14. Mine only

"You know I would never approve of Eden for you, if he wasn't your mate," Sanjay said, popping fries into his mouth.

Sanjay and Marley were at a local diner, munching on fries, burgers and shakes. Their usual conversation soon steered to the major problem at their hands. Marley dreaded to even think about her supposed mate but eventually, it was all that her mind wanted to ponder about.

"Okay, dad," Marley replied in monotone, earning a small chuckle from Sanjay.

"So, whatcha gonna do?" He asked, his voice muffled due to the large bite of his burger that he just took.

"Honestly, I don't know." Marley shrugged. "Sanjay did you ever wonder that they could be lying to us about this whole mate stuff?" She asked wearily. She wanted to consider all possibilities and not just blindly driven by what a bunch of strangers said to her. Sure, they were werewolves but that fact only stressed her to be more cautious of them.

"You think too much. Don't you?" Sanjay eyed her head to toe, making Marley shrunk under his gaze. He huffed. "No, they are not lying. If you are his mate, you must be feeling something... weird for him." He smiled as if remembering a pleasant memory. "When I first saw Oliver, I felt this strange pull toward him. And like a mature adult I am, I got scared of that feeling and decided to avoid him at all cost but that resilient bastard didn't back down and kept on nagging me."

"Just a week ago, you were glaring daggers at him. Now look at you, switching teams already. No pun intended." She mockingly glared at him to which he just laughed. Sanjay was right she felt that strange pull towards Eden too but she also felt intimidated by him.

"Mate or no mate I just like him. But being his mate assures me that he won't be leaving me. We are bonded for life." A smile was tugging at his lips. To Marley, he looked like a lovesick puppy but she decided against to comment on that.

"Doesn't that scare you? 'bonded for life' stuff. We are too young for that kind of thing." Marley frowned. It didn't sit well with her how at just eighteen she would be in a life time relationship, not to mention with someone like Eden.

"Nope. Oliver's nice. He is so cool."

"Seriously what he did to you in just a week."

"I am scared for you though." Sanjay said completely ignoring Marley's remark. "Eden's actually just too much for you to handle. He's a violent son of a bitch, he's loud and most importantly being alpha makes him a dominant asshole." Marley frowned but nodded anyways. He was right, she witnessed it firsthand.

"So nice of you to put in some good words for our alpha." A voice startled them both. They quickly whipped their heads to find Oliver standing behind, wearing a smug smile on his face. He had a backpack with him which Marley quickly recognized as hers. He stalked toward them and took a seat beside Sanjay.

"Forgot something." Oliver said, handing Marley her bag. Then he focused his attention on Sanjay and winked at him. To this action, Sanjay's face turned a bright shade of pink.

"What are you doing here?" Sanjay asked frowning. He was trying hard to look nonchalant while blushing profusely.

"I came to check on you guys and to return her bag." He replied, pointing at Marley. His lips again twitched into a smirk when he saw her. "Seriously, a pepper spray and a kitchen knife. That's the best you could come up with to fight us." His eyes were flickering with amusement. He was already liking his alpha's mate.

"It wasn't to fight you guys... It was just for self-protection." She mumbled.

Oliver let out a heartily chuckle which was soon followed by Sanjay. Marley wanted to be annoyed but their contagious laugh tricked her into smiling.

Later, Oliver ordered some snacks for himself and the rest of their meal was spent having normal chat about school. Like it was in her habit, she rarely let out more than few words but listened to both of them with full attention. She noticed the warmth, love, and fondness in Oliver's eyes everytime he looked at Sanjay. Anyone could easily point out that Sanjay meant the world to him. She was grateful that they didn't bring up any thing about Eden but seeing them like this only reminded her of him.

She was dropped back to her home by them. When she got comfortable on her couch, she checked her cell phone to find a few missed calls and text messages from Rachel and Kiara asking her why she wasn't at school. She decided against calling them back as it was still school hours. She responded to their texts coming up with the easiest lie: *I was sick.* Rest of her day was spent doing some assignments, studying and hyperventilating while thinking about Eden.

As per the tradition, her mother called later that night to check up on her only child. Marley's mother, Christine, knew her child like a back of her hand. She easily sensed the uneasiness in her daughter's voice. When she asked her about it, Marley replied with the same lie that she had told her friends.

Honestly, Marley wanted to spill out everything, from werewolf stuff to being mate with the one, to her mother but she knew she couldn't.

***********

Marley rushed out of her front door with a piece of almost burnt toast dangling from her mouth. She was running late because she slept in. She had to walk, more like run, to the school in this chilly morning because her cycle was still punctured. When she turned around after locking the door, her eyes widened seeing the familiar black audi and familiar figure leaning against it. Her toast almost dropped.

"What are you doing here?" It came out muffled due to the bread. The words slipped out of her mouth before she could register them. She was wary of him because of the last day's incident and her face didn't hide that.

"Giving you a ride to school. What does it look like?" Eden rolled his eyes but then his lips contoured into a smile. Her sight always brought joy to him. "You should finish that." He said pointing to her mouth. Marley became aware of her toast and quickly shoved it inside her mouth. Her cheeks became tainted with the shade of pink. Seeing that, Eden's smile turned into a smirk.

"You know I could walk. You really don't have to-"

"You coming or do I have to drag you inside." Eden cut her off, his playful expression quickly morphed into a serious one.

The size of Marley's ego wasn't that big but whatever that was present, it surely shrunk under Eden's terrifying gaze. She slowly made her way to the car and slid into the passenger seat. Eden followed and adjusted himself in driver's.

"We are really going to school right?" She asked shyly. Concluding from the past experiences, her rides with Eden never ended to her original destination.

"Yes," Eden replied mischievously with a smug smile. "But first we are going to make a stop at Starbucks." He thought of that as their first date and he was excited with the prospect of being with his mate.

"But we are going to be late."

"Who cares?" Eden shrugged.

Marley cared but she didn't voice her thought. She was still scared of him after the little incident that took place in the pack house. As if reading her mind Eden huffed and started his speech.

"Look Marley, I am sorry for the way I acted yesterday." He paused at looked at her beautiful surprised face. He knew she wasn't expecting that but it had to be let out. He did misbehave. "But one thing should be clear to you by now that you are my mate. And I don't want you to think about anyone other than me. I won't mind ripping out any guy's heart who so much as look at you in a more than friendly way. You are mine." He turned his head towards her and Marley could see his brown eyes turning gold. "Mine only." His last words were coated with possessiveness. He again focused his attention on the road as if he just didn't growl and threaten her.

Surely, his mother was a lot better than him in explaining mate stuff. Marley couldn't pinpoint if it was an apology or a threat. Maybe it was his weird way of apologizing. She still couldn't believe she was stuck with him but maybe it could be changed.

"Eden, couldn't you like pick anyone else to be your mate. I'm sure a lot of girls in our school would like to volunteer. There are so many beau-"

"No." She was cut off by Eden's growl. He took a breath and tried to calm himself. "You cannot change your mate." Even if he could he wouldn't want anyone else, he only wanted Marley. "There is only one and you are the one for me." His seethed with every word. He couldn't stand the idea of his mate wanting to be away from him.

She nodded hurriedly. So, there was no way out.

The rest of the ride was in awkward silence. Eden decided against going to the Starbucks as his mood was already sour. So, they made a direct stop at the school's parking.

As soon as Marley stepped out of the car, all eyes landed on her, making her fidget and sweat profusely. She knew the reason for all the attention was Eden. She stepped out of his car, turning wheels in everyone else's head but she could make it all go away by claiming this as a 'friendly ride'. At least, that's what she thought.

Before she could walk away, a muscular hand draped around her shoulders causing very known tingles. She looked over her shoulder at Eden who casually had his hand around her. Her face was turning red not only because of Eden's very close proximity but also anger. He was putting wrong ideas into everybody's head.

"What are you doing?" Marley managed to get her words out coherently. A hint of her bubbling anger seething into the tone. Eden rolled his eyes and started to walk, causing her to follow beside him because of his strong hold.

"Walking you to the class." He replied casually as if it was the most obvious thing.

"I am perfectly capable of walking myself to the class. Please get your hands off me, people will assume something is going on between us." She said while trying to wiggle out of his hold but failing miserably due to his supernatural strength.

"Sweetheart, that's the whole purpose of this. They should know that now you belong to me." He snorted. His hold tightening on her.

Her heart slightly fluttered at his nickname for her.

"But I am not your... girlfriend." Her voice turning into a whine.

"Being my mate simply equates to you being my girlfriend in human world. You are smart sweetheart, you should have figured it by now."

"Stop calling me sweetheart." Marley pouted. His sweet endearing was messing with her head.

Eden didn't miss her pout on her flushed face, making his eyes darken in lust. His sour mood was long forgotten, now he just wanted to ravish her lips at the exact moment but suppressed his lustful desires to do so. As fun as it was to play with her switches, he knew he had to tread carefully with this adorable human. But seeing her like this, gave him all more reason to continue calling her 'sweetheart'.

Marley caught Eden's intense gaze on her and she quickly whipped her head the other way to hide her face which was now probably redder than a tomato.

Eden just studied her adorable actions with a wide grin. He walked her to her locker and then to her class which he unfortunately didn't share with her.

When they stopped at the threshold, Eden bent down and gave her left cheek a kiss. A long passionate kiss, licking and wetting it in the process. He meant it to be quick but he got lost in her scent and the feathery soft skin that just demanded his whole attention. This was the first affectionate moment that he shared with her and he wanted to dwell in it for as long as he could. But he reminded himself to stop or he won't be able to resist the other-not-so innocent desires that his inner beast wanted to do with his mate, so he stopped reluctantly.

Eden looked at his mate who had her eyes closed and an adorable red face, which he seemed to couldn't get enough of. He heard her wild heartbeat, bringing a smug smile on his face because it gave away Marley's want for him.

It was just a kiss on the cheek but Marley couldn't keep herself from feeling all sorts of emotions that came with it. When she opened her eyes, she saw his brown eyes which looked at her like she was a whole world to him but she also noticed his arrogant smile. Her revelry was broken, when she realized that many pairs of eyes were on them. She quickly averted her eyes to look down and again turned into a fidgeting mess, after all, the whole class saw their intimate moment.

She looked at Eden who was now glaring at the whole class, mostly the male population. She knew he was trying to ward off any other guy that might come onto her, and claiming her as his. The whole ordeal seemed barbarous but it didn't offend her as much as she thought it would.

*It's official she's going crazy.*

Eden again turned to her and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek before winking and dashing off to his class with a smirk. Marley just remained there stunned for a moment then shook her head mentally and walked toward her seat. She didn't even want to acknowledge the prying eyes of other students or she might sweat away her life to nervousness.

"Well, that escalated quickly." Marley heard from beside. She looked at Sanjay who had an amusing smile on his face.