14.
1437 Words
"Was that just a kiss to you?" Elian asked, tucking a lock of hair behind my ears.
"You kissed me without asking. Is that your way of making me stay?" I asked. I'll be damned if I showed him the effects the kiss had on me, which was the last thing I wanted to do.
"I...I..."
"Elian, I don't belong here. Whatever this mate bond is, isn't working on me. I...I..." I couldn't lie any more than I had already done. I enjoyed the kiss. And whatever pull the mate bond had, I was experiencing every bit. But he doesn't have to know. I refuse to fall head over heels for a stranger simply because of a bond I knew nothing about.
"This bond, whatever it was, I don't feel it. I don't want it.”
My breath hitched as he completely climbed off me. His face was hard and stoic. I watched the working of his jaw as I sat up, the way his hands were tightly balled into a fist.
"You are sure you don't want me?"
"I don't."
"Without even giving me a chance? Without knowing me?"
"I think you've already shown me enough of what you are capable of. You like touching me without my consent, this is one thing I do not appreciate. You get angry too easily, and you are all possessive of something you don't even own!"
"But you are my mate! Which means that you are mine. MINE, Anisa, MINE!"
His emotions were all over the place. I could see that. I could feel it in me. It was weird, but I felt all sorts of emotions surging through, and somehow, I knew they were his.
"See, you are scaring me," I sighed deeply, the urge to cry returning. "One minute you're passionate and warm, the next minute you are yelling and throwing your hands around. How do you expect me to want you when you don't even understand what you want?"
"I..." He began but stopped. He groaned a deep throaty groan that caused my stomach to flip. The blisters were increasing on his skin, and I can't make sense of how he got them. He was fine when I woke up, and there was nothing burning his skin here, right? I watched as he ran his fingers through his hair, messing it even more. I noticed he liked doing that, and I found the act intimate to some extent.
"I'm sorry."
"That's the only thing you are good at. Apologizing after messing up," I huffed, crossing my hands to my chest.
"Can't you see I'm trying!" He yelled exasperatedly. "I am trying so hard to control myself right now. I'm trying to hold myself back from marking you and making you mine completely. I..." He sucked in a deep breath, then took small steps towards where I sat on the edge of the bed.
He kneeled, bringing himself to the same height as mine. "I am doing everything I can not to pin you on this bed and mark you, Anisa." He murmured, his voice breaking a bit towards the end.
"Mark me?" I asked.
"It is what would seal this mate bond between us. It..."
"I do not want that." I snapped. "I just want to go home, Elian." I sighed softly. "I want to go back to my sick mother. To my brother. To the only friend I have. I..."
"That is not enough reason to reject me. You are a part of me, Anisa. Rejecting me would...it would break me." I had never heard his voice sound this raw. And it made me sad that I was causing him this much pain.
"You know, my first mate had rejected me already. You are a second chance mate. I can't afford to lose you as well."
"But..."
"We can make a compromise," he cut me off, taking my hands in his. "You give me a chance while we find a way for you to go back, what do you think?"
"What compromise?"
"Give me time. Give me a chance to try. Even if it's just a few months..."
"I can't stay here that long. Maami won't make it." I allowed the tears I had been holding back to roll. She can't handle all that without me. There won't even be the money to pay for her surgery if I don't get home before the month’s time I promised.
"It doesn't have to be months. Just do not stop me. Do not stop me from wanting you as my mate, from wanting this to work. Do not get rid of the gift I was given once more. I won't hurt you. Give me a chance to change your mind. To show the beauty of having a mate."
"And if it doesn't work? If I still don't like you?"
"You can reject me. I'll teach you how to do that." He replied quickly. "But only after you have truly given me a chance, while we try to figure out a way to get you out of this...book like you call it. Give me six months. No, make it five and I will do my best to find a way by then.”
"It is a book, Elian." I answered quietly, weighing my options. Five months away from Maami? But what option do I have if not to wait for him to find a way? “Make it three months. At most, four months. Nothing more.”
"Yes. Of course, it is a book. And four months is fine. It is more than I need. We'll find a way out of it together. Promise me you'll give me a chance, and that you won't ask around to know the ways a human rejects a mate."
I didn't know why I did that. But it felt as though I was being whispered to do that. So, I nodded. "I promise."
"You do? You'll give me a chance. A promise is a sacred bond, Anisa. You can't go back on your words. There are going to be consequences when you try going back on your word."
"Only if you promise this mate bond of a thing will not stop me from going back home when we find a way. And that, you would stop touching and kissing me without my consent."
It took him a few minutes to reply, but when he did, I could almost taste the fear in his voice. "I promise."
“So we are going to fake date,” I murmured. “I just need to pretend I like you. That I feel whatever this mate bond is and play my role as the… luna for those months, right?”
“There's nothing fake about what I feel for you, Arwa. Nothing fake about the mate bond.”
I said nothing to that. Because what I felt certainly was real. But I didn't have to tell him that. I didn't even know how to explain what he was making me feel.
“Fine. You just need to pretend. But I want you to understand that nothing I say or do to you is pretending. I also understand you not wanting me to touch you, but if we need to sell this, then we have to touch and perhaps even kiss in public.”
Would I be able to handle that? Would I be able to work with that?
“Please? I need to show a strong front to the parliament. I need them to know you and I are one. That way, they won't have room to raise issues. Especially since I do not plan on taking the woman I was supposed to as a luna now that I have you.”
After a moment of hesitation, I finally answered. “Fine! You've got yourself a deal, Mr. Elian Abdu." I said with a smile.
He didn't return my smile, instead, he turned my palms and placed an open-mouthed wet kiss in the middle.
"Just this once, Arwa, let me kiss you without asking." He said softly, as he turned my other palm as well and kissed it.
Somehow, as I gazed into his now brown eyes, it felt as though I had just signed a deal with the devil. Weird as it may seem, I was looking forward to seeing what Elian plans to do to make me stay. Although I was being a hypocrite, I knew exactly that all the new emotions surging within me had to do with Elian.
My mate.
I also noticed that the blisters on his skin were slowly disappearing.
- Writer
