Mated Enemies

It didn’t matter much to me who saw it right now, what mattered was that with that mark, there was nowhere in the universe she could go without my tailing her and dragging her back to my side where she belongs.

The last I heard before my eyes closed in slumber was the bird warning her to be careful. I knocked his ass off his perch for the heck of it and he had a hell of a time trying to explain to her what had happened after I warned his ass again about sticking his nose in my shit.

I licked the mark on her neck for good measure before dropping off into sleep and felt her body heat up. Serves her ass right for being a ninny. Wait…you’re sending your woman out in the world with her pussy in heat?

Shit, fuck, asshole…the sun was up, there’s no way I could go after her now. Not unless I wanted to unleash my dragon as I’m sure the combination of sexual need, the sun, and her ass in heat would be just the perfect mix of fuckery needed for me to spaz the fuck out in the earthly realm.

Natalia

It was a good plan, if it had worked. I didn’t want to get everyone in trouble and since I didn’t know how he or his royal family would react it had been decided that I wouldn’t go back to the valley my people call home. My sisters refused to leave me as we headed out of town, though I was a bit skeptical of them staying.

All was going well except for the doubts in my mind that had plagued me all night and well into the day. The plan was to skip school, and head out of town. I knew his kind didn’t move very easily during sunlight hours so we waited until noon to head out.

We didn’t think too much about where we were going, didn’t communicate verbally for fear of being overheard, but relied more on hand signals and sign language. Patrick has been unusually quiet for him, which was a relief because before he went silent he seemed to think we were making a big mistake not heading to our immortal realm. Something that only panicked the others even more.

We were heading for the outskirts of town and from there the map was open on the console between Phoebe and I as I drove. I was battling guilt and uncertainty that made my tummy ache as I put my foot on the gas heading hard in the opposite direction away from him. I didn’t find it odd that there was no interference from him. I still believed that my shielding skills were up to par.

But I started second-guessing everything when we reached the edge of the city and a force field stopped me in my tracks. If I’d been walking I would’ve fallen flat on my ass, but as it was, the car just stopped and refused to move. It didn’t stall, it stopped. Like someone had snatched the key from the ignition mid drive.

I knew it wasn’t mechanical failure, I could feel the change all around us….

“What’s that? What the hell is that?” Annalise looked out the car window as all of us turned to see the vapor that surrounded the car.

“Get out of the car.” That was Zoe’s pragmatic answer as we all piled out and stood to the side looking over at the car. No one stopped to help which was strange, and it looked like they didn’t even see us standing there on the side of the road as they drove by without a care in the world.

My neck started to burn and I clapped my hand over the mark there as reality started to dawn. No wonder he didn’t bother to show up when I was making my grand escape. His little trick was doing all the dirty work for him.

“Natalia what’s going on, what’s wrong with you?” I had a split second to come up with a solution to what I now knew was a lost cause. “I need you three to listen to me. The car is not going to move with me in it.”

“What, what’re you saying?”

If I show them the mark on my neck and explain what I’m beginning to think it is, they’ll never leave. But I need them to go, to be safe so I can find some place to hide. “It’s the mating, it’s too close we’re locked in somehow. I can’t leave, but you can. I’ll stay here and find some place to hide.”

“Are you crazy? We’re not leaving you here to face this alone.” I’ve never in all our years together pulled rank, but there’s always a first time for everything. “Yes Zoe, you are. You’re going to take Phoebe and Annalise and the three of you are going to go somewhere safe until I come find you. That’s an order!”