10. Bonded in Secret #2
Was this man crazy or what? “Do you want your father to disown you?!” I said grumpily. “Because mine sure will.”
“I don’t know. Sometimes I just want to let it all burn,” he said nonchalantly, and left.
What the fuck? Wasn’t he supposed to be the favourite, perfect son of the king and the queen?
Though I didn’t thank Damien, I had to admit that he did me a big favour by coming to check on me and letting me take in his scent.
He didn’t have to; since I wasn’t a vulnerable omega or beta, he had no obligation to take care of me.
Meanwhile, I wouldn’t have been able to hide in my room much longer, and I would have been exposed the moment that door was opened.
I washed my face and wiped my body with the last bit of water in the pitcher before applying the scent mask.
As Damien said, it weakened my original scent, along with his, and gave me a strong but artificial alpha smell.
I winced at the smell, not liking it one bit, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
I changed into a fresh tunic and pants, then opened the door to Leif’s room.
He was writing something on his desk but jumped to his feet the moment he saw me.
He rushed to me, grabbing my hand, and blurted out a barrage of questions, “Oh my Great Wolf, you are finally out! Why did you lock yourself in? Are you alright? Are you still sick? How do you feel?”
I smiled a little, feeling guilty for making him worried sick. “I’m recovered. It was just a cold. Didn’t want to pass it to you.”
Leif blinked several times and then jammed his not-so-hard fist into my chest. His ivory face reddened in frustration. “NEVER do that again! I was worried sick!! And why did you let Damien in and not me!”
“He um ... he has some medicine.”
“I called you a physician this morning! You still didn’t let me in!” Leif pointed out, rather peevishly.
“I know, I’d say no to him, too, but I didn’t want to be impolite.” I struggled to find excuses. Lying to Leif face-to-face had always made me nervous.
Leif glanced at me suspiciously. “Since when do you worry about being impolite to people?” Then, to make me even more nervous, he leaned in and sniffed me. “You smell ... different ...” he said with a frown.
I gulped, searching for a proper lie in my head frantically. “Yeah? Maybe it was the medicine.”
“I never heard that cold medicine could alter your scent?” Leif asked, perplexed.
In an attempt to change the topic, I sauntered over to his desk and asked, “What are you writing?”
“Oh ... um, a letter,” Leif said.
I detected a glimmer of hesitation in his voice. ”To where? Home?”
“Yeah ... a letter from Mom arrived this morning, I was just replying.”
“Is she checking on your progress in seducing Prince Damien?” I scoffed.
“I wasn’t seducing him! I barely spoke to him!
” Leif protested; the red in his face deepened from embarrassment and shyness.
“Anyway, it was not that. It’s just ... after we left, Father sent out scouts to monitor the vampires’ movements and see if they were bringing in more reinforcements.
All the scouts were found dead, and they sent their heads back. ”
“What?! Where is the letter?!” A coldness rose up my spine. It had been only a week, and the vamps were already making moves.
Leif pulled out a piece of paper and gave it to me, saying, “There is nothing you can do. Mother just wants me to know the importance of this mission. We need to find a strong alliance while we are here, Fenris. Kaelith will return, and likely with a larger army. You need to stop antagonizing Prince Damien and ... I don’t know, maybe find a way to befriend him. ”
Befriend him? If only he knew we’d skipped that step and gone directly to a mate bond.
I wordlessly scanned the letter. It was pithy, solemn, but still carried the warmth of a mother. I could sense her worry through the words, though.
Leif was right. We had to find an ally soon, and Damien was the best choice. If Damien married Leif, then Nocturne and all its allied clans would back us against Kaelith and the Vampire King Solomon.
But why did I feel a sharp pang in my chest when I thought about Damien marrying my brother, or anyone else?
This was so ridiculous. It was just sex, nothing else. We didn’t even like each other. Even if we did, it was not like Damien could marry another alpha.
Was this also the effect of that goddamn mating mark?
Damien’s Diary Entry, Day 3
June 15, Full Moon,
So ... um ... I think I’ve made a big mistake ...
I wanted to leave Fenris alone, I truly did, even though he made it very difficult. But then ... we were alone in the bathhouse, both a little giddy from the wine and hot steam, one thing led to another, and I think I might have marked him.
I had decided to woo Leif before the hunt.
Leif is not Lovel, he doesn’t have the strongest southern clan backing him, sure, but he is also the son of Jarl Harald of Winterthrope, the largest northern clan.
Mother won’t like it, but I’m sure she’ll be able to see the potential value of such an alliance.
If I can gain support from Winterthrope, at least over half of all northern clans will be backing me.
Furthermore, I think Father is a little wary about Eclipse anyway. Gillian is too ambitious. Giving him a prince is like giving a key to the royal house of Nocturne, and the next thing you know, he will be sitting at the host’s seat.
Leif would be a great alternative, and he is much more lovely than Lovel (he also has an interesting brother, but that’s totally not why I decided to choose him, mind you).
Leif likes me, I think. My charm rarely fails to capture omegas’ attention.
Once the hunt began, I saw him coming from the omega camp, and he almost got knocked over by a bunch of rambunctious young alphas who were too eager for the hunt.
I shielded him with my bigger body, growling at those younger wolves and shooing them away.
He thanked me sweetly, unlike some ungrateful alpha wolf we both knew. Just then, I saw Lovel and his coven of mean omegas heading my way, obviously intending to tag along with me.
Not wanting to have to deal with the Eclipse wolves, I asked if Leif wanted to go somewhere else. I planned to take him to my favourite spot by the lake so we could talk in private and get to know each other better. It wasn’t in the designated hunting area, so no one would disturb us.
Leif hesitated at first, saying that his brother had asked him to go find him. To reassure Leif, I randomly grabbed a page, tasked him to go find Fenris and tell him Leif was coming with me.
I guess I should have been more careful with the messenger selection, because as it turned out later, Fenris had never received the message ...
I told the rest of my companions to go ahead with their hunting, then led Leif to the lake.
I was putting all my charm to work when Fenris suddenly showed up.
His wolf form was massive, almost the size of a small cabin, much bigger than most alpha wolves I knew and on par with mine.
His multi-coloured fur was thick and lustrous, shimmering lightly under the silver moonlight, though all his hackles bristled, and his icy blue eyes (yes, they were icy blue even in his wolf form) were seething with rage.
My Great Wolf ... He was beautiful and majestic even in his wolf form...
No, I wasn’t trying to get into his pants; I had made that decision. Focus, Damien!
Fenris growled and yelled at his brother, scolding him for coming with me without letting him know.
That’s when I figured the page had failed the task.
Seeing Leif’s ears all drooped in shame and fear, I instinctively wanted to stand up for him (and definitely not because I enjoyed getting on Fenris’s nerves).
I interjected, “Hey! Stop yelling at him, it was I who invited him. We were having fun until you came along. You can’t talk to me if you insist on being pissed all the time!”
Those blue irises finally focused on me once again, and he snarled with enough menace to make a regular human piss their pants.
“You don’t talk to my brother without me present.
You don’t touch my brother without consulting me.
Hell, if you so much as look his way without asking for permission first, I swear I’ll bash your pretty face into a pulp! ”
My ears prickled up. “So you think I’m pretty?”
“That’s not the point!” he snapped, though I swear I could see a sliver of embarrassment ...
I began to approach him. An urge to challenge him, to rile him up until I could see that blazing fire in his eyes turning into a conflagration which was so strong that it annihilated my rational thoughts.
I said with a sly smirk, “If you don’t want me to woo your brother, then why attend the ball? Or do you want to be my Luna yourself?”
Just as I could feel the heat in the air rising rapidly, suddenly his expression changed.
“Watch out!” he shouted as he lunged at me. I was knocked flying backward by his force. We rolled a few yards away on the grass. I cursed loudly, but all my words died in my throat when I saw the biggest goddamn water serpent I’d seen in my life.
Fenris had saved my life.
The serpent seemed determined to melt me with its sizzling venom (again, had never seen a water serpent do that before ...). I was slammed into a tree so hard that I worried one or two of my ribs had snapped. Its ominous red eyes were full of violence, focusing solely on me.
I had expected Fenris to leave with Leif, since he didn’t even like me. But to my surprise, he stayed.
We fought the serpent together. It was not every day you met a warrior, and your fighting style just clicked. It was like we could sense what the other’s plan was, so our attacks and defences complimented each other.