39. Her Responsibility

"You want me to ride you?" Marley asked.

"Consider yourself lucky. You're going to be the first one to do that," Eden replied, taking off his shirt and throwing at Marley, who barely caught it.

"Is it necessary? I mean can't we just walk to the cars?" She questioned.

When Eden started unbuttoning his shorts, she turned around and focused her eyes on the line of tall trees surrounding them.

The werewolf chuckled at her actions. "You do know that I won't mind you seeing me. I'm basically doing a striptease here for you." Before Marley could mutter 'shut up', he tossed his shorts which landed on her head, causing him to let out another wave of laughter. "And it's better if we run there in our wolf form. The cars are miles away, it'll take hours to reach there if we walk. So, stop whining and ready your cute little butt to put on me." With that, he began shifting.

Marley snatched the shorts from her head and huffed. It really took no time for her mate to get back to his annoyingly flirtatious self.

Eden had finally decided to spare the lycans, much to Marley's relief. However, he didn't trust those shifters to leave them on their own. Few pack's warriors, accompanied by Iosif and Kyle, had been decided to stay here and make sure to keep them in line until Eden was satisfied that they were no more a danger to their pack. Others were on their way to home.

Marley hadn't seen Theo since last night, but Eden had assured her that the human wasn't harmed. Theo was adamant on staying with his lycan friends, even though the wolves offered him a place in Marshville among humans. It was his decision and Marley respected it, but she was still worried about her new friend's well-being.

Everything was seeming to fall back to its place, but Marley dreaded that it was all just a momentary relief. The biggest danger still loomed over all of them, Dimitri. Plus, the fact that she was hiding something crucial from Eden was driving her to constant unsettled state. It just didn't feel right...

A small pat on her butt interrupted her dark chain of thoughts. She turned back and directed a glare at a big wolf. "You just love to be annoying. Don't you?" A faint hint of smile tugged at her lips.

In return, the wolf just licked her face, coating it with his slime.

"Eden!" She pushed herself away, spinning around and rubbing the sticky saliva off her face, but her escape was short-lived when she felt another pat on her back. "Stop it!" But Eden once again gently hit his snout on her bottom.

"Eden, stop-" After another hit, Marley was face to face with the rowdy wolf. "You big dog!" She reprimanded, but after a second of trying hard to remain serious, she erupted into giggles. She adored her mate's wolf form, even though sometimes it was too hyper for its own good.

After seeing Marley back to her lively self, Eden decided to stop his ministrations. He'd noted that how his mate had distant and gloomy glaze in her eyes, and given the circumstances that she had faced for past few days, it was understandable. But Eden was willing to do anything to make her forget about all the adversities that she had confronted here.

He sat down and motioned her to climb on his back.

"You're not going to drop me. Right?" Marley questioned, running her hand through the wolf's thick brown fur.

In reply, she heard a wolfish snort.

With tentative movements, she climbed on his back and shoved his garments between their bodies. "Don't let me fall." She gripped the werewolf's neck tightly, making sure to not to choke him, even though she knew she was highly incapable of doing that. Eden's Alpha wolf was really big and strong.

After standing up, the Alpha let out a loud howl, which enthralled Marley with its depth and sheer intensity.

"No need for the theatrics--woah!"

Suddenly, everything became blurry. All her eyes could make out were hazy green and brown colors as Eden dashed through the forest. A rush of adrenaline pumped through Marley when Eden swiveled around the trees, making her almost scream at the thought of crashing into them.

After a minute, Marley noticed large shadows following behind. She relaxed when she made out one of the figures as Callum's reddish wolf. It was their pack. Once again, these fascinating wolves left her wondering if she could be one of them.

Her heart sped up when Eden increased his pace. She was enjoying this ride more than she had intended to. It was way better than the horse ride that she had two years ago in Crestfield's equestrian facility with her parents... *Way better!*

*******

After a 30-minute run, the wolves reached the outskirts of the forest, where six jeeps had been parked. Marley was waiting inside one of the four-seaters, while Eden was shifting back behind one of the trees.

She glanced around and saw some of her pack's warriors strolling around their cars. Half of them had even set off for Marshville to avoid suspicions of common people. Seeing multiple cars running together in this rural town would definitely raise some eyebrows.

"So, you liked riding me?" Eden's face popped up on the driver's window, making Marley jump at his sudden appearance.

"Yeah, it was amazing," she replied ecstatically as Eden joined her inside.

Marley watched cautiously when Eden slowly leaned toward her. "If you enjoyed that, wait till you get to ride me in our bed," he whispered seductively into her ear and moved away to get a look of her face.

Instantly, the redness made its on Marley's face, even though she tried her hardest to not to blush. "You p-pervert! You just have to ruin everything with your dirty mind," she blurted, still trying to get rid of her flushed cheeks, but it was no use. Eden's words always evoked something inside her, even though they were downright crude and perverse.

Eden snickered, seeing her trying to hide his face. "I'm sorry. It has been too long since I've seen you blush this prettily. I just can't let that opportunity pass by."

Marley frowned, refusing to meet his eyes.

"Hey! Don't hide it from me," Eden said, holding her face and pulling it up tenderly to make her look at him.

"You're unbelievable," she mumbled, staring into his sparkling brown eyes.

"Uh-huh."

Unconsciously, they leaned toward each other until their lips connected. Eden's one hand held the back of her head, whereas the other one slipped down to grip her waist. Marley followed her mate's lead and clutched his right shoulder, digging her fingers into his tousled hair with the other free hand. Minutes went by but none of them was willing to stop.

"We-" Marley whispered between the kisses, "-should-" Eden pressed his lips against hers, "-stop."

"Hmm," he replied, continuing more intensely, having no intention to stop.

"Can you guys make it quick?" A familiar voice spoke, making Marley immediately pull away, whereas Eden just buried his face into the crook of her neck with a sigh. He mentally cursed his friends, they really had no qualms about invading his privacy.

Once again a pink hue of embarrassment coated Marley's cheek.

Callum grinned, poking his face from the backseat's window. "Believe me, I tried waiting for you two to finish up but you were showing no sign of stopping."

"What do you want?!" Eden grumbled, his face still lying on Marley's shoulder, and making her shudder when his breath hit her neck.

"Dude, you are my and Oliver's ride home." Callum pointed at Oliver who was standing on the other side of the jeep with an indifferent look. "By the way, you two were really going at-"

"Shut up and get in!" Eden interrupted irritatingly, finally letting go of his mate.

Callum with a goofy grin entered, followed by Oliver.

As Oliver buckled himself in his seat, Marley's eyes fell on his injured arm, which was covered with dried blood. It didn't look fatal, but for a human it could take days to heal.

"Oliver, your arm doesn't look good," Marley said, turning behind. "You should apply something on it." A part of her felt guilty seeing his wound.

"It's going to heal by the time we reach Marshville. Don't worry," Oliver replied nonchalantly.

"It will heal faster if you take care of it. The first aid box is in the back." Eden commanded, looking at him from the rearview mirror and starting the engine.

"It's not even been a half-day since you two met, and you both are already ganging up on me." Oliver rolled his eyes but didn't argue further and followed his Alpha's order. Callum decided to be useful and helped his friend with the webbing.

As their jeep sped on the town roads, the guys started chatting about random stuff. Marley occasionally tuned them in and out, too exhausted to actively participate in their irregular chit-chat.

"So, what are we going to do about Iosif's brother? Are we really planning on taking him down?" Callum's words immediately grasped Marley's attention. The whole atmosphere inside suddenly turned serious.

"I don't want to talk about it right now," Alpha replied, his eyes not wavering from the road ahead, but Marley made out the slight creases appearing on his forehead.

"We have to discuss this soon. Those vampires attacked here, it's not going to take them much longer to reach Marshville." Oliver responded, staring back at Eden through the mirror. Odis's place was only an eight-hour drive away from their territory. If Dimitri wanted, his army could attack their home right now.

"I know!" Eden exclaimed frustratedly. The threat of the army of other paranormal creatures was keeping him on edge. "I have been talking with Shawn and Thea about the situation. We've all agreed to aid each other, if this all comes to war."

"What about humans? Aren't the authorities going to do anything? These knights are more dangerous to them." Marley finally indulged in their talk. She held on to the last shred of hope that her pack wouldn't get entangled with the deranged knight.

"It's better if humans don't get involve," Callum answered. "All they are going to do is show up with their guns and grenades, causing more damage than needed. Also, it will attract attention, and that is the last thing we want."

"Plus, no offense Marley, we don't trust humans. They can switch teams anytime." Oliver added.

"Let's not talk about it right now," Eden said sternly, silencing everybody.

He didn't want to worry Marley, she had her enough share of witnessing their world's cruelty. He wished he could've shielded her from it all. He wanted to provide her a happy and safe life, but his every plan to make that happen went down the moment the lycans abducted her away.

The werewolf world had been in peace for more than a century. Had Eden known that this peace was soon going to be disturbed, he would've never introduced Marley to it.

But what's done is done. Now, all he was determined to do was protect his pack and his mate. *And hope this all ends soon.*

Marley watched Eden's tightened grip on steering wheels. After spending four months dealing with him, she knew what went through his head. The fool didn't want to worry her. If it was up to him, he'd lock her away inside the safest closet and wait until the whole storm had passed.

Iosif's words rang in her mind, *he'll rather die than knowingly put you in the same room with my homicidal brother*.

Eden really would choose to endanger his and his pack's life rather than being practical and using Marley to gain upper hand on Dimitri. She knew he considered her his responsibility.

But it worked both ways and Marley was adamant on protecting him and her pack too. After all, Eden was her responsibility as much as she was his.

*******