Her secret mate

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That night, everything changed.

What I hoped would be the night when everything would change for the better. I was sure that starting from that night my fairy tale would begin... but I guess that was quite a childish dream to have.

The saddest part of it all and the part that drives me nuts the most, was that nothing really changed other than me... other than how I viewed everything and how I felt, I guess.

After the commotion from the explosion finally died down and people left, Darcy was pulled out by our parents to help them deal with this crisis.

So here I am, once again left alone.

Before leaving, Darcy gave me a kiss on the forehead, like he always does, and I watched him leave. My heart still filled with worry about him as he left. My thoughts were still occupied with what could happen to him.

Frustrated and tired, I closed my eyes for a second. The weight of all of this was way too much for me to deal with. It felt like the weight of all the emotions and everything else was crushing me.

A light tap on the door pulled me out of the storm of thoughts and emotions that were suffocating me. Even without asking or checking, I knew that it was him. It was only a question of time, until he came to me, or I broke down and went on to search for him.

"It's open."

I said loud enough for him to hear, but the sound that left my mouth did not sound like me. It sounded crackly and more like a whisper of someone who drank and smoked too much.

The doors to my room opened, and I was hit by his scent. From the moment I met him, I knew that I liked his scent, but right now... right now I felt like a cat getting her first sniff of cat nip. It took a lot of willpower to keep myself in place as he walked into the room. Slowly he closed the door behind himself, but he did not make a move to get closer to me or even cross the invisible line that divided the room in half.

Neither of us dared to look at each other as silence settled in the room. My eyes kept darting at him, from across the room, until he also lifted his eyes and our eyes met.

The darkness of his eyes drew me in instantly and I felt myself being drowning in them. I guess he was in a similar situation because he also was staring at me with a pained expression on his face. It looked as if he was in total and complete pain with every second that he was in this room.

A need to cross the room and touch him was so strong, that it felt like he was burning me from inside out. At this point I am not sure how I managed not to jump out of bed and run to him.

Frustrated with the discomfort that I was feeling, I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my hands around them.

"Princess, do not move."

My eyes shot at Colin and I saw that he took a step back and closed his eyes.

"Do not move, because if you move even a bit closer... I... I don't think that I will be able to control myself."

I blinked, shocked at his words. To my surprise, he was fighting just as hard as I was to keep myself under control.

"Don't worry, I’m not going to move. I'm also not sure if I could control myself if I was any closer to you."

My voice was just a whipper, but I was sure that he heard me.

Heat hit my cheeks as an embarrassed blush spread there. Admitting how hard I was fighting for control was not something I ever want to admit out loud again.

"Good... good..."

He said again as silence settled between us once again.

This was becoming painfully awkward.

After a few more painfully silent moments, he was the one to break the silence once again.

"Are... are you okay?"

Confused, I stared at him as he took another breath and tried to explain what he meant by his question.

"The explosion... I came to check if you were okay... I... I just couldn't sit there not knowing if you were okay."

A different sort of blush filled my cheeks due to the softness of his words. The care he showed right now, when he clearly knew that it would be almost impossible and very painful to keep ourselves under control, but he still came in to check on me.

I had to swallow a bunch of sweet sounds and maybe even a few tears as I answered.

"Ummm... I'm fine... Darcy... he reacted fast and... and he shielded me from the explosion."

With the mention of Darcy, I saw his body stiffen as he released a sound that was very close to a growl, but he kept it deep in his chest and almost no sound came out."

I could visibly see him swallowing another growl of posesiveness as he gripped his fists so hard that his knuckles went white. My wolf wanted nothing more than to cross the room and take his hands. The faint scent of blood let me know that he probably pierced his skin with his nails.

My body ached to be close to him, to take his strained hands and kiss away the pain.

But I couldn't... I shouldn't...

My body was crying out with the need to be close to him. To sooth all the worries and pain he was experiencing, but I forced myself to stay put on the bed with my hands wrapped tightly around my knees.

I took a deep breath as I knew that I had to say it... that I had to make it clear.

"Colin..."