Marked Mate

4

SCARLETT

I struggled to sleep after Roman's confession of his semi-arranged marriage, spending the majority of the rest of the night staring up at the ceiling, longing for my brain to just shut itself off.

It wasn't until around six in the morning that I fell asleep, only to be awoken around twenty minutes later by Roman, fully dressed and showered. "Scarlett. I need to go to work."

I furrowed my brows at him. He was going to work? I had fully expected him to refuse to leave me alone. Did this mean I was going to have the perfect opportunity to escape?

It wouldn't work, though. I had no idea if there was anything around here, and I didn't want to head further into the forest or near another pack's land.

There also seemed to be a lot of rogues around that were set on terrorising innocent passer-by's, so I needed to know where I was heading before leaving. I had to find the nearest city. It was safer there - being so busy that nobody paid any mind to anybody. It was easy to lose people, too.

"Do you feel well enough to come?" Roman questioned me, cupping my cheek. "If you don't, that's fine. I can work from home, but it's a large centre with lots of things to do. There's multiple rooms for you to nap in if you want, as well as a library and a games room."

My ears perked up. A library? Libraries had maps. Perfect.

I nodded, pulling myself from the bed. "I'll come. I'm interested to see where you work."

This made Roman beam as he took a step closer to me and held onto my waist lightly, his fingers feeling like magic on my skin. I took a second to admire him, feeling no shame about it since he had admitted to me that he noticed when I did it. He looked like he was carved from the Gods. I didn't compare to him one bit.

"I've got Erica waiting to join you if you don't feel like napping," Roman told me while I made my way into the bathroom.

"Who's that?" I asked. I didn't need to be babysat.

"She's my brother's mate. I think you'll get along well."

I nodded. I had always wanted a friend, but Pearl had insisted I kept people at arm's length in case they discovered what I was. I did hang out with a few people that I knew sometimes, not telling Pearl in fear that she would ground me. It was stupid and reckless, but I had been a lonely child who just wanted someone to call a friend.

But I had a feeling that somebody had seen my mark, and that was the reason why the Enclave clan had shown up. Technically, my stupidity had got Pearl killed. It was my fault.

I spent the whole shower rubbing at my temples, the excess emotions I had inside of my head causing me physical pain. I needed to off-load.

I met Roman downstairs, still dressed in his clothing, having rolled up the bottoms of his jogging pants so they didn't drag along the floor.

"We'll get you some of your own clothes," Roman chuckled. "Although I do love you wearing mine."

There really was no need to buy me any, but I agreed. I usually just stole clothes or thrifted. There was no point buying anything expensive when I was just going to shift and rip them.

The walk to the centre was quick, and I felt a little self conscious once I caught a few people looking my way. I reeked of Roman, having slept in his bed all night and from wearing his clothes. If Roman was as closed off to women as he said he was, then it was pretty obvious to anyone that passed us that I was his mate. I just hoped none of them looked too hard.

A tall blonde woman was waiting by the front door of the large centre, the building like nothing I had ever seen before. It appeared to have at least five floors and was incredibly modern.