Aila felt as though she was floating and was immediately comforted by the warm muscular arms that held her tight against his rock-hard chest. She didn’t need to open her eyes to know whose arms she was in; she inhaled his scent deeply. His cologne and woodsy scent mixed together made her relax even more. 

He carried her bridal style but with her head completely cushioned against his chest and her arms resting on her belly. Aila snuggled into him more and felt the vibration of his chest, a purr of appreciation. She kissed his exposed chest and relaxed again, feeling his hand pull away some of her hair from her face.

“I don’t know what I like more, my little spitfire. Calm and relaxed, almost angelic or the demon you become when you’re passionate and disobedient.” Damon spoke with a smile in his voice. His steady heartbeat was something she could listen to and happily fall asleep to anytime. She felt his lips kiss her forehead as she began to drift into a slumber.

It was not even late, but all the pent-up frustration, the shopping and training all took their toll on her. The next thing she knew, she was under the silky duvet, her head resting on the pillow. Aila opened her eyes to see that the fireplace was lit, curtains closed, but nobody was in the room with her or the bathroom. She felt her heart clench at the thought of being by herself; even if she had been asleep, she wanted to wake up to him.

Where is Damon?

She sighed and sat up in bed, and as though her thoughts had been answered, Damon burst into the room, the door swinging open. He looked at her alarmed and immediately flung himself on the bed, grabbing her by the cheeks and planting a kiss on her lips.

“I only went to get..” 

He trailed off when he saw the confusion on her face. She looked at him questionably with her brows knitted together. 

“You mind-linked me..”

“Did I?” She breathed.

His eyes flickered between hers and replied in his deep, rich voice, “I think it is the bond getting stronger. If you didn’t mean to mind-link me, then.. your.. need for me might have put your thoughts into it.”

Aila instinctively gulped from his words and looked down with another frown. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Damon tipped her chin back up with his fingers and stared intently into her eyes, making her stomach do a mini somersault. 

She bit the inside of her mouth before speaking up. “I am just uncertain about this bond,” She whispered nervously, then continued when his hand dropped from her chin, and his face hardened; his eyes becoming steely, “I mean.. Everything is.. I don’t know, it’s a lot. This bond.. that I had no idea about a few weeks ago is now such a big deal in my life..”

“You.. you’re here now. I’m your mate..” Aila rushed her words, recovering herself and watching Damon’s face soften once again. 

“Aila,” His deep voice rumbled slightly, making her almost relax instantaneously as she continued to look into his silver swirling orbs, “Nothing will be rushed between us.”

She looked at him pointedly and raised one of her eyebrows about the obvious that happened at the dinner table.

“What I mean to say.. is I won’t do anything you don’t want me to,” His voice was strong behind his words. Aila’s mind swirled again with a few instances between the pair; even though he had teased her and ‘punished’ her, she never said to stop. She didn’t mind what he had been doing to her.

“Of course not. You were lost in your own orgasmic heaven,” Malia chirped in.

“Well, that was just today. I was thinking about the other time as well,” Aila replied to her wolf.

It was then she also realised that she may have been a little selfish in this weird relationship, and maybe it was time for her to give him some pleasure. Aila wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him towards her. He kept his gaze on hers, but he looked as though he was sussing her plans out; she had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. 

Surely, he knew when she was initiating something, this Greek god of a man with a devilish tongue that sent her to heaven in all its orgasmic glory had definitely been with other women before her. 

Aila brought her lips to his, a spark ignited between the pair almost immediately. What went from a tender kiss turned into something more as they began to hungrily devour the other. Damon was pressing into her as he moved over her, and she sunk down onto the covers; her hands slid down his shirt and began undoing his buttons. When she reached the last one, he pulled back and slung the shirt to the side. 

Aila stopped him from lowering himself down on top of her as she bit her lip at the man’s sculpted body. A low growl erupted through his chest, and she looked back up to his eyes, seeing them darken with want as he looked at her. Aila reached up and trailed her fingers across the ridges of his chiselled abs before grabbing him by the hips. He brought himself down, flinging the covers away from her, and she watched in dismay and excitement when his nail extended into a claw, and he ripped through the fabric of her dress. 

Aila lay there in her black lingerie that pushed her assets up and stared up at him in want. His eyes flickered and shone, showing off his strikingly luminescent orbs. He immediately crashed his lips into hers, clinging onto her hair and kissing her as though he couldn’t breathe, and she was his oxygen. 

Their chests were heaving, and she panted when he finally ripped his lips away from hers and straight away began trailing kisses, nips and sucking on her skin from her chin down her neck and then to that tender spot on her collarbone. Her heart leapt against her chest, and she pulled him closer to that spot; she wanted him to mark her. Her mind was clouded with the thought of him finally claiming her, and they could be officially mates and-

A growl ripped through them, and Aila snapped out of her lustrous daze to look at Damon. His face was contorted in pain, his mouth was open, and she could see his canine teeth long and sharp. Aila stared at them, falling back onto cloud nine and turned her head almost robotically to the side, exposing her flesh even more for him. She could hear her heart pound against her chest, and she slowed her breathing down as he brought his head back down to the spot just below the collarbone.

Aila gasped as she felt a slight sting but then almost cried out in anger as he snapped his head back and sat on the back of his legs, staring wide-eyed at her. Damon’s glimmering eyes dulled and returned to their normal silver; his chest was still heaving as he looked at her. She reached her hands out to him, but he jumped back, “No, Aila. Snap out of it!” His thunderous voice made her drop her hands, and she blinked up at him in a confused state.

She didn’t realise her own eyes were glowing until just now. 

“What..” She trailed off as she looked down at her ripped dress; her eyes widened, and she grabbed the sheets. It was pointless in covering up; he had seen her most private parts already, but putting something between them made her feel a little bit better. At that moment, she could almost laugh as they looked at each other as though it was the following day of a one night stand they did not expect to wake up to. 

Damon came forwards again, his strides long and slow as he assessed her. 

“Shit,” He cursed, raking his hand through his already dishevelled hair. 

Aila was breathing heavily still as the images of what happened flew across her mind. 

What sort of sorcery is this? 

Aila already knew. It was just her mind trying to process how quickly things led from the other. 

“It’s the bond. You both want to be marked,” Malia stated the obvious in a dry tone.

“What’s up with you?” Aila asked her while she kept her eyes on her mate, who was now climbing back onto the bed. But sat back on his legs at a distance as he too seemed deep in thought. Or was probably talking to Darius as she believed he had some sort of control just then; Damon’s eyes were glowing, yet so was hers. Was this also their wolf’s doing?

Malia huffed, “I want to be one with him! It’s really frustrating! You’re mates, and instead of doing the obvious and claiming each other, you’re having power struggles and being stubborn.”

Aila couldn’t believe it, “So you were pulling the strings?”

“It’s a little bit more complex than that. The bond is pulling us together, and yes, just before he NEEEARLY marked you, we were the ones in control.”

Aila watched as Damon’s eyes darkened but not from lust,  with anger. 

Yep, he knows what happened as well. 

“Aila, I didn’t mean to,” His deep voice made her body warm up immediately, and she knew, of course, he didn’t mean for things to go the way they did.

So much for not rushing, the bond and their wolves were fighting for them to make it official. She wondered if Damon really was okay with not marking her.

“I know. It’s okay-“

“It’s not. I told you I wouldn’t do anything you didn’t want to, and I know you don’t want to be marked… not yet anyway,” Damon murmured the last words after expressing his anger.

She crawled forwards towards him and stopped when she saw him tense and sat back herself before reaching her hand out and caressing her hand across the stubble on his jaw, whispering gently, “You still stopped, though.”

After leaning into her touch, his eyes glanced down to her neck and sighed, “Barely.” 

He jumped off the bed, walked to the bathroom, returned after with a slightly damp cloth, and wiped gently on the area where he pierced a bit of her neck. His brows furrowed as the small wounds did not heal.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“Your neck hasn’t healed. With small wounds like that, it would have healed straight away..”

Aila gasped, “Wait.. have you marked me?!”

He shook his head, “No, it doesn’t look like that, and we would know.”

Aila relaxed with a sigh of relief. It wasn’t the end of the world if he did mark her, but she was still afraid, even after learning more about the bond and being a werewolf in general. The whole thing was out of this world, and she was still trying to get a grasp on it all, let alone being marked and claimed by someone. 

Malia growled, “He’s not just anyone, though.”

Aila didn’t reply to her. It was only her thoughts, and she didn’t mean anything by it. Of course, Damon wasn’t just anyone. He sighed and pinched the top of his nose before opening his eyes and looking at her again. His lust-filled eyes looked her up and down, and he took a deep breath in before a low growl left his lips. 

“It’s getting hard to control these urges.” He said huskily. 

Aila was still in a bit of a shock; they only found out they were mates two days ago?! And he already nearly marked her ‘without consent’. At this point, she doesn’t know if she would have felt fine with it or not. If he marked her, would she have felt satisfied and whole? Or would she resent him for basically putting a leash on her? 

Her wolf and everything in her gut went against the idea that she would resent him. When she looked at him and saw how sincere he was about the situation, it only made her chest swell with emotion that she couldn’t quite identify. 

Two days! That’s how long it had been, and she was already putty in his hands.

This werewolf business really was complex stuff.