Chapter 3

Iris’ POV 

He is close to me now, so close that I feel the tension sizzling in the air. His words make no sense. I know what shifting means because I have read about it before. But as fiction. This…It can’t be.

“My body does not call out to yours,” I say calmly, even if no part of my inside is calm. Darian’s presence fills every bit of me. So dark. So alluring.

His gaze lingers on that spot in my neck again, but this time, he allows his fingers to graze it slowly. When I touch it, I feel pain, but when Darian does, the feeling is different, like I am floating and can trust him to catch me if anything goes wrong.

My eyes flutter close as a lone finger traces the edge of the mark, as my body quivers under his touch, aching for more. 

"Your lips say one thing," he whispers, his warm breath shooting straight into my ears. "But your body says another. What more proof do you want?"

I pull myself away from his arms, even though every inch of me wants to return to them. Instead, I walk over to the window, pressing myself against the glass to keep my feet from crossing to the other side of the room, where he stands, watching me with an unreadable expression. 

“You’ve had a harsh night. You should rest more. I’ll leave you to it.”

“I don’t want to rest,” I shoot back. “I need to understand. If you’re a Lycan, then this mark…you bit me?”

“I marked you,” he asserts. 

“What?”

“It was an accident.”

 “Oh! Wow! What an explanation. So, what? Your teeth slipped and fell on my skin?”

The unreadable expression on his face is gone in a second. Instead, staring back at me is a mask of steel. "Don't push it, Iris," he warns coldly. "You called for me. You were in pain. I had to do something. You should be thankful you're not dead."

“I never asked for any of this. All I wanted was a nice anniversary dinner with my boyfriend. But now, I am marked by some Lycan, which is the most confusing shit I have heard in all twenty-two years of my life. And you don't even say sorry. Instead, you…"

“I don’t do apologies…” he interrupts.

I am on the other side of the room before I realize the reason I pressed myself against the glass in the first place. "Then what do you do, Darian?  Mark accidentally? Hide girls up in your house?" 

That’s all it takes for him to snap, for that cold wall to fall apart, revealing the fierceness within. Before I can blink, he’s standing in front of me, breathing the same air. 

"Do not think I am harmless, Iris." His voice is reduced to a purr. A scary one. "You just got introduced to my world. You have no idea who I am, what I am holding back."

His words should send me out of this room. Instead, I find myself inching closer. I hate how much I want him right now. 

"What are you holding back?" I whisper, fitting myself perfectly into his frame. It feels like something else has taken over, like I am having an out-of-body experience. "Show me."

The mark on my neck burns as Darian cups the side of my face. He brings his thumb to my bottom lip, just as he leans in. I can feel his breath hovering above my mouth. 

“Darian…”

His other hand ensnares my waist, leaving me with nowhere else to go. Yet, I don’t feel trapped. A tiny whimper fall from my lips. It feels natural, like an extension of my body.

Darian's eyes darken as he moves impossibly closer, and just then…

Bang! Bang!

He pushes away from me abruptly, his entire body going rigid just as my hand flies to the mark, shielding it away from view. 

The door pushes open, and another familiar face walks in. Darian’s brother. Zeus. They have almost the same reputation. 

"You sent for me," he murmurs, barely moving his lips, an amused expression dancing in his eyes. "Although I don't think you need me right now, considering…"

“Shut up, and send for her best friend. Ask the soldiers to see them out of the haven.”

And without a second glance in my direction, Darian walks out of the room. Zeus doesn't give me the attention of the day, too, stalking off after his older brother, and leaving me in the silence.

Huffing, I plop onto one of the stylish couches, burying my head in my hands. I am still trying to wrap my head around everything that has happened in the last twelve hours when the door pushes open again. 

My heart picks up when I think it is Darian, but Daisy's voice follows a second later. 

"Oh my God!" she squeals, even though it comes out as a whisper. "I can't believe I just saw Zeus McAlister in flesh. The moon goddess sure took her time making him, because that is one fine specimen. But that's by the way. Iris, what the hell are you doing in the Lycans’ Haven?”

I have gotten so used to the quiet in this place that Daisy's arrival in all her rainbow colors burns my ears out. 

I stare at her blankly. I only got to know that this place was called that less than an hour ago.

“Did you know that only those personally invited by the Lycan family get to see these walls?" she continues in her excited tone. "I have never even been in here before. No one at the school has. Yet, on the first day you shift, you magically find yourself here! Girl!"

"That is not all." I allow my hand to fall from the mark on my neck, and this time, Daisy screams for real. 

“What in the name of twilight is this?”

“Darian said he marked me. Accidentally.”

“Of course, I know what a mark is when I see one,” she goes off, fanning herself with her hand dramatically. “But how did you end up getting marked by the Lycan prince?”