7. Is he blushing?

I blinked, and the realization of what I was about to do, hit me. I pushed away from Damen and stood up, maintaining a safe distance from him. My heart was racing and my breaths were heavy, and I was doing everything to keep calm. I didn’t even kiss him, and I was a mess…what would happen if I actually…no, no, no! It was a ridiculous thought.

Damen seemed disoriented for a moment, before he shook his head and glanced at me with wide eyes. I felt bad for a second at how lost he seemed.

“Uh, I am sorry, I got carried away,” I started awkwardly, staring at my feet.

Damen got up from where he was, dusting off his clothes. I was waiting for him to say something, but, when all I heard was silence, I looked up to meet his eyes. Hard, cold eyes.

“It’s getting dark. We should get out of here,” he said curtly and started walking, without sparing me a glance.

I wanted to dig a hole and die. What the hell was I thinking? And, why was I bothered about whether he was mad at me or not? This whole mate bullshit was not new to him, but, it was to me. I couldn’t just go ahead and kiss someone I had met just one day ago.

Wow, now that I thought of it, it felt like a whole lifetime had passed since the masquerade. I met my so called mate, tried to run away from him, then, got mind attacked and then, kidnapped by Damen. After that, I went into some freaky thing called heat, and Damen, well he…yeah, he almost scared the shit out of me. Then, I met Trent and Clint. After that, I attempted to run away with Aiden’s help, but, Damen caught us and it turned ugly…and then, I was mind attacked for a second time, and now this…whoa, I needed to cancel my subscription from streaming sites. My life had enough drama to entertain me now.

“Are you coming or not?” Damen bit out, from a few steps ahead, breaking my thoughts.

I took a step forward in hurry and tripped over something, falling face first. A groan escaped me, and I heard a sigh coming from Damen’s direction. 

“How did you manage to stumble over a twig, Lilith?” he asked, as he helped me stand up to my feet again.

“Well, unlike you, I don’t have practice in walking on the forest floor, and avoiding twigs, especially when it’s dark and I can’t see anything,” I snapped.

“Sometimes, I forget that you are a human,” he muttered. I was pretty sure he made human sound like a bad word, on purpose.

I narrowed my eyes at him, “Better than the nincompoop supernaturals.”

He rolled his eyes, and clasped my left hand in his, “Just stay with me. You will never fall again.”

“You make it sound like you are some kind of high and mighty being, who never makes a mistake,” I said, as he started walking.

“Not gonna deny that,” he replied, seriously, “I never make a mistake.”

“Dude,” I gave him a look of disbelief, “do you want me to make a list of the mistakes you have made ever since we met.”

“Sure, go ahead,” he said, confidently. Well, I was about to end this man’s whole confidence.

“You got into my mind-”

“That was to make sure that you really are my mate,”

“But, you freaking read my thoughts!”

“You thoughts were revolving around how hot I was. This I already knew, so, no big deal.”

“How will you explain kidnapping me, you narcissist jerk?!”

“I warned you and also gave you time, but, you blew off your chance,”

“But, my parents-”

“They already know.”

“What?!” I almost stopped in my tracks, but, it wasn’t really possible because Damen was taking really long strides.

“Why do you think that hunter is here?”

My eyes widened with realization, “My parents sent him?!”

All I got from Damen was an indifferent shrug.

“Okay, fine, how are you going to explain your behavior during the heat thing?”

He suddenly stopped walking and I bumped into his back, letting out a string of curses when pain coursed through my already bruised head.

“Um, Lilith,” Damen turned around, and I did a double take when I saw the embarrassed expression on his face. Oh no, don’t tell me- shit, I needed to see this, I was pretty sure that his cheeks were flushed but I couldn’t really make it out in the dark.

“I have been meaning to talk to you about that…” he began slowly.

I dropped his hand and folded my arms across my chest for dramatic effect, giving him a stern look, “Yes, young man, go ahead. I am waiting for an apology.”

He gave me a weirded out look, but, continued nonetheless, “So, um, look, I was not in control when you were in heat…okay? So, let’s forget that ever happened.”

I leaned my face closer to him, “What was that? I didn’t hear a ‘sorry’? Could you please repeat?”

He narrowed his eyes at me, “I never said ‘sorry’ and I won’t ever say it.”

“Are you kidding me?!” I threw my hands up, in exasperation, “You owe me an apology.”

He took a step forward, making me stumble forward, “You are lucky you are a human. If you were a supernatural, I wouldn’t have been able to control myself during the heat.”

Wait a second…was he insulting me?

“Hey, what does that mean,” I fumed, “You are saying that I was not worth it? That a supernatural would have been better as your mate?”

“I am saying,” he started slowly, his voice really quiet now, “that I don’t want to hurt you. The fact that you are a human just makes you more appealing to me, and the only thing that was stopping me that night was the fear of hurting you.”

I swallowed. I didn’t know what to say to that. Damen saved me the trouble though, when he took my hand in his again, and started walking without any word.

***

Well, I was expecting that we would enter the supernatural realm through some kind of portal or cool stuff like that. But, guess what happened instead?

I fell asleep in the car, because there was only so much silence I could take before getting bored. Trent, Clint and Aiden were coming in a different car. How I convinced them to bring aiden along, is a story for another time. 

Anyway, so, when I opened my eyes, we were parked in the driveway of a normal, cozy, two-storey house.

“No portal?” I blurted out sleepily.

I heard an amused voice from beside me, “No, Lilith, we just had to cross a border separating the two realms.”

I sat up straight, rubbing my eyes, “What about the castle?”

“Huh?”

I turned to see that Damen’s eyebrows were raised, yet his lips were twitching.

“I thought you were a prince or something like that?” I said in confusion, “Where’s your castle?”

Damen cleared his throat, “Well, I don’t know what you think about the supernaturals, but, we are definitely not living the medieval lifestyle. Granted, we do have a palace, where court proceedings and general meetings are held.”

“Wow, and you are content living here?” I pointed towards the house, “why not live in the palace itself?”

I was genuinely curious. I had assumed that he would be living an extravagant lifestyle, with maids and butlers fussing over him. Now, this humble abode was not what I was expecting. But, I was definitely not complaining.

“You will find out later, Lilith,” was Damen’s vague reply as he got out of the car. I got out too, and stared straight ahead towards the front porch.

Damen and I were about to walk towards the house, when suddenly a feminine voice appeared out of nowhere, stopping us in our tracks.

“Damen! Oh my God, I have been waiting for you to return!”

In a blur, a girl ran towards Damen and latched her arms around Damen’s shoulder, hugging the life out of him. I didn’t miss the way Damen almost stiffened and cast a cursory glance towards me, as if he was caught doing something wrong.

It didn’t take me time to put two and two together, and I raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him. Well, someone had a lot of explaining to do.