Nine

"LATCH" BY DISCLOSURE I woke up with the feeling of complete and utter happiness, which was something unusual for me considering that I absolutely loathed being woken up at seven in the morning. Draver shook my shoulder gently, snapping his fingers in front my face. "Hey-hey, wake up. Breakfast is ready." I turned to my side, burying my face into a slightly warm pillow in hopes to drown out his voice. After I heard the retreating padding of his feet, I sighed heavily, relaxing as I let my body sink into the tempurpedic bed. Unfortunately my comfort was short-lived because the moment I started to drift back to sleep, strong arms yanked me out of bed and to the bathroom. My body dropped into an freezing bathtub, the biting cold seeping into my bones. My eyes shot open wide and I clenched my teeth as the icy water creeped under my clothes to my bare skin. "R-really?" I chattered, wrapping myself into a ball. Stark looked down at me with a blank expression. "Next time just wake up. It's rude to sleep in when your guest has prepared breakfast for you." Forcing myself out of the water, I latched onto his arms and pulled him down with me. "That's what you uget for being an arse to a womanl." "You're not a woman." he retorted, eyes softening. "You're my woman." I scoffed, gesturing the ring around his finger. "Says the guy who's evidently married. You couldn't even wait for me?" He frowned slightly, his fingers twisting the ring around. "Well, it is rare for my kind to ever come across our mates." Angered, I splashed cold water in his faux innocent face. "That's no excuse, you idiot!" Stark removed the ring and held it up. "Well either way, I'm sorry for misleading you." I paused, taken aback. "Confusing me? What do you mean?" He blinked, adjusting a bit inside the bathtub. He held up the rng, "I placed it on the wrong finger." I gaped, shock filling me. "You-you what?" Shrugging, he stood up, water dripping from his swim trunks. "I do not like repeating myself. Now come." I glared at the tall and broad-shouldered Lycan. "And why didn't you tell me this earlier? Before I made a fool out of myself?" He rolled his shoulders and helped me up. "I didn't see it as necessary." I snorted and shoved him out of the bathroom. "Go! I'm going to take a shower." Stark frowned. "Why can't I stay?" I slammed the door in his face. ~ The pool was rather large, stretching almost the entire length of the roof of the penthouse. There was a lot of chainrs sprinkled at the top of the makeshift pool waterfall at the opposite end of the pool. A grill was right beside the door that opened to the roof, hitting me with the smell of lamb and sausages. Jazz was standing there in swim trunks as well, his upper torso bare like all the other Lycans in pool. "G'morning." Alric murmured, appearing beside me with a childish grin on his face. I looked at his side which was merely scarred with white jagged lines. I knitted my brows in confusion. "What? How are you healed?" "That's thanks to me." Behind the large hood of the grill was a redhaired girl with silver eyes. A female Lycan...that was rare. "You did that?" I gestured to Alric's abs. She laughed and nodded, removing the lamb and sausaged from the grill and onto the blue flower patterned plate that Jazz was holding. "Yeah. I have a healing affinity. Sort of rare for my kind." The loud splash in the pool brought my attention to Draver who was sinking comfortably at the bottom of the deep end. Stark was floating on his back, eyes closed shut. My eyes struggled to take in the fact that he was in a damn swimming pool. Seeing his lithe and lethal form flowing carelessly, arms and legs loose for once, made me smile slightly. Chlorine in his dark brown hair looked good. "Eggs benedict and sausage? That's new." Another feminine voice filtered from over my shoulder. I turned around to meet a tall woman with a silver eyes and firey hair that was pinned up in a messy bun. She stuck her hand out. "Lorena Morrisey. Katya, I presume?" I nodded numbly and took her hand in my own, entranced by the complete and ethereal beauty of the two female Lycans. They looked as if they glided across the floor rather than walked. "I'm sorry, but do I know you?" She laughed and shook her head. "Oh no, Stark told me about you last night when Iris was healing Alric. Apparently you're an extremely deep sleeper. Not even Stark could sleep with Alric's screams." "What exactly did you do to him?" I said slowly. Iris flipped sausages onto Alric's plate that held an eggs benedict. "I grafted the skin over with my affinitity. Nothing a little regeneration can't do as well." Lorena handed me a plate and walked over to the edge of the pool, cupping her hands over her mouth. "Stark! Draver! Out, now." Stark coming out of the water using just his upper body strength, water dripping down his bare chest, was bloody murder to my virgin eyes. Could a killer really be that gorgeous? They all stood in line waiting for Iris to serve them once the picked up a plate with eggs benedict that was set on a table just beside the grill. Lemonade was on the other side, with the option of pink or plain. Lorena handed be a blue flowered plate and ushered me forward behind Stark. I awkwardly bumped into his muscled back. "Sorry," I mumbled. His silver eyes found mine over his shoulder. "You okay?" "Yeah. Fine." I whispered. "You have something on your cheek." he murmured, setting his plate back down as he spun around. I jerked the back of my sleeved hand across my cheek in hopes of removing whatever stray substance that was there. Instead, Stark cupped my cheeks, dipping his head to mine to steal a kiss. I found myself, despite my internal protests, pushing up on my toes to meet his kiss. After pulling back, he straightening up, the corners of his mouth tipping up. "What was that about?" I muttered, hiding my mouth behind the back of my hand. "I learned the from a book I read." he answered, sounding extremely proud of himself. Imagining Stark reading romance novels sent me into fits of giggles that reminded me of Marie's laugh...Ryland and Ryker, Marie too- how were they? Safe? Protected? Alive? "Sausage or lamb?" Iris asked softly. I blinked out of my trance, holdin out my plate. "Lamb, please." We all sat at a clear mosaic table except for Jazz who finished his breakfast first. He was going back and forth from one end of the pool to another, rather than pushing through the water he looked as if he was...flowing with it. "How long has Jazz been swimming? He's really good." I questioned Alric, stabbing my fork into lamb as I cut into the tender meat with my knife. "Four times. He's only swam four times in his life." I scoffed, "Yeah right. No, but really- how long?" "Four years." Draver confirmed, biting into the sausage that was caked in hollandaise sauce from the eggs benedict. "That's impossible!" I exclaimed incredously, "He can't possible know how to swim that good within just four tries!" "Jazz has an affinity for water." Iris explained. "Like Lorena," The redhead jerked her head to the side to see who was talking about her, jumping from her secretive and strategic conversation with Stark over the vampires. "I heard my name." "Go back to talking, Lo." Alric laughed, "We're not saying anything bad. Just talking about you and Jazz's affinities." "What about you?" I asked Draver as I shoved the last forkful of eggs benedict in my mouth, washing it all down with pink lemonade. Draver set down his fork and held out his hand, licks of dancing fire flickering across his palm. "Heat." "And you?" I lashed at Alric, curious beyond belief to know what affinity he had. "Spirits." he smiled. "I can see the Dead and the Dying Spiris of every living thing on this planet." "Stark? What's your's?" I said slowly, meeting his silver eyes. He clenched his jaw. "It's nothing special." I raised an eyebrow. "Then show me it," "Later." he avoided my gaze. Suddenly everyone fell quiet. I took a quick whiff of the air, wrinkling my nose. "Is-is that applesauce? Goddess I hate applesauce," As if on cue, a short pudgy child along with fifteen other kids, burst through the door of the roof, piling into the pool. Stark leaped out of his seat like a shocked feline, eyes wide. A little girl walked over to me with applesauce on her cheek. She grabbed onto my shorts, pulling me to Stark. "Tell him!" I snatched a napkin from the table and crouched down to tipe her face. "Tell him what, sweetheart?" "What he did to me!" she shrieked, tears streaming down her red cheeks as he pointed to the chubby boy who walked in first. "Stupid Carl threw his applesauce on me and my new swimsuit!" Wobbling forward, she grabbed at the edge of Stark's black swim trunks, eyes blurry with tears. "Help me!" she wailed. Stark flinched back, and for the first time I saw fear build behind his calm and collected composure. He flexed his jaw before zipping away from the girl and into the penthouse. The little girl cried harder, "Why won't anyone help me?" Lorena swept forward, scooping the child in her arms, shushing her softly. Isis sighed gently. "I'm assuming you forgot to tell him that the children from the daycare were coming?" "Forgot," she mumbled, adjusting the girl so that she would have her face in the crook of her neck. "Is-Is he afraid of children?" "Very," Alric said gravely. Jazz and Draver weren't at the table. Making my way back to the penthouse to confront Stark, I spotted Jazz and Draver scolding the pudgy boy who looked extremely guilty. ~ I found my mate in the shower, fully clothed inside the cubile with his palms pressed against the stone. From his ragged breathing, I could see the rise and fall of his shoulders. I clicked open the door, not caring if I got wet. All I cared about was this monster who I felt so desperate to care about at this moment. Slipping under his arm so I stood facing his lowered head, I stroked his cheek with my thumb, feeling him lean into my palm. "Hey," I murmured softly, the warm water soaking my back. "What happened back there?" He didn't answer, just taking in heavy and uneven breaths in attempt to steady his balance. "Are you-" "I don't want to talk about it, Katya." he hissed venomously, pain laced in his voice as his hands curled into fists against the wall. I hardly flinched, settling my hands on his torso, just under his ribcage. "Alright, we don't have to talk." "Kiss me." he demanded instantaneously, lifiting his pleading silver gaze to mine. "Make me forget," "I-I can't." I stammered, thinking back on the kiss we shared at the pool. Kissing more than once would make me faint. "Just once." he whispered, stepping closer to me until his forearms were almost completely against the stone wall. " "Okay..." I agreed softly. "Just once." His lips were on mine in an instant, like a soft, firm pillow. I wrapped my hands onto his tightly wounded shoulders, feeling his mouth mould over mine. His lips moved down the column on my neck, as wet openmouthed kisses were place along the junctions of my neck and shoulder. I shivered when his canines scraped against the sensitive skin. Placing one more kiss, Stark sank his teeth into my shoulder, puttin his Mark on me. This was it. I was his, and he was mine. We were truly and completely- mates.