Chapter 62 - I’m just a human girl

HADRIAN

The sound of a slamming door demands my attention from the dispute in my hands. “Stupid banana,” Emma mutters from our bedroom and I listen to how she paces around. She doesn’t realize sometimes how loud she can be to a werewolf. I like it when she’s loud though. I like every sound she makes.

I’m in my office behind my new desk working through the endless stack of files and trying to focus on the letters on the page. I tap my fingers on the back of the pages as my attention is pulled away from them again.

Emma drops something in the bedroom. It clatters on the wooden floor and she clamors a chaste curse. *Would she stay that chaste if I tie her to the bed and delay the thing she wants most? Would she curse then?* I shake my head when my lewd thoughts stir my body awake.

*“We should probably check up on her.”* Nero says.

*“Yeah.”* I place the documents on the rest of the stack. *“Just to make sure that she didn’t injure herself or anything.”*

We’ve been keeping our distance for the past five days. I don’t want to get in the way of the slow healing process of her body. I fear that the smallest exertion might make it worse and that I might do more harm than good.

*But Goddess, I miss my mate.* Being locked up in my office doesn’t help. The memories of what happened in this room are as vivid as on the day itself.

I walk through the parlor to our bedroom and my vision is immediately filled with Emma’s shapely ass clad in her favorite jeans. She’s kneeling down on the floor, with her chest pressed to the ground and reaching one arm under the bed. She has her hair tied in a ponytail and loose strands fall around her face.

This is a position that I imagined her in many times. But then sweaty, naked and with my dick pounding in her tight pussy from behind. My dick becomes rock hard at the sight of her and removes all the blood from my brain. I stand there rooted for a moment.

*“Help her.”* Nero growls

His voice in my head brings me back to the present and I clear my throat. “Need help?”

“No.” Emma snaps and bends further to reach underneath the bed. She swings her arm from left to right.

I scratch the back of my neck and avoid staring more at her gorgeous body. “Is something wrong?” I clear my throat again when the rasp is too obvious.

Emma sits up and turns her body to me with vicious eyes. “*Is something wrong?* Are you serious?” She clamors.

The fire in her eyes and the fury in her voice, it has me under her command. I never wanted a perfect, docile mate. I want someone to bite back, someone who I can worship on my knees before I dominate her with a hard fuck.

“Yes?” I mumble.

She stands up and swings her hand in the air. “How about while we’re here, people continue to die? Or how about my mother being locked up somewhere?”

She takes a step closer. “Or what about the fact that she's been a werewolf all her life and I had no clue.” Tears collect in her eyes and brim her metal spheres.

“Does that sound right to you?” Her voice breaks and it fractures my heart.

*Fuck.* I can’t handle her crying. She runs a palm over her wet cheek and I take her wrist in my hand and pull her towards me.

“What can I do?” I wrap my arms tight around her and crush her against my body.

My little mate has been breaking down and I’ve been hiding from her because I was afraid that I couldn’t stop myself from fucking her.

*I’m a terrible mate.*

“Nothing.” Emma grips the fabric of my shirt and sobs into my chest. “I just wish that things could have been different.”

I sit down on the bed and place her on my lap. I run my hand up and down her back and let her cry.

“I wish that I could’ve met you in Aldea and you were just a regular guy named Jack or something.”

My hand freezes and I frown. “Jack?” A growl builds in my chest.

“That’s what regular guys are called, Hadrian.”

I’ve never heard of anyone named Jack, it must be a human thing. Is that what she wants? Does she want to go back to the human world? Is she unhappy here? Am I holding back her happiness by keeping her here?

“Do you want a regular guy?” I grumble. My possessive nature threatens to make an appearance and hunt down every male named *Jack*.

She is very quiet for a minute and it freezes my veins and shatters my heart.

“How am I supposed to deal with fate, mates and goddesses?” She whispers eventually. “I'm just a human girl, I cannot handle all this baggage all the time.”

Emma has been subjected to many things in my world. Many things that she should never even have to deal with. She’s always fighting, for people she cares about and people she doesn’t even know.

“I could bring you home,” I whisper and fear her answer.

She sits up as looks up at me with her teary eyes. “What?”

I wipe away her tears with my thumb. Her skin is soft beneath my palm. I take in every inch of her face as if it’s the last time. “I don’t want you to be unhappy here.”

She casts her eyes down and shakes her head. Her cheeks glisten in the sunlight coming through the window. “I can’t leave.”

*The hell with the deal she made.*

“I’ll bring you anywhere you want, you can go home,” I say as I stamp on the shattering pieces of my heart.

*“What are you doing? She’s our mate.”* Nero growls.

*“She’s unhappy here.”*

*“This will ruin us.”* Nero exclaims.

*“I know.”*

For a second, I believe that Emma will take me up on my offer, but her next words confuse me.

“We don’t even have a thing?” She fidgets with the edge of my shirt and it draws my attention to how close her fingers are to my dick.

“What thing?” I try to focus on what she’s saying, but it’s not making any sense.

She lifts her shoulders. “A thing that couples do together. Something that makes them unique.”

I frown as I try to decipher her words. Does she not realize that we’re already unique?

Her gray eyes shine with the tears she shed. Her nose and the skin beneath her eyes are red. She’s distraught, but she’s still here. She didn’t accept my offer.

*My mate wants a thing, so we need to get a thing.*

Her lips are swollen and pillowy soft. They tempt and invite me to come closer. I run my fingers along her scalp and angle her head. She shivers under my hands and I take in her sweet and intoxicating scent. I lean down and sink my lips on hers and taste her sweetness mixed with her salty tears.

Her lips lure me to go deeper, but I pull back before I let my body get too excited. Emma bites her bottom lip and clutches the fabric of my shirt. Her cheeks flush red and it makes me curious about what is going through her mind.

“There’s a banana under the bed.”

I blink, because that is probably the most random thing I heard her say, ever. Then I chuckle. “I’ll get it for you.”

I get up from the bed and lift it on one side to reveal the yellow fruit. Emma narrows her eyes at me as I hand her the fruit. She takes the banana and storms out of the room with a face more resembling the color of a tomato.

*“What did I do now?”*