13. I am stuck with two toddlers

“Luis…” I repeated the name that Damen had told me, trying to recall if I had read about him in my history books.

“Ah, don’t tell me that you have already fallen for me,” a heavily accented voice interrupted my thoughts, “I don’t want to break the heart of my best friend’s mate.”

I looked up to find Luis giving me a charming smile, as he took a seat in front me. Currently, we were in the food court, and Damen and Luis aka the stranger who had scared me shitless earlier had gone to place our orders.

“Where is Damen?” I asked Luis.

“Still ordering,” he nodded towards the counter where Damen was talking to the employee, “apparently, being the ruler here doesn’t give you the free pass to sit back and order.”

“Um, yeah, sure,” I replied vaguely, because I didn’t know what else I could say. This Luis guy was too friendly from the get-go, and I didn’t really know anything about him.

“Hey, Lilith?” Luis leaned forward in his seat, as if he was going to tell me something of grave importance. My interest piqued and I leaned closer towards him to listen to what he had to say.

“Do you know that Damen wasn’t always as high and mighty as he seems to be now? We were sitting in the royal gardens once, and a frog appeared out of nowhere and jumped on him, and he screamed like a banshee and ran for the hills.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he was smacked on the back of his head.

“We were freaking three year old kids,” Damen defended himself and took a seat beside me, “stop telling her half-truths.”

Luis smirked shamelessly, “okay, then, I will tell her the ‘full-truths’. So, Lilith, this one time- ow!”

My gaze followed Luis’ hand on his leg and I glanced under the table to see that Damen was pressing on his foot.

“How old are the two of you again?” I asked in confirmation, “you seem like toddlers to me right now.”

“Hey!” both of them exclaimed indignantly, making me snicker.

Our food arrived and we talked for a bit more or at least attempted to talk with Luis trying to expose every embarrassing thing that Damen had ever done and Damen trying to kill Luis. All in all, the day passed with me having a lot of fun watching these two bickering and arguing over small things. It was clear to me that they shared a deep bond and a history together. I had never imagined that Damen would be so close to someone. He always seemed to be reserved and aloof. But, I was wrong.

The day passed by so fast that I was honestly shocked when it was nighttime already and we had to return back home. Luis was going to stay with us for the duration of his visit to the night court.

But, that was not what mattered at the moment. What mattered the most was the fact that my training was starting from the next day, something I was so not looking forward to.

***

“I think you should go back, Aiden,” I said, munching on my granola bar, and staring straight ahead. I was waiting for damen to arrive to start the training. Aiden was keeping me company in the meantime.

Aiden scoffed, “Your parents and my dad will have my head if I go back without you.”

I sighed, “I didn’t even talk to my family about all of this…what was their reaction? Were they too much worried? They know I am awesome, right? These trivial things like mate and stuff don’t faze me.”

Aiden rolled his eyes, “They were worried, but, not about you. Your dad thinks that this is some sort of scheme on the part of supernaturals to get intel on us humans.”

“What the hell?!” I exclaimed, “why would he even- gosh, I knew that being a governor had made him paranoid but, this…why the heck would he think that Damen is making up the mate stuff? I mean, I feel the tingles every time he touches me, you know? And, whenever he is near me-”

“No, stop!” Aiden made a show of gagging, “I don’t need to hear about your love life! Argh!”

“Geez, drama queen,” I shook my head, “it’s more like non-existent love life. It’s just a stupid bond that makes you hormonal.”

“But, it’s-”

Whatever Aiden was saying was cut off by a loud familiar voice at the entrance of the training hall.

“Lilith, are you ready to start your training?” Damen made his way in, tossing some equipment that he had brought, to the side.

Aiden sighed beside me, “I will leave you to train, Emerson. Don’t slack off. You need to make the humans proud. Good luck!”

I groaned, “Aah, damn it, do you really have to place that burden of expectations over my head?”

Aiden smirked in response, “Yes, otherwise you will become lazy. Now, stop talking and go train.”

I stuffed my mouth with the remaining granola bar, and rubbed my hands on my t-shirt as Aiden made his way out. The subtle look of contempt that passed between Aiden and Damen didn’t go unnoticed by me.

I would have rolled my eyes but then, I was distracted by Damen’s gorgeousness and the way he was casually pulling off black sweatpants with a grey t-shirt. Ugh, did he have to look so good early in the morning?

He walked towards me, shaking his head, “You shouldn’t be eating anything right before working out. Change your eating schedule from tomorrow or your body will experience problems.”

I gave him a mock salute, “Okay, sir.”

He gave me an unimpressed look, “We will start with warm-up exercises.”

I straightened up, nodding and waiting for him to do something so that I could follow him. But, he just stood there, looking at me expectantly.

Um…okay?

“Why are you just standing there?” Damen frowned, “start warming up.”

“Uh,” I scratched the side of my neck, “how am I supposed to know what to do?”

He gave me an incredulous look, “You don’t know warm up exercises? Have you never done it before? What do they teach you in human schools?”

“Look, um, don’t judge me, but, I basically bunked all my P.E classes,” I admitted sheepishly, “it was not my cup of tea.”

“Unbelievable,” Damen muttered, then, gave me a stern look, “just follow me, step by step.”

And, so, I followed him, all his hand and leg movements, becoming a panting mess with every passing minute. And, to think that this was just warm up…I didn’t want to think about how out of shape I was or what would happen when we started the actual training.

Half an hour later, we were doing pushups. I was groaning with every set while Damen did it effortlessly.

I was balancing myself on my hands and toes when I felt a hand on my back, and the familiar tingles coursing through my skin. I swear to God, I almost had a mini heart attack.

“Lilith, keep your back straight,” Damen said, pressing his palm on my lower back, “if you get it wrong, then, it will hurt later.”

My back arched even more, under his touch. I heard him releasing a sigh, then, crouching down beside me. His free hand went to press on my stomach and the other one remained on my back. I tried straightening my posture by using both his hands.

Man, was he trying to kill me? Was he not aware of the affect of his touch?

“There,” he finally declared, removing his hands, “you have it now. Remain like this for at least half a minute.”

Sweat beads started forming on my head from the amount of pressure I was applying. As soon as half a minute was up, I plopped down on the mat, face first.

“How much longer?” I asked tiredly, gratefully accepting the bottle of water that he passed me.

“It’s only been half an hour,” he said in amusement, “you have to do a lot of things. Your first physical test is only ten days away.”

Oh yeah, Damen had got the test dates postponed for me. The old man aka his father, had thrown a fuss over it, but, finally came around.

I emptied the whole bottle of water, feeling as if I had been deprived of water for years. After an hour or two of more torture, Damen told me that we were getting to the most important part of training now.

“This is where we start indulging in one on one combat,” he said, “I will start with the basics.”

He grabbed my hands and positioned them in an attacking stance, locking my fingers to form fists on both hands. Then, he preceded on to fix the position of my legs. He went on to explain what I had to do and what I had to avoid. And, after giving me all the instructions, he stood in front of me.

“Now, punch me, keeping in mind what I told you just now,” he said.

I drew back my hand to throw a punch, but, just as my fist was about to collide with his chest, he dodged. I took a step back, thinking about my next step.

“Keep them coming, Lilith,” Damen prodded, “you can’t afford to stop and think.”

A took a deep breath and as he told me to, I kept throwing punches and he kept dodging. I got so used to this routine that I didn’t see it coming…suddenly, he had grabbed a hold of my fist and instinctively, I went to punch him with my other fist. He dodged it. I tried to knee him, but, he cut it off with a single move and before I knew it, he had both my hands locked in his strong, muscular arms, and had turned my body around, so that now he was breathing down my neck, literally.

Damn it, this was embarrassing. I was supposed to defeat him. I mean, I know it wouldn’t happen in one day, but, still I-

My thoughts were cut off when I suddenly felt the air around me changing. Damen’s breath was ticking my skin and suddenly, I became aware of our close proximity.

Shit, shit, shit!

Something wasn’t right. Why wasn’t Damen releasing me? He was supposed to tell me my mistake by now. Why was he so quiet and…unmoving, all of a sudden? The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I realized that something was definitely weird about this whole situation. I think I had an idea about what it was…but…

I gulped, trying to avoid the pleasurable tingles all over my body and craned back my neck, to glance at Damen. My eyes were met with dark violet ones, and my heart stopped for a moment. I tried to move, only to have Damen tightening his hold around me.

“Didn’t I tell you,” he spoke in a deep, inhuman voice as his lips brushed against my neck, almost making me moan, “it’s dangerous to train with me.”