My Most Precious Human

It was a little after eight when I went back to Draven's room. He was lying in his bed, with nothing but thin bedsheets covering his delicious body. He woke up once I entered, and tried to urge me to join him with a teasing smile... until he thoroughly scanned my face and noticed my mortified stare.

I told him about Sariel going missing and Elora making herself a regent. I tried to stay calm while describing the entire situation, but my trembling hands betrayed that I was miles from being composed. Draven pulled me to sit on the bed beside him and put his arms around me. He gently urged me to place my head on his shoulder, and once I did, he stroked my hair until my body stopped shivering. It felt strange. This morning I received more warmth and sincere affection than throughout the entire night I spent with him. His lips were curved into a caring smile, but his eyes flashed with something I had never seen in him: restlessness. I doubted that he was concerned with Sariel's disappearance. He might have signed the truce with the vampire king, but his hatred towards the entire vampire race had manifested many times before, and Sariel certainly wasn't an exception to this rule.

"You are worried," I stated, my head still lying on his shoulder.

His smile turned into an uncomfortable grimace. "Yes," he sighed, "Commander Kim told me about the degenerates... General Gotha claims that he has never seen anything like those creatures they are fighting against. It's terrifying that the Royal Army is losing, and if someone like Sariel Calvet lost to them as well, that would be an unimaginable threat to most of my warriors."

I could understand him perfectly. I remembered Sariel's strength. I remembered how overpowering he was when he fought against another vampire noble, Aryan, and when he crushed Declan, one of the most powerful warriors from the Southern Woods Pack, in less than a minute. I refused to believe that someone like him could lose against anyone or anything, but what if he did? The mere thought of it made my chest squeeze painfully.

Suddenly, Draven straightened and pulled me slightly away to look at me in a searching way. I raised eyebrows at him, wondering if there was something else wrong with my face because I already knew that I resembled a zombie from the moment I heard about Sariel's disappearance.

"Melinda stays at room number 28 on the first floor. Go see her now. Let her check you before our departure," he demanded, sounding oddly serious.

"There's nothing wrong with me." Nervous laughter left my throat, painfully aware of how messed up my mind was. Nonetheless, my body seemed fine.

"I just want to be sure... You are extremely precious to me," he assured, coaxing me with a warm smile.

I registered him glancing at the crock of my neck. In an instinctive reaction, my hand went to the place where his eyes pointed and rubbed it, but I felt nothing unusual under my fingertips. I decided to ignore it and then agreed to visit Melinda.

On my way down, I recalled something... I remembered Draven biting my neck. One of his bites was harder than the rest, but, as shamelessly as it may sound, I was too busy climaxing to focus... on anything. Then I remembered his wolf bite and how I became all feverish. Was he worried that I could get sick again?

I found room 28 and knocked on the door. Melinda opened, inviting me in, and a second later, a huge grin popped on her face.

"So... how was your night?" she asked, scanning me carefully from head to toe.

I narrowed my eyes at her because I was well aware that I didn't resemble a woman after good sex for her to know right away. "Did Draven send a newsletter to everyone or something?"

She chuckled, "You have his scent all over you."

"Oh." I blushed and slightly turned my head away from her wickedly smiling eyes.

Even though I wasn't looking at her directly, I felt her sight on me for a few seconds and then heard her sigh. Curious about her reaction, I turned towards her again, only to see a slight disappointment. "What?" I grunted.

"No, nothing." She shrugged and went to the table where she had her medical bag. "I suppose Alpha wanted you to be checked after... your first night?" she tossed, taking out a thermometer and a stethoscope.

"Yes," I replied, "but I'm not sure why..."

Then I thought that it was a great opportunity to talk to her because I seriously needed some she-wolf knowledge.

"Can I ask you a question?" I popped out, wearing a shy grin on my face.

"Sure." She winked at me and brought a thermometer closer to my forehead.

"Do you have a mate?" I asked bluntly.

"Yes," she said, her eyes sparkling curiously.

My lips formed an awkward kind of smile, as I was trying to voice out my next question. "What was it like for you... when your mate-"

"When he marked me as his?" she ended my question, slyly grinning.

I nodded in response.

Her eyes became brighter, as she started describing their magic moment while sweetly giggling, "It was very intimate. We made love on a full moon, and once he left his bite mark on me, I felt as if I was about to cry out of happiness."

As soon as her words reached my ears, I started to feel like an absolute idiot. Draven's bite... The bite was the real way to make a claim; the mating ritual wouldn't be complete without it. I was so focused on the whole relationship and the emotional part of the bond that my mind completely discarded the supernatural part of it. That was why Draven kept looking at my neck.

In my defense, I had to say that I never thought that I would need any knowledge about the mating ritual. That was one of the subjects I wasn't comfortable discussing with Ezra, and he wasn't either. I tried talking with him about boys and girls once, but he became stiff and then burst out into hysteric laughter. I had never seen him more flustered than at that moment. When he told me about the mate-bond, he made it sound absolutely intimate. That was why I dumbly believed that it was all about making love. The embarrassment I felt at that moment could only be compared to an Amish girl, accidentally finding out what condoms are used for...

I rubbed the crock of my neck. "Are there any particular circumstances in which the ritual wouldn't work?" I asked while a nervous chuckle escaped my lips.

"Not really..." She hesitated for a second and then locked her eyes on me. "But I'm not sure if it would work with you."

I tilted my head, staring at her as if she had begun talking to me in Sumerian.

She snorted and pulled down the rim of her shirt around the neckline, showing me a slightly pink crescent mark on her neck. "The mark is like a wedding ring, but one that you can't take off once you wear it. This is how it works for the wolves, but it might be different in your case." She shot me a wry smile.

"Different how... and why?"

"You regenerate fast... too fast. I guess that even if Alpha bit you, the mark could disappear." She shrugged, but then added, "The other reason would be that you're not..." She paused and laughed awkwardly. "I'm not... what? His mate?" My heart started to pound, fearing that she would confirm it.

"Forget about it. Sometimes I speak gibberish," She waved her hand, trying to make me ignore her previous words. "If Alpha felt the bond, then you are his mate and his future Luna. There is nothing for you to worry about."

She brushed me off when I tried to dig into the subject, and then shifted her entire focus to examining my body. After a fifteen-minute checkup, she said that there was nothing wrong with me other than things that could be cured with a good amount of sleep. I thanked her and walked out of her room, smiling and acting as if I was completely composed, but as soon as I closed the door, that mask fell off and a wave o anxiety hit me like a speeding train. What if Draven lied to me and I wasn't his destined mate?