Lost

Marks

        Another lengthy silence falls over us, then out of the blue Ash turns to me and before I can even process what’s happening his lips are against mine. This time there is no gentle start, this kiss is full of passion and need from the very beginning and I kiss him back with the same intensity.

        His hand rests on my hip while his other stays on my back, holding me against him. Opening my mouth in invitation, he swipes his tongue along my upper lip before nibbling on my lower lip. Heat pools in my core and I can’t hold back a moan. My hand roams over his chest and down his abdomen, lingering just above his pant line, scraping my fingertips along the waistband. Feeling him shiver under my touch sends a rush of euphoria right through me.

        I can’t believe I waited so long for this.

        Pulling me onto him so I’m straddling his lap, his hands slide under my shirt, moving from my sides to my back, then sliding down and holding onto my bottom. Breaking the kiss only to move to my neck, his tongue swirls around the skin before he lightly sucks and nips the crook of my neck.

        Suddenly a tingling sensation starts right in the middle of my collarbone, quickly turning to a burning pain. Breaking apart, I can’t help but scream. I can see in Ash’s eyes, he’s experiencing the same pain as I am, but he looks more concerned for me than himself.

        Losing my balance on his lap when I jump back in shock from the pain, I fall backwards, as he tries catch me, I grab onto his shirt and accidentally pull him down with me.

        As we fall from the cliff, he holds me close to him so when we hit the water, we stay together.

        Holding my breath at the last minute, I slam my eyes shut and brace myself against Ash, holding tightly to him. As we sink to the bottom of the lake, I feel a sharp, stinging pain along my thigh, causing me to scream. As I scream, the air I was holding leaves my lungs and Ash quickly shuts my mouth with his hand, keeping me from losing the rest of my breath.

        Swimming to the surface as fast as we can, I see my blood trailing behind us. My lungs scream in pain from the loss of breath, while we swim further up, Ash pulls my face to his, pressing our lips together, and gives me some of the breath he was holding.

        Breaking the surface of the water, we both catch our breath and look at each other. After we’ve filled out lungs with some much needed oxygen, neither of us can help but laugh at what just happened.

        “Well, that was fun.” Ash jokes, and I roll my eyes.

        “Yeah, I always wanted to fall off a cliff into some water.” I reply sarcastically while we swim. Getting closer to the sand, we stand up and walk the rest of the way. When the water is below my knee, I check out my thigh and there’s nothing there.

        “What the…” I mumble, making Ash chuckle. Turning to him with squinted eyes and an accusing look, he just laughs harder. “What’s so funny?”

        “You’re a shifter, Bailey. Probably the strongest shifter in history, let alone alive today. You heal very quickly.”

        Oh s**t. For a minute I forgot about all of that.

        Laughing at myself, I shake my head continue walking toward his house.

        “So what was that burning that we felt, you felt it too right?”

        “Yeah,” he says, rubbing his chest. “let me see your chest.”

        Looking at him with a smirk, I raise an eyebrow in accusatory question.

        “I didn’t mean it like that and you know it.” He defends, giving me the same look right back, and we both laugh at each other again.

        I love how playful we can be together. How happy he can make me, just by simply being him.

        Pulling my shirt down below my collar bone, he looks surprised.

        “What is it?” I ask, nervous about his reaction.

        “What does mine look like?” he asks instead of answering, pulling his shirt down, too.

        “It looks like… my necklace… it’s the full moon with a crescent on top of it.”

        “Then they’re different…” he mumbles.

        “What’s mine?” I ask, curious and confused at the same time.

        “It’s the sun… with Polaris in front of it.”

        “What’s Polaris?”

        “The North Star,” he chuckles, but there’s a sadness in his voice. “my mother would draw that exact image all the time.”

        Before I could ask anything else, he grabs my hand and drags me back to his house. Running up the porch and through each room, we get up the stairs and he pulls the string to open the attic. Crawling up the stairs and inside, we get to the far side, by a diamond shaped window.

        This is pretty neat and clean for an attic. When I think of an attic, I always picture a dusty, messy, dark space.

        He stops in front of a wine red colored trunk with gold trim, it has a lock but it’s not used. As he opens it, he looks back to me with so much emotion in his eyes.

        “This is my mother’s stuff. I didn’t have the heart to throw it away… but dad couldn’t stand to see it for a long time, so I moved it up here. It tore him to shreds when she was killed… even now he can’t really talk about her.”

        I can tell it’s hard for him to talk about her, too. My chest swells as my heart fills with love.

        “I know it’s hard for you, too… I really appreciate you talking to me about something so personal.” I rest my hand on his, giving it a quick squeeze. He leans forward, kissing my forehead before resting his forehead against mine.

        Who knew such a simple gesture could be so intimate?

        Taking a deep breath, he pulls away, keeping our hands clasped together while opening the chest. For a few seconds he sifts through everything in there and takes out a large journal. Scooting back closer to me, he sits the journal in his lap, for a moment he just stares at it.

        He’s probably got a lot of memories with his mom and that journal… I hope this isn’t too much for him.

        Carefully opening it, right there on the very first page is the symbol he described on my chest. It’s not what I expected when he said it was a sun and the north star – this is beautiful. In the background, the sun is a circle, inside of it is an intricate design.

        On the outside of the sun are wild, wavy beams, like the flames of a fire. It makes sense, the sun is essentially a big ball of fire, right? But it just looks so beautiful. And right in the very center, expanding past the edges of the sun, is the north star. The top and bottom rays of light are the longest with the ones on the sides just a tad bit smaller, and the rays coming out of the corners are the smallest.

        What resonates with me the most is she colored it in and… it’s silver.

        “Is that exactly what my mark looks like?”

        “Yeah, even the color.”

        “Yours is gold, ya know.”

        “Maybe one of the books has information about mate marks.” He offers, closing the journal. Before he puts it back, I hold out my hand, silently asking permission. I can’t just grab something so personal to him, I’m grateful he even showed me it, but he hands it to me with a smile, albeit a sad one.

        “Yeah, I saw something about Fated Mates in, I think, the first book I had read that night in the kitchen,” I confirmed, gently taking hold of the journal, looking through it.

        There are so many of these drawings, but they’re exactly the same.

        “Why did your mom draw all of these?” I ask, hesitant to make him talk about her.

        “I don’t really know. I don’t think she did, either to be honest. I asked her about them a couple of times and all she said was ‘one night it appeared in my mind and I immediately felt connected to it. I don’t know how to explain it, but I feel like drawing it is going to be important one day.’ Every time I asked, she’d say the same thing.”

        “Maybe Thala knew she wouldn’t be here and wanted her to be able to be a part of this, even if she didn’t know it.” Placing my hand on his arm, I lean forward, pressing my lips to his.

        It feels so strange casually kissing him. Good, but strange. After fighting this for so long, finally being able to enjoy our connection is foreign, but very much welcomed.

        Heading downstairs, I bring his mother’s journal with us, and we head to the office where all of my books are. Searching through them all, I finally find the very first one I had read, Royal Lineage: Magic Blood, and set it on the desk.

        “Jasmine had briefly mentioned Fated Mates in the passage I’d read, but said she’d go into depth later in the book, hopefully there’s some useful information.” I comment as I walk around his chair and sit beside him.

                                        ----------------------FATED MATES--------------------

                    Fated Mates are rare and very special. As a Fated Mate, they have a special connection                                             to each other and are able to communicate telepathically.                                                                  Some Fated Mates have described being able to feel what their Mate feels,                                                                     emotionally and physically.

                        It is possible to close the connection from either side, to keep one Mate from feeling                                                 the other’s pain or keep themselves from feeling it.

                             Fated Mates, once Mated can communicate telepathically from any distance.                      Even if one is on the other side of the world, they can still communicate telepathically.

            Before Mates have completed the Mating ritual, their telepathy is limited to a certain distance.                 This distance has not been disclosed from previous Fated Mates so others cannot take                                                                                         advantage of it.

                        When Fated Mates find each other, they will be instantly drawn to one another.                         While it is possible to mate with someone else, both Fated Mates will feel a part                                                                                 of themselves is missing.

                                Once both Mates have shifted, when they kiss for the first time they’ll                                                                     receive what’s known as Mate Marks.

                                                There is a list of different possible Mate Marks below.

        Usually the Mark that will be on their Mate will have some significance to them before they meet.

                            Each Mate Mark has a specific ability associated with it, and once Mated                                                                     both will be able to share that ability.

                                                                                            --------------

                                      There are eight Mate Marks that have been recorded by Fated Mates.                                     A tidal wave inside a full moon, a sun with a spiral inside of it, a hawk flying toward the             center of the moon, a sun swirling into the shape of a heart, crescent moons woven together                in the shape of a star, a sun swirling into a skull, an intricately detailed sun and the North Star in                                 the center, the top and bottom of the star extending outside of the sun,                                            and the last Mate Mark is a simple, but beautiful full moon with a detailed design inside the                                                     crescent moon that’s outlined within the full moon.

                                                 Each Mark has either the moon or sun incorporated.                                                                      The sun and moon are like the Moon Goddess and her brother, the Sun God,                                                  they complement each other and need the other. The moon is commonly known as a                                              spiritual symbol for us, paying thanks to our Mother, the Moon Goddess,                                                                        but the sun is equally as important, and the Marks honor that.

                       One Mate always has a moon Mark and the other has a sun Mark, there has never                              been a Fated Mate pair that had two suns or two moons as their Mate Marks.                                                                            Because the sun and moon balance each other.

        My eyes are burning from staring at this book.

        Taking a deep breath, I lean back and stretch my arms and back.

        “I’m gonna get some coffee, do you want some?” I ask Ash, watching his eyes flutter a few times before he can keep them open.

        “Yeah, please. I’ll keep reading.” He says in between a yawn.

        “Let me know if you find anything interesting!” I call over my shoulder on my way out the door.

                                                                                        DORIAN

        Pulling up to the camp my men and I are staying in, I look around and make sure none of these idiots are slacking off. We got here last night and they still haven’t found any more Royals.

        Hopping out of my truck and stomping my way over to my tent, the men cautiously look at me with fear in their eyes.

        Gods damned pansies.

        “Get the witch and bring her here.” I call out to Bryce, my beta, before entering my tent.

        When my men put up my tent on our first stop in Nebraska, their eyes were filled with bitterness and jealousy. Some thought I didn’t need such a big tent, one voiced his opinion… he quickly regretted it.

        I’m going to be the alpha of all the shifters in North America when this whole thing is done, I deserve a big tent with a big bed. I’m essentially going to be a king.

        “May I enter?” the witch asks unenthusiastically from outside, her hoarse voice grating my nerves.

        “Come in, witch.” I call out, eager to begin the ritual.

        “I’ve told you already, my name is Tabitha.” She rolls her eyes, clearly unimpressed.

        “Do not roll your eyes at me, witch.”

        “I’m not a part of your pack, wolf, I can leave at any time and you’ll have to figure out how to do your rituals on your own without any magic. If you don’t start showing me some respect, I will.”

        Damn these infernal witches and their superiority complexes.

        “I apologize… Tabitha. Let’s start the ritual.” I grate out, disgusted with myself for apologizing to a witch.

        Emptying the contents for the ritual from her bag, she sets everything up and starts chanting. As smoke fills the tent, my adrenaline rushes, anticipating Xaos’ presence.

        Such a powerful god, I’d kill to be like him.

        Hah. I am killing to be like him.

        No, not like him. Better.

        I’m going to command all of the shifters in North America, I’m going to be their alpha, their king. Their god.

        The grey smoke turns black and with a thunderous crash, a transparent figure appears. Shoulder length dark hair, ruby red eyes, maybe eight feet tall and wearing an all black suit with a red tie.

        He really knows how to make an impression.

        “You’ve called for me?” his rich voice reverberates through the room.

        I look over to Tabitha, indicating to her that she should leave now. Rolling her eyes, she turns to go as I face Xaos.

        “Yes, sir. I’ve killed two Royals, draining their blood and using it in the ritual you told me about so their lifeforce and energy gives you more power.”

        “Good. Well done.” He says, walking around my tent, still mostly transparent.

        “How soon until you find more?” he asks, picking at and biting his nails, looking completely indifferent as he checks his hands from afar.

        He’s a god, why does he even care about his nails?

        “Uh, well. We’re having a little difficulty at the moment, but we should be finding them soon.”

        Turning to face me, he instantly turns serious. He looks deadly when he speaks.

        “You’d better. That girl found her Fated Mate. She’ll be immune to my interference of her visions now. Find more Royals, kill them, and when you’ve given their blood to the ritual, I’ll give you some of the power to make sure she doesn’t kill you.”

        “That little girl can’t kill me –”

        “’That little girl’ is the most powerful mortal being alive, even if she doesn’t know how to use her power. You’d be wise to heed my words.”

        “Yes sir. I’ll find them.” I say, bowing my head as he turns to leave.

        “Good. You’d better… if you want to stay alive.” he casually says over his shoulder as he walks away, fading more with each step.

        Gods dammit! That little b***h is getting on my last nerve. When all this is done, she’s going to give me an heir and then she’s going to die.

        I might want to save one Royal female in case she needs to die before giving me an heir.

       The problems only a true leader has the heart to deal with. I can do what other people are too scared to do, because I am a true leader.

        Walking through the camp, some men are sitting around talking and eating, others are in the work tents and on their phones trying to locate other Royals. When I walk into the work tent, everyone stops what they’re doing and looks to me.

        “Where are the Royals?”

        “We could only find one, Alpha Sir. But he’s on the opposite side of the country as the True Royal, in Oregon.”

        Pacing around the inside of the work tent, I try planning my next move.

        I need to get more Royals.

        But I also need to get the girl.

        Motioning for everyone to follow me outside, I gather in front of the whole pack so everyone knows the plan.

        “Alright, this is what’s going to happen. Listen carefully because I will not repeat myself. I will go after the remaining Royals with most of you, maybe a quarter of you will be tasked with the True Royal.” I announce, motioning toward the group of men in the far back. A few good trackers and some muscle if needed.

        “You will locate her, and if you can lure her out of the pack grounds she’s staying at, do that. Do not, I repeat, do not attack or abduct her from their pack grounds. That is a sign of war, and we want to be as strong as possible before we go to war. If you cannot lure and abduct her, just keep track of her movements and get as much information as possible to make it easier for when we come back to you. Those of you that will go to Virginia will report back to me once every week.”

        After giving everyone their jobs, I order everyone to bed so we can leave as early as possible.

                                                                                    BAILEY

        Waking up from the bright morning sun shining in my eyes, I stretch my back and arms and realize I’m in the living room.

        Oh right, we were reading last night. I must’ve fallen asleep here.

        My thoughts are confirmed when I find a book wedged between me and the arm of the couch. The other end of the couch is empty, no Ash, no book.

        Maybe he went to sleep in his room after I passed out last night?

        For some reason, that thought disappoints me a little. But I ignore it, I know it’s silly.

        Speak of the devil.

        He comes around the corner, a coffee in each hand and the book he was reading pinned between his arm and side. He chuckles, seeing my excited smile as the coffee mug comes closer and closer.

        “Thought you might want this,” he says, handing it over. “you fell asleep as soon as we moved out here last night.”

        “Yeah,” pausing, I take a long, delightful sip and thank him for it. “we were up pretty late last night. Did you find anything interesting?”

        Sitting back down on the couch next to me, he places his cup on the table and opens his book, leaning it in between us.

        “Yeah, actually, right before I passed out next to you.” He laughs, and a fluttering feeling fills my stomach. “Remember the Mate Marks you wanted me to look further into?”

        “Nope. No idea what you’re talking about.” I joke.

        “Well, I found what they mean.” He says with a smile, rolling his eyes.

        He pauses, and I wait for him to continue, but he doesn’t.

        “My gods, man, spit it out!” I laugh as I gently kick his leg.

        “I love how you get so pushy and fiery when you’re excited.” He laughs. “But alright, so… each different Mate Mark has different abilities. Do you want to know all of them or just ours?”

        Sitting back against the couch, I pull my legs up and get comfortable with my coffee, leaning closer to Ash.

        “Hmm… let’s hear about ours first and then we can talk about the others and compare them.”

        “Sounds good. Okay, well the one on your chest, the sun and north star, the ability is called bilocation.”

        “Never heard of it.” I say, laughing, and he laughs with me.

        “Me either, apparently it means we’ll be able to project an image of ourselves to another location. It’ll sound and smell just like us, and it’ll even give the illusion of touch, so it’ll be completely realistic.”

        “Woah, that’s pretty cool. What’s the other Mark mean?”

        “Yeah, it is. There’s another ability it gives, too. Telekinesis.”

        “Oh man, that’s awesome!” I exclaim, getting really excited over it, and make him laugh.

        “Yeah, it’s pretty cool.” He agrees and flips the page. “The mark I have, that looks like your necklace, it gives us both the ability to communicate with Thala, and the ability to astral project ourselves.”

        “Astral projection? That’s like… when your mind, or spirit, leaves your body and can go anywhere, right?” I ask, confused. I’ve heard of it before and know the basic idea, but not really how it works or anything.

        “Yeah, that’s basically it. I’m sure it’ll take a while to get used to it, it’s probably not easy, but it sounds simple.”

        “Yeah, and the other one is being able to communicate with Thala? Why would she give me a necklace that I could use to communicate with her if I was gonna get that ability anyway?”

        “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask her. But if I had to guess, it’d be because she knew you’d need her before you got your Mark.”

        “Yeah, that makes sense. I’ll talk to her about it eventually. It’s not too important in the grand scheme. So when do these abilities start? Or like, when do we get them?” I ask, leaning forward with excitement.

        “Apparently, we might be able to use them now, but they won’t be that strong until… ya know, we.. finish the bond.” By the time he finishes speaking, his cheeks are bright red. It’s so cute.

        “Is there anything in there on how to use them or do we just figure it out on our own? And… how do I figure out what else I can do?”

        “I’m not sure, I’ll look further into the book to see if it gives any instructions or something, and I think we should talk to Elias about that. He knows way more about that stuff than I do.” He says, setting the book on the table.

        Finishing my coffee, I place the cup next to his book, standing up.

        “Sounds good, I’m gonna go shower and get dressed. Wanna come keep me company again?” I ask with a mischievous smirk.

        “Well, I mean… I was gonna take my own shower –”

        “So join me.” Winking at him, I smile and turn around to head up the stairs.

        “Wait.. what? Are you serious?” he asks, rushing to follow me upstairs.

        Well that sure got his attention.

        “Nope. Not even a little.” I laugh over my shoulder, reaching the top step. Suddenly, his arms wrap around my waist and he lifts me over his shoulder. Laughing and smacking him, he enters my room and throws me on the bed.

        “You’re so mean.” He mocks sadness, playfully giving me those big puppy dog eyes.

        “Oh stop, you’re fine. You’ll live.” I laugh, but it’s hard to ignore his body pressing against mine, his lips so close to mine.

        “I don’t know, I don’t think I will…” he tries not to laugh but fails epically.

        As we laugh together, his face gets closer to mine and the laughter slowly stops. I can’t keep from looking at his lips, remembering how they felt against mine. Just like that, I press my lips to his and enjoy to feeling of his body on top of mine. His hand in my hair and his other on my waist. As the kiss gains intensity, my hands grip his back underneath his shirt. Opening my legs so they’re on either side of him, I can feel his bulge pressing against me and instinctively start to move my pelvis up and down, grinding against him.

        Grabbing my hips, he rolls us over so I’m straddling him. As he kisses and bites and licks down my neck, he holds my hips while I move against him, pushing me down harder. I can’t keep the moan from escaping my mouth next to his ear, I feel his whole body shiver and he bites down harder than before, but it feels so good.

        “I love you, Bailey.” He whispers in between kisses, as he comes back to my lips.

        “I love you, too.” I admit, kissing him so passionately, trying to convey all of my feelings for him in that kiss.

        Just then, we hear the front door slam and Jack yells for us.

        “Bailey! Ash! Where are you?” he calls through the house. “It’s important, we need to talk.”

        Disappointment fills me, and I can see he feels it, too. I drop my head to his chest and just lay there for a second, catching my breath and enjoying being so close to him.

        “We’ll be right there.” He calls back, slightly annoyed, which makes me chuckle.

        “Don’t worry,” I tell him, running my fingers along his jawline, “I’m not going anywhere, we have all the time in the world. We have a lot of important things to do.”  Gently grabbing my hand, he looks at me with the most serious expression.

        “You’re the most important thing to me. In this whole world.”

        What can I say to that?

        Lightly pressing my lips to his, as I pull back, I look him in the eyes.

        “I feel the same way about you.”

        “Asher!” Jack calls up again, and we both get up with a sigh and head downstairs.