Check-Mate

10. Marked

Chain Pov

I walk into the common area between my and Warm's room. I can see my little Smiley, sparling over a bunch of books on the huge study table.

Have I told you before that Smiley is a bookworm? If I haven't, I am telling you now. I think that Smiley can survive days without food and water but not without a book in his hand.

I, on the other hand, hate books. It is really fascinating how both of us get along so well.

"Warm, come join me for a round," I say as I plop on the bean bag with the game controller of the PlayStation.

Warm isn't responding to me. All his attention is on the book in his hand from which he is jotting something down to his notebook.

"Smiley, please na..." I try acting cute.

Still no response

"Smiley..."

I get up from the bean bag and scoot into the space between his back and the backrest of the chair on which he is sitting. I hug him from behind and kiss his neck.

Don't think of it as something dirty, alright? I love kissing him on his neck. He is kind of sensitive over there. It is a habit you know.

This habit was the reason why Mom thought that I might be an alpha when he turned out to be an omega. I had this protective and possessive nature towards Warm that our parents wondered if I would end up being his mate.

Unlike humans, we werewolves mate with our cousins as well. It is not a big deal. 

"In, stop it. I am busy" He tries to shrug me off.

"I am sorry na. Please stop being mad at me." I rest my chin on his shoulder, peeking at the book that he was reading.

I will tell you the truth. I don't understand a word of it. It is written in Prakrit or something. Normally sorceress books are written in Prakrit and a bit of Sanskrit maybe. Or is it Pali? I understand none of them.

Oh, by the way Warm is a sorceress. A powerful one at that. 

"In, don't disturb me. I have a lot of work to do" he is starting to get irritated.

"I really didn't mean to ditch you na. It just happened." I try to get his attention again.

Warm takes a deep breath and puts down his pen. "So, where did you go on a trip to? and with whom? I called every single person that can be considered your friend and all of them said that they didn't know where you were."

"What trip are you talking about?" I am seriously confused now. Even Dad was talking about me going on some trip earlier.  

"The one you ditched me for."

I can't help but frown. "I didn't ditch you for any trip. I just got stuck because my heat was irregular again."

"What?" Warm jumps up in surprise "Then why did you send me that voice message saying that you are on a spontaneous trip with your friends?"

"I sent a voice message?" Wow, that is news to me. I am not really a fan of voice messages. 

Warm takes out his phone and shows me our chat. 

Seriously I am shocked to hear my voice coming from the messages. The text was exactly written in my style, but I have no memory of sending such texts. Moreover, I would have never lied to Warm on this matter. I have no reason to hide that I was heat, do I?

"I swear, I didn't send these" I hand back the phone to him.

Warm looks equally confused as me. "Who were you with these four days? You weren't alone, right?"

I really don't know if it would be a good idea to tell him about the enigma. "Em... I..."

"Was it some alpha you hooked up with because of your heat?" Warm knows my habits. When heat comes, I would rather hook up with someone that have those suppressants.

"I-It was not an alpha" I stutter lightly.

Warm had inherited Mom's aura. He is really scary while he is angry, and I know from his tone that he is. He is kind of conservative you know. He doesn't really support me in the whole 'hookup' thing.

"Then? Who was it? A beta? A human?" Warms seems to be pretty sure that the person who sent the text was the person who was with me back then. I can't think of any other possibility as well.

"Neither" I fiddle with the hem of my tee "It was an enigma" I say softly.

"It was a who?" His face is filled with horror.

"Warm, I~"

"Are you alright, In? Did he hurt you?" Warm starts examining me in concern. I know that he is really scared of enigmas. 

"I am fine, Smiley. I just spent my heat with him. Don't worry, he didn't knot me or anything." The worst thing about these hookups were pregnancy. If the stranger you are sleeping with during heat knots you, you might end up getting pregnant.

It is a shit deal. But as long as you are careful, you can prevent getting knotted.

Warm is still not assured. He is examining me. He suddenly freezes as his gaze land on my neck.

I can feel his cold fingers gliding through my collar bone. His already large eyes grow larger in size.

"What happened, Warm?" I ask seeing the odd reaction.

"You let the enigma mark you?" Warm looks at me in disbelief.

"What!?" I touch my collarbone where my scent gland is located "He marked me?"

I get off the chair and rush to the mirror. I can see the light mating mark on my neck. It is very faint and can be barely seen when looking closer.

"You didn't know that he marked you?" Warm walks up to me.

"No!" I exclaim in frustration. "Why would I ever let an enigma mark me?"

Being marked means that I can't be involved with anyone else other than the werewolf that marked me. Enigmas can't be marked because they have to have multiple partners.

That means it's a one-way traffic and he can be with anyone he wants, and I am stuck with him.

I try to rub off the mark in my neck. I hope it vanishes.

"Stop doing that. There is no use" Warm catch my hand that was rubbing the collar bone furiously. 

I slump to the bed in tears "What should I do, Warm?"

There is no thing as unmarking as far as I know. We werewolves aren't like humans who can end their relationship with a breakup or a divorce. Once we get marked, it is for the lifetime.

"I don't know either, In" Warms frowns. His eyes light up and he runs to the books and starts flipping through its pages. 

"What are you doing?" I ask him. "What are these books?"

"These books are the ones that I found in the library about enigmas" He replies while searching through the books.

"Why would you suddenly look at the topic of enigmas?" 

Warm had been going through these books ever since he came back, and I know for sure that his sudden interest in enigmas isn't because of me.

"I met an enigma on the bus that I took back home from Bangkok and he..." Warm suddenly pauses as if realizing something.