The Atham Manor (Slow Updates)

Marks and Meetings

I don't remember how I got into bed, but when I woke up, I noticed nothing but empty blackness. I could feel my familiar sheets, always crisp and clean against my back, and luckily, I could tell I was wearing jeans still. You never know with Linus.

The second thing I noticed was that Calvin wasn't on my other side. There was an unmistakable warmness on my left, which only could mean Warren was here. The third thing I noticed was linked to the fact that Warren was indeed present, in fact, his glowing blue eyes were staring at me like a freak.

Naturally, I screamed.

He blinked at me, face probably contorted into confusion as I reached over and flipped the light switch on my lamp. I turned and saw his expression was unfazed. "Why'd you scream?"

"Why're you watching me sleep like that?"

"I... I don't sleep? At least not usually." He looked at me questioningly as if this was common knowledge. I rolled my eyes, sitting up and rubbing my face.

"What time is it?"

"Two,"

I glanced at the empty spot to my right. "Where's Cal?"

"Away," Warren answered stiffly, and when I shot him a look he said, "He took a trip to personally deliver a few invitations for this Saturday."

"That explains why he isn't here." I hummed and got off the bed to change into a large tee shirt as inconspicuously as I could. When I turned back, Warren's eyes were narrowed. "What's wrong?"

Warren sighed through his nose, "Everything."

I tilted my head, "What do you mean?"

"Simple," Warren sat up easily, giving me a look I couldn't decipher. "I want you. But I don't want anyone else to be with you."

"Warren-"

"Let me finish," He commanded, and my mouth shut. "But I agreed to this... for you. But then you let Henry mark you, the same person who scared the shit out of you and treated you horribly for so long, but not me. And every time you and I are alone, you're thinking about someone else. I'm starting to wonder what the point is."

"Well, you hurt me too." Immediately I regretted opening my mouth. Warren's face tightened and he stood up to face the door. I bit my lip, internally cringing and the room became pin-drop quiet.

He had a right to feel as he did. I should've known he was feeling this way. I wouldn't want to share him, but I'm asking him to, with people he doesn't really like and one being his own blood brother. He wasn't even wrong about anything. Even now I was feeling a pulsing desire for Henry and Calvin.

"As for the Henry thing," I started, trying to arrange my next words correctly. "I can't explain why I feel about him like I do. He's annoying, and a jerk, but I'm... fond of that jerk. But you're right about what I'm thinking about, and how Henry treated me. You're right. I've been treating you badly all this time. I'm sorry," I wrung my hands nervously when Warren didn't turn around.

"Warren, I think about you all the time. I really do," I walked over and wrapped my arms around him, burying my face between his shoulder blades. "And I want you to mark me, but I don't like the way it makes me act around Henry, and I already can't hold back around you anyways, let alone if you mark me."

Warren sighed.

I squeezed my arms tighter around his torso, "I... I'm scared."

I don't know if it was my admittance or my voice crack or both, but in a blink of an eye, I was sitting on the bed, and he was kneeling in front of me with a soft look.