Lucifer's Mate

Chapter Twelve Aaron

 They walked upstairs with him a few steps in front of her, pondering how to bring up the morning's incident; her, admiring the art on the walls, completely oblivious to his anxiety. He suddenly stopped, but she caught herself just in time before crashing into his back. They were, however, extremely close and she  grabbed onto his shirt in shock at his abrupt stop and he could feel her every breath on his back, before he turned around and felt them on his chest. 

       Lucy was, once again, hyper aware of his presence, mostly his body. She knew she should move back, or things would not end well, at least not the well she wanted; but her body had other plans. Her fingers tingled with the need to touch his skin and not just his shirt, and she felt her heart rate pick up. 

The possessiveness from the mate bond was what she feared the most. It was common knowledge that the more powerful a being is, the more possessive it is over what is his or hers. Of course, Xavier wasn't a possession, but technically, he HAD been made just for her, so he was all hers. 

       Luci shook her head to get rid of the thoughts, then looked up to see his eyes looking directly into hers, and, just like that, all the thoughts came back. 

       Xavier looked down at her, as she seemed to have some kind of inner turmoil; and when she lifted her head to look at him, he wanted nothing more than to kiss her there and then. He considered doing just that, but when he was about to reach out to her, his body took a step back instead, and the events from that morning came rushing back to him. She didn't want to be kissed by him, that had been made clear to him by the kitchen wall which still had a dent the size of his head. He had to control himself and his wolf if he didn't want to scare her away. 

       He cleared his throat, "about Katie, you should know the full story-”

       " You really don't have to tell me, if you don't want to," she added the last part slowly. She searched his eyes for the connection that they seemed to have had just a moment ago and lost in a second, but he averted his eyes and looked over her head.

       "But I do want to tell you" he stated then cleared his throat again. "So, should we go in?" He asked signaling to the door beside them, then looking down instead of at her.

       "I told you I want a separate room right?" She wasn't sure if she had told him that before. She felt a pang in her chest and realized that it pained her more than it should that he wasn’t looking at her. She thought about how he was always searching for God knows what in her eyes, or lifting her chin just to look into them. Now it was her that felt like doing just that, but she decided against it and just looked away from him instead.

       "This is your room, I will leave as soon as we are done talking, you have my word" he finished, raising his right hand up, as a sign of promise. 

       "Oh" was all she managed to say, she then turned to the door, only to find it locked when she tried to open it. She felt Xavier directly behind her, as he reached one hand in front of her and inserted the key into the keyhole, then opened the door for her to go in the room. She stepped inside, and saw her luggage already there beside the bed. She walked straight to the bed and sat down. 

       Xavier took a deep breath before following behind her and doubted for a minute before sitting down on the bed beside her, but giving her space. In his mind he remembered the conclusion Ethan had gotten to when they talked after the incident.

       "Just let the mate bond do the work" he had said "we know she can feel it, so this will be easy. You just have to stop trying" at Xavier's confused face he explained further. "You already saw that being aggressive will get your head smashed into the wall, so be passive. Refrain from touching her as much as you can, it'll be hard, but it'll be worth it, trust me. After a while slowly start the physical contact, and if she doesn't react badly, well you just keep going until she gives in fully" he explained with a huge grin on his face."You can try the same thing with that dog of hers" he finished, and  proceeded to go find his mate.

        'OK X, you can do this' he thought to himself. He took a deep breath, then started his story. "So, mmm, about four years ago one of our allied packs had some rouge trouble. Some fighters and I went over to help out, unfortunately, by the time we got there there was nothing left. Apparently their own beta turned on them, after losing his mate in battle. Katie, she was the alpha's daughter. Her mom-" Xavier sighed deeply, trying to contain the tears that threatened  to spill. "She was my sister" 

       Luci looked at him unaffected. It pained her to see him on the verge of tears, but death was nothing foreign to her, in fact, she was her sister. 

       Xavier expected to hear a gasp, any sound of surprise or condolences, so when he heard neither he lifted his head. Luci just sat there looking at him. He wasn't trying to give her any kind of sob story to gain sympathy or anything, but he did not expect a blank look either. Weren't girls supposed to be emotional and s**t? 

       "So she's not your daughter?" She  asked, like she hadn't just heard that he lost his sister. Like that was the only thing she cared about.

       "No," he said a little angry, "she is my daughter. I found her in her nursery, she was the only one that made it, and since then I have raised her as my own. So yeah, she's mine" he stated with a final tone. He was feeling irritated at her, at his mate, wasn't that supposed to be like, impossible?

       He quickly got up and turned to her "you should go to sleep."

       "I don't sleep" she said, emphasizing 'don't.'

       "You slept in the car the other day though" he stated confused, his irritation soon forgotten. 'Magic of the mate bond' he thought to himself.

       "I wasn't asleep, I just wasn't awake"

       'Talk about sleepless sleep,' he thought to himself.

 By the time Xavier finally managed to fall asleep, he was woken by a rogue alert in the mindlink.  His mind worked on impulse, as he quickly assigned his sister to watch Katie and Adam to watch Lucia. In any other situation, he would have probably realized that if she was strong enough to break his bones, she was strong enough to break any rogue's bones too, but he was on overdrive and all he wanted was to keep everyone safe. He mind linked Ethan and they both set out to where the rogue was being blocked by the guards.

       Adam walked, half asleep and shirtless, to Luci's room. He wanted to go with X and E, but he had to watch her instead. Of course he liked Luci, and they were besties and all, but he rather have some real action over babysitting any day.

       He got to Luci's room, but right before he could knock, the door swung open, and there stood Luci, looking like it was the middle of the day and not the middle of the night. She was wearing jeans and a coat and- from what he could make out, with his eyes still half closed- make-up. "Beta Adam" she greeted him and sidestepped him. 

       "Hey, where are you going?" He called from the top of the stairs. 

       She  stopped, with the front door half open, and turned to him, "to save him."

       Who the "him" was Adam couldn't understand, but he figured Xavier was probably against some very strong rogue, if he was it. He quietly followed behind her, not really thinking about how mad Xavier would get later on. He was planning on reminding his alpha that he was not a gamma anyway; it was a gamas job to watch over the luna, not a beta’s. After all, he was watching her, he was never told to stop her if she tried to do something stupid, and he really, REALLY, wanted to go. His wolf was on high alert as they neared the area. He couldn't hear any sign of a battle, and the forest was as peaceful as ever. 

       Luci suddenly stepped to the side and continued walking, but he couldn't follow behind. He was completely mesmerized by what he saw. There, in the middle of the no man's land that divided their pack from the next, stood the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on. She had long, straight, bright red hair, tied up in a high ponytail. She was tall and slim, and had skin as white as porcelain. Her back was to him, and she was holding a bow staff for dear life. It wasn't until they attacked, that Adam realized she was surrounded by wolf warriors from his pack. He couldn't help but let out a growl, as he saw her fight them off in human form. She turned to face him with a startled expression on her face, and as soon as his eyes met the emerald green of hers, he was lost. The sun was coming up behind her, making it seem like she was the source of the light, and time seemed to stop as they both stared into each other's eyes.

       She was suddenly knocked to the ground by one of the wolves, and Adam didn't think before shifting and running towards them. He growled loud and clear, a sign to back off of what was his. The warriors backed off, as he stood over her protectively, and X came forth, not having changed into his wolf form at all. 

       "Back off!" He commanded with his alpha voice, at Adam, who was still baring his teeth at the other wolves. Adam turned to him, but instead of doing as told, he just growled louder, and crouched to cover more of her body. "We are not going to hurt her, now back down!" he commanded once again, with all his might. 

       "Get off me!!" came from under his body, before he felt the sharp pain on his ribcage. He whined, before jumping off the beautiful redhead with an angry look on her face. "Just who the hell do you think you are?" 

      Adams wolf whined again and rubbed his snout against her shoulder, as she was now leaning back on her hands, still on the ground. He could feel the sparks everyone talked about, and he wanted more, he wanted to feel those sparks on his bare skin. He turned around and left, leaving X and his mate confused by his actions. Everyone else had left to each of their tasks, like patrolling, or sleeping. 

     He came back, human, and changed. His mate was now standing next to a very thoughtful looking Xavier. "Hey, where's Lucia?" Xavier asked skeptically, as soon as he was in hearing range. 

      "Uuuh" was all the wided eyed Adam was able to reply before she appeared from behind the tree line, an older looking man supporting himself on her shoulder, and a middle aged woman walking behind them, a small child in her arms. Xavier instantly growled at another man touching his mate. Lucy's head snapped up to look at him, her eyes cold, unbelievable. He backed off, not wanting to anger his mate.

 "There she is" said Adam cheerfully, not really taking his eyes off his beautiful mate. 

       "Daddy!" The redhead screamed, once she got over her initial shock, and ran to the other side of the older man, to help him walk more steadily. "Mom I told you not to move him!" She reprimanded her, apparently, mother. 

      "Don't worry honey, this nice lady here is helping us" the older man said lovingly. "Now sweetie" he said, looking at the bow staff in her hands, "have you been causing problems for alpha White again?" 

       "Excuse me," said alpha interrupted, "what exactly is going on here?" 

       "Let's go inside first" challenged his mate, "it's cold and Aaron needs medical attention."

       This time three shocked voices were heard in sink "Aaron?"