Chapter 3 Mating Mark?
~Elara’s POV
I woke up sore. The ache between my thighs is a full reminder that last night wasn't a dream. My body knows it before my mind catches up. Heat flooded my cheeks and up my thighs. My shoulders throbbed too.
I look around the still dark room, and for a moment panic claws up my throat. Then I remembered the club, music, hands on my hips, a voice that made my bones burn. I turn my head slowly.
He's there.
Sprawled beside me, broad and impossibly still, but the rise and fall of his chest was proof he was still breathing. I sighed in relief. One of his arms flung above his head, his mask is still on. The dim light refused to give me his face, just the silhouette of his body.
I shouldn't stay.
The thought comes sharp and clean, cutting through the fog in my head. Staying means questions, names, and expectations. I can't afford any of these. Not right now. I slid out of the bed quietly, gathering my clothes with trembling fingers. My body protests as I dress, heat flaring low in my belly like it was reminiscing. I don't look back when I reach the door.
I left before dawn, the city was quieter now, gray and indifferent. I found a boarding house that takes cash without question, the room is tiny, and even the bathroom is smaller but it will do.
I peeled off my clothes to take a shower, and I turned to the mirror lodged on the wall of the bathroom. A huge bite mark on my shoulder stares back at me.
My heart skipped. What the…
This wasn't a hickey. Then memories of what happened last flooded me. He bit me. My brows furrowed as I stared hard at it. It pulses beneath my skin, warmth radiating outward, like it's alive. When my fingers brushed it, I flinched as pain, sharp and intimate, shot straight through me.
“What are you? And what did you do to me?" I whispered, fear coiled tight in my chest.
Hours passed and the sun was out, so was I. There are tales of wolf-healers scattered across the human city—and that's just what I'm searching for.
I found her. Her corner smells of incense and rain, which is weird cos it wasn't raining. She doesn't ask my name, just the moment she sees the mark color drains off her face.
“This is no ordinary mark," she murmured. " This is royal.”
I shake my head. “I don't know what that means."
She looks at me with something like pity. “It means you were marked by a king."
Cold floods my veins. What?
“Why…what can I do? I don't want it." I asked desperately, trying to somehow magically peel it off my shoulders.
“Please…” I pleaded for her to do anything, it hurts.
He hesitated. " Only temporarily. Enchanted ink could work. A protection scar, it will dull the scent and the pain too. Blur the call of the mark.”
" Do it,” I said with resolve. Whatever king he is, I can't go back to that life. I've been burned before and I don't think I could survive another one.
She placed a glowing stone with ink on it, directly on the mark, the pain was worse than the bite itself. The ink burns as it's pressed into my skin, searing heat and magic sinking deep. I bit my lip until I tasted blood. My eyes shut tightly, refusing to scream.
When it's done, the mark wasn't there and it left me in awe. It was like it never existed, covered.
But she said temporarily. Let's see how long it lasts.
I pull my shirt back on with trembling hands.
Whatever that night was… I won't let it follow me.
~~~Kael’s POV~~~
I was still seated, staring at the empty bed spot beside me. Her scent was fading and I hated it.
Rage hits me first—hot and violent, a snarl ripping from my chest before I can stop it. My claws sliced into the mattress as I sat up, my heart beating wildly.
The bond is there, I can feel it burning under my skin like a brand. But she left. No trace, without a name, or a word. Then, guilt followed close behind the fury, heavier. I marked her, claimed her without her consent. The mate bond had snapped into place too fast and strongly, and I reacted, without stopping myself.
Powerful or not, that sin is mine. Maybe that was the reason she ran. I don't know…
I left the hotel room and returned to my territory before the sun rose fully.
My guards greeted me as I paced my chambers, my mind still reeling from last night. No, I can't let her vanish into thin air.
“Lock the borders,” I ordered coldly. " Search every allied pack for an unmated woman with a mark on her shoulder. My mark."
“Every outpost. I want reports within an hour."
The hall trembled with movement. Fear and excitement, whispers already spreading like wildfire. The Lycan king has found his mate. But I didn't celebrate, not when she's missing.
It's been four days since the search, and no result yet. My wolf and I have been so restless, currently pacing the hall of my chambers. My wolf snarls, furious and restless, pulling me towards the bond. Towards her.
The pull tugs, faint and wrong, like something was interfering. Then the messenger arrived.
“My king," he says, bowing low. “The marked woman has been found."
Relief slammed into me so hard my knees nearly buckled. “Bring her," I commanded.
He rushed out and returned, and there she was. She enters the hall, flanked by my guards. She was beautiful, poised, confident, and her stride. My heart reacts instinctively, a sharp aching pull—
Then my wolf recoils, snarling in protest.
No?
Her scent is sweet, familiar but… there's something else. My body stiffened when she got close, my gaze searched her face, which was without a mask this time.
Then down to her shoulders. My mark was there. Mate.
My mark. I reached out to it, just a light touch, but the zap and tingles that spread up my arm weren't. Mate.
The hall falls deathly silent. I stepped forward, slow and dangerous. My eyes lift back to her face.
She smiled.
“I am Lyra Blackthorn," she says smoothly, “daughter of Alpha Darius Blackthorn of Crescent Hollow."
