38. Half-truths

Marley tapped her fingers on the wooden table impatiently, as she stood waiting for Eden to walk in through the door. She was in the same room where only a night ago she had learned her reasons for being abducted by Odis. A lot had happened since then, which Marley didn't even want to think about, but to her at least one good thing came out of it. Eden. Eden was finally here.

The door opened and Eden barged in, his eyes immediately finding Marley. Not even a second later, they were in each other's embrace.

"Did they hurt you? Did they do anything to you?" Eden questioned, his chest heaving with barely suppressed anger. He wanted to rip out the heart of every last monster who had dared to hurt his Marley.

Marley shook her head wanting to pacify him immediately. "No, they didn't," she answered and looked into his blazing eyes. "They didn't." She repeated firmly and enveloped him tightly. Her actions not only calmed Eden but also herself. They both needed it.

Eden buried his nose into her hair, breathing in her scent, which he had longed for last few days.

They stood like that, none of them taking the initiative to pull away.

"Thank you for not showing up naked," Marley muttered, trying to lighten the atmosphere as she could still hear his heart thumping violently.

A small smile tugged up at Eden's lips, who was in a plain grey t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. "Our cars are just on the outskirts of the town. You should've seen Matthew's angry wolf face when I asked him to fetch my clothes. Although I believe it would've been a nice present for you to bask in my naked glory yet I prefer it in our bedroom... or bathroom."

"I can't believe I missed this." Marley mumbled with a small sniffle, referring to his obscene talks, and pressed herself more (if it was possible) into Eden's warmth, making him in return tighten his hold around her.

"I'm sorry." Eden's words took Marley by surprise. She pulled away slightly and looked at him. His eyes were puffy and red with unshed tears. "I'm sorry, I should've been more responsible."

"It's not your fault Eden."

"No, it is. You're my mate, my responsibility. I wasn't careful and handed you to that bastard. You are here because of my negligence-"

"Stop it! It wasn't your fault. I don't blame you, so you better stop blaming yourself."

"I thought I was never going to see you again," he confessed. Finally, a solitary tear trickled down his cheek and Marley's heart clenched seeing him like this. "It was horrible, not knowing in which conditions you were. Not knowing if you were safe. Not knowing if someone hurt you."

"I'm okay. Nothing happened to me," she reassured, and when Eden ran his thumb gently on her cheeks she realized she had been crying all this time too.

Once again anger flared up inside Eden. "They'll pay for messing with us. I'm going to kill every one of these fucking bastards!"

"No, you're not."

Eden looked at his mate incredulously. "Why the fuck are you taking their sides?!" He yelled harshly, but Marley knew that his harshness wasn't directed at her.

"Eden, they were being controlled by their leader. His name was Odis and he ordered the attack on our pack." Eden's grip tightened around Marley on hearing Odis's name. "You know, how your pack cannot resist your alpha tone, similarly these lycans couldn't go against Odis... But now he's dead. He was killed last night."

"Killed? How?"

"The lycans were attacked by an army of vampires..." Marley rambled on about the battle that took place last night. Eden listened to her every word in a dangerously calm demeanor.

"I thought I was the rash and stupid one, but you successfully outdid me Marley." Eden concluded when Marley finished her monologue. She could detect the anger lying beneath his sarcastic tone. "Why the fuck would you put your life at risk and fight a goddamn knight to save a lycan, who was one of your abductors?!"

"Don't put it that way. Jared helped me out here. He didn't deserve to die."

"Every one of these fuckers deserves to die!.. and you are a goddamn fool to put yourself into danger for them!" He was seething at the thought of his mate being so close to losing her life.

"Calm down." She rested her forehead on his chest, taking in his musky aura. "Nothing happened. I'm alive, with all my limbs intact."

Eden didn't retort and focused on following Marley's advice, which seemed a pretty hard task to achieve, given that his mind couldn't stop thinking about all the dangers that his mate had been in. The raging wolf inside him wanted to kill them all.

He connected his lips with hers, and the delectable spark flooded inside him, melting away his hostility. Marley too kissed him back with the same vigour, knowing that this simple act would soothe him... and it did.

A knock on the door pulled both of them out of their daze. Matthew peeped his head inside and casted a small glance at Marley. "You okay?" He asked, concerned about her. Everybody missed their Alpha's mate.

Marley replied with a nod and a small smile.

Matthew then turned to Eden, who looked irritated at being disturbed. "Sorry to interrupt your little reunion but that century old vampire is getting quite violent," he complained.

"Are you holding Iosif and Kyle captive?" Marley questioned, her face mirroring her panic.

Matthew nodded gingerly.

"Let them go! If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be standing here right now."

Matthew looked at his Alpha, asking him what to do. He was confused as what those traitorous knights could have done to save Marley's life. The werewolf hated them since the last night when they disappeared on him and Jessica.

Eden nodded, further raising his friend's perplexity. "Those vampires did earn some humongous points for saving her." He huffed, giving his mate a defeated look.

******

"You knew that I had Matthew and Jessica tracking you both," Eden stated, "is that the reason you decided to bolt?"

"No," Iosif answered, looking boldly into the young Alpha's eyes. "My instincts told me that something was wrong, and it was an act of impulse to save your wolves from walking into the death trap."

"Bullshit!" Matthew spat from the other corner of the room.

Seeing her mate losing his temper, Jessica tangled her hands with his. However, she too was enraged.

Marley, Oliver, and Kyle--the only other people present in the room--chose to watch the whole exchange in silence. Although Kyle wanted to bite back the angry wolf and rile him up more yet he kept his mouth shut. He had been previously scolded multiple times by Iosif and Eden. It was taking a lot of self-control.

"Your instincts?" Eden raised his brows, signaling him that he didn't believe the knight.

"Yes." Iosif looked unbothered. "You're an Alpha. You must know that sometimes how powerful your inner intuition can be. Wasn't it the same way you knew about Kyle and I entering into your territory?... Same was the case for me."

Eden pursed his lips. He knew Iosif was right. He shook his head irritatingly and sighed. "You two better not be playing some game." The Alpha warned the knights.

"I assure you we are not."

Marley's eyes slightly narrowed at Iosif's reply. She too hoped they weren't.

"Lycans are claiming that they don't know why Odis took Marley, even if some of them who know are keeping their mouth shut." Eden's eyes darkened. "I have other ways to make them open their mouths, but someone isn't approving of those ways." He threw a weak glare at Marley, who shrunk under his gaze.

"I won't approve of them either," Kyle chimed in, receiving the look from everyone else in the room saying 'shut up'.

"You're his old friend," Eden continued, turning back to Iosif. "You must know the reason."

"Your mate doesn't know?" Iosif questioned, looking sharply at Marley. A barely noticeable smirk played on his lips. *So, Marley did decide to listen to him.*

Marley evaded her eyes and tried to suppress her escalated heartbeat. Lying to these werewolves wasn't easy, and she was already a bad liar.

"When I met Odis last year, he was looking for an alpha female to turn her into a lycan and breed with her. He wanted pureblood offsprings." Iosif explained. "There's a chance that he might have wanted your mate to accomplish that, but turning a human is fatal. Like I claimed before, Odis never hurt innocents, so he could've given up on the thought."

Eden was fuming, his fists tightened, turning his knuckles white. Even the thought of some other man touching his mate was overwhelming.

"If he wasn't planning on turning Marley then why he still kept her?" Asked Jessica, looking suspiciously at Iosif.

"Who knows? Maybe, he didn't know how to take Marley back without dealing with you wolves, who first aim to kill rather than talk." Answered Kyle bitterly, giving Jessica an annoyed look.

"He already had his hands full, fighting my brother." Iosif added.

Marley listened in silence as the knights spun the tale of half-truths, leaving the most crucial detail out. The one detail which said that she was a lookalike of Dimitri's mate and a weapon to take down that deranged knight. She discreetly glowered at Iosif, warning him that even a slightest suspicious act from their part, and she would blurt out the whole truth to Eden.

In return, Iosif just smiled, assuring her that he wasn't playing her.

******