Sarah woke up early in the morning when the birds were still chirping their sweet tune and the sun was still painting the outdoors with gentle morning light as it rose in the sky. The first thing she noticed was that her body wasn’t filled with that fervent heat that plagued her before she fell asleep. The second, was that she could feel a warm surface beneath her body… a rock-hard surface that didn’t feel like the mattress at all. And the third, was the soft breaths that she felt hitting the skin of her face.
Raising her head slightly, Sarah rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand then reopened them to take a good look at the strange surface beneath her. At first, her eyes met the soft sheets and then as her gaze rose upwards, she was met with the face of none other than Damon Kalesto.
The surface she felt beneath her and the breaths that she felt against her skin belonged to Damon… a bare chested Damon. Sarah’s eyes grew excessively large and without thinking she rolled off his body and to the side, unintentionally falling flat against the floor. Groaning at the pain that erupted at her elbow, she twisted her arm slightly so that she could eye the aching spot but in the process, her gaze took notice of the fact that her body bared no clothes at all. She was naked. He was naked. They were naked.
… And then the events of last night chose that baffling moment to reinstate in her mind.
Everything came suddenly… so suddenly that she could hardly find it in her to breathe. With eyes still as wide as ever, she shuffled backward on the floor until her back hit the cold wall. Then she drew her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself. Her heart was racing, her mind was going rampant with overwhelming memories and the worst of all…. she had absolutely no idea what to do after such a catastrophe…
She remembered what that Neko said about the fullmoon, wolf-counterparts, marks, heat and so on… she remembered what she did… and she also remembered what Damon did. What puzzled her though, was whether she should be pleased with the turn of events or not. It was not a secret that she had wanted Damon to show a little interest from the start… it was also no secret that she wanted things to clear up between them, but that was then, this is now. Yes, she felt that same little flip in her tummy at the thought that Damon actually had the stomach and tolerance to mate with her, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that she still beared resentment for him because of the way he treated her the last few weeks. She might not loathe him immensely like she wanted to, but she certainly wouldn’t be a human if she didn’t resent him atleast.
If she was actually in her right mind, such a thing would not have happened… Because then she’d know that she deserved atleast an apology before he could touch her, much less mate with her. Then again, he probably didn’t even want to touch her.
Scratch that. There wasn’t even any need for the word ‘probably’… he DEFINITELY didn’t want to touch her so she shouldn’t even be contemplating whether he had slept with her of his own will or not. It was already quite obvious that he only did it to satisfy his desires…. not his own genuine desires, but the desires that was induced by the fullmoon.
Things were bad enough already. Before all this, he barely even looked at her and whenever he touched her, it was always a mistake or a mindless action. What if this makes everything worse? What if he blames her for this mate thing altogether? What if he decides to throw her out when he wakes up? Or worse, what if he gets fed up and bites her head off?
Sarah clutched her legs closer to her chest, her lips wobbling as her eyes got glossy. ‘Why did this have to happen to me?’ It was a question that always popped into her head but even now, she still couldn’t find an answer. Was it because she was human? Or was it because she was not that pretty nor curvy? Or was it because she was incompetent and clumsy with everything she did?
“Sarah?” The deep voice of Damon Kalesto bounced off the walls and collapsed her course of thoughts. He had just woken up from his sleep and was currently sitting on the bed as he tried his best to think of the urgent matters at hand rather than focusing on the fact that she was completely naked before him.
Sarah jerked, her eyes quickly searching the room to find the nearest escape… the door. As soon as she spotted it, she dropped unto her hands and creeped as fast as she could towards it. But just as she neared the door and was 99% sure she’d escape his clutches, his deep voice boomed across the room once again.
“Stop.”
Bound by the authority in his tone, Sarah stopped in place and eased off her hand so that she was on her knees with her palms doing their best to cover her breasts. Despite knowing that they were about to hold a conversation, she kept her eyes glued to the floor. She couldn’t look in his eyes… She couldn’t possibly face him after what they did. Even if it was for both their desires, it didn’t matter. She had done something stupid so she should be ashamed of it.
“I-I was g-going t-to the k-kitchen.” She lied.
Damon kept quiet. He knew very well that she was lying, yet he didn’t say anything to reprimand her. Why? Well he couldn’t dare to. He was the one who needed to be reprimanded if he was to think this through. He was the one who accused her of betraying him. He was also the one who had treated her as if she was the most wanted criminal on earth. And he was also the one who took advantage of her last night while she was in her weak state.
‘I’m despicable, aren’t I?’ …. For the first time in his life, he actually asked himself that question and for the first time in his life he actually felt something poking at his heart…. from what he remembered, he had never ever felt such humane emotions yet he knew for sure that what he felt was purely guilt… guilt for misjudging her. Maybe this wouldn’t have turned out this way if he had just looked into the situation more keenly and atleast trusted her a little if not wholly.
What was he thinking when he accused someone as innocent-looking as her of working with rogues? Even if she was a spy, she’d have no reason to act as innocent and genuine as she did and she wouldn’t have any reason as to not kill him either. Maxim (the rogue King) was out for his head, so if she was really one of his own, she would’ve tried to kill him the first chance she got… and only the lord knows how many chances she had gotten.
Damon focused his eyes back on Sarah’s quivering form and another pang of guilt instantly ran up his spine. She wasn’t this scared of him the first time they met… in fact, she seemed as intrigued by him as he was by her. But things changed pretty fast because she was now scared out of her wits… or atleast it looked that way.
He needed to set things straight. If not for her sake then just for the sake of getting rid of the stupid guilt plaguing him. He didn’t think he’d be able to continue calling himself the ruthless alpha King if he keeps harbouring this guilt. He had to get rid of it, even if that meant earning her forgiveness one way or another. It was his mistake anyway, he should be the one to fix it.
“W-What…” he started after a while, the quivering of his voice surprising even he himself. Clearing his throat, he attempted at speaking again. This time, he managed to keep his voice from wavering. “What do you want?”
When she glanced at him with her brows furrowed and her eyes bathing in confusion, he gulped. Wasn’t he clear enough a while ago? Did she want him to say directly that he wanted her to forgive him? If that was the case, then it shouldn’t be! He was the alpha King! Never in his life had he ever felt the need to have someone’s forgiveness. So this was going against every bone in his body and it was also unnerving him as much as possible Now, she was only making it harder for him… though he kinda deserved this much internal torture.
He sighed, but pushed himself to expound nonetheless. “I’ve talked about my patrol plans and layout in your presence the day I introduced you in order to find out for sure if you truly betrayed me. But it seems the details haven’t reached Maxim’s ears, seeing as his attacks were not well coordinated nor planned. And so, now that I know you’re not working with him, I’ll give you anything you want… just say it and I’ll give it to you. As long as it doesn’t involve you leaving.”
Sarah sat still for a solid 30 seconds and just when Damon thought she was too scared to demand something from him, she surprised him by speaking up. “W-Werewolves can s-shift control to t-their wolf counterpart, r-right?”
He had a bad feeling about whatever she was getting at, but he said yes anyway just to appease her. In response, Sarah didn’t lift her head, but he saw the way her jaw clenched and her arms tightened around herself as she sat there. It seemed as if she was scared to say whatever she had in her thoughts.
Damon ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not going to hurt y-” he tried to soothe her, but before he could finish his sentence, she cut him off with sharp words that pretty much paralyzed him in his spot.
“T-Then disappear a-and let L-Liam have control.”