15. You Are Mine
YOU ARE MINE
Johnathan’s green eyes glistened cryptically in the waning twilight, and there was an ineffable, dark strength within him that transcended the usual distinctions between beta and alpha. It was so strange that I was simultaneously intrigued and unnerved.
I would never admit it, of course. A male alpha should never be intimidated by a male beta.
It was supposed to be the other way around.
That was a rule as old as time. I snatched my wrist away, trying to stare the audacious beta down.
But Johnathan held my gaze, showing no sign of averting his eyes or baring his neck in submission.
Just then, Damien came back, slamming three tankards of mead on the table, spilling them all over the place.
“I should have brought a royal guard and cleared out this whole tavern so that I didn’t have to line up behind some guy who couldn’t even decide what to order.
And someone definitely farted down there,” Damien complained grumpily, scrunching his nose, apparently oblivious of the tension between Johnathan and me.
I shot up from the seat and grunted, “I need to leave early.” Then I marched toward the stairs, didn’t even pause when Damien’s perplexed questions reached my ears. “What?! Why?”
I stormed out of the inn and turned into a relatively quiet alleyway, hoping to get away from all the people as quickly as possible. All I could think about was that Johnathan knew my secret, our secret, and he could destroy me merely by opening his mouth to the right people.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have left. I should have kept Johnathan happy and agreed to whatever he said, as long as he kept his mouth shut.
No, no, I shouldn’t panic. He was Damien’s companion. His fate and his family’s fate were tied to Damien. He wouldn’t do anything to harm his prince ... would he?
“Fenris!” Damien’s voice came from behind, quickly approaching.
I walked faster, not wanting to deal with him at the moment. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone?!
“Fenris!” He still managed to catch up to me and took hold of my right arm, forcing me to a halt and turning me to face him.
I growled in warning, “Let go.”
“Why did you leave?” Damien asked insistently. “The fireworks are about to begin.”
“I don’t want to watch them anymore.”
“Why?”
“Why do you care? I’m not on a date with you!” I sneered.
“Because I don’t want you to go!” Damien snapped. He grabbed the front of my tunic and shoved me against the wall. His dark, mesmerizing eyes locked on mine, and his raspy voice rumbled in my ears. “Why do you have to drive me mad like this!”
“What do you want from me?!” I shouted, shoving him back.
Yet he came right back at me, pressing me into the wall with all his weight, trying to grab my fists so they wouldn’t land on his face.
Eventually, we were in a deadlock. His hand clutched at my collar, my arm on his throat.
We panted heavily, locked in a stare so intense I couldn’t tell whether we were about to kill each other or devour each other.
“I want you,” Damien hissed. His husky voice was replete with scorching desire. “I want to have you again ... Like the day I had you in the bath. I can’t bear the thought of others touching you. You are mine!”
“I’m not yours ...” I whispered. When his intoxicating scent enveloped me like this, it was hard to hold on to the words, even harder to mean them. “It was wrong ... it will ruin us!”
“No one needs to know!”
“You are the Prince of Nocturne; people watch your every move. How long do you think we can hide something like this in a court of backstabbing and gossip!”
“Are you telling me you don’t want me? That you don’t want me to pin you down and fuck you so hard until you scream my name?”
His words slithered into my ear like poison, dissolving my resolution inch by inch.
My body grew hot just listening to him, by recalling what happened in the bath, by remembering how he pushed my legs to my chest and entered me like a beast ...
How his power shot through me with each raw, primal pulse.
“I don’t ...” I tried to lie, but I couldn’t finish my sentence. His hand pressed against my already hardened part through my pants, and I gasped helplessly.
“Come on, tell me you don’t want me,” he challenged me with an evil smirk, knowing too well that I was responding eagerly to his every touch.
“Fuck you!” I gritted my teeth, then I roughly grabbed his hair and crushed our lips together. I inhaled him with a hunger that scared even myself, biting his lips savagely like a wild wolf.
He retaliated with the same ferocity, his teeth cut into my lips and tongue, and my blood mixed with his. It wasn’t a kiss but a battle, filled with unbridled desire and violence. He ground his hips into mine, and I could feel his arousal through the annoying fabric between us.
Suddenly, a loud boom shattered our lust-befuddled minds. Fear seized my heart in an instant. The thought of anyone seeing us like this froze my body. I felt the same flinch from Damien and saw the startled look on his face.
Brilliant, rosy light lit up Damien’s face.
We looked up and saw thousands of fiery streaks unfurl into a glowing flower, turning the entire dark firmament coral.
It only dimmed when the shimmering petals diminished into trails of smoke, but before the darkness could return, another bloom followed, exploding into a golden chrysanthemum.
The fireworks contest had begun.
I exhaled in relief, feeling as though we were about to step into a precipice but were yanked back at the last second.
A string of laughter suddenly escaped Damien, seemingly finding our overreaction amusing.
I hadn’t seen him laugh so freely and brightly before.
All his previous smiles were either reeking with devilish intentions or loaded with haughty mockery.
I never thought he could laugh so openly and carefree, almost childlike.
His eyes crinkled into two crescent moons, and I couldn’t help but also chuckle.
“See, I told you this was a bad idea,” I muttered, pushing him back with one hand and turning to leave.
But he blocked my way again, saying, “Come with me, please.”
“To where?”
“You won’t regret it, I promise,” he said softly, head tilted, eyes wide with glistening hope, almost pleading.
I’d never seen him like this before. I could handle him being infuriatingly arrogant and annoying, but I somehow couldn’t find the strength in myself to say no when he gave me this ... puppy-eye attack.
Seeing that I wasn’t saying no, Damien’s face lit up, brighter than the fireworks. He beckoned me to follow him, and I grumpily obeyed.
We climbed up a staircase flanked by dilapidated, old buildings that stood slanting on the slope.
The passage was drenched in shadow, dank and dingy, apparently deserted by most people.
The only light came from the occasional flare of the fireworks.
As my patience wore thin, the steep ascending path ended abruptly, giving way to a small stretch of lush, green grassland.
No more jagged, crowded buildings blocking the view, just the endless dark heaven arched over our heads.
We were suddenly at a high point above the dock, looking out into the wide, serpentine Shimmering River. The teeming crowds bustled beneath the hill, moving and shuffling like a swarm of ants, yet up here, we were the only two people, as though forgotten by the world.
All the ships were clearly in view, and the shells rose from them like comets, screeching through the air, climbing all the way into the zenith and exploding into the most splendid patterns.
My mouth hung open, taking in the breathtaking view.
Damien stood quietly beside me, and our shoulders occasionally brushed against each other.
After a while, he headed to a pine tree that grew on the edge of the crag.
The tree’s trunk stretched out to the sky, hanging above the sudden fall of rugged rocks.
My heart almost jumped out of my throat as I watched him leap onto the angled tree trunk with remarkable nimble grace and move toward the part that was dangerously hanging in the air.
“What are you doing! Get down!” I rushed to the tree, yelling at him in a panic. Did he have a dying wish or what?!
“It’s alright. It’s safe.” Damien sat down on the tree trunk. His legs hung above the rocky shore a hundred feet below us. Then he extended a hand toward me. “Join me?”
“It may break under both of our weights!”
“Then we die together,” he said. His eyes gleamed like golden honey as a firework exploded above our heads.
I remembered that before I came to Nocturne, Lady Astrid said Prince Damien was smart, patient, and born to be a king … All bullshit. This man was crazier than a nuthead! It was almost like he wanted something disastrous to happen to him.
And it turned out, I was also crazier than a nuthead. Why else would I have stepped on the shaking tree, grabbed his hand, and sat down next to him?
It was indeed an incredible spot. It felt as though we were hovering in mid-air, and the night sky was a black canvas that spread endlessly. The fireworks bloomed all around us, so close that it felt like if I had raised my hand, I could have caught those falling colourful sparks.
“This was my favourite spot when I would sneak out to watch the fireworks contest when I was a cub.” Damien’s voice drifted in the gentle breeze. “No one would recognize me, and I could sit here the whole night, even after the contest had ended.”
“How did you find this place?”
“My friend and I were trying to hide from the guards searching for us during one of the firework shows. We found this place by chance.”
“Your friend? Not Rydel, right? Because I’d rather jump off from here than sit in the same spot as him.”
Damien laughed sonorously, as though I’d said something hilarious. I was very serious, though.