.”
“I’m a male who has a wolf inside him that can come out when he wants it to.”
“That seems like a complicated way to explain shifter.”
His dark eyes glow golden in the deep shadows and I shudder again. I can clearly see his wolf under the surface now and it’s a mystery to me how the hell I missed it before.
“It’s a complicated yet simple concept I guess. I don’t know how else to say it.” He stands up and moves closer and the firelight flickers across his big body, dwarfing me in the bed. For some reason visions of him crawling up and across my body and then ripping my clothes off to slide inside of me runs through my brain like some x-rated daydream.
His nostrils flare and I groan, having a feeling I know why. “Can you smell me?”
“Yes,” he snarls, his eyes flashing golden, his voice deep and rough, echoing around us. “You’re like a peppermint candy cane and a sweet tart all rolled into one. And when you’re turned on like you are now?” His golden gaze rolls back and he draws in a deep breath that makes me shrink back. When he talks again, his sharp incisors flash white in the gloom.
“You smell so damn delicious that it’s hard to resist taking you right here and right now.”
“You wouldn’t,” I hiss.
He shakes his dark head and the golden glow leaches slowly from his chocolate eyes. Regret paints his features as his firm, sensuous lips tighten. “Absolutely not, little sprite. I would never mark you or take you against your will.” He leans over me and I sink back into the mattress, holding the soft, quilted coverlet up with white, strained fingers. “That doesn’t mean that I won’t try and convince you to change your mind.”
“Ummm,” I clear my throat and turn my eyes away from the intensity in his heated gaze. “Where am I though? You didn’t answer that one.”
“You’re in the cabin that I rented for this masquerade.”
“Oh.” I glance around. The place is small and homey, the quilt I’m under obviously home-made and the large one room cabin full of wood and warm in a way unlike anything I’ve ever seen. This place is obviously well-loved and taken care of.
I never was. I’ve basically been on my own since I was a teenager. Maybe before that since my parents could loosely be called parents. They both spent as much time as they could avoiding each other and by extension…me.
Did it kill me? No. Did it break something inside of me that recognizes love in any way, shape or form? You better fucking believe it.
I’ve spent the last fourteen years since I turned thirteen essentially on my own. This guy couldn’t possibly know what that’s like and my lip curls.
“What’s that look for, little sprite?”
“You said I’m your mate, right?” He nods his head. “So how do we fix that? Because I’m not looking to be any man’s mate or soulmate. However you want to put it.”
He grins. “Ah. I’ve been waiting for this.”
My brows climb all the way up to my hairline. He looks happy and I’m not sure exactly why.
“What have you been waiting for and why is it making you so damn happy to see whatever it is?”
“I was expecting you to start arguing with me way before this. I can already tell that you’re a woman that likes a good argument. Luckily for you, I’ve been waiting and I don’t take it personally.”
“You should,” I huff. “I don’t want to be anybody’s mate. It’s not me. At all!”
“Doesn’t matter. We don’t get to pick and choose who is our mate.”
“Are you telling me that we don’t have a choice?” I scoff. “I refuse to believe that.”
“Oh, you have a choice. I don’t. If you choose not to be my mate, you can go on just like usual since you’re human. I, on the other hand, will have to deal with the loss of my mate. I will never have another one. You’re it for me.”
My mouth falls open on a soundless gasp. “Are you freaking kidding me? I’m not going to be responsible for someone not finding love. That’s insane.”
“Fated mates is a serious thing. If you choose not to accept what fate offers you, we will both struggle with a kind of sickness. Like an allergic reaction only this one is to the fact that I’ve met my mate and she refused me. My reaction will be stronger because I’m a shifter but yours…you will still feel some illness, some pain.”
I run my fingers through my hair. “Oh, three cheers,” I mutter under my breath. “This just gets better and better. I have no option unless I want to deal with a very uncomfortable, well I don’t know how long it will last but it sounds like it’s going to be miserable any way you cut it.”
He nods his head and I sigh, dropping my head into my hands. “So what do we do?”