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"If you touch me again I'm going to-" "Shut your cheeky mouth!" he cut me off, but before he could grab me he was yanked back from Damien. The black-haired man punched the creep without a break until his face was no longer visible from the blood. Damien's expression was that of a predator about to tear its prey apart, regardless of anything else. "Stop, you're going to kill him!" I yanked at his arm, but he pushed me away so hard that I flew sideways and landed hard on the ground.

I looked up at him numbly, tears blurring my vision, but I could just make out the blond grabbing his best friend from behind to pull him away from the half-dead man. "Calm down!" he yelled at him again and again, while Damien tried to free himself with all means intoxicated.

It was a while before he finally stopped struggling and his wistful gaze fell on me, still sitting on my hands on the forest floor, feeling like I was about to faint. Aiden released him carefully, ready to stop him at any time, and then walked past him to the bloodied guy, who was only wheezing faintly.

Damien slowly walked towards me, his eyes on my body. Apparently he couldn't look me in the face, which must have been too horrible a sight for him to be covered in blood. He carefully squatted down in front of me and looked ashamed at my torn pants. "I'm so sorry," he breathed and carefully took me in his arms to carry me towards the castle.

My thoughts were frozen as I clung to his shoulder with the last of my strength. The taste of the creep's tongue kept coming into my mouth, the feel of his hands on my skin, and I tearfully pressed my cheek against his warm, quivering chest, hoping to forget what had just happened.

Aiden walked briskly beside us, holding the hand of Camilla, who I was sure had gone into psychosis, still staring into space.

I closed my eyes sadly and didn't open them again until we got to our room. There he carefully lowered me onto the bed and left me alone for a moment to disappear into the bathroom. I stared at the open door in panic, feeling like I couldn't survive without his presence and was about to jump up when I heard the water lapping and his footsteps coming back.

Too upset to say anything, I watched him silently as he stripped off his bloodied clothes and then stood in front of me in just a pair of black boxer shorts. My gaze fell on his brown eyes as if paralyzed as he approached and helped me to my feet, also slowly and carefully freeing myself from the blood-soaked clothes until I was completely naked in front of him. In spite of all the confusion inside me, I still noticed very clearly that he just looked me in the eye the whole time. He didn't allow a glimpse of my body.

He gently took my hand and led me into the bathroom, which I saw for the first time at that moment. It didn't have a normal bathtub, but one big enough for four people to sit in it. Another thing I noticed was that he had put so much foam in the water that I could hide my body from him if I wanted to.

The thought of him doing this especially for me sent a warm feeling through my body that forced me to hug him tightly. I clung to his strong chest and dug my fingernails into his back so hard that I caught a little twitch from him. But he endured it, ignoring the pain to be there for me and caringly placed his hands on the bare skin of my back. A few minutes passed, in which only our even breathing and the splashing of the running water could be heard. Both had a pleasantly calming effect on me, so I slowly released my tight hug to spare him further pain.

He didn't say anything, just looked at the nearly full tub and walked over to turn off the water. I felt naked, yet comfortable. It was like showing myself to him like this and opening up to him was the most normal thing in the world.

Lost in thought, I felt his hand helping me to get into the tub and didn't let go even when he sat down next to me. I tilted my head back, closed my eyes and let the water do its job. Damien used a sponge to gently wipe away the dirt that was too difficult for the water alone to remove. "Thanks," I whispered so softly it was barely audible, but he took it. "Don't thank me," he breathed. I opened my eyes to look at him confused. I couldn't understand why he, as my hero, looked down wistfully and looked so broken.

I sympathetically took his chin, looked deep into his brown eyes and tried to make him feel good. "Oh yes, thank you," I began. "Because if it wasn't for you, Calvin would have taken my life that night."

A week had passed since the incident, during which I got to know Damien from a side I didn't even think existed. He was sensitive, didn't push me in any way, and he even hung my painting by the window in our room.

I hadn't seen the creep since that day. All I knew was that he survived. I didn't care about the rest, I only wished him bad things.

Camilla got her own room in the castle and was allowed to develop freely here, while Aiden and Damien spent a lot of time with Nero, except for the evening hours, which belonged only to the two of us.

"What have you been up to today?" he asked me curiously as he sat down next to me on the stairs. Here I sat every evening, waiting for him and watching the sun disappear over the horizon and give way to night. It was good for me to sit here every evening and take a deep breath of the fresh air. "I've been out here most of the day. What did you guys talk about today?" My gaze fell on him sitting next to me, watching the few people still milling about the yard. I don't usually ask him about their meetings very often, but for the past two days he's seemed more thoughtful than usual. "There are a few humans that cause trouble for a pack in the East. But that doesn't concern us. Nero will be dating their Alpha discuss and arrange everything else."

A half-hearted smile tugged at his lips as he looked over at me and stroked my still bad looking nose. "Shall we go up?" I would have loved to stay here, but I wanted to be with him, so I nodded in agreement and ran ahead to our room.

"I have to go away tomorrow and it might be a few days before I get back," he informed me unexpectedly while taking off his jacket and looking at himself in the mirror. I sat down on the edge of the bed and suddenly felt such pain in my heart that I didn't know if I was about to drop dead.

I didn't like the idea of being without him, even if it was only for a few days, and even less that I cared so much. I never wanted to be dependent on a man, but somehow I always managed to play this role in my relationships. Without his closeness I would feel bad, even if I didn't want to admit it to him, but that's the way it was and I couldn't defend myself against it anymore. He was too there for me this week for that, so I could push him away from me now.

As I turned to him, looking at him with concern, his eyes widened and he quickly came towards me, crouched in front of me and looked up at me so sweetly that my heart melted. "I promise I'll bring you something nice, then you can look forward to something." He smiled and kissed my hand gently. "Best of all, a new nose," I joked. Laughing, he stood up and looked at me lovingly until he bent down. "I would never change anything about you. You are perfect," he breathed lovingly in my ear, then watched my cheeks turn a soft pink color.

"But I have to ask something of you before I leave." His gaze changed. I could see that he was uncomfortable, but I had no idea what it was about. I awaited his explanation curiously, watching as he nervously ran a hand through his hair and turned his back on me as if he couldn't meet my eyes. "I would like to ask you to tag yourself. What happened wouldn't have happened with a tag.", he said decisively while slowly moving towards the open window and staring out into the night.

My gaze fell into the mirror, which presented my sight to me. I wasn't the same as a few weeks ago. I could see and feel that. I was finally able to build some trust with a man, put the pain aside and just go with the flow. Life suddenly took on color, and where before it had all been pitch black, I now saw multicolored lights framing his beautiful face.

Without taking my eyes off the mirror, I felt exactly that he had turned around and was staring at me. "At least you chose the words wiser this time." I turned to him and smiled shyly. With that I tried to cover up my insecurity, as if he didn't already notice how nervous I was. My heart was beating a beat faster since his question, he had already noticed that with a high degree of certainty. My eyes fell on my fingers, which were resting on my lap and which I was nervously fidgeting with.

"You don't need to be afraid. It won't hurt." He came towards me again and stopped right in front of me. I didn't look up at him, but kept my eyes on my hands, which were starting to tremble. Not because of his presence, but because of the idea that he wouldn't be with me for a few days, withdrawing his nearness and taking with him the feeling of security that had made me sleep so reassuringly the last few days.

"What is there to think about for so long?!", Saphir snapped at me, but I skilfully ignored her. She was a part of me, but this was my choice entirely. It would be my feelings, my body, my mind that would all go haywire after his bite, not hers. But no matter how much a small part of me still resisted and longed for true love, it was right. Marking the prince would stop the disgusting creatures from putting me in such a position again. In addition, I wouldn't feel so alone with his smell on my body.

"Okay. Let's do it." I tried to lighten the mood and got up to be at eye level with him, but I probably didn't need a stool for that. Only now, when I looked at his face, did I notice how he was beaming from ear to ear. He looked less like a soon-to-be king and more like a little boy whose greatest wish had just been granted.

"Ready?"

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"Yes."