Hidden Essence Book I - The Bloody Moon

Chapter XXII

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I wake up as the sun shines into my eyes. Stupid sun with its ability to burn my freaking corneas. I blink multiple times as I slowly open my eyes. Where the hell am I? I want to turn around, but something strong holds me locked. Someone. I look down at my waist and see two rather hairy and muscular arms wrapped around me. What in the world? Oh my, I'm half naked! What am I doing in some random dude's arms whilst being half naked! I very carefully try to wriggle myself out of there, but when I do so the arms tighten their grip on me and he pulls me closer to him. I can feel his face bury itself in the crook of my neck. Oh gosh, who is this? The weird part about this all is not that I don't know who the hell is holding me, but I am actually enjoying being held by this stranger. I am sick, I'm a hundred percent sure of it. The person subconsciously takes a whiff of my scent and makes me curl my toes. Oh my... What was that? I've felt that before. Come on, sense, come back to me. I know you can do it. I'm kind of scared of going through all my thoughts to find the answer to this temporary mystery though. I don't want to come across any bad memories. In fact I don't even know if I'm going to be able to come across any good memories. I wriggle around, careful not to wake him up and I eventually end up twisting around and facing his asleep self. 

It's him. That one realisation brings back all the events from the day before. Michael's attempt at kissing me, the surprise attack, Adelaide's death, his bite, the nightmares, the redness, blood and all that could scare the living daylights out of me. My body cringes at my now clogged up brain as I remember all the things I couldn't make sense of a small second ago. I look at his peaceful face as it sleeps and notice that it starts to frown a little. Oh no, I woke him up. His eyes blink open and when I meet the unexpected yellow color, mine widen. Why are they not the dull blue that has no effect on me? Why do they have to be the 'I'm ruling over you'-yellow? Every time... I'm still in his arms though. This is awkward. I remove my gaze from his eyes and try to focus on anything, and I mean anything else even though I feel his gaze burn into my skin like a laser. "What's wrong?" His raspy voice asks and I blush at the fact that I find it sexy. Oh god, this is not going well. I repeat, this is not going well. "Nothing. I just... need to go to the... uhh, bathroom." I lie, still not looking at him. I hear him chuckle and the sound resonates into my ears like tweeting birds. Stop that, Sage. Why is he even laughing? "You're a horrible liar." He states and I turn my face back to his. He has an amused look on. Why is he so casual about this? Like there's nothing weird about the fact that I'm laying in a bed with him, all cuddled up, not to forget that I am only wearing bra and panties. "Okay fine, you want the truth. I have no idea how I ended up here, with you, in a bed, half naked. I remember half of what happened yesterday and it's the not the 'I have good news'-part, but the complete opposite of it. And now you're just lying here, acting all normal, laughing, like nothing happened." I raise my voice a little as I try to push him away, but he is indeed very strong. I trained for months for no damn reason, I'm still so freaking weak. "Sage, I'm trying to give you a little break from all the negative crap, that's why I'm not bringing anything up. I don't want to upset you more than you already are." He tries to calm me down and it works a little, just a little bit. I breathe in deeply. "I... I don't need your help, okay? I'm fine on my own." I say not entirely convinced of my own words as I untangle his arms from my waist, this time he allowed me to. I sit up on the bed and look down at him. He has a puppy dog face on, at least that's what his eyes make him look like. It's so cute. Ew, no. It's not, it's horrid, it makes me hurl. Yeah, that's what it does. I feel the nerves stack up in the back of my neck, but I try my best to ignore them. "What?" He asks out of the blue. Oh boy, I was staring at him all this time. He better not think that meant anything. Maybe it did, but he doesn't need to know. "Nothing. I was just... thinking about... stuff." Wow, I sound so pathetic. I actually want to laugh at myself right now, how ridiculous do I sound. His muscular arms push his upper body up so his face meets mine. Too close. I scoot a little bit away from him as the heat builds itself up underneath my skin. "Sage..." He sighs with a tone that says 'Stop trying to lie to me'. His eyes gaze into mine and probably decipher every thought I have. "How do you always know..." I groan as I focus my eyes on the window. The sun is shining through in such a beautiful way, it makes me want to pack everything and head over to a hot summer beach. "Well..." He starts and I turn my eyes back to his. "I can feel it. Here." He places his warm hand on my chest where my heart lies. When skin touches skin I quiver a little because of the amazing sensation it gives me. It's a mixture of happiness and desire. Wait, happiness? I feel my cheeks heaten as my heart beats a little out of rhythm. He always does this to me, this weird thing where I can't seem to be able to control myself. He's my mate, okay, that's fine, but that doesn't mean anything. Mates are meant to be together, but it doesn't mean that they were meant to live a happy life. My eyes seem to be locked with his gold yellow ones though.