Mixed Blood (Wattys2015)

Chapter 9- Leaving Rose

Kara watched as the agitated crowd slowly dispersed, the villagers kept looking back as if the werewolves were going to make an attack at any moment. Some of the werewolves helped the young lad walk back to the camp.

It was a strange feeling for Kara, standing there in the middle of all the commotion holding a knife to a man's neck, feeling so much anger. She found the knife lying on a patch of exposed ground that had been melted away by the heat of her magic and stared at it for a moment. 

She was too distracted to notice that most of the people around her had left when she heard Marko say, "I am so sorry" she noted the strain in his voice. Kara turned to see him exiting her home with her bag and sword in hand. Well it was not her home, but it was where she lived, not anymore though.

He set the bag and sword down a few feet away and looked at her, she was visibly shaking, the low temperature crawling into her bones as the heat of adrenalin and her magic left her body. Now she just felt vulnerable, lost, angry and very damn cold.

Kara looked at Marko trying to hide her messy feelings behind a small smile. "There is nothing to be sorry about... this all just escalated to quickly."

"But I do owe you an apology, I left for only a minute to check on Yenive, knowing you were finally resting. And then I felt your panic." He stepped towards her "I should have been here"

She looked at him stupefied, was he seriously blaming himself for all of this? She neared him reaching up to touch his cheek enjoying the warmth of his prickly skin against her cold hand "either you are a wonderful, caring man or a hopeless idiot who thinks he is responsible for everyone around him."

"I am responsible for you," he said looking at her with soft eyes. She could just get lost in them all day long.

"You are hopeless and I am fine."

He pulled her to his body wrapping his arms around her. "No your not, your shaken, cold... and still angry."

"I...I am not mad at you" she said trying to ease some of the tension she felt coming from him. She let one of her hands play with the hem of his dark green shirt, he changed his shirt; her fingers lightly brushed the skin of his chest as she did so. "These villagers simply make my blood boil with their recalcitrant attitudes. I just cannot understand them." She paused letting her hand rest lightly on his chest, feeling the steady beat of his strong heart. "Perhaps I am not meant to understand... perhaps I am not meant to understand you either."

He frowned at her, perplexed by her words "I am not that hard to understand."

She rose a brow at him "Of course you would not think so, you live inside your head. But I just cannot comprehend why you would want me as a mate, I am dangerous" he opened his mouth to protest but she stopped him "Face it I am, I let my anger control my magic. I held a knife to a man's neck, a really hot knife." she clarified " And do not tell me he deserved it. As violent as these people acted, they only did it out of fear and prejudice. It did not give me the right."

He hugged her tighter to his body; being close to her was helping to calm his still agitated wolf. Hopefully he could do the same for her restless mind "You will get better at controlling it, you are not alone in this."

"Thank you" Kara said enjoying the cedar wood aroma that clung to his persona.  It was nice to hear him say that she was not alone given that most of her life had been spent in a state of loneliness. Growing up, as an orphan was hard, especially when you suddenly opened your eyes to find yourself in a completely different land. Literally.  The night her parents died, that fateful moonless night, her father tossed her his sword, The Legacy.  The moment her small hand touched its cool handle she was transported to a land far away. Kara had found herself alone in a world that constantly tried to be reed of her.