Chapter 11: The Veracity
"I got to go but the usual set next week," he said before he was moving toward the table that he left Anika with. His friends were talking but Anika was nowhere to be found.
"Mr. Laskaris?" someone asked him as Damien turned to look at her. It was the hostess that showed them the table. He smiled before she was looking at the table.
"Are you looking for someone?" she asked before Damien nodded.
"Yes, my ma—girlfriend from earlier, have you seen her?" he asked before the hostess told him that she went to the restroom. He thanked the hostess before Damien went to search for Anika. When he arrived at the restroom, the scent of apricot and something else made his wolf snarled. He knew that Anika was in danger before Damien can process the situation and turned to follow the masculine scent that dared to come after his mate.
Damien was running toward the forest that was behind the restaurant before he felt the familiar presence of another werewolf. Damien shifted as he shed his clothes and burst his wolf forward. The brown fur covered his body as his wolf was snarling and growling. Then, he took off to find Anika who was helpless in the dark woods.
Damien was running for his life as he sensed that Anika's fear was over the chart. She was in danger, he just knew it then and when Damien arrived at the forest, a black wolf was snarling in front of her. Anika was frozen to her spot as she was looking at the black wolf. Damien stepped in as his wolf was standing in between the black wolf and Anika. Frankly, he knew who was the black wolf.
'Zack,' he said as he noticed the peculiar blue eyes that belonged to the wolf. There was only one person that he knew in the pack that had that coloring.
'Delta,' Zack replied as his wolf growled.
'Did you hurt my mate?' he asked, trying to control the anger that his wolf was trying to execute if Zack indeed hurt their mate. But Damien was still in control of the wolf before the Omega was blinking his eyes at him.
'No,' he said curtly.
'Then, what the hell happened, Zack? Why is my mate in this forest?' he snarled as Zack did not blink away from his stare. Then, the black wolf was looking at the mess to its right. Damien did not notice that before and then, his nostrils were filled with the smell of blood.
'Did you...kill someone?' Damien asked as he was trying to process the situation in front of him right now. Zack was silent before the black wolf snarled at him and turned away into the forest. But Damien could hear that Zack was talking to him in the mind link before he cut it off.
'I did it to save her. I know she's yours from this morning,' he said before Zack was out of that link. Damien acknowledged that Zack had helped him but there was something in his voice that made his heart ached.
There was as if something sad in his voice when Zack disappeared into the forest.
Damien turned to look at the frozen Anika as she was still looking at him. She was breathing heavily as if she was waiting for him to attack.
'Take her,'
'Claim her,'
'Make her ours,' his wolf chanted into his ears before Damien cut it off and did something that he thought he would never do. But then again, Anika was his mate and she deserved to know the truth about him. And tonight will be the night for her to know the truth about her tour guide that she fell in love with.
*****
One moment she blinked there was a brown wolf in front of her. The next, Anika was staring into the grey orbs that she had fallen in love with for the past two days. She sucked on her breath as she was looking at the handsome face of her tour guide.
Damien Laskaris is a werewolf?! She thought as she was looking at the taut muscles that were corded into his lean body. A very naked lean body. Anika closed her eyes before she felt the hot breaths that mingled with pine and forest. She opened her eyes and Damien was close to her face, getting into her personal space.
"Anika,"
That's the only word that came out of his mouth at the moment. And she knew that he was expecting her to turn away from her. Damien knew that if she knew this secret of his, she will turn away from him and never turn back to look at him for once and all.
But she was about to prove it wrong for she knew there was something about the town of Paphos and the weird behavior the people lived there.
"Are you ever going to tell me about the truth?" she gulped as she was calming her beating heart. Anika did not know how she got the courage to sound even and nothing happened as if discovering her boyfriend as a werewolf was a normal thing.
Maybe she was a little mad.
"You will run first thing in the morning if you knew and perhaps I don't want that to happen," Damien said as she was looking at him. His face was sad and she knew that Damien thought she will leave him behind.
But what if she decided that she wanted to stay forever with him? Here in Paphos? But what about her work then? She thought as Anika was biting her lower lips before she gulped again.
"Say something," he whispered as his hands were trapping her to the ground. They were close yet they were so far. And only Anika can make sure that their distance will be as close as it can be. So, she did what she had wanted to do when she saw him that night in his smart casual wear.
She kissed him.
Damien was obviously surprised by her action but later, he was kissing her back. She was touching his hard, hot chest as she was biting her nails into his muscles.
"Anika," one word that could mean anything and she knew that it would mean the world to Damien if she said the things that she had been thinking in her mind.
"I want you," she said as she was looking into his grey orbs. The stormy eyes that could take her away from here and not fear a thing. Damien kissed her again before she was straddling his naked laps as she can sense his eagerness against her belly.
"Not here, my sweet. When I took you, it will be on a bed and after the Folk Festival," he whispered as Anika turned to look at his face. Damien was serious and she agreed to wait for it since the festival will be on tomorrow.
"Okay," she said as Damien was smirking at her before kissing her eyelids and nose and cheeks before moving his hot mouth against her neck and jaws.
"I love it when you did not run away from me, my sweet. Not when the black wolf has terrorized you for life," Damien whispered into her left ear as she was playing with his hair at her nape. She bit her lower lips as she was leaning forward to kiss his chest.
"I think I got a gist of who's that black wolf is," she whispered that made Damien turned to look at her and arched his eyebrow. He seemed amused.
"And who would you be thinking that black wolf could be?" he asked before Anika was smirking at him.
"If I told you, will you kill me afterward?" she asked before Damien was growling and pulled at her hair.
"Do not ever suggest that. You're my mate. Of course, I would not kill you and if anyone harms you in any way possible, I will make sure that they did not live to tell the tales," he growled before Anika was biting his lower lips.
"Such a bossy man,"
"And you like him no matter what," Damien whispered before he kissed her with a demanding, passionate kiss. Anika moaned before she sensed his eagerness twitched against her belly before Damien released her mouth.
"We should head back," he said breathlessly. Anika smiled.
"Yours or mine?" she asked before Damien shook his head.
"Yours and I will not take you there, Anika. When you're mine, I will make sure that every tradition has been done before I can claim you," he said before Anika arched her eyebrow.
"Mate, tradition, Folk Festival, Werewolf. Is there something that I don't know here?" she asked before Damien stood as he helped her as well.
"Plenty of stuff, Anika but for now, we need to get to the inn and I need to get some clothes on me. I don't want to be fined for public nudity," he said before Anika was looking at his body. It was definitely a shame to cover that up now when she loved to look at his muscles and—
Damien bit her ear before she jerked back against him. "You keep thinking like that, I don't think I give a fuck about the traditions or Folk Festival anymore. Inn, now," he said before Damien pulled her by the hand to go to their car that was parked at the restaurant and made their way to Anika's inn.
This is one of a hell night, Anika mused as she was sitting in the passenger seat as Damien was putting on his black pants before ignited the car and sped off to her inn.
*****
Sam jerked away from her bed as she sat up. Her heartbeat was beating so fast before she heard the howling again. It wasn't a dream. It was real, she mused before she turned to look at the moonlight that was coming into her room.
She went to look out the window in her bedroom as she was scanning the forest. She knew that he was out there and he was asking her to come. But she would not head his call for she did something that should let him go of her.
But apparently, Zack Adamos was determined in his quest and his quest was to have Sam as his mate.