War With Osirus

The next morning, I silently crept into the bathroom, wanting to change and escape the cabin for my morning run before Osirus woke up. I was so angry at him for his behavior toward my mate that I didn’t want to see him. When I stepped back into the main room, I was dismayed to see that he was already gone, which meant that he was awake and waiting to annoy me. As I walked out, my eyes were immediately drawn to Osirus, who was talking to the rest of the single beings there while keeping an eye on me. Seeing that he was distracted, I made a beeline for Jonas, who was watching me from across the clearing.

“Good morning, Tawnie. How did you sleep?” he asked.

“Horrible. What about you?”

“The ground is hard,” he laughed as we headed into the woods.

“I’ll talk to Osirus and make him let you sleep in the cabin.”

He chuckled again as he pulled me closer to his side before keeping an almost painful grip on my waist. “I am not sure that he will ever let me get close enough to you to actually have a real mate bond with you.”

“He will. He just needs to get to know you. He’ll get over it. Just give him a few days. It’s been me and him for the longest time, and finding you is going to change things for both of us. He just wants to make sure that I’m going to be okay. I’m like his sister,” I told him.

“Yeah, sister. I don’t look at my sister the way he looks at you! I don’t like it, and it needs to stop!” he growled.

I stopped walking to stare up at him. The anger that was rolling off him was almost tangible, and had I been a lesser woman, I would have been frightened, but I wasn’t. Instead, my inner demon bristled angrily. I pulled myself away from him, putting my hands on my hips as I glared at him.

“Who in the hell do you think you are speaking to me like that? I may be your mate, but I had a life before you! Just like you had a life before me! You can either believe that Osirus and I do not have a romantic relationship in any way, or don’t! I can’t tell you how to feel! And I’m also not going to let you dictate how I live my life! You can either accept me as I am or not at all! I’m not changing, just like I wouldn’t ask you to change. If Osirus and I had been physical or had a relationship, yeah, I would walk away to give our mate bond the best chance, but as we have not, I will not! So, tell me right now. Are you going to accept that Osirus is here to stay, or are you going to reject me because I have friends?”

“You would really choose him over me? Over your mate?” he hissed.

“If you can’t respect—”

I was slammed against a tree with his hand around my throat, squeezing tightly as he glared down at me. I let my breathing cease while my aura flared in warning.

“Let me go!”

He held my gaze for a moment before lowering his mouth to mine, immediately licking and biting at my lips. When I gasped, he thrust his tongue into my mouth, kissing me fervently until we were both panting. He tore his mouth away from mine, only pulling back far enough to look into my eyes.

“You’re mine, Tawnie De Sangre. No one will take you from me. If I have to accept him, then I fully expect you to make him understand that I’m here to stay, too. He needs to back off and let me have you!” He squeezed my throat before letting me go. “Say it, Tawnie. Say, ‘Yes, Jonas. I will tell him to back off.’”

I studied his face for a moment as my stomach fluttered wildly before nodding as I swallowed hard. “Yes, Jonas. I will tell him to back off,” I repeated breathlessly.

“Good girl.”

Before I could respond, a loud screech echoed through the trees, calling us back to camp. He narrowed his eyes before nodding. “We should get back before he comes looking for us,” he grumbled angrily.

“A-alright.”

I followed him eagerly back to the clearing, where Osirus had everyone already gathered in a circle for day three’s activity. He frowned deeply at me before motioning to me.

“Tawnie will show you what we’re doing today,” he told them, making me practically skip over to where the bows and arrows were set up for the shooting competition. “Tawnie, if you will.”

I picked up a bow, relaxing as its weight sent tingles of happiness coursing throughout my body. Shooting was one of my favorite things to do. It was how my father and I started to bond when I turned five years old. And it became even more important to me when my best friend Storm's father became my mother’s bodyguard, bringing her into my life. She started going shooting with me and my father until he let us go alone when we were 12. No matter what was going on in my life, shooting always relaxed me. I had initially despised her because she could shift and had a bond with her panther that I would never have, or at least thought that I never could. That was until my inner demon woke up, and I finally felt less alone.

I took a deep breath before knocking an arrow and immediately letting it fly. It hit the target dead center, and I smirked as I knocked another arrow. An instant later, it pierced the previous arrow, hitting the target in the middle again. Rolling my shoulders back, I reached for another arrow.

“Enough!” Osirus called out, making me frown at him over my shoulder.

What was he doing? He never stopped me. He told the first team from the hunting event the day before to take their places beside me as he went to the tree to remove my arrows and replace the targets.

“We are going to do things a little differently. There will be two competitions. One between me and Tawnie, because we are both skilled in these games, and it won’t be fair to pit you guys against us. And the rest of you will compete against each other. You may begin,” he told them. “Best score with ten arrows. And go!”

I rapidly went through my arrows, hitting dead center with each of them, leaving splinters of the previous arrows littering the ground below it. I smirked at Osirus as he didn’t even bother to go up to my target. We both knew it would be perfect. It always was. After he calculated the rest of the scores, he walked up to me with his hand out.

“I dare you to beat that,” I said as I handed him the bow.

“I will. Don’t worry,” he retorted.

I frowned as I stepped a few feet away from him to watch as he perfectly aimed his arrows, leading to a perfect score. He smirked at me as he handed me the bow back. “Tied. Easy!”

Before I could angrily reply, he walked off to take everyone else’s scores. When everyone had gotten a chance to shoot, he smiled around at the crowd.

“Your winner is Abigayle. Who would you like your date to be with?” he asked her.

The girl blushed as she turned to a boy who was standing next to her. “I choose Bob.”

“Perfect. If you two get ready, Tawnie will chaperone you.”

“What?!” I exclaimed. “We never—”

“We are this year. And I’m asking you to go,” Osirus said, cutting me off.

“But—”

“Actually, I’ll tell you what. Our tiebreaker will choose who’s going to chaperone. The highest score in thirty seconds wins. Does that sound fair?”

I narrowed my eyes as I nodded. “Fine!”

I walked over to pick up a bow and arrow, instantly taking my position, determined to win. He made me miss my date the night before. He wasn’t going to make me miss another one. I desperately needed a chance to get to know my mate. I couldn’t keep letting Osirius, as much as I loved him, I felt deeper for my mate. Or at least I would if I could ever have alone time with him. I picked up an arrow in preparation to fire, licking my lips in anticipation of my win. When he yelled to go, I let it go. I shot arrow after arrow at the tree, hitting my mark every time.

“TIME!” He yelled, making me instantly freeze before turning toward him, grinning.

“That was fun! I love it when you lose!” I told him smugly. “Have fun chaperoning!”

He raised an eyebrow at me, his lips lifting in a smirk that made me scowl at him. “Since you’re so sure, I’ll let you go count out our scores. Go on. I’ll wait,” he said, waving his hand to the trees.

I rolled my eyes but spun around to count the arrows, my shoulders immediately slumping when he had one more arrow than I did. Of course, he would! He was so determined to get in my way that he was willing to do whatever he could to do so. I pinned him with a furious look before storming past him to the cabin, muttering angrily as I passed him.

“Asshole.”