46

G E O R G I E

✿

Not a second later he picked me up.

"By all the moons, what are you doing?" I gasped, wrapping my arms around his neck.

Beau ignored me and stalked out of the store through the green smoke, undeterred. The door slammed shut behind him as he stepped out onto the night streets of Minkaujin and headed for the hillside on which the royal palace was enthroned.

I looked up at Beau, adrenaline still pumping through my veins. "I can walk myself, you know?"

He neither looked at me nor spoke to me. Instead, he quickened his pace and hugged me tighter.

My broken bones felt instantly, and a soft moan escaped my lips before I could stop it.

He stopped his fast pace and stared down at me. His dark green wolf eyes shimmered darkly. For a moment he looked like he was about to reply, but then he seemed to have made up his mind, clenching his jaw and climbing the stairs to the palace. Fast and without getting out of breath.

I laid my head on his chest, listening to his heart beating wildly, and slowly calmed down. Blackblood. was that me A blackblood? According to the bullet, I definitely owned a part of it. But what did that mean?

Did something else slumber in me than a she-wolf?

Did I perhaps not have any real healing powers?

And what does all this have to do with Beau's curse?

So many questions I didn't know how to answer. So many questions buzzing through my head that I couldn't stop.

The royal palace doors opened and we stepped into the entrance hall.

"Beau, put me down," I whispered, then squirmed in his grip. It was one thing to be carried across town by him, but it was quite another when it came to the king's castle. Before Reyna.

To my surprise, I didn't have to argue long and Beau let me get on my feet. Well, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, do you? So I took Beau's hand and we crossed the hall.

"Thank Gaia, you're well on Georgie! Where have you been?” Rowtag asked worriedly as we caught up with him and Arrow in front of the grand staircase.

"Um... I stopped by a little shop," I admitted hesitantly, avoiding looking at Arrow. Oh dear, he would never forgive me for that.

"A little detour?" Rowtag sighed loudly. “Don't think for a second that we weren't looking for you. If it hadn't been for Beau, Arrow and I would have come at once."

I gave him a small smile as I stepped closer to Beau to feel his warmth on my skin. Everything tingled. "It's okay. Beau was there.” I squeezed his hand and then kissed his upper arm when he still ignored me. He immediately tensed up and let go of my hand.

What on earth? I looked at him confused. What was wrong with him?

"You're right, everything went well again, didn't it Beau?" Rowtag said with a slightly nervous undertone.

Beau didn't say anything, just curled his lips in a serene smile like his world was full of sunshine and rainbows.

Rowtag's shoulders sagged in relief. “Boah, luckily you see it that way too! I almost wet my pants thinking you'd-"

Beau's hard punch caught Rowtag square in the face and knocked him off his feet. Beau threw himself at Arrow, baring his teeth, and wrestled him to the ground.

"Beau, stop it!" I started to stop him when someone roughly pulled me away.

"Leave him, Georgie," Arya admonished me. She wore her dark hair, some of which was braided into small pigtails, loose and her brown eyes looked at me intently.

How? That's the least I expected of Arya. I crossed my arms and nodded my chin at Beau, who was just beating Arrow blue and green. "How come? Don't you see what he's doing?'

She grabbed my chin and made me turn away from the fight. “Let him protect you, he needs that. Now more than ever. Besides, Beau won't hurt them, we're a pack.” She let go of my chin. "Now go and wipe the blood off your face before he goes completely insane."

"Oh!" I wiped my face hastily, startled by the red blood on my hand. Damn! Beau must have flipped at the sight. I nodded quickly. "Understood."

"Good. Now go ahead, I'll hold him off for a few more seconds."

I stormed up the stairs to our room that we had been allocated. Thanks to the king's validity, we were allotted a spacious bedroom. The round four-poster bed was in the center of the room and the curtains, which concealed access to the large balcony, blew in the nightly breeze over the beige rice-straw carpet.

As soon as I saw myself in the mirror of the adjoining bathroom, I knew what Arya had meant. There was a laceration above my eyebrow, my cheekbone was discolored bluish. My blouse was torn, dry blood stuck to the torn pieces of fabric and scratch marks ran across my exposed upper arm and on my neck. All superficial wounds had healed, but the blood had dried and clung to my skin.

I dipped my hands in the pool of water in front of me and wiped my face, scrubbing the blood away with rough movements. I managed to dry myself off with a fresh, white cotton towel before the door was thrown open. Then he was already standing in the door frame and the mate tape flashed between us.

I guess I never quite understood how much Beau had always kept quiet. How much he put his wolf on a leash and never let him take precedence. Because now, in this very second, as he stood in front of me, he seemed more threatening and dominant than ever before.

His skin stretched over his knuckles, the veins on his arms stood out, and then that look. Blazing green, its flames flickering in a luminous inferno. He stood there, legs apart and still. Just looked at me like he was waiting for my next reaction.

It wasn't easy to face his piercing stare and his inner growl nearly erupted when I didn't back down.

"Aren't you coming to my place?" I asked him quietly, putting the used cloth my hands were clenching around in the bamboo basket next to me.

His gaze wandered to the shower behind me and back to me.

"You want to take a shower?" My voice shook and I swallowed. "Okay." Then I pushed open the glass shower stall and looked at him expectantly. I was insecure and didn't know how to deal with such an angry dominant wolf. "Aren't you coming in with me?"

Suddenly he was in front of me, picked me up and carried me into the shower. The wooden panels beneath my feet soaked my socks as Beau lowered me and I stood beside the streaming waterfall that erupted from a crack in the aquamarine mosaic stone wall and spilled onto the wooden floorboards. Then he grabbed my armpits and placed me directly under the beam.

"Hey!" I gasped and snorted the water out of my mouth that I'd accidentally swallowed. I was instantly soaked and my clothes clung to me like a second layer of skin. "A little advance warning would have been nice."

Still silent, he lifted my head and gently wiped the laceration. His fingers trailed down to my cheekbone, caressing it gently as if just his touch could recall the bruise. His gaze slid to the claw marks on my neck, just above the mark, and his hands trembled as he touched me there as well.

Everything inside me tightened as I saw the vulnerability on his face. I put my hands on his cheeks, stroking his stubble and biting my lip to hold back the tears. "Okay, it's okay."

I wanted to pull his head down towards me, but he refused. His lips were pressed together in a hard line and I heard his teeth grind as he pushed me out of the stream of water, now shielding me from the water with his shoulders. I couldn't read the emotion in his eyes. Was it anger? Or irritation?

"Hey, I'm fine. Everything okay. Come here.” I reassured him, not taking my eyes off of him for a second. I had been so afraid for him, so terribly afraid. I still felt the pain of the ripping mate band in my chest and it seemed like a miracle to see it in front of me. Lively. Real.

Beau's hands slid down to my collarbone, stroking the healed injury on my arm as his wolf eyes darkened.

"Come to me," I said quietly and the first tears were already falling from my eyes. My hands gripped his hair, but he stayed where he was.

I couldn't anymore. I sobbed and started crying. "I saw you die... your blood... it was everywhere..." I was shaking, my hands clutching his shirt desperately. "On my face, on my hands... Oh God!" my voice cracked and sobs shook my body. I pressed myself against him, burying my face in his chest and wishing I could crawl into him. I wanted to slip into him, make myself at home and never leave him again. I didn't care about the flare of pain in my ribs. "You were dead - you..."

His strong arms wrapped themselves tightly around me, holding me tight while nothing was holding me together anymore. I cried more than I had cried since my parents died.

“Tell me you're here. Tell me you're real.” I despaired when he didn't say anything, just hugged me silently. I leaned back and looked up at him, digging my nails through his shirt into his skin. Tears flowed down my cheeks. 'You mustn't die, do you hear? You mustn't leave me!"

A deep growl vibrated in his chest, then he grabbed my waist and bit my mark. It came so quickly and surprisingly that it took me by surprise. Without foreplay, rough and hard, his teeth sank into my skin. His body pressed against me and I felt the heat transfer to me and go right between my legs. "Beau!" I gasped, wrapping my arms around his neck as I flexed relentlessly to meet him.

He said nothing, but his action literally screamed the words out of him. I am here. You belong to Me.

Then his hands fingered the bottom of my pink blouse, slipping it over my head and I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain. He threw the blouse aside over the edge of the cabin and was about to put my undershirt on me as well when I cried out softly.

He froze. "Where?" he blurted out, in a tone so deep and so wolfish that I almost didn't understand him.

"My ribs are broken," I whispered. "Maybe my collarbone too."

He growled so loud my hairs stood on end. Then he grabbed my hands and placed them on my ribs. He commanded rudely, "Heal yourself!"

"Beau, I don't have the strength to-"

"Yes," he ground out through clenched teeth, sending so much of his mental energy down the line at the same time that it made me dizzy. "Hail!" he repeated harshly.

He was shaking all over, barely able to control himself. Not daring to marginalize him any further, I embraced his strength. My hands glowed and I felt the small, faint pull I was using to heal myself. It took me longer, draining more of Beau's power than a stronger healer werewolf would have needed, but at least the fractures healed and Beau calmed down enough to choke out, "Good?"

I nodded, teary-eyed, realizing what I had done. "More than good," I replied. Oh moon goddess, I had hurt him. Hurt so badly that my strong, proud werewolf could hardly speak. My hand went to his cheek and I stroked him gently, stretched up and kissed him on the mouth. "Forgive me."

He let me kiss him for a while without taking the lead or even kissing me back. He kept his hands to himself, not touching me, while keeping his eyes open every second, looking me in and out with glowing green eyes.

Then, when he seemed to have had enough, he pulled off my wet undershirt, then unbuttoned my jeans and pulled them down along with my panties. His hands were hot and felt wonderful. I wanted her on my bare skin until I was just wax. I imagined them caressing me between my legs, making me moan like last night. My blood boiled with desire.

Oh moons, I was hot! Was that normal? Could one die of desire and lust? Could you feel so much?

Then he also undressed and threw the wet clothes out of the cabin.