48. A Weak Human

"Eden, can you let go?"

"Nah."

Marley giggled when Eden tickled her waist, his mouth at the same time dropping kisses on her neck. She was sitting between his legs on the bed, their legs comfortably sprawled out. After the heavy make out session, they still couldn't get enough, and were clinging on to each other to make up for all the lost affection of the last 24 hours.

"We need to-ahh!" Marley whimpered as she felt a sweet stinging sensation on the curve of her neck. Her eyes closed themselves, and her body relaxed itself into the man's hold sitting behind her. "What are you doing?" The heaviness in her voice telling her mate 'don't stop what ever you're doing'.

"You know exactly what I'm doing. The last mark is almost gone, and we need to make sure that people know who you belong to, don't we?" Eden murmured, his hot breath hitting Marley's vulnerable spot, making her hum in contentment. Once again he bit her soft flesh, causing the most sensual moan slip past through her lips. "You like it, huh?" He teased.

Before the human could reply, he tugged at her skin with his teeth, turning her incoherent words into a shy mewl. Eden kept on sucking and biting her, showing no sign to stop until he was satisfied. Not that Marley minded. Her small and suppressed moans challenging the wolf to keep ravishing her till she let go of her restraint and cry out aloud in pleasure.

A few seconds later, Alpha finally accomplished that. Unaltered and pure sounds of pleasure flowed out of her mouth and mixed with Eden's own heavy grunts. Marley's right hand reached out to grip his burly upper arm, needing to just hold onto something, meanwhile her neck tilted in submission, giving more access to her mate.

His lips, his tongue, his canines, his breath... everything was so heavenly. So blissful.

After plucking on her skin for another countless minutes, Eden finally let go, and ended it with a small kiss on her neck and lips. Marley rested her head on his shoulder, trying to recover from her flushed state. Her red face and long gasps showing that she was far from it.

"Can I do that everyday?" Eden asked between heavy breaths, sounding innocent.

Marley looked over her shoulder, and found his eyes watching her with something that was far from innocent. Unable to come up with any witty reply--as her mind was already in haywire--she chose to bury her face into his warm chest. Eden happily complied, and wrapped his arms around her.

"Can I?" He pressed, his thumb drawing soothing circle on her back.

"You're going to ruin my neck," Marley replied, her face still refusing to let go of him.

"It doesn't always have to be your neck. I can do that with your wrists, your shoulders, your b-" He stopped abruptly. When no words came out of him, Marley shyly peeked at him through her eyelashes.

"My?" She asked, already expecting something vulgar. She had no idea why she was even asking...

Eden's lips twisted into a wicked smirk. "Your back," he completed.

"Oh." Her voice came out a little disappointed. She wanted him to say something else.

He chuckled at her adorable reaction. "If you've anything else in your mind, tell me. We can make it work," he cooed teasingly.

Marley groaned, the shade of pink returning to her cheeks. She unlatched herself from the evil wolf, but his arms remained looped around her waist. "You enjoy that, don't you? Purposely saying things that make my head all mushy, then twisting it all around just to leave me on the edge." She asked looking into his mischief-filled eyes, a small smile tugging at her own lips.

"I like to believe that it's our thing."

"One of these days I'm going to get back at you." She challenged light-heartedly.

"I can't wait for that day."

Marley gently removed his hands from her, and pulled herself up to sit cross-legged and be face-to-face with him. Her lips falling into a serious frown. "Eden, I really am sorry. I didn't know my words would hurt you that much," she said sincerely, remembering the painful look on his face in the car when she had agreed to better off with being another guy. It wasn't the truth. There was only one guy/werewolf she was better off with.

"I know you didn't mean that." Eden smiled. "And it was me who brought that up. But-" He bit back his words.

"But what?"

"It's nothing."

Marley's brows knitted as she watched his distressed face. "It's something. Come on, say it."

The werewolf sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get away. "I feel maybe it really would've been better if you were with someone else, someone human."

She threw a light glare at him, and shook her head unbelievingly. "When I was not sure about us, you were right on my heels to make sure that I don't get away. And also punched the guy who you just suspected of liking me." She huffed. "Now that I've learned to deal with your crazy, possessive and jealous self, you suddenly decide to turn into a saint and don't want me."

Eden frowned at the accusation. "I'll always want you. It's just-"

"You don't want me in all this mess with the lycans and the knights." She completed knowingly.

The werewolf nodded. "You've already faced too much just because of me."

Marley reached out to hold the sulking face of her wolf. "It wasn't because of you." Her thumbs stroked his smooth shaven cheeks. "Sometimes things happen just because they're meant to happen. Let's say I wasn't mated to you then what's the guarantee that I'd not be a part of this all. Theo didn't have any link with the knights, him and his people weren't aware of their existence, yet they all became the victim of Dimitri's devious act.

"Eden, even if I wasn't with you, there'd still be many other dangers out there for me." Her mind dwelled on the fact that she was more part of this imminent war than her mate knew, but refused to indulge in that. "Let's not think about things that aren't possible. And I like it this way. I became a part of this mysterious hidden world, which no normal human knows about. And most of all, I get to be with this crazy wolf who has a knack for teasing me."

Eden leaned down to give a peck on her lips. "I just want to shield you from everything bad."

"I want to protect you too."

He chuckled at her words, finding them cute.

Marley glowered at him. "You think that I can't protect you, I can't fight for you?" *Please say no...*

The human was ready to spill out everything to her werewolf: her resemblance to Dimitri's dead mate, the two knights' proposition, and their plan to take him down. She desperately wanted to confide in Eden like he did in her, and let it all out. There was this need to free herself from the burden of hiding something so crucial from her mate.

All she wanted from him was to tell her that he believed in her, that she was strong.

"Come on baby, we both know that you can't really fight off those knights, because you're..."

"Weak." She filled the blank, once again deciding to bury her secret. "Would things be different if I were a werewolf like you?"

Eden exhaled a sigh. "Let's not think about things that aren't possible." He repeated her words.

All Marley could do was nod, even though his words hurt her. But she couldn't bring herself to be angry at him, especially when she knew where he was coming from.

********

After spending some more time with Eden, Marley returned to her room. Whenever they were together, hours flew away like minutes. The sun was beginning to set, which was the time for the werewolves to go for a run headed by their Alpha. So the couple had to reluctantly part ways.

As she was walking toward the drawers, her eyes fell on the mirror. She gasped when she saw her neck. It was covered in every size of red-blue angry marks. Marley moved closer to analyze her appearance, and cursed Eden. *Damn this wolf!* Now she knew that why back at his room whenever his eyes moved down to her neck, they glinted with smugness.

She did expect a few hickeys, but this was taking it to a whole new level.

*But you enjoyed every second of it,* her conscience poked, and Marley groaned at herself. It was going to be a tedious task to hide them, and there was a high chance that nothing would work.

She was about to pick up her comb to set her hair when she found a note lying next to it.

*Meet me at the yard.*
-Kyle

After reading the note, Marley tore it and tossed the pieces in the dustbin. It was better than risking the paper to fall into other hands. After making sure that Eden was gone outside with others, did she left her room.

Marley reached the backyard only to find that no one was there. This part of the territory was usually isolated, because the yard only led into the shallow part of the woods, which wasn't according to wolves' preferences. Very rarely some children played here, but right now not a soul was present.

Was she late or Kyle was just joking? She wondered.

Waiting for around 15 minutes, she was ready to leave when no one came. The evening was turning dark, and it was better to be inside before Eden returned, rather than coming up with some absurd lie to tell him for her absence. As Marley took a step in the direction of house, a sound of crunching leaves halted her.

"Leaving already."

She turned back to see a smiling Kyle, standing a few feet from her. "Were you here all this time?" She asked, sounding annoyed.

"I needed to make sure that no one followed you," Kyle answered.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Just some things."

"Kyle, come to the point. I need to get back before Eden returns."

"Looks like someone is afraid of their Alpha mate." Kyle smirked when Marley glared at him. "Well, I'd be too if he bit like that." His lips stretched further as he saw the girl blushing and trying to cover her neck with hair.

"If you're-"

"I'm here to discuss about Dimitri's next move." Kyle interrupted, finally turning serious. "With the way everything seems so calm between you and your mate, I guess you haven't told Eden anything."

Marley nodded. "I haven't."

"Good." He turned around, and walked to the line of trees behind the pack house. Marley followed, knowing that the shade of trees would hide them, if someone else decided to wander around.

Kyle leaned against a tree before speaking. "Did Eden tell you about the situation back at the mansion? That lycans might go wild on the packs."

"Yes, he did." Even though Eden didn't want to worry her, he spilled it all out. Marley made him because she knew that sharing things with her would take away some of his burden, and might give him some new insight.

"So I can expect that you convinced him of the right choice, the one where no killing is involved."

"He doesn't need me to convince him of doing right. He's the Alpha, he'll always do what's right for his pack and for others."

Kyle grinned in amusement, watching her with some sort of admiration. "What about you? Aren't you an Alpha?"

Marley looked at him in confusion.

"You're the mate of a male alpha, which makes you the pack's female alpha." He explained. "I guess you don't have much knowledge about the actual pack of wolves."

"Werewolves work different than animal wolves. And anyway, I'm human and weak, I can't be Alpha female." Marley looked at Kyle with urgency. "What are you trying to get at?"

"Nothing." The knight sighed. "I was just trying to boost your confidence because I've one important decision for you to make too. If I think about it, Eden has pretty clear options: kill or don't kill." Kyle's eyes softened. "But yours are going to be much more complex, there's death on both sides."

"What are you saying?"

By the time he finished, Marley looked exhausted. Exhausted of always facing these dangerous dilemmas. After listening to him, all she wanted to do was run out of here just to find some peace. But it seemed so far when the lives of others were hanging on her one decision.

Kyle patted her shoulder to comfort her, but it was useless. "Go inside, Eden must be coming back."

Marley silently obeyed, and headed back to the pack house. She had taken only a couple of steps when Kyle called out, making her look back.

The knight gave an encouraging smile. "Remember Marley, you might be a human, but you're not weak. You're the Alpha."

********