24. Mates, part 4.
SASHA’S NEVER SEEN SO MANY BOOKS BEFORE
The weather is great today and Sasha feels her wolf plead to be let out to run free. But what would happen if she did it? A snowflake falls from the sky and lands on her nose, melting on her skin. Sasha smiles. She doesn’t have much to do. After Mary left with Margaret, she thought she could spend her time cleaning, but the whole place is impeccably clean.
Behind her, sitting on the couch, her mate is reading a book. She wants to talk, but he has been so rude that Sasha is afraid to even look in his direction.
Just breathe. What’s the worst that can happen? She miles forcibly. She can no longer stand the heavy silence in the room. With hesitant steps, the young woman gets up from her chair and walks to the sofa; she sits next to her mate and inhales his scent. He smells like herbs.
Occisor notices she’s restless, but just turns another page in his book. It’s not like he’s paying attention to it, he’s not reading anything, he just doesn’t want to have any kind of interaction with the girl.
The sound of her restless feet tapping on the floor irritates him slightly, causing him to lose patience, a quality he doesn’t have to begin with. Damn it. He closes the book.
“Say what you want to say and stop making noise!” he growls, but the girl just smiles. She managed to get his attention.
“What are you reading?”
“A novel.”Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.
“Do you like to read novels?”
“No, I took it just to pass the time, it’s my sister’s.”
“Ah, I see. I learned how to read, but I can’t read difficult words. In my whole life I’ve only read one book that was given to me by Guila.”
*I don’t need to know that, that’s not…”
“I always wanted to know how to write, whenever I was in my den I dreamed that one day I would write a book. And it would be a novel, just like the book Guila gave me.”
“I don’t care.”
Sasha ignores him again and keeps talking.
“The book was about the moon goddess, her story. She loved a human man, and it said he was very handsome. I dare to say…. That you look a lot like him. The only difference is that he had brown skin and you have fair skin.”
“Wow, this information will change my life, thank you very much,” he mocks with a cynical smile.
“Too bad your personality isn’t like his. He was king, I’m sure he was kind.”
“Apparently you don’t know about the other face of this “kind” king.”
“Either way, the goddess fell in love, and it sure was with a good man!”
“Who mistreated his destined male,” he rolls his eyes.
“Don’t say things you don’t know, do not tarnish the image of the goddess’s genuine love, she…”
Occisor gives up, gets up from the couch and holds her hand. She shuts up when she feels his touch on her skin. He begins to walk, forcing her to get up from the couch. He takes her to the room where the mission files are located.
“Where are we?”
“On the ground floor of the base. Behind that door.”
He lets go of her hand. She immediately misses the contact. He opens the library door that for Occisor it’s not that heavy, but for humans is almost impossible to open alone.
He enters the room first and she follows behind. Her eyes widen when she sees shelves and more shelves filled with books.
“That’s beautiful,” Sasha says softly and her legs move by themselves approaching the first shelf.
She breathes deeply, pleased. With her index finger, she touches the first book. Her hands itch to pick it up and be able to venture into the words written on it. What will be the story behind the cover? Is it a novel? Or something else she’s never seen? Her mind fills with curiosity, but the fear of being punished for taking something without permission makes her lower her hand and her head, sad.
Occisor feels her sudden change of feelings and doesn’t understand.
“Here you will find a lot of books. Especially on this shelf,” he walks to the left side of the room and she follows him with her gaze. “They are all related to lycanthropism, including the story of the goddess and how later all the males Lycan’s were punished by her.”
“Oh… I didn’t know about that. What happened?”
Occisor looks at her and feels something stir in his chest when he sees her eyes shining like that. He looks away.
“Read it and you’ll know. Below there are books about the other races as well. Vampires, witches… Anyway, I’m not a teacher. If you want, you can take the books and read them.”
“Thank you so much!”
The joy she feels and her smile are contagious to him and Occisor finds himself almost smiling. Her mood swings affect him, even against his will. He didn’t particularly care or wanted to see her happy, but he also didn’t wanted to see her sad or miserable because then he would feel it too. It’s annoying. But he didn’t think that the sign of so many books would make her smile like that.
“I want to start with this book. It was the first one I touched. After that, I’ll pick one from this shelf,” she says, still smiling.
She lifts her gaze to look at him and thank him again, but he’s no longer there. Her smile soon dies. For a brief moment she thought things between them were getting better.
Sighing, she walks up to the armchair, sits and starts to read.
Hours fly by without her realizing it. The book is a novel about a romance between a vampire and a human, and with each chapter she finds herself even more excited. When she finished the book, her stomach growled and she could see through the library window that the sky had already gone dark.
Putting the book back in its place, she leaves the room and climbs the stairs, entering the second floor. The smell makes her mouth salivate. With shy steps, she walks to the kitchen and finds Occisor sitting at the table. With only his plate.
Occisor sees her and expects her to say something, but nothing comes out. How annoying, he thinks angrily and then takes the initiative.
“The plates are over there. The meat is on the stove.”
“Alright.”
She walks and picks a plate. On the stove are three large pieces of meat. Her mouth fills with water, she has never eaten this type of meat, but the smell is making her want to howl at the moon in thanks.
“How many should I…”
“I divided them in half, they’re all yours,” he says with his mouth full.
“Thank you,” she picks up the pieces of meat.
She takes a deep breath inhaling the delicious smell once more and walks to the table, sitting next to Occisor. She bites the first piece of meat that melts in her mouth and groans in pleasure, Occisor does his best to pretend like he didn’t hear anything.
“You also know how to prepare it very well…”
“Just eat it.”
“I was just complimenting you. Thank you so much for the meal.”
“Don’t flatter me, just eat.” Occisor snorts impatiently and eats faster. In less than ten minutes, he finishes his meal, gets up from the table, places his plate in the sink and leaves the kitchen, going to the bathroom to clean his teeth and take a shower.
A few minutes later, Sasha also finishes her meal and the feeling of a full belly is so wonderful that it makes her sigh dreamily. She washes the plates they used and also the pot where Occisor sautéed the meat with garlic and onion.
After drying her hands, she goes to the bathroom to take a shower and brush her teeth with the toothbrush Mary gave her. She wraps herself in the towel and goes to the bedroom she shares with Occisor. She forgot to pick up her nightgown.
Upon entering the bedroom, she sees Occisor already lying on the bed. On his stomach. Naked. But the fact that he’s lying on his stomach helps. She thinks that at least he’s not seeing her only in a towel.
Poor girl. He is seeing her perfectly; when she removes the towel, her body totally exposed, the marks on her back leave Occisor surprised.
That was not a fight, he thinks and lifts his gaze to her neck, which also has a scar from corner to corner. This was definitely done by a silver-coated iron collar. How did she get it?
His mind wonders, but he still refuses to have any kind of relationship with her. So knowing about her past was none of his business. Trying to convince himself of that, he turned his head and stared at the wall.
A few seconds later, the mattress sinks with her weight as she lays down. After several minutes, they both fall asleep.