The Bond

23

After Sebastian leaves I quickly get up and run to the bathroom to examine the damages. The huge bite mark that I expected to be on the side of my neck is gone, leaving behind a tender piece of red skin in its place.

I wipe away the blood with a wet hot rag but that only reveals a patch of purpling skin. A bruise. Great.

Sniffling, I exit the bathroom and walk back into the living room where I curl up on the couch with my knitted blanket. Tears slide down my cheeks until there's a wet spot on the front of my shirt. I hear thee door open but I don't ask who it is, mainly because it's probably just Vanessa and also because I'm afraid Sebastian might have returned for another round of apology, an apology I might not accept.

"Lia?" I hear Vanessa say, causing me to release the tension in my body.

"Yeah." I mumble, taking my head out of the blanket.

"Why are you still gloomy? Didn't you and Sebastian kiss and make up?" She asks, scowling at my appearance.

"No! He bit me instead."

"WHAT?" Vanessa yells in alarm, she's by my side in seconds as she examines the bruise on the side of my neck.

"Awe crap! That jackass marked you! You see this is why you should have let me kill him."

"Why? What does it mean? Is it bad? Am I gonna die? Will it affect the baby? W-"

"Shut up would ya? I'm trying to think. Why the hell would he mark you? I mean obviously you didn't consent to it. And judging by your questions you have no idea what this even means. Which takes me back to my original question... Why did he mark you?" Vanessa says to herself as se paces back and forth in front of me.

"I don't know, " I answer her. "We were arguing and then I said that there wouldn't be an us anymore and he got mad. Kept saying I was his. Then he bit me." I say.

"Wait," Vanessa stops. "You told him that you guys wouldn't be together anymore?" Vanessa asks incredulously.

"Yeah." I mumble. "I didn't mean it, I was just mad and I wanted to hurt him so I... I don't know, it just came out."

"Well no wonder he bit you." Vanessa says with an eye roll.

"What do you mean by that? What possible reason could he have for biting me?"

"Sweetie," Vanessa says with a head shake and a pity smile. "You don't tell a werewolf that's madly in love with you that you guys can't be together. Especially when you're carrying his child. It just makes them all crazy and then their wolves take over and basically makes them act on animal instinct. Just like in the human world where you don't mess with a woman's child, you don't mess with a werewolf's mate. It's basically suicide, unless you know what you're doing but even then you should be extremely cautious and probably sleep with one eye open. Or both."

"So he bit me because he couldn't handle being rejected?" I exclaim as I stand up from the couch.

"Oh trust me, if you had rejected him, both of you wouldn't be able to handle it."

"What does that even mean? What does this bite mean? You can't just bite someone like that! Even animals have some kind of reasoning, no matter how horrific."

"Well of course there's a meaning. The bite means that Sebastian marked you as his mate."

"His what?"

"It's the equivalent to a husband or wife in the human world. Mate is basically the short version of soulmate. Once you mate with someone, it's forever and always. Unless you reject them, but that's a whole 'nother subject."