chapter 10

June 20-28

I turned to Rayne and read her the text message. "You have got, to be joking." She said with a hidden plea in her voice, just then someone knocked on the door. When she opened it and we were faced with Drew, "Did you get my text?" Was all he asked before Rayne went off on him. I forgot that she was the only one who didn't know who he was in the immortal realm. [dont know if this is true] After a few choice words I went to bed, then I turned on my bedroom light I found Daimen was sitting on my bed. "What happened." I say a few nicks and a bloody eyebrow on him, "I guess that Lycan isn't as weak-willed as I thought." But out, I said to my wolf, I went to get a warm wet towel to clean his blood. He sat still the whole time except for his hands on my thighs. "I'm sorry princess." He said so low I almost missed it, I froze when I heard it and could do nothing but look at him. I guess my silence and stillness alerted him when he looked at me with those golden honey brown eyes that I couldn't help but melt to. I began to playfully wipe the bridge of his nose with the damp cloth.

"Princess what are you doing?" He chuckled, his smile was contagious as those plump full lips lead to two dimples under all that stubble. I unconsciously rubbed his cheeks and started to sing In My Own Little Corner. In my own little corner, in my own little chair l can be whatever I want to be. On the wing of my fancy

I can fly anywhere. And the world will open its arms to me, I'm a young Norwegian princess or a milkmaid

I'm the greatest prima donna in Milan

I'm an heiress who has always had her silk made, By her own flock of silkworms in Japan!

I'm a girl men go mad for, love's a game I can play. With a cool and confident kind of air, Just as long as I stay, In my own little corner

All alone, In my own, Little chair.

I kissed the tip of his nose and he brushed his hand off the top of my head and in his hand was a rose, "nice trick princess." What was he talking about I saw a big of my reflection in the mirror. And that's when I saw all the flowers in my hair and room. Along with my eyes being green. "I, I didn't." He hugged me, I have never been able to do that when I used to sing. I looked up at him and he kissed my forehead "I've never done that before." I said in a whisper, he chuckled "what? You never made flowers bloom in the summer?" He smiled after saying that and I giggled as I hid my face in his chest. I took in his scent and I just wanted to cuddle up with him right there. "Come on princess, I think it's time to go to bed, I didn't think nor question him, I just got in bed and hugged my pillow.

I was woken by a sound, and I saw that I was no longer in my room, but in a forest. I wanted to wake up but it was harder to do so this time. So I get up and start walking in the other direction from where I was facing. Once I got into the trees I found I was in the opposite direction. "What the fuck." I was confused but kept walking. I heard the sound again and started running. It didn't take long before my lungs started to burn or my legs. I was tired and cold but the adrenaline kept me running. I got to the edge of the trees when I was met with a wide and open meadow with one single tree in the center. It had pretty purple and white bloomed petals hanging from the branches. I slowly walked up to the tree and the sweet smell they gave off enveloped me. Just then I heard a bang and turned to see this unnatural creature of tar and oil. "WHAT THE FUCK!" I screamed, "try and keep it down would ya, some of us are trying to sleep"

I looked around but couldn't figure out where the voice came from. "Wait, you can hear me?" It said, then I heard a thud like someone jumping down from somewhere, "But you can't see me, typical." He made an exasperated sigh. "I shouldn't have expected much from a plain mortal girl." It snide, "who are you, and what is that?" I asked the rude voice, just then the beast stopped its pounding, it tilted it'd head and looked not too far from where I stood. Then I heard the tree shake. "WHAT THE FUCK!?" The voice shouted, "how the fuck could a plain mortal see that monster but not me? What are you?" He cried, I was stunned and confused. "I asked first," I said, it chuckled. The beast turned to me and spoke, which also surprised me, "I am sorry for his behavior." Was all it said, "Hey! Nobody asked you." The voice said, they kept going back and forth but I just wanted to wake up. So I walked closer to the tree and sat down against it and closed my eyes. If only I could have dreamed I was in a field of flowers, but I guess I didn't luck out in that department. "Hey!" I was kicked in my side and fell over in pain. "Don't do that." The beast said, "How the fuck can a monster have more manors than you?" I said, and I was kicked again and again until the monster roared and stopped the guy. I had collapsed from the pain in my side.

When I opened my eyes again I was back in bed, but I was faced with a sleeping Daimen. Surprised I jumped up but that was stopped by the pain I felt in my side, I lifted my shirt carefully and there were bruises in the exact spot as the angry voice kicked me in. "What the fuck?" I whispered, I didn't want to wake Daimen, so as quietly and carefully as I could I got out of bed and took a bath and put Salve on my injury and placed a patch on top. When I came out of the bathroom Daimen was sitting up and just had his head down. "Hey," I said to announce I was in the room, he perked his head up and got out of bed. He gently placed his hands on my hips and kissed me softly. "Hey, you ok baby?" I asked him as I wrapped my arms around his waist. "There's blood in the bed." I looked past his shoulders and sure enough, there was, a big spot of it. I looked back up at him and gave him the biggest smile, "Yeah. My cycle started last night while we were sleeping. I found out this morning when I went to the bathroom and took a shower. I didn't even see it in the bed, sorry baby." I tip-toed to kiss him and went to take off the bed sheets, he helped me and we put it in the wash. Just then Ben came into the laundry room and made eye contact with Daimen and freaked out. "I guess that means you mister popular around here?" I half heartily laughed, "um yeah, he's the little brother of a Dragon Prince." He said as he put the detergent into the washer, "what?"

Then Rayne popped her head into the laundry room and looked Daimen up and down, he saw her and gave her a wave, "Hello." He said, "Hi, Anna." She opened the door and he chuckled as he gave me room to get around him. I got outside when she ambushed me with a bunch of questions, "Who is he?" "My mate." "Why is he here?" "He spent the night. "Why is there a big blood stain on your sheets?" "My period started." "When did yall meet?" I sighed, "At the club." I say the click of the puzzle piece falling into place. "Is he staying for breakfast?" She asked, I shrugged, "I don't know." She nodded and walked off, I went back into the laundry room. "You want breakfast?" I asked him, he thought it over a moment before saying yes and giving me a kiss.

When we got into the kitchen Drew and Amber was already there. "So when did we get the memo of yall moving into our flat?" I joked, Drew laughed but Amber was giving me a death glare. "What?" I asked her, but she turned her gaze to Daimen, "why is he here?" She said, "Amber." Drew warned, but Daimen jumped in, "Anna is my mate and I just spent the night, is that a problem?" He asked Amber, "You are a Lycan and she is a wolf" she started off "And you are a witch and Drew is a Lycan. Don't start, everyone in this room has a mate that isn't the same as them." I said I could feel the surprised looks of everyone but I didn't care. "Anna," Amber trailed off but I waved her off, "it's good, just if you have a problem with something don't single a person out when others are in the same boat." I tried not to wince as I sat down but Daimen was right there and started rubbing my back in small circles. I turned to him and gave him a sweet smile and mouthed to him "I'm good." Ben came and sat down in front of me and just stared, "what?" I asked after he didn't say anything, "you're not marked," he turned to Daimen, "I thought you came here to find your mate and Mark her?" Daimen continued to rub circles without missing a beat. "Why would I mark my mate when she doesn't even know all that much about our world and its laws?" "Because then others wouldn't touch her." Ben said, "then where is yours?" Daimen quipped. "Is breakfast ready?" I asked and Rayne brought it along with Drew. We all ate in awkward silence, I couldn't help but giggle as I ate, and then Rayne started laughing which lead to the whole table needing stitches from how hard we were all laughing.

It's been a few days since Daimen came over, and every day after work either Daimen would have me train with him at his house, or Drew would have me and Rayne train in the forest close by the house. I was still having trouble sleeping as now every time I closed my eyes I was back at the tree with the voice and the beast. And every time I wake up I end up with whatever bruises it gives me. "Anna!" I was writing down a customer's order when my co-worker called me, "Coming." I called back, I excused myself after finishing and took the order to the cooks so they could get their food. Brinda came out from the back and she angrily grabbed my arm and started dragging me to the bathroom. When we got to the door she stopped us, "Go on." She gestured to the door and I opened it, looked around and it was spotless like there wasn't even a piece of tissue on the floor. "What's wrong with it?" I asked, and she huffed "It's spotless, which is odd seeing as how the teenagers on staff usually take the bathroom to "clean" when really they just straighten up and go home, leaving us to actually clean it." I didn't even try to hide my confusion, "You're not making any sense Brinda, like what does this have to do with me?" I said, "It concerns you seeing as how the bathroom has been like this every day this week, and only after you use it. What is going on?" I looked at her like she had just grown two heads, "My period." Was all I said before heading back out on the floor, I grabbed the order off the counter and took it to the customers. Nobody said anything to me after that, It got later in the evening and I was one of two people left in the cafe. I was doing closing duties when this group of four college-looking guys came in, Minnie was telling them that we were closed and that they could go somewhere else. They didn't seem to like that as they started yelling at her, "Hey! Both our site and the door tells you our hours. We closed five minutes ago, so unless you want to sit in an empty building with no chef or servers then do it somewhere else cuz we don't do that here. Beat it."

"What did you just say to me punk." One of the guys tried to intimidate me. I stood my ground and didn't budge, two of them began surrounding Minnie and two surround me. The oldest-looking one walked right up to my face, "listen here. I'm a respectable gentleman, which means, hitting a little girl should be above my means." He spoke the last part through his teeth, I looked at both the guy beside me and the two surrounding Minnie, "Yeah, I figured since you have a little dick that couldn't hit a girl's G spot no matter the angle." I quickly noticed the guy beside me make for a swing. I ducked and he punched the guy behind me. Minnie tried to make a run for it but the men grabbed her and forced her to her knees. This cost me as I didn't see the man move in to slap me, I was stunned and just looked at him, and he looked at me with a more confused look. I heard the guy behind me pull out something, but when I turned Daimen and Drew were already fighting the two closest to me by punching them, and when I turned to Minnie I found Marcel standing over her guards while he stared at her saying she will forget this night and believe this was a dream when she awoke tomorrow. "No! Please!" I heard the man from earlier say, but he was cut off. I dared not to look, when I looked down at the floor I could see the pool of blood spread. I gasped and covered my mouth, Marcel came up to me and tried to get me to look at him but I was in too much shock to let him. "Anna, Anna look at me. It's gonna be alright okay. You're okay, you're safe now." Drew said as he walked around so that I could see him. I heard Daimen behind me and then the cafe magically went back to how it looked this morning when we opened. I spun around and was met with a scared Daimen, he looked me over and then picked me up in a hug and the wound on my side decided to protest to being touched. I held in the scream, "Baby, my head is spinning from all the shock." He hurriedly put me down, "Sorry, are you okay? Does where he hit you hurt babygirl?" I shook my head, I grabbed my bag, and clocked out. Daimen never left my side as we all went to my car, as I went to open my driver's side door Daimen took my keys and tossed them over to Drew. and Marcel was already getting in the passenger side, "What are you guy's doing! Drew get out." I said, but my voice fell on deaf ears as Daimen ushered me to the backseat. I protested to the seating arrangement but I knew it was useless. I huffed as the car took off, "How did you guys know to come here?" I said, Drew and Marcel were silent and Daimen wasn't even looking at me, I looked at Drew through the rearview. After a while, he finally sighed, "Daimen." Was all he said. I looked up at him I could see the nervous drip falling down the side of his face as he stared out of the window. I giggled, and the others soon followed. "It's not funny Ann." Daimen said, "Anna!" I didn't know why he screamed my name, I was sitting right next to him. "Anna!" Both Drew and Marcel called before I was enclosed in darkness.